The Sibylline Oracles

The Sibylline Oracles

continued

Book V

1 But bring to me the lamentable time / Of the illustrious Latins, who were first, / After the kings of Egypt were cut off, / And had all been borne down into the earth; And also after Pella's citizen, / Under whom all the Orient was subdued, / And the rich West, whom Babylon disgraced / And gave a corpse to Philip; not of Jove / Nor Ammon truly boasted to have sprung. And they shall issue of the race and blood / Of great Assaracus, those born at Troy, / Even him who cleft the violence of fire. / But after many kings and warlike men, / And after the twin children of the beast That feeds on sheep, shall there come forth a king / Pre-eminent, who will sum up twice ten / With his initial letter. He shall be / In war exceeding powerful; and of ten / Shall also his first letter be the sign.

2 After him rules who of the alphabet / Has the first letter. Thrace and Sicily / And Memphis crouch and quail in dread of him— / Memphis, cast to the ground by wickedness / Of leaders, and a woman unsubdued, Fallen on the wave. And he will institute / Laws for the peoples, and subdue all things. / But after a long time will he transmit / The kingdom to another, who will have / The number of three hundred his first sign, And of a river the beloved name. / The Persians he will rule and Babylon, / And then will smite the Medians with his spear. / Then one will rule who takes the number three. / Then shall one whose first letter marks twice ten Become king, and to the remotest bounds / Of ocean shall he go, and sweep along / The refluent tide by the Ausonian shores.

3 / And one whose mark is fifty shall be lord, / A dreadful serpent, breathing grievous war; He will stretch out his hands against his kin, / And cut them off, and spread confusion wide, / Fight, kill the people, and dare countless things. / And he will cleave the isthmus, and with gore / Besprinkle it. But this destructive one Shall pass from sight and then return again, / Presuming to be equal unto God; / But he will sift him as if he were naught. / And after him will three kings be destroyed / By one another. Then a great destroyer Of pious men shall come, and he shall show / Conspicuously the letter seven times ten. / His son, however, whose initial sign / Denotes three hundred, shall usurp the power. / And after him shall be a destined one, A soul destroyer, of the number four. / And then an old man numbering fifty comes, / And next to him, whose first initial marks / Three hundred, is a Celtic mountaineer; / Hastening away to battle in the East

4 He shall not miserable fate escape, / But sink in painful toils. Him foreign dust / Shall cover a dead corpse, having the name / Of Nemea's flower. And after him shall reign / Another man, with silver helmet decked, And to him shall be given the name of a sea; / And he shall be a man of excellence, / And turn his mind to all things. And on thee / Thou excellent, most noble, dark-haired one, / And on thy branches all these days shall come. Three shall reign, but the third one late shall rule. / Thrice wretched I, sister of Isis, grieve / To place in heart an evil prophecy. / Even a sacred song of oracles. / First Menades shall rush around the base Of thy sad temple, and in evil hands / Shall it be in that day when the Nile whelms / All Egypt's land to sixteen cubits deep; / It shall flood all the land, and cover men / With water, and the beauty of the earth

5 And glory of her face shall disappear. / Memphis, thou shalt for Egypt greatly mourn; / For though thou once didst rule the land in power, / Thou shalt become sad, and the Thunderer / Shall call from heaven with a mighty voice: O mighty Memphis, who of old didst boast / So greatly o'er weak mortals, thou shalt wail / In sore distress, and wretchedness extreme, / So that thou truly shalt thyself discern / The eternal God, immortal in the clouds. Where is thy gain in having among men / Prepared great power? Because thou hast against / My God-anointed children been enraged, / And hast stirred evil up among good men, / Thou shalt for such things have for penalty This foster child. No longer openly / Shall there be right for thee among the blessed; / Fallen from the stars, thou shalt not mount to heaven.

6 / These things to Egypt God commissioned me / To utter touching the last time when men Shall be all evil. But the wicked toil / In sorrow, looking for calamity, / Wrath of the Immortal, Thunderer of heaven, / But worshiping false gods, and stones, and beasts, / And fearing many other things besides, Which have no speech, nor mind, nor power to hear, / Which things for me to mention is not right, / Dumb idols all, the work of mortal hands. / Of their own labors and their impious thoughts / Have men received gods made of wood, and stone, And brass, and gold, and silver, soulless, vain, / Deaf, and they made them molten in the fire, / In such things having vainly put their trust. / Thmois and Xois are in sore distress; / Destroyed the counsel is of Hercules, And Jupiter, and Hermes, and for thee, / O Alexandria, famed nourisher / Of cities, war shall never leave thee more. / For thy pride thou shalt give as many things / As thou hast done before. Long time shalt thou

7 Be silent, even on the joyful day. / No more for thee shall flow the luxurious cup. / And all thy land an artful man shall ruin / With blood, and corpses by the horrid altars; / Of barbarous mind, strong, very terrible, Senselessly raging, hurrying on thy doom / With force innumerable as the sand. / Then wilt thou, happy city, suffer much. / All Asia falling on the earth shall wail / Because of gifts which she received from thee, And with which, head encircled, she rejoiced. / But he who had the Persians for his lot / Shall war on Egypt, and slay every man, / And plunder and destroy all means of life, / So that a third remains for wretched man. But he from the West shall speed with nimble leap, / Invading all the land and wasting all. / But when he has obtained the height of power, / And odious dread, he will return, resolved / The city of the blessed to destroy.

8 And then a powerful king, sent forth from God, / Shall slay all mighty kings and noble men. / Then thus shall be a lasting end to men. / Alas! alas for thee, unhappy heart! / Why dost thou move me Egypt's troubled state, Beset by many rulers, to rehearse? / Go to the East, to Persia's thoughtless race, / And show them what is and what is to be. / Euphrates' river shall a deluge form, / And Persians and Iberians destroy, And Babylonians, and Massagetæ / That take delight in war, all armed with bows. / All Asia fire-consumed unto the isles / Shall drip. And Pergamos, of old revered, / Shall wholly perish, and an utter waste Shall Pitane appear to human eyes. / All Lesbos shall sink deep into the deep, / So as to perish; Smyrna down the steep / Being rolled shall wail, she who was once revered / And famous shall be utterly destroyed.

9 And the Bithynians shall lament their land / Reduced to ashes, also Syria / The mighty, and Phenicia rich in plants. / Woe, woe to thee, O Lycia, for thee / What evils are devised! Of its own will The sea has mounted on the troubled land, / So that the soil of Lycia, once replete / With fragrance sweet, shall wail for earthquake dire, / And bitter floods. Fierce wrath shall also come / On Phrygia, on account of grief for which Rhea, Jove's mother, came and tarried there. / The sea shall overthrow the Taurian race, / A barbarous nation, and the Lapithæ / Shall to the earth be cast down and despoiled. / The land of Thessaly shall be destroyed By the deep eddying river Peneus, / Deep-flowing, sweeping mortals from the earth. / Eridanus [the river that professed / To have begotten once the forms of beasts]. / Greece the thrice wretched shall the poets weep,

10 When out of Italy a mighty king / Of mighty Rome shall smite the isthmus' neck, / A godlike man, whom they say Jove himself / And honored Juno bore, who, courting praise / For his sweet songs with a melodious voice, Will with the wretched mother many slay. / From Babylon shall flee the fearful king / And shameless, whom all mortals justly hate; / For he slew many, and laid violent hands / Upon the womb; against his wife he sinned, And of flagitious parents was he born. / But he will come unto the Medes and kings / Of Persia whom he first sought, and for whom / He wrought renown, and, with these wicked ones, / Will lurk against a nation not beloved. He seized the God-made temple, and he burned / The citizens and people going in, / Who have been justly eulogized in song.

11 / On his appearing the creation shook, / Kings perished, but among them yet remained Authority, until they had destroyed / The mighty city and the righteous people. / But when in the fourth year a star shall shine, / Which alone shall destroy the entire land, / Because of honor first to Neptune paid, Then there shall come from heaven a mighty star / Into the dreadful sea, and burn the deep, / And Babylon itself, and Italy, / For which full many faithful Hebrew saints / And also the true temple were destroyed. Thou shalt among base mortals suffer wrongs, / But shalt remain whole ages all a waste, / Hating thy soil, for thou didst long for drugs, / Adulteries were with thee, and with boys / Thou didst indulge in lawless acts of shame, Effeminate, unjust, and wicked city, / Ill-fated above all. Woe, woe to thee, / Thou unclean city of the Latin land! / Mad woman, fond of serpents, by thy banks / A widow thou shalt sit, and over thee

12 The river Tiber shall weep as for a spouse. / O thou of murderous heart and impious soul, / Dost thou not know what God has power to do, / And what his purpose is? But thou didst say, / "I am alone, and none shall plunder me." But now thee and all thine shall God destroy, / The ever-living One, and in that land / No longer shall a trace of thee remain, / As when of old thy honors God procured. / Remain thou then alone, O lawless one, And, mixed with burning fire, dwell in the realm / Of Hades, the Tartarean lawless land. / And now again, O Egypt! I lament / Thy sorrow. Memphis, leader thou of toils, / Filled with the dead, in thee the pyramids Shall utter forth a shameful sound of woe. / Python of old, twin city rightly called, / Be still forever, that thou mayest cease / From wickedness. Thou basely insolent, / Store-house of sorrows, Manad, full of woe,

13 Terrible sufferer, and full of tears, / Thou shalt remain a widow through all time. / Thou didst become old ruling the world alone. / But when a white dress Barca round herself / Shall put on over that which is defiled, O may I not be, might I not have been! / O Thebes, where is thy great power? A rude man / Shall slay the people; but thou, throwing on / Gray garments, wretched one, shalt weep alone. / And thou shalt make atonement for all things Which thou hast done, because of lawless deeds, / And they shall look upon thee in distress / As one that did possess a shameful soul. / Syene a great man shall overthrow, / And Tentyris of the Ethiopians Shall swarthy Indians occupy by force. / Pentapolis, a man of mighty power / Shall make thee weep. O Libya, much bewildered, / Who shall explain thy woes? And who of men / Cyrene, shall bewail thy miseries?

14 Thou shalt not from thy hateful weeping cease / Until the time of thy destruction comes. / Among the Britons and the wealthy Gauls / Shall ocean, filled with much blood, loudly roar, / For they did evil to the sons of God, When a Phenician king from Syria led / With the Sidonians a vast Gallic force; / And thee thyself, Ravenna, he will slay, / And in the work of murder be a guide. / O Indians and great Ethiopians, Be not presumptuous, for when Capricorn / Around the pole, and Taurns in mid heaven / Among the Twins shall have encircled these, / And Virgo rises, and about his front / The sun a girdle fastening leads all heaven— A great ethereal fire shall be on earth, / And in the conflicts of the warring stars / Shall nature become new, and all the land / Of the Indians and the Ethiopians / Shall perish in the midst of fire and groans.

15 Weep also thou, O Corinth, the sad doom / Of thy destruction, when with twisted threads / The Fates, three sisters, spinning, lead on high / The one who fled by guile beside the voice / Of the isthmus, until all shall gaze on him Who once cut off the rock with beaten brass; / And he thy land will ruin, and will smite / As it has been appointed; for to him / Has the only God given to accomplish what / Not one of all the former kings could do. For standing there in power he will give others / To pluck off with a sickle from the root / Three heads, so that unholy kings shall eat / Their parents' flesh. For unto all mankind / Murder and terrors are laid up in store Because of the great city and just people / Saved through all time by special providence. / O thou unstable one, and ill-advised, / By evil fates surrounded, unto men / Both a beginning and great end of woe,

16 A creature harmed and saved again by fate, / Excess of evils, woe, and man's great end, / Who among mortals ever longed for thee? / Who is not angry with thee in his heart? / In thee cast forth, what king his honored life Lost? All things evilly hast thou disposed, / And deluged all with evil, and by thee / Have beautiful portions of the world been changed. / Into our strife these last, perchance put forth: / And how dost thou say, "I will thee persuade, And if in any thing I blame thee, speak!" / There once was among men the sun's bright light, / And prophets' common rays were wide diffused, / And language, dripping fair drink for all men, / Appeared, developed, and day dawned on all. Because of this, O thou of narrow mind, / Author of greatest evils, both a sword / And sorrow will be coming in that day. / Beginning and great end of woe to men, / A creature harmed and saved again by fate,

17 Hear the harsh sound of sharp words, bane of men. / But when the Persian land is free from war / And pestilence and woe, then in that day / There shall be of the blessed heavenly Jews / A race divine, who in the midst of the land Shall round God's city dwell; and with great walls / Even as far as Joppa circled round, / They lift themselves up to the dusky clouds. / No longer will the trumpet sound abroad / War's murderous tones, nor shall men be destroyed By the mad hands of foes; but there shall stand / Forever monuments of wicked men. / But there shall come from heaven a wondrous man, / Whose hands were stretched out on the fruitful wood, / The noblest of the Hebrews, who once caused The sun to stand still, when he gave command / With admirable speech and hallowed lips.

18 / No longer vex thy soul, nor put a sword / Unto thy bosom, O thou child of God, / Rich, only longed-for flower, thou goodly light, Thou consummation noble, longed-for, pure, / Lovely Judea, city beautiful, / Inspired by hymns. No longer on thy soil / Will the Greeks revel with unhallowed foot, / But have within their hearts a similar law. But thee shall noble children reverence, / And at the table stand with holy songs, / With offerings of all sorts and worthy prayers. / As many as endure the weariness / Of light affliction, and are just, shall come To greater good and excellent delights; / But those who sent to heaven foul, lawless speech / Shall against one another cease to speak, / And hide themselves until the world shall change. / But from the clouds a rain of gloomy fire Shall come, and mortals shall no longer reap / From earth the splendid corn; wild and untilled / Shall all things be, till mortal men shall know / The God who rules all, the immortal One, / Existing ever; mortal things no more

19 Shall grow old, neither dogs nor carrion birds, / Such as the Egyptians taught should be revered / By tender youthful mouths, and foolish lips. / But all these things the Hebrews' holy land / Alone shall bear; from honey-dripping rock And from a spring there shall a rivulet And milk ambrosial flow to all the just; For in our glorious Maker, God alone, Having great faith and piety, they hoped. But why does the wise mind grant me these things? Yet thee, O wretched Asia, I deplore In pitying sorrow, and the Ionian race And Carians, and the Lydians rich in gold. Woe, Sardis; woe, woe, Trallis, greatly loved; Woe, woe, Laodicea, city fair, How shalt thou perish by the earthquake shock, Fall into ruin, and to dust be changed! In gloomy Asia of the rich Lydians Shall Dian's temple, fixed at Ephesus, Some day by yawning chasms and earthquake shocks

20 Come headlong down into the dreadful sea, Even as ships are overwhelmed by storms. And Ephesus, quite overthrown, shall wail, Lamenting by her banks, and searching out Her temple, no more to be occupied. And then, incensed, shall God, the imperishable, Who dwells on high, send lightning from the heaven Down on the power of him that is impure. And in that day, instead of winter's storms There shall be summer; and to mortal men This shall then be, for the great Thunderer Will utterly destroy all shameless ones With thunders, lightnings, and terrific flames Against malicious men, and ruin them / As godless, so that bodies of the dead Shall lie on earth more numerous than the sand. / And Smyrna also, weeping for Lycurgus, / Unto the gates of Ephesus shall come, / And yet herself the rather come to naught. / And foolish Cumæ, with her inspired streams,

21 By hands of gods and lawless men hurled down, / Shall offer up her joy into the air / No more, but lie a corpse by Cumæ's streams. / And then those left shall suffer ills together. / Cumæ's rude populace, a hateful tribe, Having a sign, shall know for what they suffered. / And then when they shall have their wicked land / Reduced to ashes, Lesbos, situate / By Eridanus, shall perish evermore. / Woe, woe to thee, Corcyra, city fair, Cease from thy revel. Hierapolis, / Thou also, only soil with riches mixed, / Shalt have what thou hast longed to have, a land / Of many tears, having been enraged against / A country by the streams of Thermodon. And rocky Tripolis, beside the waves / Of the Mæander, filled up by the shore / With mighty waters, thou shalt be destroyed / Utterly, by God's will and providence. / I do not wish to take the neighboring land

22 Of Phœbus, yet a thunderbolt from heaven / Wanton Miletus some day shall destroy, / Because she took up Phœbus' crafty song / And the wise care and prudent plans of men. / Be merciful, All-Father, to the land Of Judah, wanton, fruit-abounding, great, / That we may live to see thy purposes. / For this thou knewest at first, O God, in love, / That to all men it might appear thy gift, / And that they might see what God will bestow. I long thrice wretched Thracia's works to see, / And the wall trailed in dust between two seas, / Even like a river for the swimming fish. / O wretched Hellespont, some day a child / Of the Assyrians shall throw a bridge Across thee. Against thee will Thracians fight / And of thy power exhaust thee utterly; / And on the Macedonian land shall seize / A king of Egypt, and a barbarous clime / Will cast the prowess of the leaders down.

23 Lydians, Galatians, and Pamphylians, / With the Pisidians, being armed for war, / With all the people conquer in fell strife. / Thrice wretched Italy, thou shalt remain / Unwept, deserted, in a blooming land, The deadly serpent fully to destroy. / But far above along the ethereal sky / God's voice like rolling thunder shall be heard, / And the sun's own imperishable flames / Be no more, and the moon's brilliant light Shall not again be in that latest time, / When God shall rule. All things shall be in gloom, / Darkness shall be on earth, and blinded men, / And evil beasts, and a long time of woe; / So that it will be seen that God is king, And looks down from the heavens on all below. / Himself will not then pity hostile men, / Who sacrifice the herds of lambs and sheep, / And bellowing calves, great calves with gilded horns, / To lifeless Hermes and to gods of stone.

24 But let the law of wisdom take the lead, / The glory of the righteous, lest, anon, / The imperishable God be filled with wrath, / And every race and tribe of men destroy; / For it is binding on us to love God, The wise Creator, who forever lives. / There shall be at the last time, when the moon / Comes near its end, a world-disputing war, / And it will be in cunning and in guile; / And from the earth's extremity shall come A matricidal man, a fugitive, / Revolving sharp devices in his mind; / He every land will seize, and conquer all; / Wiser than all men, he will know all things. / That on account of which he himself perished Forthwith he will seize. And he will destroy / Many men and great tyrants, and consume / All of them as none other ever did. / And such as fell he will restore through zeal. / But from the West shall come much war to men,

25 And hills of blood shall to the rivers flow. / But in the plains of Macedonia / The rage drops, and alliance from the West / Is offered, but destruction for the king. / And then a wintry blast shall blow on earth, And evil war shall fill the land again. / For fire on mortals from the heavenly plains / Shall be rained down in showers, fire, and blood, / Water and lightning, darkness, awful night, / Wasting in war, and on the slaughter gloom; And it will bring destruction to all kings, / Even those then best; and thus shall terminate / The lamentable ruin of dire war. / No longer will one fight with swords, or iron, / Or darts, which things shall not again be right. And prudent people, such as have survived, / Will have peace, having tested wickedness / In order that at last they might have joy. / Ye matricides, leave off the impudence / Of bold effrontery and wicked works,

26 Ye who have basely furnished couch for boys, / And in the brothel harlots made of those / Who once were pure, by means of insolence, / And punishment, and forced indecency. / For in thee lawless mother with her child Held carnal intercourse, and with her sire / The daughter was united as a bride. / Also in thee have kings their ill-starred mouth / Polluted, and in thee have wicked men / Found couch with beasts. O city full of grief And evil, given to reveling, be still. / For virgins will no longer find with thee / The sacred fire of the love-kindling grove. / By thee the loved house was of old put out, / When I saw it a second time laid waste, And wrapped in fire by an unholy hand, / House always blooming, temple watched of God, / Brought forth by saints, imperishable ever, / A ground of hope for soul and body too. / For without burial rites none will praise God

27 Out of the hidden earth, nor will the wise / Artificer prepare a stone for such, / Nor did he reverence gold, the cheat of souls / And of the world; but they with sacrifice / And holy hecatombs adored the God And mighty Maker of all breathing things. / But now an unseen and unholy king / Rose, cast this down, and let it go unbuilt, / With a great multitude and famous men. / But having gone up to the immortal land He himself perished. Such a sign no more / Was ever wrought on men; so it seemed good / That others the great city should destroy. / For from the heavenly plains there came a man, / A blessed one, who held within his hand A scepter with which God intrusted him, / And all things he ruled nobly, and restored / To all the good the wealth which former men / Had taken; and all cities with vast fire / From the foundations he destroyed and burned,

28 The towns of men who had wrought wicked deeds. / And that same city which God loved he made / More radiant than the stars, and sun and moon, / And put on ornament, and made in flesh / A sanctuary very beautiful, And formed for miles a great and boundless tower / Touching the very clouds, and seen by all, / So that the faithful and the just might all / Behold the glory of the eternal God, / A longed-for sight. Morning and evening hymned The praise of God. For there shall no more come / Dire evils upon miserable men, / Adulteries and lawless lust of boys, / Nor murder, nor confusion, but with all / A righteous rivalry. Last is the time Of the saints, when the lofty Thunderer, / God, who is founder of the mighty temple, / Brings to their consummation all these things. / Alas! alas for thee, O Babylon, / For golden throne and golden sandal famed,

29 Thou ancient kingdom, sole lord of the world; / Once mighty and all-potent, thou shalt lie / No more in golden mountains, and the streams / Of the Euphrates; thou shalt be laid low / In time of earthquake. But the dreadful Parthians Made thee rule all things. Hold thy insolent mouth, / O vile race of Chaldeans! Do not speak / Nor be concerned how thou shalt rule the Persians, / Or how thou shalt be conqueror of the Medes. / For on account of thy power which thou hadst, Having sent hostages to Rome, and served / In Asia, thou shalt as a prudent queen / Into the judgment of the unrighteous come, / For whom thou hast sent ransoms. Thou shalt give / Instead of puzzling words keen wrath to foes. And in the last time shall the sea be dry, / And ships no longer sail to Italy; / But great and fruitful Asia and the plain / Of Crete shall be all water. And great woe / Shall Cyprus have, and on a dreadful fate

30 Shall Paphos rush, so that one shall behold / Salamis, great city, suffering mighty woe. / Now waste and fruitless shall she be again / Upon the coast; and locusts not a few / The Cyprian land shall ruin. Look at Tyre And weep, O hapless mortals! Fearful wrath / Waits thee, Phenicia, until thou fall / A vile corpse, so that sirens truly weep. / In the fifth generation, when the ruin / Of Egypt shall have ceased, and shameless kings Mingle together, nations of all tribes / Shall camp in Egypt, and in Macedonia, / And Asia, and among the Lydians / Shall rage a cruel world-oppressing war / Of much blood and dust, which the king of Rome And rulers of the West shall cause to cease. / When wintry storm comes dropping like the snow, / And the great river and vast lakes are frozen, / Straightway into the Asian land shall go / A barbarous multitude, and the dire race

31 Of Thracians like a feeble thing destroy. / And then will wretched mortals, hunger-worn, / Devour their parents, and gulp down all food, / And wild beasts in all dwellings eat their food, / They and the birds devour all mortal men. And with the wicked ocean shall be filled, / Being blood-red from the river—flesh and blood / Of foolish men. Then thus a littleness / Shall be upon the earth, that of mankind / And womankind the number one may see. But myriad things shall a dire race bewail / At the end, when the sun sets not to rise, / But to remain submerged in ocean's wave, / Because it saw the baneful wickedness / Of many mortals. And a moonless night Shall gather round the mighty heaven itself, / And no small mist shall hide the world's ravines. / But then a second time shall God's light rule / The good men, even as many as praise God. / Isis, thrice wretched goddess, thou alone

32 Shalt by the waters of the Nile remain, / A lawless Bacchanal upon the sands / Of Acheron, and over all the earth / No more shall memory of thee remain. / And thou, Serapis, sitting on the stones, Shalt be in trouble about many things. / Thou shalt in thrice unhappy Egypt lie / An immense corpse; all that in Egypt bore / A love toward thee shall wail thee bitterly. / But such as praise God, having in their minds Unimpaired reason, know that thou art naught. / And then a linen-vested priest shall say: / "Come, let us raise a beautiful temple of God / In truth; come, let us change the fearful laws / Of our forefathers, by which they required Processions, and performed their mystic rites / To gods of stone and clay that had no sense. / Let us our souls turn and give praise to God / The imperishable, who himself is sire,

33 Who always has been, who is Lord of all / The true one, king, and soul-sustaining sire, / The mighty God, existing evermore. / And then in Egypt there shall be a great / And holy temple, and their sacrifices Into it shall the God-made people bring, / And God shall give to them eternal life. / But when the Ethiopians forsake / The shameless tribes of the Triballians, / And cultivate their Egypt, wickedness They will begin, that afterward all things / May come to pass. For they shall overthrow / The mighty temple of the Egyptian land, / And on earth will God rain a fearful wrath / Upon them, and all base and lawless men Shall be destroyed. And in that land no more / Will any one receive forbearing grace, / Because they did not guard what God had given. / The threatening of the shining sun I saw / Among the stars, and in the lightning flash

34 The dire wrath of the moon. The stars travailed / With battle; God permitted them to fight. / For in the sun's stead long fire-flames arose; / The morning star made fight and trod upon / The Lion's back, and the moon's double horn Changed its face; Capricorn smote Taurus' neck, / But Taurus took away from Capricorn / Returning day; Orion would no more / Abide the yoke, and the lot of the Twins / Did Virgo change to Aries; no more shone The Pleiads, and the Dragon left his zone. / Pisces went down into the Lion's belt; / The Crab remained not, for he feared Orion; / Scorpio approached the dreadful Lion's tail, / And from the sun's flame slipped the Dog away; Aquarius kindled to a flame the might / Of the strong shining one. The flame itself / Was roused up till it shook the warring ones, / And in a rage hurled them headlong to earth. / Then quickly smitten down upon the waves

35 Of ocean, it set all the earth on fire, / And the high heaven remained without a star.

Book VI

1 The Immortal's mighty Son, renowned in song, / Proclaim I from the heart, to whom a throne / The most high Father gave for a possession / Ere he was born; and then he was raised up, In flesh given him, and washed in Jordan's stream, / Which bears with gleaming foot the waves away. / He having fled from fire first shall behold / The blessed Spirit of God descending down / With white wings of a dove. And he shall bloom A blossom pure, and all things shall burst forth. / And he will show to men the ways, will show / The heavenly paths, and with wise words teach all. / And he will lead to righteousness, and win / The hostile people, boasting a descent From a celestial Father. He will tread / The billows, and men's maladies destroy. / He will raise up the dead, and many woes / Drive far away; and from one root shall come / Enough of bread for men, when David's house

2 A scion shall bring forth, and in his hands / Shall be the whole world—land and heaven and sea. / He will flash lightning on the earth, as once / The two born from each other's sides beheld / The light appear. And this shall come to pass When earth rejoices in hope of a son. / But for thee only, Sodomitic land, / Are miseries in store, for with fell mind / Thou didst not give attention to thy God, / Who laughs at mortal schemes, but out of thorns Didst plait for him a crown, and fearful gall / In wanton insolence of spirit didst mix. / This shall bring on thee bitter miseries. / O wood most blessed, on which God was stretched, / Earth shall not hold thee, but a heavenly house Shalt thou behold, when the new form of God / Shall flash forth as the lightning into view.

Book VII

1 O Rhodes, thou wretched one, thee first I mourn. / Of cities first, first shalt thou be destroyed, / Bereft of men and of all means of life. / And Delos, thou shalt sail upon the sea, And be unstable on the watery way. / Cyprus, a billow of thy bridal sea / Shall some time ruin thee. Thee, Sicily, / The burning fire within thee shall consume. / Nor heed God's terrible and pleasant water. Noah, sole fugitive of all men came. / The land shall swim, the mountains and the air / Shall also swim, all things shall water be, / And all things shall by water be destroyed. / The wind shall cease, and a second age begin. O Phrygia, from the upper water first / To break forth, thou thyself shalt be the first / To deny God, being pleased with other gods, / Who shall destroy thee, miserable one, / When many rolling years shall be complete.

2 The wretched Ethiopians, suffering / By pitiable woes, and crouching down / In terror, shall be smitten by the sword. / Rich Egypt, ever caring for the corn / Which the Nile underneath his floating waves Makes seven times drunk, shall perish by the strife / Of tribes with one another. Quickly then / Will men drive Apis out, no god for men. / Woe, woe, Laodicea, daring one, / Thou shalt be false, God having never seen; And Lycus' surges shall wash thee away. / He himself, who is born the mighty God, / Shall work great signs, and in the midst of heaven / Shall hang an axle, and shall place on high / A mighty terror to be seen by men, Measuring a column with an immense fire, / Whose drops shall slay the races of mankind / That have done evil. For a time will come / When men may God appease, but put no end / To bitter sorrows; but through David's house

3 Shall all things be fulfilled. For unto him / Has God himself given and confirmed a throne; / And messengers beneath his feet repose, / Some in the fire, some in the streams appear, / Others save cities, and some send forth winds. And unto many men shall life be hard, / Entering in souls, and changing minds of men. / But when a new shoot from the root shall spring, / The vast creation which he once to all / Spread forth abundantly for nourishment, And all things with the times shall be complete. / But when strange Persians, warlike tribe, shall rule, / The bridal chambers shall be full of fear / Because of lawless tribes. For her own son / Will mother have as husband, son will harm His mother, daughter couching by her sire / Shall sleep according to barbarian law. / But afterward to them the Roman Mars / Shall shine forth from a multitude of spears, / And they shall mix much land with human blood.

4 But then the chief of Italy shall flee / From the power of the spear, and they shall leave / Upon the land a shaft engraved in gold, / Among the foremost fighters, evermore / Bearing a symbol of necessity. But then shall Ilias sink into the tomb, / Wicked and piteously starred by fate, / No wedding there, and brides shall deeply grieve, / Because they knew not God, but ever gave / The echo to the cymbal and the drum. Consult the oracle, O Colophon; / For over thee is hanging fearful fire. / Ill-wedded Thessaly, the earth no more / Shall see thee, nor thy ashes, and alone / Escaping from the main-land thou shalt sail; So, hapless one, thou shalt be war's vile filth, / Falling by means of rivers and sharp swords. / And thou, O hapless Corinth, shalt receive / Around thee heavy war, thou timid one, / And by each other ye shall be destroyed.

5 O Tyre, how much shalt thou alone receive? / For the small number of the pious men / Within thy land will scatter thee afar. / O Cœle-Syria, thou towerest high / Above Phenician men, for whom the sea Of Berytas lies pouring forth abroad; / O wretched one, thou hast not known thy God, / Who once in Jordan's waters bathed himself, / And over whom the Spirit spread his wing; / Who, ere the earth and starry heaven were formed, Was made a ruler of his Father's word, / And by the Holy Spirit put on flesh, / And quickly flew unto his Father's house. / Three towers for him the mighty heaven has fixed, / In which God's noble stewards shall abide, Hope, piety, and longed-for reverence, / In gold and silver having no delight, / But in the holy reverence of men, / And sacrifices, and most righteous thoughts. / But thou to the immortal, mighty God,

6 The lofty One, shalt offer sacrifice, / Not melting grains of frankincense in fire, / Nor smiting with the sword the shaggy lamb. / But with all such as bear thy blood, take thou / Wild fowls, and, having prayed, send them away And turn thy eyes to heaven; and thou shalt pour / On the pure fire the water, and thus cry: / "O Father, thou who didst beget the Word, / A bird have I sent thee, swift messenger / Of words, O thou Word, sprinkling thy baptism With holy waters, through which from the fire / Thou didst make thyself manifest to light." / Thou shalt not shut the door when unto thee / A stranger comes in need to keep away / Hunger of poverty, but taking hold Of that man's head, and sprinkling it with water, / Pray thrice, and cry unto thy God such things: / "I ask not riches. Suppliant I received / Once openly a suppliant. Father, thou / Provider, hear; thou wilt give him that prays."

7 Then, when the man has gone, say: "Press me not, / God's sacred service, righteous, holy, free, / By which Gehenna was reproved... / O Father, strengthen thou my wretched heart. / To thee I look, to thee, the Undefiled, Who wast not fashioned by the hands of men." / Sardinia, weighty now, thou shalt be changed / To ashes. Thou shalt be no more an isle, / When comes a decade round. Amid the waves / Shall sailors seek thee when thou art no more, And the king-fishers for thee shall lament. / Mygdonia, rugged, inaccessible, / A watch-fire o'er the sea, thou boastest age, / And of age thou shalt perish altogether / With the hot wind, and rave with many woes. O Celtic land, on thine own mountain heights, / Along the Alps so inaccessible, / Deep sand shall altogether cover thee. / Tribute shalt thou no longer give, nor corn, / Nor pasture; but thou shalt forever be

8 Deserted by the nations, frozen thick / With chilling ice, and shalt atone the wrongs / Which thou, unholy one, didst not discern. / Great-hearted Rome, thou to Olympus shalt / Flash lightning after Macedonian spears; But God shall make thee utterly unknown, / When yet thou seemst more firmly to remain. / Then to thee such things I will cry aloud. / Being ruined thou wilt speak aloud, once bright / And clear. A second time to thee, O Rome, Again a second time I'll speak to thee. / And now thee, wretched Syria, piteously / Do I bewail. O Thebans ill-advised, / In you there is an evil noise, flutes play, / The trumpet sounds for you an evil note, And ye shall see the entire land destroyed. / Woe, woe to thee, thou wretched, ugly sea! / Thou shalt be utterly consumed by fire, / And thou wilt ruin people with thy brine. / For there shall be such raging fire on earth

9 As flows like water, and it shall destroy / The whole land; mountains it will set on fire, / Burn up the rivers, empty out the springs. / The world shall be disordered, men destroyed. / Then sorely burned, the wretched ones will look Toward heaven, not with stars, but fire inwrought. / Not quickly do they perish, but destroyed / Under the flesh and burning in the spirit / For endless years, they will know that God's law / Is hard to prove, and cannot be deceived. And then earth shall be taken by violence, / Whatever god she daringly set forth / Upon the altars, and shall be deceived / By the smoke through the air, producing woes. / But they shall bear much longing, who for gain Prophesy shameless things and lengthen out / The evil time; who, clothed in shaggy skins / Of sheep, themselves as Hebrews falsely pass, / Which race they have no part in, but with words / Constantly talking, misers in their woes,

10 They will change customs, and will not persuade / The just, who through the heart propitiate God. / But in the third lot of revolving years, / The eighth, first shall another world appear. / And there shall be a long unyielding night. And then shall pass around a dreadful stench / Of brimstone, messenger of homicides, / When men by night and hunger shall be killed. / Then a pure mind will he beget in men, / And will establish thy race as it was To thee aforetime. No more shall one cut / Deep furrows with the plow, nor oxen sink / The guiding iron downward; nor shall vines / Nor ears of corn be seen, but all shall eat / The dewy manna with their fair white teeth. With them then also God himself shall be, / And teach them, as he taught me, doleful one. / For O, how many evils once I did / Knowingly! Also many other things / I wickedly and carelessly performed.

11 Countless my couches, but no marriage bond / Concerned me, and to all a savage oath / I rashly brought. The needy I shut out, / And among those who went to the like glen / I went, and did not heed the voice of God. Therefore did fire devour me, and shall gnaw, / For I myself shall not live, but a time / Of evil shall destroy me. Then will men / Make me a grave, passing me by the sea / And killing me with stones. For with my sire A dear son share I. Stone me, stone me, all; / For thus shall I live, and fix eyes on heaven.

Book VIII

1 God's revelations of great wrath to come / In the last time upon the faithless world, / I make known, prophesying to all men / According to their cities, from that time When the great tower fell, and the tongues of men / Were parted into many dialects. / First of the Egyptian kingdom did I speak, / Then that of Persians, Ethiopians, Medes, / And also of Assyrian Babylon, Then the great pride of Macedonia; / Now am I into the dominion sent / Of celebrated lawless Italy. / At last unto all mortals will it show / Manifold evils, and exhaust the toils Of men of every land. And to the West / Will it the warrior king of nations lead, / Give laws to peoples, and subdue all things. / Late will the mills of God grind the fine flour. / Fire then will ruin all things, and to dust

2 Reduce the summits of the leafy hills, / And all flesh. Love of gain and want of mind / Of evils a beginning are to all; / For of deceitful gold and silver springs / Longing desire, for nothing mortals deem Better than these, not the sun's light, nor heaven, / Nor sea, nor the broad earth whence all things grow, / Nor God who gives all things, Maker of all; / Nor faith, nor piety do they prefer. / Source of impiety, confusion's guide, A means of wars, an enemy of peace, / Is want of understanding, setting fathers / At enmity with sons, and sons with fathers. / And marriage in comparison with gold / Will have no honor. Borders land will have, And guards each sea, divided craftily / For all that have gold, so that evermore / Those wishing it possess the nursing earth. / They waste the poor, that they themselves more land / Procuring may enslave them by deceit.

3 And if the huge earth from the starry heaven / Held not her throne afar, even light to men / Had not been equal, but, being bought with gold, / Had by the rich been owned, and for the poor / God must have then prepared another world. On thee some day shall come, O haughty Rome, / A fitting stroke from heaven, and thou the first / Shalt bend the neck, be leveled to the earth, / And fire shall utterly consume thee, beat / Upon thy pavements, and thy wealth shall perish, And on thy site shall wolves and foxes dwell. / And then shalt thou become all desolate / As though thou hadst not been. Where then will be / Palladium? What God will keep thee safe, / Whether of gold or stone or brass? Or then Where the decrees of thy assembly? Where / Rhea, or Kronos, or the race of Jove, / And all those whom thou didst once hold in awe, / Demons without life, phantoms of the dead, / The boast of whose tomb ill-starred Crete shall have,

4 Worshiping thrones of the unconscious dead? / When thou hast had thrice five voluptuous kings, / And hast enslaved the world from east to west, / A gray-haired prince shall rise, bearing the name / Of the near sea, and with polluted foot Will he survey the world, and gifts obtain, / And have vast sums of gold, and gather up / Of hateful silver more, and having stripped / [The peoples], he will then again return. / And in all mysteries will he partake Of Magian shrines, show forth a child as god, / Abolish all things sacred, and disclose / To all from the first the mysteries of deceit. / Sad then will be the time when he himself, / Sad one, shall perish. And the populace Some time will say: "O city, thy great power / Has fallen, knowing that an evil day / Staightway is coming." Then shall weep together / Fathers and infant children, when they see / Before them thy most lamentable fate.

5 Woe, woe, they wail by Tiber's mournful banks. / After him at the last shall three bear rule / And fill the name out of the God of heaven, / Whose power now is and shall be evermore. / And one, an old man, very long will wield The scepter, a most pitiable king, / Who all the treasures of the world shall guard, / And shut up in his houses, that when comes / The matricidal fugitive again / From the earth's ends, having given these things to all, Vast wealth on Asia he will then bestow. / And then shalt thou weep, having put aside / The glory of the ruler's purple robe, / And put on mourning garments, O proud realm, / Offspring of Latin Rome. No more to thee Shall be the glory of thy lofty mien, / Nor shalt thou, hapless, ever be raised up, / But prostrate shalt thou lie; for even the glory / Of eagle-bearing legions shall fall down. / Where then thy power? What land will be ally,

6 O thou who hast been lawlessly enslaved / By thine own follies? For through all the earth / There will be then confusion of mankind, / When the Almighty, coming to the throne, / Shall judge the souls of living and of dead, And all the world. And parents will not be / Dear to their children, nor will children be / To parents, on account of wickedness / And unexpected trouble. Then to thee / Shall gnashing, capture, and dispersion come, Cities shall fall and earth be rent in chasms. / When thus upon the billows there shall come / A dragon bearing fire, and full within, / And shall afflict thy children, there shall be / Famine and tribal war, and near at hand Is the end of the world, and the last day / And judgment of the immortal God for such / As are both called and chosen. First of all / Inexorable wrath shall fall on Rome; / A time of blood and wretched life shall come.

7 Woe, woe to thee, O land of Italy, / Great, barbarous nation; thou didst not perceive / Whence naked and unworthy thou didst come / To the sun's light, that to that place again / Naked thou shouldst return, and then come forth To judgment, as one who unjustly judged. / With hands gigantic coming from on high / Alone through all the world, thou shalt abide / Under the earth. By naphtha and asphalt / And sulphur and much fire thou utterly Shalt disappear, and be as burning dust / Forever, and all who behold shall hear / From Hades an exceeding mournful wail, / And gnashing of teeth, and with thine own hands / Thou wilt forever beat thy godless breast. To all alike there shall be equal night, / To rich and poor; naked they came from earth / And naked into earth again they go. / They grow, complete their time, and cease from life. / No slave, nor lord, nor tyrant will be there,

8 Nor king, nor leader, filled with vain conceit. / No legal advocate, nor magistrate / Judging for money; nor do they pour out / The blood of sacrifices in libations / Upon the altars. Not a drum will sound, Nor cymbal, nor the perforated flute / Of frenzied tone, nor sound of pipe like that / Of crooked dragon; nor the barbarous trumpet / The harbinger of wars, nor drunken men / In lawless revels, nor in choral dances, Nor sound of lyre; no instrument of evil, / Nor strife, nor wrath of various kind, nor sword / Is with the dead, but unto all alike / Eternity is keeper of the key / Of the great prison for God's judgment-seat. With images of gold and silver and stone / Be ready, that unto the bitter day / Ye may come, thy first punishment, O Rome, / Even a gnashing anguish to behold. / And no more under slavish yoke to thee

9 Will either Greek or Syrian put his neck, / Barbarian or any other nation. / Thou shalt be plundered and shalt be destroyed / For what thou didst, and wailing loud in fear / Thou shalt give until thou shalt all repay. And thou shalt be a triumph for the world, / Also a matter of reproach for all. / And then the sixth race of the Latin kings / At last end life, and lay the scepter down. / From the same race another king shall reign, Rule the whole earth and hold the scepter firm; / And he shall govern with untrammeled power / And by the counsels of the mighty God. / Sons and a race of stable sons are his, / For thus it is decreed, as time rolls on, When there shall be of Egypt thrice five kings. / Thence when the phenix the fifth time appears, / He will come pillaging a race of people, / A countless tribe, the nation of the Hebrews. / Then Mars will plunder Mars, and he himself

10 Shall the presumptuous threats of Rome destroy. / Perished the power of Rome, once flourishing, / Along with ancient kings of neighboring cities. / No longer will the plain of fertile Rome / Prevail, when out of Asia comes with Mars One bearing rule; and having wrought all this / He afterwards will in the city come. / And thrice three hundred eight and forty years / Shalt thou in full complete, when ill-starred fate / Shall seize upon thee, finishing thy name. Alas for me, me, the thrice wretched one! / When shall I see that day of thine, O Rome— / Thine, but most for all Latins? Honor him / If thou wilt, who ascends the Trojan car, / As by a secret birth from Asia's land, Having a soul of fire. But when he smites / The isthmus, peering eagerly around, / Going to all and passing through the sea, / Then will black blood go after the great beast, / And a dog chase the lion which destroys

11 The shepherds. But his scepter they will take, / And into Hades he will pass away. / The last but greatest ill shall come to Rhodes. / And base captivity yet waits for Thebes. / Egypt shall perish by her ruler's baseness. But those men who escaped the utter ruin— / Thrice blessed, four times blessed, was each man! / And Rome shall be a room, and Delos dull, / And Samos sand.... / Later shall evil on the Persians come For their pride, and all insolence shall perish. / And then a holy king o'er all the earth / And to all ages shall the scepter wield, / Having risen from the dead. A piteous fate / Will then the Most High bring on those at Rome, And on all men, and all within these bounds / Shall perish. But they will not be persuaded / Of what much better is. But when for all / The evil day of famine and of plague / Shall come on, and of uproar hard to bear, Even then again that former daring prince, Having convened the council, shall forthwith Take counsel with them how he may destroy. * Blight shall appear along with flowers and leaves, And heaven's base shall display on the firm rock

12 Rain-storm and fire, and much wind on the land, And over all the earth a multitude Of poisonous sowings. Yet again they'll work With shameless soul, nor fear the wrath of God, Nor that of man. Forsaking modesty They will choose shame, become tyrannical And violent transgressors, liars too, Lovers of unbelief, evil-doers, Untrue, faith-killers, pouring out foul speech In false words; no sufficiency of wealth Will they have, but will basely gather more. Subject to tyrants, they will be destroyed. The stars shall all fall down into the sea, Many stars one by one, and the bright star Men call a comet is a sign of evil, Of much war and calamity to come. Let me not live when the gay one shall reign, But then, when heavenly grace shall rule within, And when a holy child the murderous guile Of all shall utterly destroy with chains, Opening the baleful deep and suddenly / The house of wood shall cover mortals round. / But when the tenth generation shall go down / To Hades, then shall come the mighty power / Of one of female sex; and God himself

13 Will permit many evils to increase, / When she with royal honor crowns herself; / And all the year will be how like an age! / The parched sun running onward nightly shines, / The stars will leave the heaven; and rushing on With a strong tempest, he will waste the earth. / And there shall be a rising of the dead; / The lame shall swiftly run, the deaf shall hear, / The blind shall see, those who spoke not shall speak, / And life and wealth shall be alike to all. The land the same for all, divided not / By walls or fences, shall more fruits produce, / And fountains of sweet wine, and of white milk, / And honey he will give... / And judgment of the immortal God.... But when the seasons God shall change,... / Winter producing summer, then oracles [will all be fulfilled]. / But when the world has perished....

Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour, Cross.

14 Earth will sweat when the judgment sign appears, / And the eternal King will come from heaven In person to judge all flesh and all the world. / The faithful and the faithless shall see God / Exalted with the saints at the end of time. / The souls of fleshly men upon his throne / He will judge, when the whole world is laid waste, And thorns spring up. And men will cast away / Their idols and all wealth. And searching fire / Will burn the land, the heaven and the sea; / And burn the gates of Hades' prison-house. / Then to the free light of the saints shall come All the flesh of the dead, but lawless ones / The fire will try forever. Every thing / One did in secret will he then declare, / For dark breasts God will open to the light. / Wailing will come from all, and gnashing of teeth;

15 The brightness of the sun will be eclipsed, / And the dances of the stars; the heaven shall whirl. / And the moon's beaming luster be destroyed. / He will exalt the valleys and destroy / The heights of hills, and no more shall appear A gloomy height among men. With the plains / The mountains will be level, and no more / Will there be any sailing on the sea. / For earth with springs shall be by thunder parched, / And dashing streams shall fail. The trump from heaven Shall send a woful sound, and bellow forth / Y Utterly gone among men are distinctions of lofty and lowly. / O O, what an end of all things! earth broken in pieces shall perish; / Approaching pest and sorrows of the world. / And then the widely-yawning earth will show / Tartarean chaos, and all kings shall come / Unto God's judgment-seat. From heaven shall flow

16 A stream of fire and brimstone. But the Wood / Shall then be to all mortals for a sign, / Among the faithful a distinguished seal, / The longed-for horn, the life of pious men, / But the world's stumbling-block, bestowing light On the elect by water in twelve streams. / And then the shepherd-rod of iron shall rule. / This one now in acrostics written down / Is our God, Saviour, and immortal King, / Even the one who suffered for our sake. Whom Moses typified, when he stretched out / Holy arms, conquering Amalek by faith, / In order that the people may know him / To be elect and honored before God, / The rod of David, and the very stone Which he indeed once promised, and in whom / He who believes shall have eternal life. / For not in glory, but as mortal man / Shall he come unto judgment, pitiable, / Dishonored, without beauty, that he might

17 Give hope to them that mourn; and he will give / Form to corruptible flesh, and heavenly faith / To those without faith, and entirely change / Man who was fashioned by the hand of God, / And whom the serpent craftily deceived To go away unto the fate of death, / And gain a knowledge of the good and bad, / And so, forsaking God, serve mortal ways. / For taking him at first as counselor, / From the beginning, the Almighty said: "O child, forthwith let us make, both of us, / Forming from our own image, mortal tribes; / I with my hands and thou then with the Word / Shalt serve our form, that we may give to it / A common origin. Keeping in mind This purpose, into judgment he will come: / And to a holy virgin he will bear / An antitypal copy, giving light / By water through the elder's hands, by word / Doing all things, and healing all disease.

18 His word shall stay the winds, and with his feet / He'll calm the raging sea, and walk thereon / In peace and faith. And with five loaves of bread / And one fish of the sea, in a desert place / Will he of men four thousand satisfy; And taking all the fragments which remain, / Twelve baskets he will fill for the people's hope. / And he will call the souls of blessed ones, / And love the sorrowful, who being mocked / Will render good for evil, beaten, scourged, Yet ever longing after poverty. / Knowing, beholding, hearing every thing, / The heart he will discern, and lay it bare / Unto conviction. For of all things he / Is hearing, mind, and vision, and the Word, Who made all forms, to whom all things give ear; / The dead he saves, and healeth all disease. / At last into the hands of lawless men / And faithless he will come, and they will give / With hands unholy blows as against God,

19 And poisonous spittle from polluted mouths. / And he will give his holy back to scourges / [For he himself shall give unto the world / A holy virgin], and silent he remains / Under the scourge, lest any one should know Who or of whom he is, or whence he came, / In order that he may speak to the dead. / And he will also wear a crown of thorns, / For out of thorns shall ever come the crown / Of holy ones elect. And with a reed According to their laws they'll pierce his side, / For from reeds by another spirit moved / Was he brought up for judgments of the soul, / And wrath and recompense. But when these things / Which I have spoken shall all be fulfilled, Unto him then shall every law be loosed, / Which from the first by the decrees of men / Was given because of disobedient people. / He will spread out his hands and all the world / Will measure. Gall for food, and vinegar

20 For drink, they gave him; they shall dearly pay / The price of this inhospitable board. / The temple's veil is rent, and in midday / For three hours shall a monstrous night prevail. / For when the eternal Ruler came on earth, It was again shown, what had been concealed / From the thought of the world, that men no more / Should serve the secret temple and the law. / And he shall come to Hades, and announce / To all the saints hope, the end of the ages, And the last day; and death's lot he will end, / The third day sleeping, and then from the dead / Freeing himself he will come into light, / First having shown the power of the resurrection / To the elect, washed from their former sin By means of water from the immortal spring, / That, being born again, they might no more / Serve the unlawful customs of the world. / First to his own will then the Lord appear / In the flesh as he was before, and show

21 In hands and feet four marks fixed in his limbs, / As if for east and west, and north and south; / For even so many kingdoms of the world / Shall consummate this lawless, blameful deed. / Daughter of Zion, holy one, rejoice. Thou who hast suffered many things, thy King, / Mounted upon a foal is entering in, / Appearing meek to all, that he may wrest / The slavish yoke so heavy, under which / We are enthralled, and which lies on our neck, And loose the godless laws and powerful bonds. / Know thou thy God, him who is Son of God, / Giving him glory, and within thy breast / Holding him cherished; love him from the soul / And bear his name. The former deeds put off, And loose them by his blood, for by thy songs / And by thy prayers he will not be appeased. / Nor unto perishable sacrifices / Will he give heed, being imperishable, / But rather he delights in sacred song

22 Of holy mouth, proceeding from the soul. / Know who he is, and thou shalt see thy Maker. / Then shall the elements of all the world / Be desolate, air, earth, sea, flaming fire, / And sky and night, and all days to one fire And to one barren, shapeless mass shall come. / For all the luminous stars shall fall from heaven; / No more will winged birds fly through the air, / Nor footstep be on earth; for all wild beasts / Shall perish, voices of men, beasts, and birds Shall be no more. The world, being disarranged, / Shall hear no useful sound, but the deep sea / Shall echo back a mighty threatening noise, / And swimming, trembling creatures of the sea / Shall all die; and no longer on the waves Will sail a freighted ship. The earth shall groan / Blood-stained by wars; and all the souls of men / Shall gnash their teeth—the souls of lawless men, / Wasted by lamentations and by fear, / By hunger, thirst, and pestilence and murders—

23 And they shall call it beautiful to die, / And death will flee from them, for death no more / Nor night shall give them rest. And many things / Will they in vain ask God who rules on high. / And then he will turn openly his face Away from them. [For he gave seven ages, / Days of repentance unto mortal men, / Fashioned by means of a holy virgin's hand.] / All these things to my mind did God reveal, / And all that has been spoken by my mouth Will he fulfill. The number of the sands, / And measured spaces of the sea I know. / I know the secret places of the earth, / And gloomy Tartarus, and men who are, / And who shall be hereafter, and the dead. I know the numbers of the stars and trees, / And all the species of the quadrupeds, / And swimming things, and birds that fly aloft. / For I myself the forms and mind of men / Have fashioned, and right reason have bestowed,

24 And taught them knowledge. I who see and hear / Formed eyes and ears; and I observe each thought, / And have myself a knowledge of all things, / Silent a while, and afterward reproving, / And punishing whatever any man Has done in secret. On God's judgment-seat / I also come to speak with mortal men. / Also the dumb I understand, and hear / The one who speaks not, and I know how great / The entire height from earth to heaven is. And the beginning and the end I know, / Who am Creator of the heaven and earth. / [For all is from him, first and last he knows.] / For I alone am God, and other God / There is not. They my image deify, Obtained from wood and fashioned by the hand / Into dumb idols, which they glorify / With supplications and unholy rites. / Forsaking the Creator, they become / Servants of insolence. But holding still

25 To him, they sacrifice their useless gifts, / And as if honoring him, they deem these things / All useful, filling feasts with smell of flesh, / As if to their own dead. For they burn flesh / And marrow bones, on altars sacrifice, To demons pour out blood, and kindle lights / For me who give light; and men pour out wine, / As to a thirsty god! Unto no purpose / They become drunken over useless gods. / I have no need of your burnt offerings, Nor your libations, nor polluted smoke, / Nor odious blood. For these things will men do / In memory of tyrants and of kings / Unto dead demons as though they were heavenly, / Performing godless and destructive rites. And, godless, they their images call gods, / Forsaking the Creator, and from them / Imagine they derive all hope and life, / Though they are deaf and without power to speak, / Faithful for evil, ignorant all of good.

26 Two ways have I myself before them placed, / Of life and death, and counsel I have given / A good life to prefer; but they themselves / Laid hold on death and on eternal fire. / Man, having upright reason, is my image. For him a table pure and without blood / Make ready and with good things fill it up. / Give to the hungry bread, to the thirsty drink, / And to the body that is naked clothes, / From thine own labors and with holy hands Providing. Raise up the afflicted, stand / Beside the weary, for the living One / Provide and bring this living sacrifice. / Sow thou in piety that I may give / These things to thee; immortal fruits and light Eternal thou shalt have, and fadeless life, / When I put all things to the proof with fire. / For I will melt down all things and select / For purity. I will roll up the heaven, / And open wide the caverns of the earth.

27 And then will I raise up the dead, and loose / The lot and sting of death; and afterward / For judgment I will come and judge the life / Of pious and of impious men, and place / Goat opposite to goat, and shepherd to shepherd, And calf to calf, convicting one another. / Whoever will exalt themselves shall be / By proofs condemned, and those who stopped each mouth, / That they themselves, being full of jealousy, / Might thus enslave such as were doing right, Commanding silence, urged by love of gain. / And then the approved shall all have place by me. / No longer in affliction wilt thou say, / "To-morrow shall be, and yet it is not; / Yesterday has been." No long days of care, Nor spring, nor summer, nor the winter cold, / Nor autumn, nor the sunset and sunrise. / For I will make a long day, and the light, / The great and longed-for light of Jesus Christ, / Shall be forever and for evermore....

28 The Self-begotten, Undefiled, Eternal, / Dwelling in heaven and measuring with his power / The fiery blast, who also holdeth fast / The clashing scepter with ferocious fire, / And calms the rolling thunder's crashing noise, He shakes the earth and holds the rushing [winds], / And blunts the lightning's whip of fiery flame, / The vast outpour of storms, and vernal hail, / And chilling stroke of clouds, and winter's shock. / For these were every one marked out in thought, As many as seemed good to thee thyself, / And to whose movements thou didst nod assent; / Who, ere yet any creature had been formed / Wast with thy Son as bosom counselor, / Former of mortal men, and judge of life. Him with the first sweet utterance of mouth / Thou didst address and say: "Let us make man / According to our likeness and our form, / And give him vital breath, to whom though mortal / All worldly things shall be subordinate,

29 And to whom, dust-formed, we subject all things." / Thus spakest thou to the Word, and by thy mind / All things occurred, and all the elements / At once obeyed thy order, and a creature / Eternal was in mortal image formed; Heaven also, air, fire, earth, and the sea's wave, / Sun, moon, chorus of stars, mountains and day, / Night, sleep, awaking, spirit and emotion, / Soul and intelligence, art, voice and strength, / And the wild tribes of living things, of fish, And birds, land animals, amphibia, / And also creeping things, and double natures; / For he himself arranged all things for thee, / Under thy rule. But in the latest times / The earth has changed itself, and there has come A humble one, from the Virgin Mary's womb; / A new light rose, and coming from the heavens / He entered mortal form. And therefore first / Did Gabriel show his strong and holy frame, / And second to the virgin he by voice

30 Spoke, being himself a messenger, and said: / "Virgin, receive God in thy holy breast." / So speaking God breathed grace. But as for her, / Always a virgin, terror and surprise / Seized her at once as she heard, and she stood In trembling, and her mind was filled with fear, / Her heart leaped at the messages unknown. / But she again was gladdened, and her heart / Was by the voice cheered, and the maiden laughed, / And her young cheek blushed, merry with the joy; And she was spell-bound in her heart by awe. / But confidence came to her, and the Word / Flew in her womb, and became flesh in time, / Was gendered and was made a human form, / And came to be a youth, of virgin born, This was a mighty wonder to mankind, / But it was nothing greatly wonderful / To God the Father, and to God the Son. / And the glad earth received the new-born babe, / The heavenly throne laughed, and the world exulted.

31 The new appearing and prophetic star / Was honored by the wise men, and the babe / In the manger and wrapped in his swaddling-clothes / Was shown to those obedient unto God. / And of the Word was Bethlehem fatherland Called by the keepers of herds, goats and sheep. / To be of lowly mind, to hate base plans, / Wholly to love one's neighbor as himself, / And from the soul to love God and to serve him. / Therefore we, from the holy heavenly race Of Christ sprung, shall be called of common blood, / And in our service have a sense of joy, / Following the paths of piety and truth. / Let us not venture in the inmost shrine / Of temples, nor to graven images Pour out libations, nor revere with prayers, / Nor with the pleasant perfume of the flowers / Nor light of lamps, nor yet with votive gifts / Adore them, nor with smoke of frankincense / Upon the altar sending forth its flame,

32 Nor with the sacrifice of bulls to send / The cruel gory slaughtering of sheep,— / Those mysteries of recompense on earth,— / Nor with the smoke of flesh-consuming fire / And odors foul pollute the light of heaven; But, joyful with pure minds and cheerful soul, / With love abounding, and with generous hands, / With soothing psalms, and songs that honor God, / We are commanded to sing praise to thee, / Imperishable and without deceit, All-Father God, of understanding mind…