The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
But when all these things I have spoken are fulfilled,
then every law given to men from the beginning
in ordinances, for a disobedient people, is loosed upon him.
He will stretch out his hands and measure out the whole world.
For food they gave him gall, and vinegar to drink;
this table of inhospitality they will show.
The veil of the temple shall be rent, and at midday
there shall be night, monstrous and dark, for three hours.
For no longer, it was shown again, is he to be served
by hidden law and temple, veiled in the world's illusions,
once the very Master has come down upon the ever-flowing earth.
He will come to Hades announcing hope to all
the holy ones, the end of ages and the last day,
and he will accomplish the lot of death, sleeping the third day;
and then, released from the dead, he will come into the light,
first of resurrection, showing its beginning to the called,
having washed away, in the waters of the undying spring,
the former evils, so that being born from above
they no longer serve the lawless customs of the world.
First to his own then shall the Lord be openly seen,
in the body, unchanged from what he was, and he will show in hands and feet
four prints fastened upon his own limbs,
east and west and south and north—
for so many royal realms of the world shall carry out
the lawless, blameworthy deed against our likeness.
Rejoice, holy daughter of Zion, who have suffered much!
Your own king comes, mounted on a colt, leading you in,
appearing meek to all, that the yoke of ours,
servile, hard to bear, lying on the neck, he may lift away
and loose the godless statutes and the bonds of violence.
Know him as your own God, the Son of God being he;
glorifying him and holding him in your breast,
love him with all your soul, and bear his name.
Put away your former ones, and wash yourself clean of his blood;
for he is not appeased by your songs nor by prayers,
nor does he heed corruptible sacrifices, being himself incorruptible;
but bringing forth then a hymn from understanding mouths,
know who this is, and then you shall see the Begetter.
Then for a time all the elements of the world shall stand bereft—
air, earth, sea, and the light of blazing fire;
and the vault of heaven, and night, and all the days
shall crash together into one, into a form utterly desolate.
For the stars, all the luminaries, shall fall from heaven.
No longer shall fair-winged birds fly upon the air,
nor shall there be footing on earth; for all beasts shall perish.
And there shall be no voices of men, of beasts, of birds.
The world, disordered, shall hear no useful sound;
but the deep sea shall resound with a mighty roar of menace,
and all the swimming creatures of the sea shall die trembling;
and the ship bearing its cargo shall sail upon the waves no more.