1 And I saw there the hosts of the messengers of punishment going, and they held scourges and chains of iron and bronze.
2 And I asked the messenger of peace who went with me, saying, “To whom are these who hold the scourges going?”
3 And he said to me, “To their elect and beloved ones, that they may be cast into the chasm of the abyss of the valley.
4 “And then that valley shall be filled with their elect and beloved, and the days of their lives shall be at an end, and the days of their leading astray shall not be reckoned thereafter.
5 ”And in those days the messengers shall return and hurl themselves to the east upon the Parthians and Maḏites: they shall stir up the sovereigns, so that a spirit of unrest shall come upon them, and they shall rouse them from their thrones, that they may break forth as lions from their lairs, and as hungry wolves among their flocks.
6 “And they shall go up and tread under foot the land of His elect ones.
7 “But the city of my righteous shall be a hindrance to their horses, and they shall begin to fight among themselves, and their right hand shall be strong against themselves, and a man shall not know his brother, nor a son his father or his mother, till there be no number of the corpses through their slaughter, and their punishment be not in vain.
8 “In those days the grave shall open its jaws, and they shall be swallowed up therein and their destruction shall be at an end; the grave shall devour the sinners in the presence of the elect.”