190 Paris MS. 191 before thee.

1. And now I have shown thee, my son Mathusala, every sight which I saw prior to thy birth.191 I will relate another vision, which I saw before I was married; they resemble each other. 2. The first was when I was learning a book; and the other before I was married to thy mother. I saw a potent vision;
2. And on account of these things besought the Lord.
3. I was lying down in the house of my grandfather Malalel, when I saw in a vision heaven purifying, and snatched away.
4. And falling to the earth, I saw likewise the earth absorbed by a great abyss; and mountains suspended over mountains.
5. Hills were sinking upon hills, lofty trees were gliding192 off from their trunks, and were in the act of being projected, and of sinking into the abyss. 192 cutting. 193 the word fell down in my mouth. 194 all this upon earth is from heaven. 195 he.
6. Being alarmed at these things, my voice faltered.193 I cried out and said, The earth is destroyed. Then my grandfather Malalel raised me up, and said to me: Why dost thou thus cry out, my son? and wherefore dost thou thus lament?
7. I related to him the whole vision which I had seen. He said to me, Confirmed is that which thou hast seen, my son;
8. And potent the vision of thy dream respecting every secret sin of the earth. Its substance shall sink into the abyss, and a great destruction take place.
9. Now, my son, rise up; and beseech the Lord of glory (for thou art faithful), that a remnant may be left upon earth, and that he would not wholly destroy it. My son, all this calamity upon earth comes down from heaven;194 upon earth shall there be a great destruction.
10. Then I arose, prayed, and entreated; and wrote down my prayer for the generations of the world, explaining everything to my son Mathusala.
11. When I went out below, and looking up to heaven, beheld the sun proceeding from the east, the moon descending to the west, a few scattered stars, and everything which God195 has known from the beginning, I blessed the Lord of judgment, and magnified him: because he hath sent forth the sun from the chambershe hath sent forth the sun from the chambershe hath sent forth the sun from the chambers 196 windows. 197 be.