1 One of those four went to that white bull and taught him a secret, without him being terrified: he was born a bull and became a man, and built for himself a large vessel and lived in it, and three bulls lived with him in that vessel, and they were covered over. 2 Again I lifted up my eyes toward heaven and saw a lofty roof, with seven water torrents on it, and those torrents poured out much water into an enclosure. 3 I saw again, and fountains opened on the surface of that large enclosure, and the water began to swell and rise on the surface, and I watched that enclosure until all its surface was covered with water. 4 The water, the darkness, and the mist increased over it; and as I looked at the height of that water, the water had risen above the height of that enclosure, and was streaming over it, and it stood upon the earth. 5 All the cattle of that enclosure were gathered together until I saw how they sank and were swallowed up and perished in that water. 6 But that vessel floated on the water, while all the oxen and elephants and camels and donkeys sank to the bottom with all the other animals, so that I could no longer see them; they were not able to escape, but perished and sank into the depths. 7 Again I saw in the vision until those water torrents were taken away from that high roof, and the chasms of the earth were leveled and other depths were opened. 8 Then the water began to run down into these, until the earth became visible; that vessel settled on the earth, the darkness retreated, and light appeared. 9 The white bull that had become a man came out of that vessel, and the three bulls with him; one of those three was white like that bull, one of them was red as blood, and one black; and that white bull departed from them. 10 They began to bring forth beasts of the field and birds, so that different species arose: lions, tigers, wolves, dogs, hyenas, wild boars, foxes, squirrels, swine, falcons, vultures, kites, eagles, and ravens; and among them a white bull was born. 11 They began to bite one another; but that white bull which was born among them fathered a wild donkey and a white bull with it, and the wild donkeys multiplied. 12 The bull that was born from him fathered a black wild boar and a white sheep; the boar fathered many boars, but that sheep fathered twelve sheep. 13 When those twelve sheep had grown, they handed one of them over to the donkeys, and those donkeys in turn handed that sheep over to the wolves, and that sheep grew up among the wolves. 14 The Lord brought the eleven sheep to live with it and to graze with it among the wolves; and they multiplied and became many flocks of sheep. 15 The wolves began to fear them, and they oppressed them until they destroyed their little ones, and they threw their young into a river of much water; but those sheep began to cry aloud because of their little ones, and to complain to their Lord. 16 A sheep that had been saved from the wolves fled and escaped to the wild donkeys; and I saw the sheep, how they lamented and cried and begged their Lord with all their might, until that Lord of the sheep came down at the voice of the sheep from a lofty home, and came to them and pastured them. 17 He called that sheep which had escaped the wolves, and spoke with it about the wolves, that it should warn them not to touch the sheep. 18 The sheep went to the wolves according to the word of the Lord, and another sheep met it and went with it, and the two went and entered together into the gathering of those wolves, and spoke with them and warned them not to touch the sheep from then on. 19 Then I saw the wolves, and how they oppressed the sheep terribly with all their power; and the sheep cried aloud. 20 The Lord came to the sheep, and they began to strike those wolves; and the wolves began to lament, but the sheep became quiet and at once stopped crying out. 21 I saw the sheep until they departed from among the wolves; but the eyes of the wolves were blinded, and those wolves set out in pursuit of the sheep with all their power. 22 The Lord of the sheep went with them as their leader, and all His sheep followed Him; and His face was dazzling and glorious and terrible to look on. 23 But the wolves began to pursue those sheep until they reached a sea of water. 24 That sea was divided, and the water stood on this side and on that before their face, and their Lord led them and placed Himself between them and the wolves. 25 As those wolves still did not see the sheep, the sheep went into the middle of that sea, and the wolves followed the sheep, and those wolves ran after them into that sea. 26 When they saw the Lord of the sheep, they turned to flee from His face, but that sea gathered itself together and became as it had been created, and the water swelled and rose until it covered those wolves. 27 I watched until all the wolves who pursued those sheep perished and were drowned. 28 But the sheep escaped from that water and went out into a wilderness, where there was no water and no grass; and they began to open their eyes and to see; and I saw the Lord of the sheep pasturing them and giving them water and grass, and that sheep going and leading them. 29 That sheep went up to the summit of that lofty rock, and the Lord of the sheep sent it to them. 30 After that I saw the Lord of the sheep, who stood before them, and His appearance was great and terrible and majestic, and all those sheep saw Him and were afraid before His face.⁠a 31 They all feared and trembled because of Him, and they cried out to that sheep with them: 'We are not able to stand before our Lord or to look on Him.' 32 That sheep which led them went up again to the summit of that rock, but the sheep began to be blinded and to wander from the way which he had shown them, and that sheep did not know of it. 33 The Lord of the sheep was very angry with them, and that sheep learned of it, and went down from the summit of the rock, and came to the sheep, and found the majority of them blinded and gone astray. 34 When they saw it they feared and trembled at its presence, and wanted to return to their folds. 35 That sheep took other sheep with it, and came to those sheep which had strayed, and began to kill them; and the sheep feared its presence, and so that sheep brought back those sheep that had strayed, and they returned to their folds. 36 I watched in this vision until that sheep became a man and built a house for the Lord of the sheep, and put all the sheep in that house. 37 I watched until this sheep, which had met that sheep which led them, fell asleep; and I watched until all the great sheep perished and little ones arose in their place, and they came to a pasture and approached a stream of water. 38 Then that sheep, their leader which had become a man, withdrew from them and fell asleep, and all the sheep looked for it and cried over it with a great crying. 39 I watched until they stopped crying for that sheep and crossed that stream of water, and two sheep arose as leaders in the place of those which had led them and fallen asleep. 40 I watched until the sheep came to a pleasant place and a glorious land, and I watched until those sheep were satisfied; and that house stood among them in the pleasant land. 41 Sometimes their eyes were opened, and sometimes blinded, until another sheep arose and led them and brought them all back, and their eyes were opened. 42 The dogs and the foxes and the wild boars began to devour those sheep, until the Lord of the sheep raised up a ram from their midst, which led them. 43 That ram began to butt those dogs, foxes, and wild boars on either side until he had destroyed them all. 44 That sheep whose eyes were opened saw that ram, which was among the sheep, until it abandoned its glory and began to butt those sheep, and trampled on them, and behaved shamefully. 45 The Lord of the sheep sent the lamb to another lamb and raised it to be a ram and leader of the sheep, instead of that ram which had abandoned its glory. 46 It went to it and spoke to it alone, and raised it to be a ram, and made it the prince and leader of the sheep; but during all this those dogs oppressed the sheep. 47 The first ram pursued that second ram, and that second ram arose and fled before it; and I watched until those dogs pulled down the first ram. 48 That second ram arose and led the little sheep. That ram fathered many sheep and fell asleep; and a little sheep became ram in its place, and became prince and leader of those sheep. 49 Those sheep grew and multiplied; but all the dogs and foxes and wild boars feared and fled before it, and that ram butted and killed the wild beasts, and those wild beasts no longer had any power among the sheep and robbed them no more of anything. 50 That house became great and broad, and it was built for those sheep; and a lofty, great tower was built on the house for the Lord of the sheep, and that house was low, but the tower was raised high and lofty, and the Lord of the sheep stood on that tower, and they offered a full table before Him. 51 Again I saw those sheep, that they went astray again and went many ways, and abandoned their house, and the Lord of the sheep called some from among the sheep and sent them to the sheep, but the sheep began to kill them. 52 One of them was saved and was not killed, and it sped away and cried aloud over the sheep; and they tried to kill it, but the Lord of the sheep saved it from the sheep, and brought it up to me, and made it live there. 53 He sent many other sheep to those sheep to testify to them and to lament over them. 54 After that I saw that when they abandoned the house of the Lord and His tower, they fell away entirely, and their eyes were blinded; and I saw the Lord of the sheep, how He carried out much slaughter among them in their herds, until those sheep invited that slaughter and betrayed His place. 55 He gave them over into the hands of the lions and tigers, and wolves and hyenas, and into the hand of the foxes, and to all the wild beasts, and those wild beasts began to tear those sheep in pieces. 56 I saw that He abandoned their house and their tower and gave them all into the hand of the lions, to tear and devour them, into the hand of all the wild beasts. 57 I began to cry aloud with all my power, and to call out to the Lord of the sheep, and to plead with Him about the sheep, that they were being devoured by all the wild beasts. 58 But He remained unmoved, though He saw it, and rejoiced that they were devoured and swallowed and robbed, and left them to be devoured in the hand of all the beasts. 59 He called seventy shepherds and handed those sheep over to them, so that they might pasture them, and He spoke to the shepherds and their companions: 'Let each one of you pasture the sheep from now on, and do everything that I command you.' 60 'I will hand them over to you, counted out, and tell you which of them are to be destroyed; destroy those.' And He gave those sheep over to them. 61 He called another and said to him: 'Watch and mark everything that the shepherds do to those sheep, for they will destroy more of them than I have commanded.' 62 'Record every excess and the destruction done by the shepherds: how many they destroy according to my command, and how many according to their own whim; record against every individual shepherd all the destruction he causes.' 63 'Read out before me by number how many they destroy, and how many they hand over for destruction, so that I may have this as a testimony against them, and know every deed of the shepherds, so that I may understand and see what they do, whether or not they keep to the command I have given them.' 64 'But they will not know it, and you will not declare it to them, nor warn them, but only record against each one all the destruction the shepherds cause, each in his time, and lay it all before me.' 65 I watched until those shepherds pastured in their season, and they began to kill and to destroy more than they were told, and they handed those sheep over to the lions. 66 The lions and tigers ate and devoured the greater part of those sheep, and the wild boars ate along with them; and they burned that tower and demolished that house.⁠b 67 I became very sorrowful over that tower because that house of the sheep was demolished, and afterward I was unable to see whether those sheep entered that house. 68 The shepherds and their associates handed those sheep over to all the wild beasts, to devour them, and each one of them received a fixed number in his time; the other recorded in a book how many each one of them destroyed. 69 Each one killed and destroyed many more than was prescribed; and I began to weep and lament over those sheep. 70 So in the vision I saw that one who wrote, how he wrote down every one that was destroyed by those shepherds, day by day, and carried up and laid down and showed the whole book to the Lord of the sheep, everything that they had done, and all that each one of them had made away with, and all that they had given over to destruction. 71 The book was read before the Lord of the sheep, and He took the book from his hand and read it and sealed it and laid it down. 72 At once I saw how the shepherds pastured for twelve hours, and three of those sheep turned back and came and entered and began to build up all that had fallen down of that house; but the wild boars tried to hinder them, and were not able. 73 They began again to build as before, and they raised up that tower, and it was named the high tower; and they began again to set a table before the tower, but all the bread on it was polluted and not pure. 74 In all this the eyes of those sheep were blinded so that they did not see, and the eyes of their shepherds likewise; and they handed them over in large numbers to their shepherds for destruction, and they trampled the sheep with their feet and devoured them. 75 The Lord of the sheep remained unmoved until all the sheep were scattered over the field and mingled with the beasts, and the shepherds did not save them out of the hand of the beasts. 76 This one who wrote the book carried it up, and showed it and read it before the Lord of the sheep, and pleaded with Him on their account, and begged Him on their account as he showed Him all the doings of the shepherds, and gave testimony before Him against all the shepherds. 77 And he took the book itself and laid it down beside Him and departed.