Column 2

1 God burned against their congregation, to lay waste all their multitude, and their works were impurity before him. 2 And now, listen to me, all who enter the covenant, and I will uncover your ear concerning the ways of 3 the wicked. God loves knowledge; wisdom and sound counsel he has set before him; 4 prudence and knowledge serve him. Patience is with him, and abundant forgiveness, 5 to atone for those who turn back from transgression; but strength and might and great wrath with flames of fire 6 by the hand of all the angels of destruction against those who turn from the way and detest the statute, with no remnant 7 or survivor for them. For God did not choose them from of old, from eternity, and before they were established he knew 8 their works. And he detested the generations of blood and hid his face from the land, 9 from Israel, until they were finished. And he knew the years of their standing and the number and the exact account of their ages, for all 10 who exist through the ages, and what will be, as far as what will come in their ages, for all the years of eternity. 11 And in all of them he raised up for himself men called by name, so as to leave a remnant for the land and to fill 12 the face of the world with their seed. And he made known to them by the hand of those anointed with his holy spirit, and the prophets of 13 truth, and with exactness he set down their names. But those whom he hated he led astray. 14 And now, sons, listen to me, and I will uncover your eyes to see and to understand the works of 15 God, and to choose what pleases him and to reject what he hates, to walk perfectly 16 in all his ways and not to stray after the thoughts of a guilty inclination and eyes of fornication. For many 17 have gone astray through them, and mighty warriors have stumbled through them, from of old until now. Because they walked in the stubbornness of⁠a 18 their heart, the Watchers of heaven fell; they were caught by it, because they did not keep the commandments of God. 19 And their sons, whose height was like the height of cedars and whose bodies were like mountains, fell. 20 All flesh that was on dry land perished, and they were as though they had not been, because they did 21 their own will and did not keep the commandments of their maker, until his anger burned against them.