9
1 He answered me then, and said, Measure thou the time diligently in itself: and when thou seest part of
the signs past, which I have told thee before,
2 Then shalt thou understand, that it is the very same time, wherein the Highest will begin to visit the
world which he made.
4 Then shalt thou well understand, that the most High spake of those things from the days that were before
thee, even from the beginning.
6 Even so the times also of the Highest have plain beginnings in wonder and powerful works, and endings
in effects and signs.
7 And every one that shall be saved, and shall be able to escape by his works, and by faith, whereby ye
have believed,
8 Shall be preserved from the said perils, and shall see my salvation in my land, and within my borders:
for I have sanctified them for me from the beginning.
9 Then shall they be in pitiful case, which now have abused my ways: and they that have cast them away
despitefully shall dwell in torments.
11 And they that have loathed my law, while they had yet liberty, and, when as yet place of repentance was
open unto them, understood not, but despised it;
13 And therefore be thou not curious how the ungodly shall be punished, and when: but enquire how the righteous
shall be saved, whose the world is, and for whom the world is created.
15 I have said before, and now do speak, and will speak it also hereafter, that there be many more of them
which perish, than of them which shall be saved:
17 And he answered me, saying, Like as the field is, so is also the seed; as the flowers be, such are the
colours also; such as the workman is, such also is the work; and as the husbandman ls himself, so is
his husbandry also: for it was the time of the world.
18 And now when I prepared the world, which was not yet made, even for them to dwell in that now live, no
man spake against me.
19 For then every one obeyed: but now the manners of them which are created in this world that is made are
corrupted by a perpetual seed, and by a law which is unsearchable rid themselves.
20 So I considered the world, and, behold, there was peril because of the devices that were come into it.
21 And I saw, and spared it greatly, and have kept me a grape of the cluster, and a plant of a great people.
22 Let the multitude perish then, which was born in vain; and let my grape be kept, and my plant; for with
great labour have I made it perfect.
24 But go into a field of flowers, where no house is builded, and eat only the flowers of the field; taste
no flesh, drink no wine, but eat flowers only;)
26 So I went my way into the field which is called Ardath, like as he commanded me; and there I sat among
the flowers, and did eat of the herbs of the field, and the meat of the same satisfied me.
29 O Lord, thou that shewest thyself unto us, thou wast shewed unto our fathers in the wilderness, in a
place where no man treadeth, in a barren place, when they came out of Egypt.
31 For, behold, I sow my law in you, and it shall bring fruit in you, and ye shall be honoured in it for
ever.
32 But our fathers, which received the law, kept it not, and observed not thy ordinances: and though the
fruit of thy law did not perish, neither could it, for it was thine;
34 And, lo, it ls a custom, when the ground hath received seed, or the sea a ship, or any vessel meat or
drink, that, that being perished wherein it was sown or cast into,
35 That thing also which was sown, or cast therein, or received, doth perish, and remaineth not with us:
but with us it hath not happened so.
38 And when I spake these things in my heart, I looked back with mine eyes, and upon the right side I saw
a woman, and, behold, she mourned and wept with a loud voice, and was much grieved in heart, and her
clothes were rent, and she had ashes upon her head.
41 And she said unto me, Sir, let me alone, that I may bewail myself, and add unto my sorrow, for I am sore
vexed in my mind, and brought very low.
43 She said unto me, I thy servant have been barren, and had no child, though I had an husband thirty years,
44 And those thirty years I did nothing else day and night, and every hour, but make my, prayer to the Highest.