1 Now, therefore, I swear to you, the righteous, by the glory of the Great and Honored and Mighty One⁠a in dominion, and by His greatness I swear to you: 2 I know a mystery and have read the heavenly tablets,⁠b and have seen the holy books,⁠c and have found written and inscribed in them regarding them:⁠d 3 that all goodness, joy, and glory are prepared for them, and written down for the spirits of those who have died in righteousness, and that much good will be given to you in return for your labors, and that your lot is far beyond the lot of the living. 4 The spirits of you who have died in righteousness will live and rejoice, and their spirits will not perish,⁠e nor their memory from before the face of the Great One, through all the generations of the world; so no longer fear their scorn. 5 Woe to you, sinners, when you have died, if you die in the wealth of your sins, and those who are like you say about you: 'Blessed are the sinners; they have seen all their days. 6 And how they have died in prosperity and wealth, and have not seen trouble or murder in their life; they have died in honor, and judgment was not carried out on them during their life.' 7 Know that your souls will be made to go down into Sheol, and you will be wretched in your great tribulation. 8 Your spirits will enter into darkness and chains and a burning flame where there is grievous judgment; and the great judgment will be for all the generations of the world. Woe to you, for you will have no peace. 9 Do not say about the righteous and good who are alive: 'In our troubled days we have toiled hard and experienced every trouble, and met with much evil and been consumed, and have become few, and our spirit small. 10 We have been destroyed and have not found anyone to help us even with a word; we have been tortured and destroyed, and did not hope to see life from day to day. 11 We hoped to be the head and have become the tail;⁠f we have toiled hard and had no satisfaction in our toil;⁠g and we have become the food of the sinners and the unrighteous,⁠h and they have laid their yoke heavily on us.⁠i 12 They have ruled over us, those who hated us and struck us; and to those who hated us we have bowed our necks, but they did not pity us. 13 We wanted to get away from them so that we might escape and be at rest, but found no place where we could flee and be safe from them.⁠j 14 We 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 listen to our voice. 15 They helped those who robbed us and devoured us and those who made us few; and they concealed their oppression, and they did not remove from us the yoke of those who devoured us and scattered us and murdered us, and they concealed their murder, and did not remember that they had lifted up their hands against us.