1. In those days, when He shall cast the calamity of fire upon you,
whither will you fly, and where will you be safe?
2. And when He sends forth his word against you, are you not spared, and
terrified?
3. All the luminaries are agitated with great fear; and all the earth is
spared, while it trembles, and suffers anxiety.
4. All the angels fulfil 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.
5. But you, ye sinners, are for ever accursed; to you there shall be no
peace.
6. Fear 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 a
recompense in proportion to your goodness,[283] but in the period of
your existence have sinners existed; in the period of execration and of
punishment.
7. And 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 have they over us?
Henceforward are we equal. What will be within their grasp, and what
before their eyes[284] for ever? For behold they are dead; and never
will they again[285] 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.
Footnote 282:
There is no chap. ci. in the MSS.
Footnote 283:
_your flesh has not found according to your goodness._
Footnote 284:
_What will they obtain, and what behold._
Footnote 285:
_henceforward for ever._