1. In those days, when He shall cast the calamity of fire upon you, whither will you fly, and where will you be safe?
2. And when He sends forth his word against you, are you not spared, and terrified?
3. All the luminaries are agitated with great fear; and all the earth is spared, while it trembles, and suffers anxiety.
4. All the angels fulfil the commands received by them, and are desirous of being concealed from the presence of the great Glory; while the children of the earth are alarmed and troubled.
5. But you, ye sinners, are for ever accursed; to you there shall be no peace.
6. Fear not, ye souls of the righteous; but wait with patient hope for the day of your death in righteousness. Grieve not, because your souls descend in great trouble, with groaning, lamentation, and sorrow, to the receptacle of the dead. In your lifetime your bodies have not received a recompense in proportion to your goodness, but in the period of your existence have sinners existed; in the period of execration and of punishment.
7. And when you die, sinners say concerning you, “As we die, the righteous die. What profit have they in their works? Behold, like us, they expire in sorrow and in darkness. What advantage have they over us? Henceforward are we equal. What will be within their grasp, and what before their eyes for ever? For behold they are dead; and never will they again 3 perceive the light.” I say unto you, ye sinners, You have been satiated with meat and drink, with human plunder and rapine, with sin, with the acquisition of wealth and with the sight of good days. Have you not marked the righteous, how their end is in peace? for no oppression is found in them even to the day of their death. They perish, and are as if they were not, while their souls descend in trouble to the receptacle of the dead.