[Chapter 56]

1 And I saw there the hosts of the angels of punishment going, and they held scourges and chains 2 of iron and bronze. And I asked the angel of peace who went with me, saying: ' To whom are 3 these who hold the scourges going ? ' And he said unto me: ' To their elect and beloved ones, that they may be cast into the chasm of the abyss of the valley.

4 And then that valley shall be filled with their elect and beloved,
And the days of their lives shall be at an end,
And the days of their leading astray shall not thenceforward be reckoned.

5 And in those days the angels shall return
And hurl themselves to the east upon the Parthians and Medes:

They shall stir up the kings, so that a spirit of unrest shall come upon them,
And they shall rouse them from their thrones,

That they may break forth as lions from their lairs,
And as hungry wolves among their flocks.

6 And they shall go up and tread under foot the land of His elect ones
[And the land of His elect ones shall be before them a threshing-floor and a highway :]
7 But the city of my righteous shall be a hindrance to their horses.

And they shall begin to fight among themselves,
And their right hand shall be strong against themselves,

And a man shall not know his brother,
Nor a son his father or his mother,

Till there be no number of the corpses through their slaughter,
And their punishment be not in vain.

8 In those days Sheol shall open its jaws,
And they shall be swallowed up therein

And their destruction shall be at an end;
Sheol shall devour the sinners in the presence of the elect.'