Book 2
1 Now while I much entreated God restrained
2 My wise song, also in my breast again
3 He put the charming voice of words divine.
4 In my whole body terror-stricken these
5 I follow; for I know not that I speak,
6 But God impels me to proclaim each thing.
7 But when on earth come shocks, fierce thunderbolts,
8 Thunders and lightnings, storms, and evil blight,
9 And rage of jackals and of wolves, manslaughter,
10 Destruction of men and of lowing kine,
11 Four-footed cattle and laborious mules,
12 And goats and sheep, then shall the ample field
13 Be barren from neglect, and fruits shall fail,
14 And there shall be a selling of their freedom
15 Among most men, and robbery of temples.
16 And then shall, after these, appear of men
17 The tenth race, when the earth-shaking Lightener
18 Shall break the zeal for idols and shall shake
19 The people of seven-hilled Rome, and riches great
20 Shall perish, burned by Vulcan’s fiery flame.
21 And then shall bloody signs from heaven descend—
22 .mw-parser-output .wst-asterisks{display:block;margin:auto;text-align:center}……
23 But yet the whole world of unnumbered men
24 Enraged shall kill each other, and in tumult
25 Shall God send famines, plagues, and thunderbolts
26 On men who, without justice, judge of rights.
27 And lack of men shall be in all the world,
28 So that if anyone beheld a trace
29 Of man on earth, he would be wonderstruck.
30 And then shall the great God who dwells in heaven
31 Saviour of pious men in all things prove.
32 And then shall there be peace and wisdom deep,
33 And the fruit-bearing land shall yield again
34 Abundant fruits, divided not in parts
35 Nor yet, enslaved. And every harbor then,
36 And every haven, shall be free to men
37 As formerly, and shamelessness shall perish.
38 And then will God show mortals a great sign:
39 For like a lustrous crown shall shine a star,
40 Bright, all-resplendent, from the radiant heaven
41 Days not a few; and then will he display
42 From heaven a crown for contest unto men
43 Who wrestle. And then there shall be again
44 A mighty contest of triumphal march
45 Into the heavenly sky, and it shall be
46 For all men in the world, and have the fame
47 Of immortality. And every people
48 Shall then in the immortal contests strive
49 For splendid victory. For no one there
50 Can shamelessly with silver buy a crown.
51 For unto them will the pure Christ adjudge
52 That which is due, and crown the ones approved,
53 And give his martyrs an immortal prize
54 Who carry on the contest unto death.
55 And unto chaste men who run their race well
56 Will he the incorruptible reward
57 Of the prize give, and to all men allot
58 That which is due, and also to strange nations
59 That live a holy life and know one God.
60 And those who have regard for marriages
61 And keep themselves far from adulteries,
62 To them rich gifts, eternal hope, he’ll give.
63 For every human soul is God’s free gift,
64 And ‘tis not right men stain it with vile deeds.
65 [Do not be rich unrighteously, but lead
66 A life of probity. Be satisfied
67 With what thou hast and keep thyself from that
68 Which is another’s. Speak not what is false,
69 But have a care for all things that are true.
70 Revere not idols vainly; but the God
71 Imperishable honor always first,
72 And next thy parents. Render all things due,
73 And into unjust judgment come thou not.
74 Do not cast out the poor unrighteously,
75 Nor judge by outward show; if wickedly
76 Thou judgest, God hereafter will judge thee.
77 Avoid false testimony; tell the truth.
78 Maintain thy virgin purity, and guard
79 Love among all. Deal measures that are just;
80 For beautiful is measure full to all.
81 Strike not the scales oneside, but draw them equal.
82 Forswear not ignorantly nor willingly;
83 God hates the perjured man in that he swore.
84 A gift proceeding out of unjust deeds
85 Never receive in hand. Do not steal seed;
86 Accursed through many generations he
87 Who took it unto scattering of life.
88 Indulge not vile lusts, slander not, nor kill.
89 Give the toil worn his hire; do not afflict
90 The poor man. Unto orphans help afford.
91 And to widows and the needy. Talk with sense;
92 Hold fast in heart a secret. Be unwilling
93 To act unjustly nor yet tolerate
94 Unrighteous men. Give to the poor at once
95 And say not, “Come to-morrow.” Of thy grain
96 Give to the needy with perspiring hand.
97 He who gives alms knows how to lend to God.
98 Mercy redeems from death when judgment comes.
99 Not sacrifice, but mercy God desires
100 Rather than sacrifice. The naked clothe,
101 Share thy bread with the hungry, in thy house
102 Receive the shelterless and lead the blind.
103 Pity the shipwrecked; for the voyage is
104 Uncertain. To the fallen give a hand;
105 And save the man that stands without defense.
106 Common to all is suffering, life’s a wheel,
107 Riches unstable. Having wealth, reach out
108 To the poor thy hand. Of what God gave to thee
109 Bestow thou also on the needy one.
110 Common is the whole life of mortal men;
111 But it comes out unequal. When thou seest
112 A poor man never banter him with words,
113 Nor harshly accost a man who may be blamed.
114 One’s life in death is proven; if one did.
115 The unlawful or just, it shall be decided
116 When he to judgment comes. Disable not
117 Thy mind with wine nor drink excessively.
118 Eat not blood, and abstain from things
119 Offered to idols. Gird not on the sword
120 For slaughter, but defense; and would thou might
121 It neither lawlessly nor justly use:
122 For if thou kill an enemy thy band
123 Thou dost defile. Keep from thy neighbor’s field,
124 Nor trespass on it; just is every landmark,
125 And trespass painful. Useful is possession
126 Of lawful wealth, but of unrighteous gains
127 ‘Tis worthless. Harm not any growing fruit
128 Of the field. And let strangers be esteemed
129 In equal honor with the citizens;
130 For much-enduring hospitality
131 Shall all experience as each other’s guests;
132 But let there not be anyone a stranger
133 Among you, since, ye mortals, all of you
134 Are of one blood, and no land has for men
135 Any sure place. Wish not nor pray for wealth;
136 But pray to live from few things and possess
137 Nothing at all unjust. The love of gain
138 Is mother of all evil. Do not long
139 For gold or silver; in them there will be
140 A double-edged and soul-destroying iron.
141 A snare to men continually are gold.
142 And silver. Gold, of evils source, of life
143 Destructive, troubling all things, would that thou
144 Wert not to mortals such a longed-for bane!
145 For wars, because of thee, and pillaging
146 And murders come, and children hate their sires,
147 And brothers and sisters those of their own blood.
148 Plot no deceit, and do not arm thy heart
149 Against a friend. Keep not concealed within
150 A different thought from what thou speakest forth;
151 Nor, like rock-clinging polyp, change with place.
152 But with all be frank, and things from the soul
153 Speak thou forth. Whosoever willfully
154 Commits a wrong, an evil man is he;
155 But he that does it under force, the end
156 I tell not; but lot each man’s will be right.
157 Pride not thyself in wisdom, power, or wealth;
158 God only is the wise and mighty one
159 And full of riches. Do not vex thy heart
160 With evils that are past; for what is done
161 Can never be undone. Let not thy hand
162 Be hasty, but ferocious passion curb;
163 For many times has one in striking done
164 Murder without design. Let suffering
165 Be common, neither great nor overmuch.
166 Excessive good has not brought forth to men
167 That which is helpful. And much luxury
168 Leads to immoderate lusts. Much wealth is proud,
169 And makes one grow to wanton violence.
170 Passionate feeling, creeping in, effects
171 Destructive madness. Anger is a lust,
172 And when it is excessive it is wrath.
173 The zeal of good men is a noble thing,
174 But of the base is base. Of wicked men
175 The boldness is destructive, but renown
176 Follows that of the good. To be revered
177 Is virtuous love, but that of Cypris works
178 Increase of shame. A silly man is called
179 Very agreeable among his fellows.
180 With moderation eat, drink, and converse;
181 Of all things moderation is the best;
182 But trespass of its limit brings to grief.
183 Be not thou envious, faithless, or abusive,
184 Or evil-minded, or a false deceiver.
185 Be prudent and abstain from shameless deeds.
186 Imitate not what’s evil, but leave thou
187 Vengeance to justice; for persuasion is
188 A useful thing, but strife engenders strife.
189 Trust not too quickly ere thou see the end.]
190 This is the contest, these are the rewards;
191 These are the prizes; this the gate of life
192 And entrance into immortality,
193 Which God in heaven unto most righteous men
194 Appointed a reward for victory;
195 And through this gate shall gloriously pass
196 Those who shall then receive the victor’s crown.
197 But when this sign shall everywhere appear—
198 Children with gray hair on their temples born—
199 And human sufferings, famines, plagues, and wars,
200 And change of times, and many a tearful wail,
201 Ah! of how many parents in the lands
202 Will children mourn and piteously weep,
203 And with shrouds bury flesh and limbs in earth,
204 Mother of peoples, with the blood and dust
205 Themselves defiling. O ye wretched men
206 Of the last generation, evil doers,
207 Terrible, childish, not perceiving this,
208 That when the tribes of women do not bear
209 The harvest time of mortal men is come.
210 Near is the ruin when impostors come
211 Instead of prophets speaking on the earth.
212 And Beliar shall come and many signs
213 Perform for men. And then of holy men,
214 Elect and faithful, there shall be confusion,
215 And pillaging of them and of the Hebrews.
216 And there shall be upon them fearful wrath
217 When from the east a people of twelve tribes
218 Shall come in search of kindred Hebrew people
219 Whom Assyrian shoot destroyed; and over these
220 Shall nations perish. But they afterwards
221 Shall over men exceeding mighty rule,
222 Elect and faithful Hebrews, and enslave
223 Them as before, since their power ne’er shall fail,
224 He that is highest of all, the all-surveying,
225 Dwelling in heaven, will scatter sleep on men,
226 Covering the eyelids o’er. O blessed servants
227 Whom when the Master comes he finds awake!
228 And they all watch at all times and expect
229 With sleepless eyes. For it will be at dawn
230 Or eve or midday; but he sure shall come,
231 And it shall be as I say, it shall be,
232 To them that sleep, that from the starry heaven
233 The stars at midday will to all appear
234 With the two lights as the time hastens on.
235 And then the Tishbite, urging from the heaven
236 His chariot celestial, and on earth
237 Arriving, shall to all the world display
238 Three evil signs of life to be destroyed.
239 Alas for all the women in that day
240 Who shall be found with burden in the womb!
241 Alas for all who suckle tender babes!
242 Alas for all who shall dwell on the waves!
243 Alas for women who shall see that day!
244 For a dark mist shall hide the boundless world,
245 East, west, and south, and north. And then shall flow
246 A mighty stream of burning fire from heaven.
247 And every place consume, earth, ocean vast,
248 And gleaming sea, and lakes and rivers, springs,
249 And cruel Hades and the heavenly sky.
250 And heavenly lights shall break up into one
251 And into outward form all-desolate.
252 For stars from heaven shall fall into all seas.
253 And all the souls of men shall gnash their teeth
254 Burned both by sulphur stream and force of fire
255 In ravenous soil, and ashes hide all things.
256 And then of the world all the elements
257 Shall be bereft, air, earth, sea, light, sky, days,
258 Nights; and no longer in the air shall fly
259 Birds without number, nor shall living things
260 That swim the sea swim any more at all,
261 Nor freighted vessel o’er the billows pass,
262 Nor kine straight-guiding plow the field, nor sound
263 Of furious winds; but he shall fuse all things
264 Together, and shall pick out what is pure.
265 But when the immortal God’s eternal angels
266 Arakiel, Ramiel, Uriel, Samiel,
267 And Azael, they that know how many evils
268 Anyone did before, shall from dark gloom.
269 Then lead to judgment all the souls of men
270 Before the judgment-seat of the great God
271 Immortal; for imperishable is
272 One only, himself the almighty One,
273 Who shall be judge of mortals; and to them
274 That dwell beneath will then the heavenly One
275 Give souls and spirit and voice, and also bones
276 Fitted with joints unto all kinds of flesh,
277 And both the flesh and sinews, veins and skin
278 About the body, and hair as before;
279 Divinely fashioned and with breathing moved
280 Shall bodies of those on earth one day be raised.
281 And then shall Uriel, mighty angel, break
282 The bolts of stern and lasting adamant
283 Which, monstrous, hold the brazen gates of Hades,
284 Straight cast them down, and unto judgment lead
285 All forms that have endured much suffering,
286 Chiefly the shapes of Titans born of old,
287 And giants, and all whom the deluge whelmed,
288 And all that perished in the billowy seas,
289 And all that furnished banquet for the beasts
290 And creeping things and fowls, these in a mass
291 Shall (Uriel) summon to the judgment-seat;
292 And also those whom flesh-devouring fire
293 Destroyed in flame, even these shall he collect
294 And place before the judgment-seat of God,
295 And when the high-thundering Lord of Sabaoth
296 Making an end of fate shall raise the dead,
297 Sit on his heavenly throne, and firmly fix
298 The mighty pillar, then amid the clouds
299 Christ, who himself is incorruptible,
300 Shall come unto the Incorruptible
301 In glory with pure angels, and shall sit
302 At the right hand on the great judgment-seat
303 To judge the life of pious and the way
304 Of impious men. And Moses, the great friend
305 Of the Most High, shall come enrobed in flesh;
306 Also great Abraham himself shall come,
307 Isaac and Jacob, Joshua, Daniel,
308 Elijah, Habakkuk and Jonab, and
309 Those whom the Hebrews slow. But he’ll destroy
310 The Hebrews after Jeremiah, all
311 Who are to be judged at the judgment-seat,
312 That worthy recompense they may receive
313 And pay for all each did in mortal life.
314 And then shall all pass through the burning stream
315 Of flame unquenchable; but all the just
316 Shall be saved; and the godless furthermore
317 Shall to all ages perish, all who did
318 Evils aforetime, and committed murders,
319 And all who are accomplices therein,
320 Liars and thieves, and ruiners of home,
321 Crafty and terrible, and parasites,
322 And marriage-breakers pouring forth vile words,
323 Dread, wanton, lawless, and idolaters;
324 And all who left the great immortal God,
325 Became blasphemers, did the pious harm,
326 Destroying faith and killing righteous men;
327 And all that with a shamelessness deceitful
328 And double-faced rush in as presbyters
329 And reverend ministers, who knowingly
330 Give unjust judgments, yielding to false words .mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}. .
331 More hurtful than the leopards and the wolves
332 And more vile; and all that are grossly proud;
333 And usurers, who gains on gains amass
334 And damage orphans and widows in each thing;
335 And all that give to widows and to orphans
336 The fruit of unjust deeds, and all that cast
337 Reproach in giving from their own hard toils;
338 And all that left their parents in old age,
339 Not paying them at all, nor offering
340 To parents filial duty, and all who
341 Were disobedient and against their sires
342 Spoke a harsh word; and all that pledges took
343 And then denied them; and the servants all
344 Who were against their masters, and again
345 Those who licentiously defiled the flesh;
346 And all who loosed the girdle of the maid
347 For secret intercourse, and all who caused
348 Abortions, and all who their offspring cast
349 Unlawfully away; and sorcerers
350 And sorceresses with them, and these wrath
351 Of the heavenly and immortal God shall drive
352 Against a pillar, where shall all around.
353 In a circle flow a restless stream of fire;
354 And deathless angels of the immortal God,
355 Who ever is, shall bind with lasting bonds
356 In chains of flaming fire and from above
357 Punish them all by scourge most terribly;
358 And in Gehenna, in the gloom of night,
359 Shall they be cast ‘neath many horrid beasts
360 Of Tartarus, where darkness is immense.
361 But when there shall be many punishments
362 Enforced on all who had an evil heart,
363 Yet afterward shall there a fiery wheel
364 From a great river circle them around,
365 Because they had a care for wicked deeds.
366 And then one here, another there, shall sires,
367 Young children, mothers, nursing babes, in tears
368 Wail their most piteous fate. No fill of tears
369 Shall be for them, nor piteous voice be heard
370 Of them that moan, one here, another there,
371 But long worn under dark, dank Tartarus
372 Aloud shall they cry; and they shall repay
373 In cursed places thrice as much as all
374 The evil work they did, burned with much fire;
375 And all of them, consumed by raging thirst
376 And hunger, shall in anguish gnash their teeth
377 And call death beautiful, and death shall flee
378 Away from them. For neither death nor night
379 Shall ever give them rest. And many things in vain
380 Will they ask of the God that rules on high,
381 And then will he his face turn openly
382 Away from them. For he to erring men
383 Gave, in seven ages for repentance, signs
384 By the hands of a virgin undefiled.
385 But the others, all to whom right and fair works
386 And piety and thoughts most just were dear,
387 Shall angels, bearing through the burning stream,
388 Lead unto light and life exempt from care,
389 Where comes the immortal way of the great God
390 And fountains thrce—of honey, wine, and milk.
391 And equal land for all, divided not
392 By walls or fences, more abundant fruits
393 Spontaneous shall then bear, and the course
394 Of life be common and wealth unapportioned,
395 For there no longer will be poor nor rich,
396 Tyrant nor slave, nor any great nor small,
397 Nor kings nor leaders; all alike in common.
398 No more at all will one say, “night has come,”
399 Nor “morrow comes,” nor “yesterday has been;”
400 Nor shall there many days of anxious care,
401 Nor spring, nor winter, nor the summer-heat,
402 Nor autumn he [nor marriage, nor yet death,
403 Nor sales, nor purchases], nor set of sun
404 Nor rising; for a long day will God make.
405 And to the pious will the almighty God
406 Imperishable grant another thing,
407 When they shall ask the imperishable God:
408 That he will suffer men from raging fire
409 And endless gnawing anguish to be saved;
410 And this will he do. For hereafter he
411 Will pluck them from the restless flame, elsewhere
412 Remove them, and for his own people’s sake
413 Send them to other and eternal life
414 With the immortals, in Elysian field,
415 Where move far-stretching billows of the lake
416 Of ever-flowing Acheron profound.
417 Ah, miserable woman that I am!
418 What shall I be in that day? for I sinned—
419 Being busy foolishly about all things,
420 Caring for neither marriage-bond nor reason;
421 But even in my wealthy husband’s house
422 I shut the needy out; and formerly
423 I knowingly performed unlawful things,
424 But, Saviour, though I shameless things performed,
425 Do thou from my tormentors rescue me,
426 A shameless woman. And I pray thee now
427 Make me to rest a little from my song,
428 Holy Giver of manna, King of the great realm.
429 False manifestly; for the ponal fire
430 Shall never cease from those who are condemned.
431 For also I might pray to have it thus,
432 Branded with greatest scars of trespasses,
433 Which need more kindness. But let Origen
434 Of his presumptuous babble be ashamed,
435 Saying there shall be end of punishments.