The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
The Sibyl's Eleventh Oracle
World of far-scattered men, and long walls,
and cities without measure, and nations without number,
of the East and the West, the South and the North,
divided by every kind of tongue and by kingdoms—
yet I am about to declare to you the worst of your fates.
For after the deluge overwhelmed those men of old
and destroyed that wretched generation with many waters—
the Almighty himself—he gave forth another race,
tireless men, who, rivaling heaven itself,
built a tower to an unspeakable height; then, one from another,
their tongues were torn apart; and wrath came upon them,
hurled by the Most High God, and the vast tower fell,
unutterable ruin; and they stirred up evil strife against each other.
Then indeed came the tenth generation of speaking men,
since these things happened; and all the earth was divided
among peoples of strange tongues, of every kind of speech,
whose numbers I shall tell, and name them out in acrostics,
beginning from a letter, and so make plain each name.
First Egypt shall receive a kingly rule,
excellent and just; and then within her
many counselors shall hold power; but after them
a fearsome man shall rule, a mightier warrior at close quarters;
and his name shall bear the letter of the acrostic,
and he shall stretch out swords against godly men.
And a great sign shall come to pass while he holds power,
in the land of Egypt, which greatly glorying
shall then feed with grain the souls perishing of famine;
she shall nourish the East and the race of Assyrian men—
he himself a prisoner, the dispenser of justice; and his name
shall be Isthin... by the number of the tenth measure.
But when the ten-plagued one from the shining heaven
shall come upon Egypt, then again I shall cry these things to you.
Alas for you, Memphis, alas, great kingdom—
the Red Sea shall destroy your many people.
There, when they shall leave the fruitful land to ruin,
the twelve-tribe people, commanded by the immortal one,
and God himself, the Lord, shall give a law to men.
Then for the Hebrews afterward a great and great-hearted king
shall rule, bearing some name out of sandy Egypt,
a false-born Theban man; and he shall love Memphis,
a dreadful serpent, and shall guard himself much in wars.
When the twelfth decade of his kingdom comes round—
seventeen years beyond a hundred, and five more
still remaining—then indeed the rule of Perseus' line.
And then darkness shall come upon the Jews, nor shall they escape
famine and plague unbearable in that day.
But when the Persian shall rule, and shall give up the scepter—
the son of a grandson—as the years come round
to only five sets of four, and shall tithe these...