The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
I myself set forth two ways, of life and of death,
and gave the mind the power to choose the good life;
but they rushed on toward death and everlasting fire.
Man is my image, possessing right reason —
for him set a table clean and unstained by blood,
fill it with good things, and give bread to the hungry,
and drink to the thirsty, and clothing to the naked body,
providing it from your own labor, with pure hands.
Take up the oppressed, and stand by the one who suffers,
and offer to me, the living God, a living sacrifice,
sowing now upon the water, that I in turn may give you
immortal fruits, and you will have everlasting light
and unfading life, when I test all men by fire.
For I will melt all things down and sift them clean,
I will roll up the heaven, I will open the hidden places of earth,
and then I will raise up the dead, dissolving fate
and the sting of death, and afterward I will come to judgment,
judging the life of the pious and the impious.
And I will set ram beside ram, and shepherd beside shepherd,
and calf beside calf, each near the other, to be tested;
those who were exalted shall be tested under testing,
and every mouth shall be stopped, so that those who envied
the ones who acted righteously, thinking to enslave them equally,
commanding them to silence, driven on by greed —
and all who prove worthy shall then come before me,
and no longer, grieving, will you say, "tomorrow will come,"
nor "it happened yesterday"; you will not fret over many days,
no spring, no winter, no summer either, no autumn,
no setting, no rising; for I will make one long day.
and into eternity the light shall be longed for.
Self-begotten, undefiled, everflowing and eternal,
heaven's holder, measuring by his strength the fiery breath,
and holding the scepter of the crash together with the harsh flame,
he calms the poundings of the heavy-thundering thunders,
shaking the earth, he holds back the rushing winds,
and he blunts the fire-gleaming lashes of the lightnings,
he holds the boundless streams of rain and the driving blasts of hail,
the flights of icy clouds and the onsets of winter storm.
For they themselves determine each thing in their own mind,
as much as seems good to you, and you nod your assent to it done.
Formed for your Son before all creation, of one bosom equal with your own,
counselor, molder of mortal men and founder of their life —
him first with the sweet voice of your mouth you addressed:
"Let us make, behold, a man wholly like in form
to ourselves, and let us give him breath sufficient for life;
to him, though mortal, all things of the world shall be in service,
and though shaped from clay, we will subject all things to him."
These things you spoke to the Word, and by your mind all things came to be;
and all the elements together obeyed your command,
and eternal creation was ordered together with the mortal form,