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explanation.—15. In the commencement, i.e. in the time from spring to summer.—16. Roses, unknown in the Old testament; but cf. Sir. xxiv. 14; Wisd. ii. 8; En. 106:2—17. The subordinate leaders, those in each one of the three months of which he is here treating. —18. The hot time from summer to autumn. The names are Wwe en! 1 rc Cuap. 83.—And now, my son Methuselah, I will show thee all the visions that I have seen, relating them before thee. 2. Two visions I saw before I took a wife, and the one of time, before I took thy mother I saw an awful vision; and on their account I petitioned to the Lord. 3. As I was reposing in the house of Malalél, my grandfather, I saw there in a vision that the heavens were lowered and disappeared and fell on the earth. 4. And as it fellon the earth I saw the earth that it was devoured in a great abyss, and mountains descended on mountains, and hills sank upon hills, and high trees were torn from the trunks, and fell down and sank into the abyss. 5. And on account of this a speech fell into my mouth, and I began to cry and to say: “The earth i is destroyed!” 6. And Malalel, my grandfather, aroused me, as I was reposing near him, and said to me: “Why dost thou cry so, my son, and why dost thou lament so?” 7. And I related to him the whole vision which I had seen, and he said to me: “A terrible thing thou hast seen, my son, and the power of the vision of thy dream is concerning the secrets of all the sins of the earth; it will be about to descend into the abyss and be destroyed terribly. 8. And now, my son, arise and petition the Lord of glory—since thou art a believer—that a remnant may remain on the earth and all the earth be not destroyed. 9. My son, from heaven all this will come on the earth, and over the earth there will be a great destruction.” 10. After that I arose and prayed and petitioned, and wrote down my prayer for the generations of the world, and I will show thee everything, my son, Methuselah. 11. And as I went out below, and looked at the heavens and the sun rising in the east, and the moon descending in the west, and some few stars, and everything as he had known it from the first, I blessed the Lord of the judgment, and to him I gave greatness, because he led forth the sun from the windows of the east, and he ascends and rises on the surface of the heavens, and elevates himself, and goes the path which is shown to him. CHAP. 84.—And I raised my hands in justice, and blessed the Holy and the Great One, and I spoke with the breath of my mouth and with the tongue of flesh, which God has made for the children of men, that they should speak with it, and gave them breath and the tongue and the mouth, that they might speak therewith: 2. “Blessed art thou, O Lord, King both great and powerful in thy greatness, the Lord of all the creation of heaven, King of kings, and God of all the world, thy Godship and thy kingdom and thy greatness will remain in eternity, and to all eternity, and to all the generations thy power, and all the heavens are thy throne in eternity, and all the earth thy footstool in eternity and to all eternity. 3. For thou hast made and dost govern all things, and nothing is too difficult for thee, and no wisdom escapes thee; she does not turn away from her throne, thy throne, and not from thy face, and thou all Semitic, but mostly of uncertain etymology. SECTION XVI. them was not similar to the other; the first time, when I was learning to write, the second