The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
And the earth shall bellow, drenched with blood in her wars,
and every soul of every mortal shall grind and clench its teeth,
the souls of the lawless, with wailing and with fear,
wasting away with thirst, with famine, plague, and slaughter,
and they shall call death lovely, and it shall flee from them;
for death shall no longer come to them, nor shall night give them rest;
and often in vain they shall question the god who rules on high,
and then openly he shall turn his face away from them.
For he gave days of repentance spanning seven ages
for men who strayed, through the hands of the holy virgin.
God himself set all these things in my mind,
and through my mouth he shall bring to pass all that has been spoken.
I know the number of the sand and the measures of the sea,
I know the recesses of the earth and misty Tartarus,
I know the number of the stars, the trees, and all the tribes,
of four-footed beasts, of swimming things, and of birds that fly,
and of men now living and of the dead yet to be.
For I myself shaped the forms and the minds of men,
and gave them right reason and taught them knowledge,
I who fashioned eyes and ears, seeing and hearing,
and knowing every thought, and witness to all things,
dwelling within I keep silence, and later I myself shall convict,
and shall bring to account whatever a mortal has done in secret,
coming even to God's tribunal to speak to mortal men.
I understand the deaf man, and I hear him who does not speak,
and I know how great is the whole height from earth to heaven,
I know the beginning and the end, I who created heaven and earth.
For all things are from him, and he knows all from beginning to end.
For I alone am God, and there is no other god.
They deify an image of mine, molded out of matter,
and shaping with their own hands a speechless idol,
they glorify it with prayers and with unclean rites of worship.
Abandoning the Creator, they served in wantonness,
and all, holding gifts, give them to the useless idols,
and think all these things are of worth, as though they were honors paid to me,
reeking with feasts, as though for their own dead.
For they burn flesh and marrow-laden bones,
sacrificing on altars, and pour out blood to demons,
and light lamps to me, who am the giver of light,
and mortals pour out wine as to a thirsting god,
growing drunk to no purpose over useless idols.
I have no need of your sacrifice or libation,
no need of foul reeking smoke, nor of most hateful blood.
For these things they will do in memory of kings and of tyrants,
to dead demons, as though to the beings of heaven,
carrying out a godless and ruinous worship.
And the godless call their own images gods,
abandoning the Creator, and placing in them all their hope
and thinking to have life from them — from things deaf and speechless,
trusting toward evil, ignorant of the good end.