1. After this I beheld the secrets of the heavens and of paradise,[86]
according to its divisions; and of human action,[87] as they weigh it
there in balances. I saw the habitations of the elect, and the
habitations of the holy. And there my eyes beheld all the sinners, who
denied the Lord of glory, and whom they were expelling from thence, and
dragging away, as they stood _there_; no punishment proceeding against
them from the Lord of spirits.
2. There, too, my eyes beheld the secrets of the lightning and the
thunder; and the secrets of the winds, how they are distributed as they
blow over the earth: the secrets of the winds, of the dew, and of the
clouds. There I perceived the place from which they issued forth, and
became saturated with the dust of the earth.
3. There I saw the wooden[88] receptacles out of which the winds became
separated, the receptacle of hail, the receptacle of snow, the
receptacle of the clouds, and the cloud itself, _which_ continued over
the earth before _the creation of_ the world.
4. I beheld also the receptacles of the moon, whence the moons[89] came,
whither they proceeded, their glorious return, and how one became more
splendid than another. I _marked_ their rich progress, their
unchangeable progress, their disunited and undiminished progress; their
observance of a mutual fidelity by a stable oath;[90] their proceeding
forth before the sun, and their adherence to the path _allotted_
them,[91] in obedience to the command of the Lord of spirits. Potent is
his name for ever and for ever.
5. After this _I perceived, that_ the path both concealed and manifest
of the moon, as well as the progress of its path, was there completed by
day and by night; while each, one with another, looked towards the Lord
of spirits, magnifying and praising without cessation, since praise to
them is rest; for in the splendid sun there is a frequent conversion to
blessing and to malediction.
6. The course of the moon’s path to the righteous is light, but to
sinners it is darkness; in the name of the Lord of spirits, who created
_a division_ between light and darkness, and, separating the spirits of
men, strengthened the spirits of the righteous in the name of his own
righteousness.
7. Nor does the angel prevent _this_, neither is he endowed with the
power of preventing it; for the Judge beholds them all, and judges them
all in his own presence.
Footnote 86:
_the kingdom or paradise._
Footnote 87:
_the work or labour of man._
Footnote 88:
_of woods._
Footnote 89:
_they._
Footnote 90:
_by an oath to which they adhered._
Footnote 91:
_to their path._