Book 3: Oracles against the Nations

1 You high-thundering blessed heavenly One, who have set in their place the cherubim,
2 I, who have uttered what is all too true,
3 beg you, let me have a little rest; for my heart has grown weary from within.
4 But why does my heart leap again, and my soul
5 with a whip struck from within forced to speak out its message to all?
6 But yet again I will proclaim all things
7 which God commands me to proclaim to men.
8 Men, that in your image have a form
9 fashioned by God, why do you stray in vain
10 and do not walk in the straight way, always mindful of the immortal Maker? God is one,
11 sovereign, ineffable, living in heaven,
12 the self-existent and invisible, himself alone seeing everything;
13 no sculptor’s hand made him, nor is his form
14 shown by man’s art from gold or ivory;
15 but he, eternal Lord, proclaims himself
16 as one who is and was once and will be
17 again in the future. For who, being mortal,
18 can see God with his eyes? Or who can bear
19 to hear the only name of heaven’s great God,
20 the ruler of the world? He by his word created all things, even heaven and sea,
21 and tireless sun, and full moon and bright stars,
22 and mighty mother Tethys, springs and rivers,
23 imperishable fire, and days and nights.
24 This is the God who formed four-lettered Adam,
25 the first one formed, and filling with his name
26 East, west, and south, and north. He is the same
27 who fixed the pattern of the human form,
28 and made wild beasts, and creeping things, and birds.
29 You do not worship nor do you fear God,
30 but go astray in vain and bend the knee to serpents, and make offering to cats,
31 and idols, and stone images of men,
32 and sit before the doors of godless temples;
33 you guard him who is God, who keeps all things,
34 and merry with the wickedness of stones
35 forget the judgment of the immortal Savior who made the heaven and earth. Ah! a race
36 that delights in blood, deceitful, vile,
37 ungodly, false, double-tongued, immoral men,
38 adulterous, idolatrous, designing fraud,
39 an evil madness raving in their hearts,
40 for themselves plundering, having a shameless soul;
41 for no one who has riches will share
42 with another, but terrible wickedness will be
43 among all mortals, and for the sake of gain
44 many widows will not keep faith at all,
45 but secretly love others, and those who have husbands do not keep the bond of life.
46 But when Rome also rules over Egypt
47 governing always, then there will appear the greatest kingdom of the immortal King
48 over men. And a holy Lord will come
49 to hold the scepter over every land
50 to all ages of fast-hastening time.
51 And then relentless anger will come
52 on Latin men; three, by a pitiful fate, will
53 damage Rome. And all men will perish,
54 with their own houses, when from heaven there will flow
55 a fiery cataract. Ah, wretched me! When will that day and when will judgment come
56 of the immortal God, the mighty King?
57 But just now, you cities, you are built and all adorned with temples and race-grounds,
58 markets, and images of wood, of gold,
59 of silver and of stone, so that you may come
60 to the bitter day. For it will come, when there will pass among all men a stench
61 of sulphur. Yet I will declare each thing,
62 in all the cities where men suffer troubles. From the Sebastenes Beliar will come
63 later, and the height of hills he will
64 establish, and will make the sea stand still
65 and the great fiery sun and the bright moon and he will raise the dead, and many signs
66 perform before men: but nothing will be brought
67 by him to completion but deceit,
68 and many mortals will be led astray
69 Hebrews both true and chosen, and lawless men
70 besides who never listened to God’s word.
71 But when the threats of the mighty God
72 draw near, and a flaming power will come
73 by wave to the earth, it will consume
74 both Beliar and all the haughty men
75 who put their trust in him. And then the whole world will be governed by the hands
76 of a woman and obedient everywhere.
77 Then when a widow over all the world
78 gains the rule, and casts in the mighty sea
79 both gold and silver, also brass and iron
80 of short-lived men casts into the deep, then all the elements will be stripped
81 of order, when the God who lives on high
82 rolls up the heaven, even as a scroll is rolled;
83 and to the mighty earth and sea will fall
84 the entire multiform sky; and there will flow
85 a tireless cataract of raging fire, and it will burn the land, and burn the sea,
86 and heavenly sky, and night, and day, and melt
87 creation itself together and pick out
88 what is pure. No more laughing spheres of light,
89 nor night, nor dawn, nor many days of care,
90 nor spring, nor winter, nor the summer-time, nor autumn. And then of the mighty God
91 the judgment midway in a mighty age
92 will come, when all these things happen.
93 Navigable waters and each land
94 of the Orient and of the Occident,
95 all things will be subject to him who comes into the world again, and therefore he
96 himself became first conscious of his power.

The Tower of Babel

97 But when the threats of the mighty God
98 are fulfilled, which he threatened mortals once,
99 when in Assyrian land they built a tower;--
100 and they all spoke one language, and resolved to climb up into the starry heaven;
101 but on the air the Immortal at once put
102 a mighty force; and then winds from above threw down the great tower and stirred mortals up
103 to quarrelling with each other; therefore men
104 gave to that city the name of Babylon;--

The Titans and the Division of the Earth

105 now when the tower fell and the tongues of men
106 turned to all sorts of sounds, at once all earth
107 was filled with men and kingdoms were divided;
108 and then the tenth generation appeared
109 of mortal men, from the time when the flood
110 came upon earlier men. And Cronos reigned, and Titan and Iapetus; and men called them⁠a
111 best offspring of Gaia and of Uranus,
112 giving to them names both of earth and heaven, since they were the very first of mortal men.
113 So there were three divisions of the earth⁠b
114 according to the allotment of each man,
115 and each one having his own portion reigned and did not fight; for a father’s oaths were there
116 and their portions were equal. But the time
117 of full old age came on the father,
118 and he died; and the sons breaking oaths
119 stirred up against each other bitter strife,
120 which one should have the royal rank and rule over all mortals; and against each other
121 Cronos and Titan fought. But Rhea and Gaia,
122 and Aphrodite fond of crowns, Demeter,
123 and Hestia and Dione with beautiful hair
124 brought them to friendship, and together called
125 all who were kings, both brothers and near kin,
126 and others of the same ancestral blood,
127 and they judged Cronos should reign as king of all,
128 for he was oldest and of noblest form.
129 But Titan laid on Cronos mighty oaths
130 to raise no male children, so that he
131 himself might reign when age and fate came
132 to Cronos. And whenever Rhea gave birth
133 the Titans sat beside her, and all males
134 tore to pieces, but let the females live
135 to be raised by the mother. But when now
136 at the third birth the revered Rhea gave birth,
137 she gave birth to Hera first; and when they saw
138 a female offspring, the fierce Titan men
139 went off to their homes. And then
140 Rhea bore a male child, and having bound three men of Crete by oath she quickly sent
141 him into Phrygia to be raised apart in secret; therefore they named him Zeus,
142 for he was sent away. And thus she sent
143 Poseidon also secretly away. And Pluto, third, Rhea once again,
144 noblest of women, bore at Dodona,
145 from where Europus’ river’s liquid course flows, and with Peneus mixed pours into the sea
146 its water, and men call it Stygian.
147 But when the Titans heard that there were sons
148 kept secretly, whom Cronos and his wife
149 Rhea fathered, then Titan sixty youths
150 gathered together, and held fast in chains Cronos and his wife Rhea, and concealed
151 them in the earth and guarded them in bonds.
152 And then the sons of powerful Cronos heard,
153 and they aroused a great war and uproar.
154 And this is the beginning of terrible war
155 among all mortals. For it is indeed with mortals the prime origin of war.
156 And then God awarded the Titans evil.
157 And all of Titans and born of Cronos
158 died. But then as time rolled around there rose
159 the Egyptian kingdom, then that of the Persians
160 and of the Medes, and Ethiopians, and of Assyria and Babylon,
161 and then that of the Macedonians,

World Kingdoms and the Power of Rome

162 Egyptian yet again, then that of Rome. And then a message of the mighty God
163 was set within my heart, and it told me
164 to proclaim through all earth and in royal hearts
165 plant things which are to be. And to my mind this God revealed first, how many kingdoms
166 have been gathered together of mankind.
167 For first of all the house of Solomon will include horsemen of Phoenicia
168 and Syria, and of the islands too,
169 and the race of Pamphylians and Persians
170 and Phrygians, Carians, and Mysians and the race of the Lydians rich in gold.
171 And then Hellenes, proud and impure, will rule,
172 then a Macedonian nation will rule, great, shrewd, who as a fearful cloud of war
173 will come to mortals. But the God of heaven
174 will utterly destroy them from the depth.
175 And then there will be another kingdom, white
176 and many-headed, from the western sea,
177 which will rule much land, and shake many men,
178 and to all kings bring terror afterward,
179 and out of many cities will destroy
180 much gold and silver; but in the vast earth
181 there will again be gold, and silver too,
182 and ornament. And they will oppress mortals; and to those men there will be great disaster,
183 when they begin unrighteous arrogance.
184 And at once in them there will be a force
185 of wickedness, male will consort with male, and they will place children in dens of shame;
186 and in those days there will be among men
187 a great affliction, and it will disturb
188 all things, and break all things, and fill all things
189 with evils by a shameful covetousness,
190 and by ill-gotten wealth in many lands, but most of all in Macedonia.
191 And it will stir up hatred, and all deceit
192 will be with them even to the seventh kingdom, of which a king of Egypt will be king
193 who will be a descendant from the Greeks.
194 And then the nation of the mighty God
195 will be strong again and they will be guides of life to all men. But why did God place

The Titans and the People of the Temple

196 this also in my mind to tell: what first,
197 and what next, and what evil will be last
198 on all men? Which of these will take the lead?
199 First on the Titans God will bring evil.
200 For they will pay to mighty Cronos’s sons the penalty, since they bound
201 both Cronos and the dearly loved mother.
202 Again there will be tyrants for the Greeks
203 and fierce kings arrogant and impure,
204 adulterous and altogether bad;
205 and for men there will be no more rest from war. And the feared Phrygians will all perish,
206 and evil will come to Troy that day. And to the Persians and Assyrians
207 evil will at once come, and to all Egypt
208 and Libya and the Ethiopians, and to the Carians and Pamphylians—
209 evil to pass from one place to another,
210 and to all mortals. Why now one by one do I speak out? But when the first receive
211 fulfillment, then at once will come on men
212 the second. So the very first I’ll tell.
213 An evil will come to pious men
214 who live by the great temple of Solomon
215 and who are descendants of righteous men. Of all these alike I will also tell
216 the tribe and line of fathers and homeland—
217 all things with care, shrewd-minded mortal.

The Law and the Life of the Jewish People

218 There is a city ... on the earth,
219 ur of the Chaldees, from which there is a race
220 of men most righteous, to whom both goodwill and noble deeds have always mattered.
221 For they have no concern about the course
222 of the sun’s revolution, nor the moon’s, nor marvels beneath the earth, nor depth
223 of joy-giving sea Oceanus,
224 nor signs of sneezing, nor the wings of birds,
225 nor soothsayers, nor wizards, nor enchanters, nor tricks of dull words of ventriloquists,
226 neither do they astrologize with skill
227 of the Chaldeans, nor astronomize;
228 for these are all deceptive, in so far
229 as foolish men go seeking day by day
230 training their souls to no useful work;
231 and then they taught miserable men
232 deceptions, from which to mortals on the earth
233 come many evils leading them astray
234 from good ways and just deeds. But they care
235 for righteousness and virtue, and not greed, which breeds countless evils for mortal men,
236 war and unending famine. But with them
237 just measure, both in fields and cities, holds,
238 nor do they steal from each other in the night,
239 nor drive off herds of cattle, sheep, and goats,
240 nor does a neighbor remove landmarks of a neighbor,
241 nor does any man of great wealth grieve the one
242 less favored, nor cause distress to widows,
243 but rather aids them, always helping them
244 with wheat and wine and oil; and always
245 the rich man in the country sends a share at the time of the harvests to those
246 who have nothing, but are needy, thus fulfilling the saying of the mighty God, a hymn
247 in legal setting; for the Heavenly One
248 finished the earth a common good for all. Now when the people of twelve tribes depart
249 from Egypt, and with leaders sent by God
250 by night make their way by a pillar of fire and during all the day by one of cloud,
251 for them then God will appoint a leader—
252 a great man, Moses, whom a princess found
253 beside a marsh, and carried off and raised
254 and called her son. And at the time he came
255 as leader for the people whom God led from Egypt to the steel Sinai mount,
256 God delivered them his own law from heaven
257 writing on two flat stones all righteous things which he commanded to do; and if, perhaps,
258 one takes no notice, he must to the law
259 make amends, either at men’s hands
260 or, if he escapes men’s notice, he will be destroyed, paying the penalty in full.
261 For the Heavenly finished earth a common good
262 for all, and in all hearts as best gift thought.
263 To them alone the generous field yields fruit
264 a hundredfold from one, and thus completes

Exile and Restoration

265 God’s measure. But misfortune will also come to them, and they do not escape from plague.
266 And even you, abandoning your beautiful shrine,
267 will flee away when it becomes your lot
268 to leave the holy land. And you will be
269 carried to the Assyrians, and will see
270 young children and wives serving hostile men; and every means of life and wealth will perish;
271 and every land will be filled up with you,
272 and every sea; and everyone will be offended with your customs; and your land
273 will all be desert; and the fenced altar
274 and temple of the great God and long walls
275 will all fall to the ground, since in your heart the holy law of the immortal God
276 you did not keep, but, erring, you served
277 improper images, and did not fear
278 the immortal Father, God of all mankind,
279 nor want to honor him; but images
280 of mortals you honored. Therefore now for seven decades of time your fruitful land
281 and the wonders of your temple will all lie waste.
282 But there remains for you a fine end
283 and greatest glory, as the immortal God
284 granted you. But wait and trust
285 in the great God’s pure laws, when he lifts your weary knee upright to the light.
286 And then God will send a king from heaven
287 to judge each man in blood and light of fire.
288 There is a royal tribe, the race of which
289 will be unfailing; and as time turns
290 this race will rule and begin to build God’s temple anew. And all the Persian kings
291 will help with bronze and gold and well-made iron.
292 For God himself will give the holy dream
293 by night. And then the temple will again
294 be, as it was before. . . .

Warnings to the Nations

295 Now when my soul had rest from inspired song, and I prayed the great Father for a rest
296 from compulsion; even in my heart again
297 was set a message of the mighty God
298 and he told me to proclaim through all the earth
299 and plant in royal minds things yet to be.
300 And in my mind God put this first to say how many pitiful sufferings
301 the Immortal intended for Babylon
302 because she had destroyed his great temple. Woe, woe to you, Babylon,
303 and for the offspring of the Assyrian men!
304 Through all the earth the rush of sinful men
305 will some day come, and shout of mortal men and stroke of the great God, who inspires songs,
306 will ruin every land. For high in air to you
307 Babylon, it will come from above, and out of heaven from holy ones to you
308 it will come down, and the soul in your children
309 the Eternal will utterly destroy.
310 And then you will be, as you were before, as one not born; and then you will be filled
311 again with blood, as you yourself before
312 shed that of good, just, and holy men,
313 whose blood still cries out to the lofty heaven.
314 To you, Egypt, a great blow will come
315 and dreadful, to your homes, which you hoped might never fall on you. For through your midst
316 a sword will pass, and scattering and death
317 and famine will prevail until of kings
318 the seventh generation, and then cease.
319 Woe to you, land of Gog and Magog
320 in the midst of the rivers of Ethiopia! What pouring out of blood will you receive,
321 and house of judgment among men be called,
322 and your land of much dew will drink black blood! Woe to you, Libya, and woe,
323 both sea and land! Daughters of the west,
324 so you will come to a bitter day.
325 And you will come pursued by terrible strife, dreadful and harsh; there will be again
326 a dreadful judgment, and you will all come
327 by force to destruction, for you tore
328 in pieces the great house of the Immortal,
329 and with iron teeth you chewed it dreadfully.
330 Therefore you will then look at your land full of the dead, some of them fallen by war
331 and by the demon of all violence,
332 famine and plague, and some by barbarous enemies. And all your land will be a wilderness,
333 and your cities will be ruins.
334 And in the west a star will shine out
335 which they will call a comet, sign to men of the sword and of famine and of death,
336 and murder of great leaders and chief men.
337 And yet again there will be among men
338 greatest signs; for deep-eddying Tanais
339 will leave Maeotis’s lake, and there will be
340 down the deep stream a fruitful, furrow’s track, and the vast flow will hold a neck of land.
341 And there are hollow chasms and yawning pits;
342 and many cities, men and all, will fall:— in Asia—Iassus, Cebren, Pandonia,
343 Colophon, Ephesus, Nicaea, Antioch,
344 syagra, Sinope, Smyrna, Myrina,
345 most happy Gaza, Hierapolis, astypalaia; and in Europe—Tanagra,
346 clitor, Basilis, Meropeia, Antigone,
347 magnessa, Mykene, Oiantheia. Know then that the destructive race of Egypt
348 is near destruction, and the past year then
349 is better for the Alexandrians.

Asia and Rome

350 As much of tribute as Rome received from Asia, even three times as many goods
351 Asia will receive back again from Rome,
352 and her destructive outrage pay her back.
353 As many as from Asia ever served
354 a house of the Italians, twenty times
355 as many Italians will serve in Asia in poverty, and incur numerous debts.
356 Virgin, soft rich child of Latin Rome,
357 often at your much-remembered marriage feasts drunk with wine, now you will be a slave
358 and married in no honorable way.
359 And often a mistress will cut your pretty hair,
360 and, taking revenge, cast you down
361 from heaven to earth, and from the earth again
362 raise you to heaven, for mortals of low rank
363 and of unrighteous life are held tightly bound.
364 And of avenging Smyrna overthrown
365 there will be no thought, but by evil plans
366 and wickedness of those who have command Samos will be sand, Delos will be dull,
367 and Rome a room; but the decrees of God will all of them be perfectly fulfilled.
368 And a calm peace will go to Asian land. And Europe will be happy then, well fed,
369 pure air, full of years, strong, and undisturbed
370 by wintry storms and hail, bearing all things, even birds and creeping things and beasts of earth.
371 Oh, how happy on earth that man will be
372 or woman; what an indescribable home
373 of happy ones! For from the starry heaven
374 all good order will come upon mankind,
375 and justice, and the prudent unity which of all things is excellent for men,
376 and kindness, confidence, and love of guests;
377 but lawlessness will depart far from them, blame, envy, anger, and folly; poverty
378 will flee away from men, and force will flee,
379 and murder, deadly conflicts and bitter feuds,
380 and theft, and every evil in those days. But Macedonia will bring to Asia
381 a terrible suffering, and the greatest affliction
382 to Europe will spring up from Cronian stock,
383 a family of bastards and of slaves.
384 And she will tame the walled city of Babylon,
385 and call herself mistress of each land the sun looks down upon, and then come to nothing
386 by ruinous misfortunes, having fame
387 in later generations far distant.

Alexander and His Kingdom

388 And some day into Asia’s prosperous land
389 a man unheard of will come, his shoulders dressed
390 in a purple robe, fierce, unjust, fiery;
391 and this man he who wields the thunderbolt
392 stirred on; and all Asia will bear
393 an evil yoke, and her soil wet with rain
394 shall drink much murder. But even so Hades will
395 destroy the unknown king; and that man’s offspring will at once perish by the race of those
396 whose offspring he himself would gladly destroy; producing one root which the curse of men
397 will cut from ten horns, and plant by their side
398 another plant. A purple-clad father will cut off a warlike father, and Ares,
399 deadly and hostile, by a grandson’s hand
400 will himself perish; and then the horn planted beside them will at once hold the rule.

Troy, Homer, and the Sibyl

401 And to life-sustaining Phrygia
402 at once there will be a certain sign, when Rhea’s blood-stained race, in the great earth
403 blooming perennial in impervious roots,
404 will, root and branch, in one night disappear
405 with a city, men and all, of the Earth-shaker
406 Poseidon; which place they will some day call
407 dorylaeum, of dark ancient Phrygia,
408 much-mourned. Therefore that time will be called
409 Earth-shaker; he will break up dens of earth
410 and demolish walls. And not signs of good but a beginning of evil will be made;
411 the deadly violence of general war
412 you’ll have, sons of Aeneas, Native blood
413 of Ilus from the soil. But afterwards
414 you will become plunder for greedy men.
415 Ilium, I pity you; for there will bloom in Sparta an Erinys very fair,
416 ever-famous, noblest offspring, and will leave on Asia and Europe a wide-spreading wave;
417 but to you most of all she’ll bear and cause
418 wailings and toils and groans; but there will be undying fame with those who are to come.
419 And there will be an old mortal then,
420 false writer and of doubtful native land; and in his eyes the light will fade away;
421 large mind and verses measured with great skill
422 he will have and be blended with two names, will call himself a Chian and will write
423 of Ilium, not truthfully, indeed,
424 but skillfully; for of my verse and meters
425 he will be master; for he will first open my books with his hands; but he himself
426 will greatly embellish helmeted chiefs of war,
427 hector of Priam and Achilles, son
428 of Peleus, and the others who care
429 for warlike deeds. And also by their side
430 he will make gods stand, empty-headed men, false-writing every way. And it will be
431 glory rather, widely spread, for them to die at Ilium; but he himself
432 will also receive his reward.

Further Warnings to the Nations

433 Also a Locrian race will cause Lycia many evils. And you, Chalcedon,
434 holding by lot a strait of narrow sea,
435 an Aetolian youth will some day plunder. Cyzicus, also your vast wealth the sea
436 will break off. And, Byzantium of Ares,
437 you will some day be laid waste by Asia,
438 and also groans and immeasurable blood
439 you will receive. And Cragus, lofty mountain
440 of Lycia, from your peaks by yawning chasms of opened rock babbling water will flow,
441 until even Patara’s oracles cease.
442 Cyzicus, who live by Propontis
443 the wine-producing, around you Rhyndacus
444 will crash the crested wave. And you, Rhodes,
445 daughter of day, will long be free, and your happiness will be great afterwards,
446 and on the sea your power will be supreme.
447 But afterwards you will become plunder for greedy men, and put upon your neck
448 by beauty and by wealth a fearful yoke.
449 A Lydian earthquake will again plunder
450 the power of Persia, and most horribly the people of Europe and Asia will suffer pain.
451 And Sidon’s harmful king with battle-din
452 dreadful will bring a mournful overthrow to the seafaring Samians. On the soil
453 slain men’s dark blood will babble to the sea;
454 and wives together with the noble brides
455 will lament their outrageous insolence,
456 some for their bridegrooms, some for fallen sons.
457 Sign of Cyprus, may an earthquake waste
458 your phalanxes away, and many souls
459 together Hades will hold in charge.
460 And Trallis near Ephesus, and walls well made, and very precious wealth of men
461 will be dissolved by earthquake; and the land will burst out with hot water; and the earth
462 will swallow down those who are by the fire
463 and stench of sulphur heavily oppressed. And Samos will in time build royal houses.
464 But to you, Italy, no foreign war
465 will come, but pitiful tribal blood not easily exhausted, much renowned,
466 will make you, impudent one, desolate.
467 And you yourself stretched beside hot ashes, as you did not foresee in your own heart,
468 will kill yourself. And you will not of men
469 be the mother, but a nurse of beasts of prey.
470 But when a man comes from Italy, a spoiler, then, Laodicea, you,
471 beautiful city of the Carians
472 by Lycus’s wonderful water, falling prone,
473 will weep in silence for your boastful father.
474 Thracian Crobyzi will rise up on Haemus.
475 Chatter of teeth to the Campanians comes because of wasting famine; Corsica
476 weeps for her old father, and Sardinia
477 will by great storms of winter and the strokes
478 of a holy God sink down in ocean depths,
479 great wonder to those of the sea.
480 Ah, ah, how many young virgins Hades will wed, and of as many youths
481 the deep will take without funeral rites!
482 Ah, ah, the helpless little ones and the vast riches swimming in the sea!
483 Happy land of Mysians, suddenly
484 a royal race will be formed. Truly now
485 Chalcedon will not last long. And there will be a very bitter grief
486 to the Galatians. And to Tenedos
487 a last but greatest evil will come. And Sicyon, with strong yells, and Corinth, you
488 will boast over all, but flute will sound like strain.

Disasters and the Coming Fire

489 Now, when my soul had rest from inspired song,
490 even again there was set within my heart a message of the mighty God, and he
491 commanded me to prophesy on earth.
492 Woe, woe to the race of Phoenician men and women, and all cities by the sea;
493 not one of you will in the common light
494 remain before the shining of the sun,
495 nor will there any longer be number and tribe of life, because of unjust speech
496 and the lawless, impure life which they all lived,
497 opening an impure mouth, and fearful words
498 deceitful and unrighteous forth,
499 and stood against the God, the King,
500 and opened a loathsome mouth deceitfully therefore may he subdue them terribly
501 by blows over all the earth, and bitter fate
502 God will send on them burning from the ground.
503 Cities and of the cities the foundations.
504 Woe, woe to you, Crete! There will come to you
505 a very painful blow, and terribly the Eternal will sack you; and again
506 every land will see you black with smoke,
507 fire will never leave you, but you will be burned. Woe, woe to you, Thrace! So you will come
508 beneath a servile yoke, when the Galatians
509 united with the sons of Dardanus
510 rush on to ravage Hellas, the evil will be yours; and to a foreign land
511 you will give much, not receive anything. Woe to you, Gog and Magog, and to all,
512 one after another, Mardians and Daians;
513 how many evils fate will bring on you! Woe also to the soil of Lycia,
514 and those of Mysia and Phrygia.
515 And many nations of Pamphylians, and Lydians, Carians, Cappadocians,
516 and Ethiopian and Arabian men
517 of a strange tongue will fall. How now can I
518 speak fittingly of each? For on all the nations
519 which live on earth the Highest will send terrible plague.
520 When now again a barbarous nation comes against the Greeks it will kill many heads
521 of chosen men; and they will tear to pieces
522 many fat flocks of sheep of men, and herds
523 of horses and of mules and lowing cattle;
524 and they will burn well-made houses with fire
525 lawlessly; and to a foreign land they will lead many slaves away by force,
526 and children, and soft, finely dressed women
527 from bridal chambers creeping on before with delicate feet; and they will be bound fast
528 with fetters by their enemies of foreign tongue,
529 suffering all fearful outrage; and to them
530 there will not be one to supply the toil of battle and come to their help in life.
531 And they will see their goods and all their wealth
532 enrich the enemy; and there will be a trembling of the knees. And there will flee
533 a hundred, and one will destroy them all;
534 and five will rout a mighty company;
535 but they, among themselves mixed shamefully, will by war and terrible tumult bring delight
536 to enemies, but sorrow to the Greeks.
537 And then upon all Hellas there will be a servile yoke; and war and pestilence
538 will come together upon all mortals.
539 And God will make the mighty heaven on high
540 like brass and over all the earth a drought, and earth itself like iron. And then
541 all mortals will lament the barrenness
542 and lack of cultivation; and on earth he will set, who created heaven and earth,
543 a much-distressing fire; and of all men
544 only the third part will remain after that.

An Appeal to the Greeks

545 Greece, why have you trusted mortal men as leaders, who cannot escape from death?
546 And why do you bring your foolish gifts
547 to the dead and sacrifice to idols?
548 Who put the error in your heart to do
549 these things and leave the face of God the mighty?
550 Honor the All-Father’s name, and do not let it escape you. It is now a thousand years,
551 yes, and five hundred more, since haughty kings
552 ruled over the Greeks, who first to mortal men
553 introduced evils, setting up for worship
554 many images of gods that are dead,
555 because of which you were taught foolish thoughts.
556 But when the anger of the mighty God
557 comes upon you, then you’ll recognize
558 the face of God the mighty. And all souls
559 of men, with mighty groaning lifting up
560 their hands to the broad heaven, will begin to call the great King helper, and to seek
561 the rescuer from great anger who is to be.
562 But come and learn this and store in your hearts,
563 what troubles in the rolling years will come.
564 And what as whole burnt-offering Hellas brought
565 of cows and bellowing bulls to the temple of the great God, she from harsh-sounding war
566 and fear and pestilence will flee away
567 and escape again from the servile yoke.
568 But until that time there will be a race
569 of godless men, even when that fated day
570 reaches its end. For you should not make offering to God until all things happen,
571 which God alone will intend not in vain
572 to be all fulfilled; and strong force will urge.

Praise of Jewish Worship and Conduct

573 And there will be again a holy race
574 of godly men who, keeping to the counsels
575 and mind of the Most High, will greatly honor the great God’s temple with drink-offerings,
576 burnt-offerings, and holy hecatombs,
577 with sacrifices of fat bulls, choice rams,
578 firstborn of sheep and the fat thighs of lambs,
579 sacredly offering whole burnt-offerings
580 on the great altar. And in righteousness, having obtained the law of the Most High,
581 blessed, they will live in cities and rich fields.
582 And prophets will be set on high for them by the Immortal, bringing great delight
583 to all mortals. For to them alone
584 the mighty God gave his gracious counsel
585 and faith and noblest thought within their hearts; they have not been led astray by vain things,
586 nor do they pay honor to the works of men
587 made of gold, brass, silver, and ivory,
588 nor statues of dead gods of wood and stone
589 smeared clay, figures of the painter’s art,
590 and all that empty-minded mortals want;
591 but they lift up their pure arms to heaven,
592 rise from the couch at daybreak, always hands⁠c
593 cleanse with water, and honor only Him
594 who is immortal and who always rules,
595 and then their parents; and above all men they respect the lawful marriage-bed;
596 and they do not have base intercourse with boys,
597 as do Phoenicians, Latins, and Egyptians
598 and spacious Greece, and many more nations
599 of Persians and Galatians and all Asia,
600 transgressing the immortal God’s pure law

The Coming Judgment

601 which they were under. Therefore on all men
602 the Immortal will put ruin, famine, pains,
603 groans, war, and pestilence and mournful troubles;
604 because they would not honor piously
605 the immortal Father of all men, but revered
606 and worshiped idols made with hands, which things
607 mortals themselves will cast down and for shame
608 conceal in clefts of rocks, when a young king,
609 the seventh of Egypt, rules his own land,
610 reckoned from the dominion of the Greeks, which countless Macedonian men will rule;
611 and a great king will come from Asia,
612 a fiery eagle, who with foot and horse will cover all the land, cut up all things,
613 and fill all things with evils; he will cast
614 the Egyptian kingdom down; and taking off
615 all its possessions carry them away over the spacious surface of the sea.
616 And then they will before the mighty God,
617 the immortal King, bend the fair white knee on the much-nourishing earth; and all the works
618 made with hands will fall by a flame of fire.

The Renewal of the Earth

619 And then God will give great joy on men;
620 for land and trees and countless flocks of sheep will offer their genuine fruit to men—wine,
621 and the sweet honey, and white milk, and wheat,
622 which is for mortals of all things the best.
623 But you, mortal full of many tricks,
624 do not delay and loiter, but you,
625 tossed to and fro, turn and appease God. Offer to God your hecatombs of bulls
626 and firstborn lambs and goats, as time turns.
627 But appease him, the immortal God,
628 if perhaps he shows mercy. For he is
629 the only God, and there is no other.
630 And honor justice and oppress no man. For these things the Immortal imposes
631 on miserable men. But take note of
632 the cause of the anger of the mighty God,
633 when on all mortals there will come the height
634 of pestilence and, conquered, they will meet
635 a fearful judgment, and king will seize king
636 and wrench his land away, and nations bring
637 ruin on nations and lords plunder tribes,
638 and chiefs all flee into another land,
639 and the land change its men, and foreign rule
640 ravage all Hellas and drain the rich land of its wealth, and to strife among themselves
641 because of gold and silver they will come—
642 the love of gain an evil shepherdess will be for cities—in a foreign land.
643 And they will all be without burial,
644 and vultures and wild beasts of earth will strip
645 their flesh; and when these things happen,
646 vast earth will waste the remains of the dead.
647 And it will be all unsown and unplowed,
648 proclaiming sad the filth of men defiled
649 many lengths of time in the revolving years,
650 and shields and javelins and all sorts of arms;
651 and the forest wood will not be cut for fire.

The King Sent to End War

652 And then God will send a king from the East,
653 who will make all earth cease from evil war,
654 killing some, others binding with strong oaths.
655 And he will not do all these things by his own plans, but obey the good decrees
656 of God the mighty. And with fine wealth,

The Temple and Its Enemies

657 with gold and silver and purple ornament,
658 the temple of the mighty God again
659 will be weighed down; and the full-bearing earth
660 and the sea will be filled full of good things. And kings against each other will begin
661 to hold ill will, encouraging evils in their hearts.
662 Envy is not a good to wretched men.
663 But again kings of nations on this land
664 will rush in masses, bringing on themselves
665 destruction; for they’ll intend to plunder the great God’s temple and the noblest men.
666 When they reach the land, polluted kings
667 will each set his throne around the city
668 and have his people that do not obey God.

Judgment upon the Nations

669 And then God will speak with a mighty voice
670 to all ignorant people of an empty mind, and judgment from the mighty God will come
671 upon them, and they will all be destroyed
672 by his immortal arm. And fiery swords
673 will fall from heaven on earth; and great bright lights
674 will come down flaming in the midst of men.
675 And in those days earth, all-mother, will reel by his immortal arm, and shoals of fish
676 in the deep sea, and all wild beasts of earth,
677 and countless tribes of winged birds, and all
678 the souls of men and every sea will tremble
679 before the face of the Immortal One,
680 and there will be dismay. He will break apart high mountain peaks and monstrous hills,
681 and dark Erebus will appear to all.
682 And misty gorges in the lofty hills
683 will be full of the dead; and rocks will stream
684 with blood and every torrent fill the plain.
685 And well-built walls of evil-minded men will all fall to the earth, since they did not know
686 the law nor judgment of the mighty God,
687 but with a senseless soul all hurried on
688 against the temple and raised up their spears.
689 And God will judge all by war and by sword
690 and by fire and by overwhelming storm; and there will be sulphur from heaven, and stones
691 and great and heavy hail; and death will come
692 upon the quadrupeds. And then they will
693 know God, the Immortal, who performs these things;
694 and wailing, and upon the boundless earth
695 there will be at once a shout of perishing men; and all the unholy will be bathed in blood;
696 and earth herself will also drink the blood
697 of the perishing, and beasts be gorged with flesh.
698 And all these things the great eternal God
699 himself told me to proclaim. And that will not
700 be unaccomplished, or be unfulfilled, whatever he put only in my heart;
701 for God’s spirit in the world is truthful.

The Deliverance of the Chosen People

702 But children of the mighty God will all live in peace around the temple again,
703 rejoicing in those things which he will give
704 who is Creator, righteous Judge and King.
705 For he himself, great, present far and wide, will be a shelter, as on all sides around
706 a wall of flaming fire. And they will be
707 in cities and in country without war.
708 For not the hand of evil war, but rather
709 the Immortal will himself be their defender
710 and the hand of the Holy One. And then all the islands and the cities will tell how much
711 the immortal God loves those men; for all things
712 help them in conflict and deliver them
713 heaven, and divinely fashioned sun, and moon.
714 And in those days earth, all-mother, will reel.
715 They will send sweet word from their mouths in hymns: “Come, falling on the earth let us all pray to
716 the immortal King, and great eternal God.
717 Let us go in procession to the temple,
718 since he alone is Lord; and let us all
719 meditate on the law of God most high,
720 which is most righteous of all laws on earth.
721 And from the path of the Immortal we
722 have wandered and with senseless soul we honor
723 works made by hand and wooden images
724 of dead men.” These things souls of faithful melt
725 will cry out: Come, having fallen on our faces at the house of God, let us with our hymns
726 make joy to God the Father at our homes,
727 supplied through all our land with arms of enemies
728 seven lengths of time in the revolving years;
729 even shields and helmets and all sorts of arms,
730 and a great store of bows and barbed arrows; for forest wood will not be cut for

A Renewed Appeal to the Greeks

731 but, wretched Hellas, stop your arrogance
732 and be wise; and plead with the Immortal One
733 magnanimous, and be upon your guard.
734 Send now against this city yet again
735 the thoughtless people, who have come out of the holy land of the mighty One.
736 Do not move Camarina; for it is better
737 that she stays unmoved; a leopard from the lair, do not let an evil meet with you.
738 But keep off, do not hold within your heart
739 an arrogant and overbearing soul,
740 ready for mighty contest. And serve God the mighty, so that you may share those things;

The Day of Judgment

741 and when that fated day reaches its end
742 and judgment of the immortal God comes
743 to mortals, great judgment and power will come
744 upon men. For all-mother earth will yield
745 to mortals the best, boundless fruit, wheat, wine, oil;
746 also from heaven a delightful drink
747 of honey and trees will give their fruit,
748 and there will be fatted sheep and cattle,
749 young lambs and kids of goats; earth will burst out
750 with sweet springs of white milk; and the cities will be full of good things and the fields fat;
751 there will be neither sword nor uproar on the earth;
752 earth will no more groan heavily and quake;
753 nor will there be war on earth any longer, nor drought,
754 nor famine, nor the fruit-destroying hail;
755 but great peace, will be upon all the earth, and king will be friend to king until the end
756 of the age, and over all earth common law
757 the Immortal will in the starry heaven
758 perfect for men, concerning whatever things
759 have been done by miserable mortals;
760 for he alone is God, there is no other;
761 and he’ll burn the stern rage of men with fire.
762 But change entirely the thoughts in your heart,
763 and flee unrighteous worship; serve the One
764 who lives; guard against adultery
765 and deeds of lewdness; raise your own children and do not murder; for the Immortal One
766 is angry with him who sins in these things.

The Kingdom of Peace

767 And then a kingdom over all mankind
768 he will raise up for ages, who once gave
769 holy law to the pious, to whom
770 he pledged to open every land, the world and portals of the blessed, and all joys,
771 and immortal mind and eternal bliss.
772 And out of every land to the house of the great God they will bring frankincense
773 and gifts, and there will be no other house
774 to be consulted by men yet to come,
775 but what God gave for faithful men to honor;
776 for mortals temple of the mighty God
777 will call it. And all pathways of the plain
778 and rough hills and high mountains and wild waves
779 of the deep will be easy in those days
780 for crossing and for sailing; for all peace on the land of the good will come; and sword
781 the prophets of the mighty God will remove;
782 for they are judges and the righteous kings of mortals. And there will be righteous wealth
783 among mankind; for of the mighty God
784 this is the judgment and also the power.
785 Take heart, young woman, and be glad; for he who made the heaven and earth gave you
786 joy in your age. And he will live in you;
787 and yours will be immortal and wolves
788 and lambs will feed on grass in the mountains⁠d
789 together, and leopards will graze with kids;
790 and bears will stay among the pasturing calves;
791 and the carnivorous lion will eat chaff
792 at the manger like the cow; and little children
793 will lead them in bonds; for he will make beasts
794 helpless on earth. With babies will fall asleep
795 serpents, along with asps, and do no harm; for the hand of God will be over them.
796 Now I tell you a very clear sign,
797 so that you may know when the end of all things
798 on earth will be. When in the starry heaven
799 swords will point by night straight toward west and east,
800 at once there will also be from the heaven a cloud of dust borne forth to all the earth,
801 and the sun’s brightness in the midst of heaven
802 will be eclipsed, and the moon’s beams appear
803 and come again on earth; by drops of blood
804 dripping from the rocks a sign will be;
805 and in the cloud you will see a war
806 of foot and horse, like the chase of wild beasts
807 in the dense fog. This end of all things God
808 will complete, whose dwelling is in heaven.
809 But all must sacrifice to the great King.

The Sibyl’s Ancestry

810 These things I show you, I who madly left the long walls of Assyrian Babylon
811 for Hellas to proclaim to all the anger of God, fire sent...
812 And so that I might prophesy to mortals
813 of divine mysteries. And men will say in Hellas that I am of foreign Land,
814 born of Erythre, shameless; others say
815 that I’m a Sibyl, born of mother Circe and father Gnostos raving mad and false;
816 but at that time when all things come to pass
817 you will remember me, and no one any more
818 will call me mad, the great God’s prophetess,
819 for he showed me what happened formerly
820 to my ancestors; what things were the first those God made known to me; and in my mind
821 God put all things to be afterwards,
822 so that I might prophesy of things to come, and things that were, and tell them to men.
823 For when the world was deluged with a flood
824 of waters, and one man of good reputation
825 alone was left and in a wooden house sailed over the waters with the beasts and birds,
826 in order that the world might be refilled,
827 I was his son’s bride and was of his race to whom the first things happened, and the last
828 were all made known; and thus from my own mouth
829 let all these truthful things remain declared.