154 Single among all men, most just and true, 155 Was the most faithful Noah, full of care 156 For noblest works. And to him God himself 157 From heaven thus spoke: "Noah, be of good cheer 158 In thyself and to all the people preach 159 Repentance, so that they may all be saved. 160 But if, with shameless soul, they heed me not 161 The whole race I will utterly destroy 162 With mighty floods of waters. Quickly now 163 An undecaying house I bid thee frame 164 Of planks strong and impervious to the wet.

4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into Tartarus¹⁶ and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment, 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, but did protect Noah, a herald of righteousness, along with seven others, when God brought a flood on an ungodly world, 6 and if he turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when he condemned them to destruction, having appointed them to serve as an example to future generations of the ungodly, 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless men, 8 (for while he lived among them day after day, that righteous man was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) 9 —if so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials, and to reserve the unrighteous for punishment at the day of judgment, 10 especially those who indulge their fleshly desires and who despise authority. Brazen and insolent, they are not afraid to insult the glorious ones,