¹ In those days when He hath brought a grievous fire upon you,

Whither will ye flee, and where will ye find deliverance ?

And when He launches forth His Word against you Will you not be affrighted and fear ?

² And all the luminaries shall be affrighted with great fear,

And all the earth shall be affrighted and tremble and be alarmed.

³ And all the angels shall execute their commandst

And shall seek to hide themselves from the presence of the Great Glory,

And the children of earth shall tremble and quake;

And ye sinners shall be cursed for ever,

And ye shall have no peace.

⁴ Fear ye not, ye souls of the righteous,

And be hopeful ye that have died in righteousness.

⁵ And grieve not if your soul into Sheol has descended in grief,

And that in your life your body fared not according to your goodness,

But wait for the day of the judgement of sinners

And for the day of cursing and chastisement.

⁶ And yet when ye die the sinners speak over you:

" As we die, so die the righteous,

And what benefit do they reap for their deeds ?

⁷ Behold, even as we, so do they die in grief and darkness,

And what have they more than we ?

From henceforth we are equal.

⁸ And what will they receive and what will they see for ever ?

Behold, they too have died,

And henceforth for ever shall they see no light."

I know a mystery

And have read the heavenly tablets,

And have seen the holy books,

And have found written therein and inscribed regarding them:

³ That all goodness and joy and glory are prepared for them,

And written down for the spirits of those who have died in righteousness,

And that manifold good shall be given to you in recompense for your labours,

And that your lot is abundantly beyond the lot of the living.

⁴ And the spirits of you who have died in righteousness shall live and rejoice,

And their spirits shall not perish, nor their memorial from before the face of the Great One

Unto all the generations of the world: wherefore no longer fear their contumely.

5 Woe to you, ye sinners, when ye have died,

If ye die in the wealth of your sins,

And those who are like you say regarding you:

' Blessed are the sinners: they have seen all their days.

⁶ And how they have died in prosperity and in wealth,

And have not seen tribulation or murder in their life;

And they have died in honour,

And judgement has not been executed on them during their life."

⁷ Know ye, that their souls will be made to descend into Sheol

And they shall be wretched in their great tribulation.

⁸ And into darkness and chains and a burning flame where there is grievous judgement shall your spirits enter;

And the great judgement shall be for all the generations of the world.

Woe to you, for ye shall have no peace.

9 Say not in regard to the righteous and good who are in life:

" In our troubled days we have toiled laboriously and experienced every trouble,

And met with much evil and been consumed,

And have become few and our spirit small.

¹⁰ And we have been destroyed and have not found any to help us even with a word:

We have been tortured [and destroyed], and not hoped to see life from day to day.

¹¹ We hoped to be the head and have become the tail:

We have toiled laboriously and had no satisfaction in our toil;

And we have become the food of the sinners and the unrighteous,

And they have laid their yoke heavily upon us.

¹² They have had dominion over us that hated us and smote us;

And to those that hated us we have bowed our necks

But they pitied us not.

¹³ We desired to get away from them that we might escape and be at rest,

But found no place whereunto we should flee and be safe from them.

¹⁴ And are complained to the rulers in our tribulation,

And cried out against those who devoured us,

But they did not attend to our cries

And would not hearken to our voice.