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these the angel Uriel showed to me, he whom the eternal Lord of glory had placed over all the luminaries of heaven in the heavens and in the world, that they should rule on the surface of the heavens, and be seen on the earth, and be leaders for the day and for the night, viz. the sun and the moon and the stars and all the serving creatures who keep their course in all the chariots of heaven. 4. The angel Uriel showed me also twelve openings in the circuit of the chariot of the sun from which the feet [i.e. the rays] of the sun come forth; and from them comes the warmth over the earth, when they are opened at times destined for them. 5. There are also some for the winds and for the spirit of the dew, when they are opened at times, standing open in the heavens at the ends. 6. Twelve doors I saw in the heavens, in the ends of the earth, out of which come forth the sun and the moon and the 7. And many window-openings are to the left and to the right thereof, and ONE window in its time produces warmth, like those portals from which the stars come forth as he has commanded them, and in which they set according to their number. 8. And | saw chariots in heaven, running in the world, above and below these portals, in which the stars that never set turn. 9. And one is greater than all, and this one courses through the whole world. Cuap. 73, 1. This and the following chapter treats of the course of the moon.—2. Cf. 72:4, 5. Ina measure, cf. 72:37, and vs. 3, and 74:3; 78:4, 6, 7.4. Beginning, i.e. her reappearance, or new moon. Thirtieth mornings, with reference to the course of the sun. The periods of the moon are from twenty-nine to thirty days; and on the twenty-ninth she is in conjunction, and again appears on the thirtieth. At conjunction sun and moonare in the same portal.—5. From new moon to full moon is fourteen (or fifteen) days, and the same number from full moon to new moon again. For this period she has fourteen portions of light, and consequently changes during the lunar month of thirty days, each day one half of one of these fourteen parts. In a month in which there are fifteen days to full moon the first day shows a light that is one of the seven parts attributed to the one half of the moon.—6. But when there are fourteen days to full moon, then on the first day she takes one fourteenth and one twenty-eighth, equal to three twenty-eighths of light.—7. But this becomes visible only when the moon has assumed yet one fourteenth of light additionally. In the beginning of the morning she sets, as the day for the moon begins in the evening.—8. Thus the moon increases day by day, by one seventh of one half, or one fourteenth of light; cf. 78:6 sqq. Cuap. 74, 1. The above was the special law on the motions of the moon in a month; now follows the more general law on her motions during a series of months and the year.—2. Uriel, cf. 72:1. Of them all, i.e. either of all the luminaries or of all the phases of the moon, Appearance of light, i.e. how much light appeared.—3. Cf. chap. 73 and 78.—4. The position of the moon with reference to the sun. Peculiar, i.e. independent of the course of the sun.—5. In two months her course is not peculiar, but is with the sun, viz. when she is in the third and in the fourth portal, the former corresponding to the sign of Libra and Pisces, the later Aries and Virgo. When the sun is in Aries and Libra the new and full moon are in the same portals.—6. Refers to the third portal, as the next verse shows. For seven days she goes through the portals from the first, until she reaches the third, in which the sun is, and her light is then full; and then continues for eight days to the sixth portal—7, 8. The fourth portal, in which is new moon. In returning to it in fourteen days there is in it full moon; then goes to the first portal, and returns to the fourth in fifteen days.—10. He now enters on the difference between a solar and lunar year. According to 78:15, 16 there are six months with thirty and six months with twenty-nine days, i.e. three hundred and fifty-four days in a lunar year. But the year has three hundred and sixty by counting twelve months at thirty days, to which are added four intercalary days in the equinoxes and solstices. Accordingly the difference between the solar and lunar year is six days without, and ten days with, these additional days. Thus without intercalary days the sun gains stars and all the deeds of heaven, from the east and from the west.