A FRAGMENT OF THE BOOK OF NOAḤ
In the year 500, in the seventh month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the life of Ḥanoḵ – In that Parable I saw how a mighty quaking made the shamayim of shamayim to quake, and the host of the Most High, and the messengers, a thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand, were disturbed with a great unrest.
2 And the Head of Days sat on the throne of His esteem, and the messengers and the righteous stood around Him.
3 And a great trembling seized me, and fear took hold of me, and my loins gave way, and my kidneys melted, and I fell upon my face.
4 And Miḵa’ĕl sent another messenger from among the qodeshim and he raised me up, and when he had raised me up my spirit returned; for I had not been able to endure the look of this host, and the commotion and the quaking of the shamayim. And Miḵa’ĕl said to me, “Why are you disturbed with such a vision? Until this day lasted the day of His compassion; and He has shown favour and patience towards those who dwell on the earth.
5 “And when the day, and the power, and the punishment, and the judgment come, which 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts has prepared for those who do not worship the righteous Law, and for those who deny the righteous Right Ruling, and for those who take His Name in vain – that day is prepared. For the elect: a Covenant, but for sinners: a judgment.
6 “When the punishment of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts shall rest upon them, it shall rest in order that the punishment of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts may not come in vain, and it shall slay the children with their mothers and the children with their fathers. Afterward the judgment shall take place according to His compassion and His patience.”
7 And on that day were two monsters parted, a female monster named Liwiathan, to dwell in the abysses of the ocean over the fountains of the waters.
8 And the male is named Behemoth, who occupied with his breast a waste wilderness named Dawiḏayin, on the east of the garden where the elect and righteous dwell – where my grandfather was taken up – the seventh from Aḏam, the first man whom 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts created.
9 And I pleaded with the other messenger that he should show me the might of those monsters, how they were parted on one day and cast – the one into the abysses of the sea, and the other unto the dry land of the wilderness.
10 And he said to me, “You son of man, in this do you seek to know what is hidden.”
11 And the other messenger who went with me and showed me what was hidden told me what is first and last in the shamayim in the height, and beneath the earth in the depth, and at the ends of the shamayim, and on the foundation of the shamayim.
12 And the chambers of the winds, and how the winds are divided, and how they are weighed, and the portals of the winds are reckoned, each according to the power of the wind, and the power of the lights of the moon, and according to the power that is fitting, and the divisions of the stars according to their names, and how all the divisions are divided.
13 And the thunders according to the places where they fall, and all the divisions that are made among the lightnings that it may lighten, and their host that they may at once obey.
14 For the thunder has places of rest assigned while it is waiting for its peal; and the thunder and lightning are inseparable, and although not one and undivided, they both go together through the spirit and do not separate.
15 For when the lightning lightens, the thunder utters its voice, and the spirit enforces a pause during the peal, and divides equally between them; for the treasury of their peals is like the sand, and each one of them as it peals is held in with a bridle, and turned back by the power of the spirit, and pushed forward according to the many quarters of the earth.
16 And the spirit of the sea is masculine and strong, and according to the might of his strength he draws it back with a rein, and in the same way it is driven forward and disperses amid all the mountains of the earth.
17 And the spirit of the hoar-frost is his own messenger, and the spirit of the hail is a good messenger.
18 And the spirit of the snow has forsaken his chambers on account of his strength. There is a special spirit therein, and that which ascends from it is like smoke, and its name is frost.
19 And the spirit of the mist is not united with them in their chambers, but it has a special chamber; for its course is magnificent both in light and in darkness, and in winter and in summer, and in its chamber is a messenger.
20 And the spirit of the dew has its dwelling at the ends of the shamayim, and is connected with the chambers of the rain, and its course is in winter and summer: and its clouds and the clouds of the mist are connected, and the one gives to the other.
21 And when the spirit of the rain goes forth from its chamber, the messengers come and open the chamber and lead it out. And when it is diffused over the whole earth it unites with the water on the earth, and whenever it unites with the water on the earth…
22 For the waters are for those who dwell on the earth; for they are nourishment for the earth from the Most High who is in the shamayim. Therefore there is a measure for the rain, and the messengers take it in charge.
23 And these I saw towards the garden of the righteous.
24 And the messenger of peace who was with me said to me, “These two monsters, prepared conformable to the greatness of Elohim, shall feed…”