Chapter 102

 

 

1 In those days, when He shall cast the calamity of fire upon you, to where will you flee, and where will you be safe? 2And when He sends forth his word against you, will you not be terrified and afraid? 3All the luminaries are agitated with great fear; and all the earth is afraid, while it trembles, and suffers anxiety. 4All the angels fulfill the commands received by them, and are desirous of being concealed from the presence of the great Glory; while the children of the earth are alarmed and troubled. 5But you, ye sinners, are for ever accursed; to you there shall be no peace. 6Fear not, ye souls of the righteous; but wait with patient hope for the day of your death in righteousness. Grieve not, because your souls descend in great trouble, with groaning, lamentation, and sorrow, to the receptacle of the dead. In your lifetime your bodies have not received reward in accordance with your goodness,238 but in the period of your existence have sinners existed; in the period of execration and of punishment. 7And when you die, sinners say concerning you, As we die, the righteous die. What profit have they in their works? Behold, like us, they expire in sorrow and in darkness. What advantage do they have over us? From now on we are equal. What will be within their grasp, and what before their eyes239 for ever? For behold they are dead; and never 237

 

There is no chap. 101 in the MSS.

238 your flesh has not found according to your goodness. 239 What will they obtain, and what behold

will they again240 perceive the light. I say unto you, ye sinners, You have been satiated with meat and drink, with human plunder and rapine, with sin, with the acquisition of wealth and with the sight of good days. Have you not marked the righteous, how their end is in peace? for no oppression is found in them even to the day of their death. They perish, and are as if they were not, while their souls descend in trouble to the receptacle of the dead.