And I will give them over into the hands of Mine elect: As straw in the fire so shall they burn before the face of the holy:

As lead in the water shall they sink before the face of

the righteous,

And no trace of them shall any more be found.

And on the day of their affliction there shall be rest on the earth,

And before them they shall fall and not rise again:

And there shall be no one to take them with his hands and raise them:

For they have denied the Lord of Spirits and His Anointed.

The name of the Lord of Spirits be blessed.

The Power and Wisdom of the Messiah

CHAPTER XLIX

For wisdom is poured out like water,

And glory faileth not before him for evermore.

For he is mighty in all the secrets of righteousness,
And unrighteousness shall disappear as a shadow,

And have no continuance;

Because the Elect One standeth before the Lord of Spirits, And his glory is forever and ever,

And his might unto all generations.

And in him dwells the spirit of wisdom,

And the spirit which gives insight,

And the spirit of understanding and of might,

And the spirit of those who have fallen asleep in right

eousness.

And he shall judge the secret things.

And none shall be able to utter a lying word before him; For he is the Elect One before the Lord of Spirits according to His good pleasure.

The Glorification and Victory of the Righteous

CHAPTER L

And in those days a change shall take place for the holy and elect,

And the light of days shall abide upon them,

And glory and honor shall turn to the holy,

On the day of affliction on which evil shall have been treasured up against the sinners.

And the righteous shall be victorious in the name of the Lord of Spirits:

And He will cause the others to witness this

That they may repent

And forego the works of their hands.

They shall have no honor through the name of the Lord of Spirits,

Yet through His name shall they be saved,

And the Lord of Spirits will have compassion on them, For His compassion is great.

And He is righteous also in His judgment,

And in the presence of His glory unrighteousness also shall not maintain itself:

At His judgment the unrepentant shall perish before Him. And from henceforth I will have no mercy on them, saith the Lord of Spirits.

CHAPTER LI

And in those days shall the earth also give back that which has been entrusted to it,

And Sheol also shall give back that which it has received, And hell shall give back that which it owes.11

41 There are three Jewish doctrines of the resurrection. (1) All Israelites are to rise. (2) All righteous Israelites. This is the received Talmudic view. (3) All mankind are to rise. Some Jews be

For in those days the Elect One shall arise,

And he shall choose the righteous and holy from among them:

For the day has drawn nigh that they should be saved.

And the Elect One shall in those days sit on My throne, And his mouth shall pour forth all the secrets of wisdom and counsel:

For the Lord of Spirits hath given them to him and hath glorified him.

And in those days shall the mountains leap like rams, And the hills also shall skip like lambs satisfied with milk, And the faces of all the angels in heaven shall be lighted up with joy.

And the earth shall rejoice,

And the righteous shall dwell upon it,

And the elect shall walk thereon.

A Vision of Secret Things

CHAPTER LII

And after those days in that place where I had seen all the visions of that which is hidden for I had been carried off in a whirlwind and they had borne me toward the west — there mine eyes saw all the secret things of heaven that shall be, a mountain of iron, and a mountain of copper, and a mountain of silver, and a mountain of gold, and a mountain of soft metal, and a mountain of lead.12 And I asked the angel who went with me, saying, "What things are these lieved the soul was immortal, but the body would not rise. The earth gives up the body just as Sheol and Abaddon give up the soul. They are both reunited at the Resurrection that they may be judged together. 42 The mountains and the metals symbolize the future kingdoms of the world. In Dan. ii. 31-45 the metals have this meaning, but the mountain is the Messianic kingdom. This chapter, however, seems to contain two independent documents. In the opening verses the mountains serve to exalt the Messiah's dominion, in later verses they are destroyed before his presence.

"All

which I have seen in secret?" And he said unto me: these things which thou hast seen shall serve the dominion of His Anointed that he may be potent and mighty on the earth."

And that angel of peace answered, saying unto me: "Wait a little, and there shall be revealed unto thee all the secret things which surround the Lord of Spirits.

And these mountains which thine eyes have seen,

The mountain of iron, and the mountain of copper, and the mountain of silver,

And the mountain of gold, and the mountain of soft metal, and the mountain of lead,

All these shall be in the presence of the Elect One

As wax before the fire,

And like the water which streams down from above upon those mountains.

And they shall become powerless before his feet.

And it shall come to pass in those days that none shall

be saved,

Either by gold or by silver,

And none be able to escape.

And there shall be no iron for war,

Nor shall one clothe oneself with a breast-plate.

Bronze shall be of no service,

And tin shall be of no service and shall not be esteemed, And lead shall not be desired.

And all these things shall be denied and destroyed from the surface of the earth,

When the Elect One shall appear before the face of the Lord of Spirits."

CHAPTER LIII

There mine eyes saw a deep valley with open mouths, and all who dwell on the earth and sea and islands shall bring

to him gifts and presents and tokens of homage, but that deep valley shall not become full.43

And their hands commit lawless deeds,

And the sinners devour all whom they lawlessly oppress: Yet the sinners shall be destroyed before the face of the Lord of Spirits,

And they shall be banished from off the face of His earth, And they shall perish forever and ever.

For I saw all the angels of punishment abiding there and preparing all the instruments of Satan. And I asked the angel of peace who went with me: "For whom are they preparing these instruments?" And he said unto me: "They prepare these for the kings and the mighty of this earth, that they may thereby be destroyed.

"And after this the Righteous and Elect One shall cause the house of his congregation to appear: henceforth they shall be no more hindered in the name of the Lord of Spirits.

"And these mountains shall not stand as the earth before his righteousness,

But the hills shall be as a fountain of water,

And the righteous shall have rest from the oppression of sinners."

CHAPTER LIV

And I looked and turned to another part of the earth, and saw there a deep valley with burning fire.** And they brought the kings and the mighty, and began to cast them into this deep valley. And there mine eyes saw how they made these their instruments, iron chains of immeasurable weight. And I asked the angel of peace who went with me,

43 The valley of Jehoshaphat, where God was to assemble and judge the Gentiles (Joel iii. 2, 12). The Midrash holds that God will judge the whole world in this valley. Though usually identified with the Kidron, the valley originally had no locality assigned to it.

44 The writer passes from the valley of judgment and the fetters still in making to the valley of Gehenna where the kings are cast. The fallen angels and the kings are mentioned together as in Isa. xxiv. 21, 22.