8 THE BOOK OF lASHER. THE BOOK OF lASHER. 9

30 And Enoch then again ordered avoice to be proclaimed, saying, Whereis the man who delighteth to know theways of the Lord his God, let him comethis day to Enoch before he is takenfrom us.

3I And all the sons of men assembledand came to Enoch that day; and allthe kings of the earth with their princesand counsellors remained with himthat day; and Enoch then taught thesons of men wisdom and knowledge,and gave them divine instruction ; andhe bade them serve the Lord and walkin his ways all the days of their lives,and he continued to make peaceamongst them.32 And it was after this that he rose

up and rode upon the horse; and hewent forth and all the sons of men wentafter him, about eight hundred thou-sand men; and they went with him oneday's journey.

33 And the second day he said tothem, Return home to your tents, whywill you go? perhaps you may die;and some of them went from him, andthose that remained, went with him sixday's journey; and Enoch said to themevery day, Returnt9 your tents, lestyou may die; but they were not willingto return, and they went with him.

34 And on the sixth day some of themen remained and clung to him, andthey said to him, We will go with theeto the place where thou goest; as theLord liveth, death only shall separateus.

35 And they urged so much to gowith him, that he ceased speaking tothem; and they went after him andwould not return ;

36 And when the kings returned theycaused a census to be taken, in order toknow the number of remaining men thatwent with Enoch; and it was upon theseventh day that Enoch ascended into

heaven in a whirlwind, with horses andchariots of fire.

37 And on the eighth day all the kingsthat had been with Enoch sent to bringback the number of men that were withEnoch, in that place from which heascended into heaven.

38 And all those kings went to theplace and they found the earth therefilled with snow, and upon the snowwere large stones of snow, and one saidto the other, Come, let us break throughthe snow and see, perhaps the men thatremained with Enoch are dead, and arenow under the stones of snow, and theysearched but could not find him, for hehad ascended into heaven.

days, so that there was neither sowingnor reaping in the earth.

6 For when they sowed the groundin order that they might obtain food fortheirsupport, behold, thorns and thistleswere produced which they did notsow.

7 And still the sons of men did notturn from their evil ways, and theirhands were still extended to do evil inthe sight of God, and they provokedthe Lord with their evil ways, and theLord was very wroth, and repented thathe had made man.

8 And he thought to destroy and an-nihilate them *and he did so.9 In those days when Lamech the

son of Methuselah was one hundred andsixty years old, Seth the son of Adamdied.

10 And all the days that Seth lived,were nine hundred and twelve years,and he died.I I And Lamech was one hundred

and eighty years old when he tookAshmua, the daughter of Elishaa theson of Enoch his uncle, and she con-ceived.

12 And at that time the sons of mensowed the ground, and a little foodwas produced, yet the sons of mendid not turn from their evil ways, andthey trespassed and rebelled againstGod.

13 And the wife ofLamech conceivedand bare him a son at that time, at therevolution of the year.

14 And Methuselah called his nameNoah, saying, The earth was in his daysat rest and free from corruption, andLamech his father called his name Me-nachem, saying, This one shall comfortus in our works and miserable toil inthe earth, which God had cursed.

IS And the child grew up and was

• Referring to what was shortly to takeplace: the flood.

CHAPTER IV.

1. And all the days that Enoch livedupon earth, were three hundred andsixty-five years.

2 And when Enoch had ascendedinto heaven, all the kings of the earthrose and took Methuselah his son andanointed him, and they caused him toreign over them in the place of hisfather.

3 And Methuselah acted uprightly inthe sight of God, as his father Enochhad taught him, and he likewise duringthe whole of his life taught the sons ofmen wisdom, knowledge and the fear ofGod, and he did not turn from the goodway either to the right or to the left.

4 But in the latter days of Methuselah,the sons of men turned from the Lord,they corrupted the earth, they robbedand plundered each other, and theyrebelled against God and they trans-gressed, and they corrupted their ways,and would not hearken to the voice ofMethuselah, but rebelled against him.

5 And the Lord was exceedinglywroth against them, and the Lord con-tinued to destroy the seed in those

weaned, and he went in the ways ofhis father Methuselah, perfect and up-right with God.

16 And all the sons of men departedfrom the ways of the Lord in those daysas they multiplied upon the face of theearth with sons and daughters, andthey taught one another their evil prac-tices and they continued sinning againstthe Lord.

17 And every man made unto him-self a god, and they robbed and plun-dered every man his neighbor as wellas his relative, and they corrupted theearth, and the earth was filled with vio-lence.

18 And their judges and rulers wentto the daughters of men and took theirwives by force from their husbands ac-cording to their choice, and the sons ofmen in those days took from the cattleof the earth, the beasts of the field andthe fowls of the air, and taught the mix-ture of animals of one species with theother, in order therewith to provokethe Lord; and God saw the whole earthand it was corrupt, for all flesh had cor-rupted its ways upon earth, all men andall animals.

19 And the Lord said, I will blot outman that I created from the face of theearth, yea from man to the birds of theair, together with cattle and beaststhat are in the field for I repent that Imade them.

20 And all men who walked in theways of the Lord, died in those days,before the Lord brought the evil uponman which he had declared, for thiswas from the Lord, that they should notsee the evil which the Lord spoke ofconcerning the sons of men.

21 And Noah found grace in thesight of the Lord, and the Lord chosehim and his children to raise up seedfromthem upon the face of the wholeearth.