ABSTRACT
And when the Angel of God had spoken these words unto SOLOMON, he said unto him, "Peace be unto thee." And SOLOMON answered and said unto him, "My lord, I beseech thee, I would ask thee one question; be not unheedful of my cry." And the Angel said unto him, "Speak, ask me thy question, and I will make thee to know what I have heard and seen." And SOLOMON said unto him, "Now I am grieved because of ISRAEL, His people, whom He hath chosen as His firstborn from among all the ancient tribes of His inheritance; tell me, will they be blotted out after the coming of the Saviour ?" And the Angel of God answered him again and said unto him, "Yea, I have told thee that they will crucify the Saviour. And when they have poured out His blood on the wood of the Cross they shall be scattered allover the world." And SOLOMON said, "1 weep for my people. Woe to my people! who from first to last have always provoked their Creator to wrath. I and those who have been before me are unworthy to have mercy shown unto us because of the evil of our works, for we are a faithless generation. Woe unto those who shall pour out innocent blood, and calumniate the righteous man, and divide his spoil, and who neither believe on His word nor walk in His Commandment! Their judgement is waiting, and their error abideth; great is their punishment. And their sin is waiting, and it shall never be forgiven to them, and the sin of their fathers shall be remembered; for
their work was sin, and they shall be destroyed by that which they themselves have imagined. And woe also unto my soul! for I who have been honoured shall on my death be treated with contempt; and I who have been renowned for wisdom upon the earth shall become dust. In what way is the king superior if he hath not done good upon the earth to the poor? Their falling into the grave is the same, and their path in the deep is the same. Of what benefit (or, use) are we who are men ? We are created in vain, and after a little time we become as if we had never been created. As for the breath which we breathe, if it cease for a short time, our soul passeth away, and if the beat of the spark of our heart which moveth in our mind passeth away we become dust, and our friends and acquaintances hold us to be a loathsome thing. And the understanding of our mind which is above [in] our heads [is destroyed] when our soul is poured out, and we become worms and filth; and when the heat of our body hath passed away we become nothingness and we pass away like the dissolving of a cloud. What then? To multiply speech is useless, and the goodliness of the stature is destroyed, and the strength of kings is blotted out, and the might of governors is destroyed and is no more found. And we all pass away like shadows, and when we have passed away in death our name is forgotten, and the trace of us cannot be found; after three generations of our children there is none who will remember our name."
