2 Baruch

Historical printed page 517

II BARUCH 68. 4—70. 8 4, 5 And they will have in (due) time much joy. And at that time after a little interval Zion will again be builded, and its offerings will again be restored, and the priests will return to their ministry, and 6, 7 also the Gentiles will come to glorify it. Nevertheless, not fully as in the beginning. But it will g come to pass after these things that there will be the fall of many nations. These are the bright waters which thou hast seen. 9: ‘For the last waters which thou hast seen which were darker than all that were before them, those 2 which were after the twelfth number, which were collected together, belong to the whole world. For 3 the Most High made division from the beginning, because He alone knows what will befall. For as to the enormities and the impieties which should be wrought before Him, He foresaw six kinds of 4them. And of the good works of the righteous which should be accomplished before Him, He foresaw six kinds of them, beyond those which He should work at the consummation of the age. 5 On his account there were not black waters with black, nor bright with bright; for it is the consummation. 1 ‘Hear therefore the interpretation of the last black waters which are to come [after the black]: this 2isthe word. Behold! the days come, and it shall be when the time of the age has ripened, And the harvest of its evil and good seeds has come, That the Mighty One will bring upon the earth and its inhabitants and upon its rulers Perturbation of spirit and stupor of heart. 3 And they shall hate one another, And provoke one another to fight, And the mean shall rule over the honourable, And those of low degree shall be extolled above the famous. 4 And the many shall be delivered into the hands of the few, And those who were nothing shall rule over the strong, And the poor shall have abundance beyond the rich, And the impious shall exalt themselves above the heroic. 5 And the wise shall be silent, And the foolish shall speak, Neither shall the thought of men be then confirmed, Nor the counsel of the mighty, Nor shall the hope of those who hope be confirmed. 6 And when those things which were predicted have come to pass, Then shall confusion fall upon. all men, And some of them shall fall in battle, And some of them shall perish in anguish, 7 And some of them shall be destroyed by their own. Then the Most High will reveal those peoples whom He has prepared before, And they shall come and make war with the leaders that shall then be left. 8 And it shall come to pass that whosoever gets safe out of the war shall die in the earthquake, And whosoever gets safe out of the earthquake shall be burned by the fire, And whosoever gets safe out of the fire shall be destroyed by famine. 6. The second temple was less esteemed. See Mal. i-ii; 1 En. Ixxxix. 73, 74; Ass. Mos. iv. 8. This temple then was standing when liii-Ixxiv was written. LXIX. 1. last. Syriac =‘ other’. the last waters, &c. See liii. 7. 2-4. This division recalls Sirach xlii. 24. 3. and. So I emend the Syriac (=‘ of’) with Ryssel. kinds: or ‘methods’. 4. beyond those which, The travail-pains of the Messiah are developed in ]xx-lxxii. LXX. 1. The words bracketed spoil the scheme of the writer. In lxviii the last black waters come after the bright twelfth waters. 2. harvest ... spirit. In both cases in the plural in the MS. 3-10. For these last woes cf. xxv. 2-4; xxvii; xlviii. 31-9; 4 Ezra ν. 1-123 vi. 20-4; ix. 1-9; xiii. 29-31. 3, 5. Cf. xviii. 37, 36. 5. the mighty. I have here changed the singular into the plural ; in lxx. 2 the plural into the singular. 6. destroyed by their own. Cf. Mic. vii. 6; Matt. x. 35, 36. The Syriac ‘hindered’ is due to a corruption in the original Hebrew, wz) for 303», 7. whom He has prepared before. Are these the hosts of Gog and Magog? 8. the earthquake ... fire. Cf. xxvii. 7, 10; 4 Ezra ix. 3 and v. 8. shall be destroyed. So Ceriani emends text, which =‘ shall add’, famine. Cf. xxvii. 6. ) τι