The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Then great power will come to a woman; through her many evils
God himself will increase, when the royal honor,
crowned, she has won; and the whole year will be a mild age.
The sun, running parched, will show nights,
and the stars will leave the sky; raging with a great storm
it will lay the earth waste; and there will be a rising of the dead;
and the lame will run swiftest, and the deaf will hear,
and the blind will see, and the mute will speak,
and life will be common to all, and wealth as well.
The earth, equal for all, with no walls, no fences
dividing it, will bear ever more abundant fruit,
and springs of sweet wine, and white milk,
and honey it will give . . .
and the judgment of the immortal God . . .
But when God changes the seasons . . .
making winter summer, then all the oracles are fulfilled.
But when the world has perished . . .
JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, SAVIOR, CROSS.
The earth will sweat, when the sign of judgment comes.
The king who is to be for all ages will come from heaven,
present in person to judge all flesh and the whole world.
Mortals will see God, the faithful and the faithless,
the Most High, alongside his holy ones, when the age reaches its close.
He judges the souls of flesh-bearing men at the tribunal,
when the whole world becomes dry ground and thorn.
Mortals will cast away their idols and all their wealth.
Fire will burn up earth, heaven, and sea,
hunting them down, and will break open the gates of Hades' prison.
Then all the flesh of the dead will come into the light of freedom,
the flesh of the saints; but fire will expose the lawless forever.
Whatever anyone did in secret, then all of it will be told;
for God will throw open dark breasts to the light.
There will be wailing from all, and gnashing of teeth.
The sun's brightness will fail, and the dances of the stars.
He will roll up the heaven; and the moon's light will perish.
He will lift up the ravines, and level the heights of the hills,
and grim loftiness will no longer be seen among men.
The mountains will lie level with the plains, and the whole sea
will no longer bear ships. For the earth will then be scorched,
springs and all, and the babbling rivers will fail.
A trumpet from heaven will send forth a voice full of mourning,
wailing the pollution of limbs and the miseries of the world.
Then the gaping earth will show the chasm of Tartarus.
All will come before the tribunal of God the king.
A river of fire and brimstone will flow down from heaven.
And a sign then for all mortals, a notable seal —
the wood among the faithful will be the longed-for horn,
the life of pious men, but a stumbling-block for the world,
giving light with water to the called at twelve springs;
an iron rod will shepherd and rule over them.