1. Woe to them who act impiously, who laud and honour the word of
falsehood. You have been lost in perdition; and have never led a
virtuous life.
2. Woe to you who change the words of integrity. They transgress against
the everlasting decree;
3. And cause the heads of those who are not sinners to be trodden down
upon the earth.
4. In those days you, O ye righteous, shall have been deemed worthy of
having your prayers rise up in remembrance; and shall have deposited
them in testimony before the angels, that they might record the sins of
sinners in the presence of the Most High.
5. In those days the nations shall be overthrown; but the families of
the nations shall rise again in the day of perdition.
6. In those days they who become pregnant shall go forth, carry off
their children, and forsake them. Their offspring shall slip from them,
and while suckling them shall they forsake them; they shall never return
to them, and never instruct their beloved.
7. Again I swear to you, ye sinners, that crime has been prepared for
the day of blood, which never ceases.
8. They shall worship stones, and engrave golden, silver, and wooden
images. They shall worship impure spirits, demons, and every idol, in
temples; but no help shall be obtained for them.[269] Their hearts shall
become impious through their folly, and their eyes be blinded with
mental superstition.[270] In their visionary dreams shall they be
impious and superstitious,[271] lying in all their actions, and
worshipping a stone. Altogether shall they perish.
9. But in those days blessed shall they be, to whom the word of wisdom
is delivered; who point out and pursue the path of the Most High; who
walk in the way of righteousness, and who act not impiously with the
impious.