And when the Righteous One shall appear before the eyes

of the righteous,

Whose elect works hang upon the Lord of Spirits,

And light shall appear to the righteous and the elect who dwell on the earth,

Where then will be the dwelling of the sinners,

And where the resting-place of those who have denied the Lord of Spirits ?

It had been good for them if they had not been born.

When the secrets of the righteous shall be revealed and the sinners judged,

And the godless driven from the presence of the righteous and elect,

From that time those that possess the earth shall no longer be powerful and exalted:

And they shall not be able to behold the face of the holy, For the Lord of Spirits has caused His light to appear On the face of the holy, righteous, and elect.

Then shall the kings and the mighty 30 perish

And be given into the hands of the righteous and holy. And thenceforward none shall seek for themselves mercy from the Lord of Spirits,

For their life is at an end.

CHAPTER XXXIX

And it shall come to pass in those days that elect and holy children will descend from the high heaven, and their seed

30" The kings and the mighty." They are the Jewish native rulers and the Sadducees, for they have denied the Lord and His Anointed (xlviii.), and a heavenly world (xlv.), they have persecuted the houses of His congregations and the faithful. Only xlvi. seems to point to heathen rulers "their faith is in the gods which they have made with their hands," but this may refer only to the heathen or Sadducean attitude of the Maccabean princes, e.g., John Hyrcanus, Aristobulus, and above all Alexander Jannaeus.

will become one with the children of men. And in those days Enoch received books of zeal and wrath, and books of disquiet and expulsion.31

And mercy shall not be accorded to them, saith the Lord of Spirits,

And in those days a whirlwind carried me off from the earth,

And set me down at the end of the heavens.

And there I saw another vision, the dwelling-places of the holy,

And the resting-places of the righteous.

Here mine eyes saw their dwellings with His righteous angels,

And their resting-places with the holy.

And they petitioned and interceded and prayed for the children of men,

And righteousness flowed before them as water,

And mercy like dew upon the earth:

Thus it is amongst them forever and ever.

And in that place mine eyes saw the Elect One of righteousness and of faith,

And I saw his dwelling-place under the wings of the Lord of Spirits.

And righteousness shall prevail in his days,

And the righteous and elect shall be without number before Him forever and ever.

And all the righteous and elect before Him shall be strong as fiery lights,

And their mouth shall be full of blessing.

31 This is obviously interpolated. It seems to be a fragment of the older book of Enoch.

VOL. XIV.-6.

And their lips extol the name of the Lord of Spirits,
And righteousness before Him shall never fail,
And uprightness shall never fail before Him.
There I wished to dwell,

And my spirit longed for that dwelling-place:

And their mouth shall be full of blessing.

For so has it been established concerning me before the Lord of Spirits.

In those days I praised and extolled the name of the Lord of Spirits with blessings and praises, because He hath destined me for blessing and glory according to the good pleasure of the Lord of Spirits. For a long time my eyes regarded that place, and I blessed Him and praised Him, saying: "Blessed is He, and may He be blessed from the beginning and for evermore. And before Him there is no ceasing. He knows before the world was created what is forever and what will be from generation unto generation. Those who sleep not bless Thee: they stand before Thy glory and bless, praise, and extol, saying: 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Spirits: He filleth the earth with spirits.' And here my eyes saw all those who sleep not: they stand before Him and bless and say: "Blessed be Thou, and blessed be the name of the Lord forever and ever." And my face was changed; for I could no longer behold.

CHAPTER XL

And after that I saw thousands of thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand, I saw a multitude beyond number and reckoning, who stood before the Lord of Spirits. And on the four sides of the Lord of Spirits I saw four presences, different from those that sleep not, and I learned their names: for the angel that went with me made known to me their names, and showed me all the hidden things. And I heard the voices of those four presences as they uttered praises before the Lord of glory. The first voice blesses the Lord of Spirits forever and ever.

And the second

vcice I heard blessing the Elect One and the elect ones who hang upon the Lord of Spirits. And the third voice I heard pray and intercede for those who dwell on the earth and supplicate in the name of the Lord of Spirits. And I heard the fourth voice fending off the Satans and forbidding them to come before the Lord of Spirits to accuse them who dwell on the earth. After that I asked the angel of peace who went with me, who showed me everything that is hidden: "Who are these four presences which I have seen and whose words I have heard and written down?" And he said to me: "This first is Michael, the merciful and long-suffering: and the second, who is set over all the diseases and all the wounds of the children of men, is Raphael: and the third, who is set over all the powers, is Gabriel: and the fourth, who is set over the repentance unto hope of those who inherit eternal life, is named Phanuel." And these are the four angels of the Lord of Spirits and the four voices I heard in those days.

CHAPTER XLI

And after that I saw all the secrets of the heavens, and how the kingdom is divided, and how the actions of men are weighed in the balance. And there I saw the mansions of the elect and the mansions of the holy, and mine eyes saw all the sinners being driven from thence which deny the name of the Lord of Spirits, and being dragged off: and they could not abide because of the punishment which proceeds from the Lord of Spirits.

And there mine eyes saw the secrets of the lightning and of the thunder, and the secrets of the winds, how they are divided to blow over the earth, and the secrets of the clouds and dew, and there I saw from whence they proceed in that place and from whence they saturate the dusty earth. And there I saw closed chambers out of which the winds are divided, the chamber of the hail and winds, the chamber of the mist, and of the clouds, and the cloud thereof hovers over the earth from the beginning of the world. And I saw the chambers of the sun and moon, whence they proceed and

whither they come again, and their glorious return, and how one is superior to the other, and their stately orbit, and how they do not leave their orbit, and they add nothing to their orbit, and they take nothing from it, and they keep faith with each other, in accordance with the oath by which they are bound together. And first the sun goes forth and traverses his path according to the commandment of the Lord of Spirits, and mighty is His name forever and ever. And after that I saw the hidden and the visible path of the moon, and she accomplishes the course of her path in that place by day and by night-the one holding a position opposite to the other before the Lord of Spirits.

And they give thanks and praise and rest not;

For unto them is their thanksgiving rest.

For the sun changes oft for a blessing or a curse,

And the course of the path of the moon is light to the righteous

And darkness to the sinners in the name of the Lord, Who made a separation between the light and the darkness, And divided the spirits of men,

And strengthened the spirits of the righteous,

In the name of His righteousness.

For no angel hinders and no power is able to hinder; for He appoints a judge for them all and He judges them all before Him.32

CHAPTER XLII

Wisdom found no place where she might dwell; 33

Then a dwelling-place was assigned her in the heavens. Wisdom went forth to make her dwelling among the children of men,

And found no dwelling-place:

82 The judge appointed is the Messiah. Read this verse directly after chapter xli.

33 A fragment out of connection with its present context. Where it should come, I do not know. A favorite theme- -the praise of wisdom.