Book III

(661-682) {p. 89} Shall be full of the dead; and rocks shall stream 855 With blood and every torrent fill the plain. And well-built walls of evil-minded men Shall all fall to the earth, since they knew not The law nor judgment of the mighty God, But with a senseless soul all hurried on 860 Against the temple and raised up their spears. And God shall judge all by war and by sword And by fire and by overwhelming storm; And brimstone there shall be from heaven, and stones And great and grievous hail; and death shall come 865 Upon the quadrupeds. And then shall they Know God, the Immortal, who performs these things; And wailing, and upon the boundless earth Shall be at once a shout of perishing men; And all the unholy shall be bathed in blood; 870 And earth herself shall also drink the blood Of the perishing, and beasts be gorged with flesh. And all these things the great eternal God Himself bade me proclaim. And that shall not Be unaccomplished, or be unfulfilled, 875 Whatever only in my heart he put; For truthful is God's spirit in the world. But children of the mighty God shall all Again around the temple live in peace, Rejoicing in those things which he shall give 880 Who is Creator, righteous Judge and King. For he himself, great, present far and wide, Shall be a shelter, as on all sides round A wall of flaming fire. And they shall be In cities and in country without war. 885 For not the hand of evil war, but rather

885 For not the hand of evil war, but rather The Immortal shall himself be their defender (683-709.) {p. 90} And the hand of the Holy One. And then shall all The islands and the cities tell how much The immortal God loves those men; for all things 890 Help them in conflict and deliver them Heaven, and divinely fashioned sun, and moon. [And in those days shall earth, all-mother, reel.] Sweet word shall they send from their mouths in hymns: "Come, falling on the earth let us all pray 895 The immortal King, and great eternal God. To the temple let its in procession go, Since he alone is Lord; and let us all Meditate on the law of God most high, Which is most righteous of all (laws) on earth. 900 And from the path of the Immortal we Have wandered and with senseless soul we honor Works made by hand and wooden images Of dead men." These things souls of faithful melt Shall cry out: "Come, having, at the house of God 905 Fallen on our faces, let its with our hymns Make joy to God the Father at our homes, Supplied through all our land with arms of foes Seven lengths of time in the revolving years; Even shields and helmets and all sorts of arms, 910 And a great store of bows and arrows barbed; For forest wood shall not be cut for But, wretched Hellas, stop thy arrogance And be wise; and entreat the Immortal One Magnanimous, and be upon thy guard. [900-903. Cited by Justin Martyr, Cohort. ad Græcos, xvi [G., 6, 273].

[900-903. Cited by Justin Martyr, Cohort. ad Græcos, xvi [G., 6, 273]. 907-911. Comp. lines 815-816 above, and note. 912. Wretched Hellas.--Addressed apparently to the Greek dominion of Egypt under the Ptolemies.] (709-733) {p. 91} 915 Send now against this city yet again The people inconsiderate, who are come Out of the holy land of the mighty One. Do not move Camarina; for 'tis better She be unmoved; a leopard from the lair, 920 Do thou not let an evil meet with thee. But keep off, do not hold within thy breast An arrogant and overbearing soul, Ready for mighty contest. And serve God The mighty, that thou mayest share those things; 925 And when that fated day shall reach its end [And judgment of the immortal God shall come To mortals], judgment great and power shall come Upon men. For all-mother earth shall yield To mortals best fruit boundless, wheat, wine, oil; 930 Also from heaven a delightful drink [915. Send now against this city.--Several critics have proposed to read, "Send not," and understand the passage as an exhortation to the Greeks of Egypt not to send to Jerusalem an army of Alexandrine Jews, who might be excited by bad counsel to mix up with the Palestinian wars so constantly raging between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies. Such ill-advised action would be "moving Camarina," or provoking a fierce leopard in his lair. Another view is that the oracle dates about the beginning of the rise of the Maccabees, and is an exhortation to the Ptolemies to send to Jerusalem Jewish forces, numerous in Alexandria, to help their brethren in the Holy Land. But all the attempts to make the passage fit particular persons and events involve so much of fancy and conjecture that one may well hesitate to adopt any of them.

918. Camarina.--The allusion is to the well-known story of draining the marsh of Camarina, a city of southern Sicily. The inhabitants, disregarding the oracle, drained the neighboring marsh, which was believed to breed pestilence, and by so doing they opened a way for their enemies to come and destroy their city. Hence the proverb, "Move not Camarina," was equivalent to: Do not seek to remove one evil in a way that is likely to bring on another and greater one. Comp. Vergil, Æn., iii, 701.] (734-745.) {p. 92} Of honey and trees shall give their fruit, And fatted sheep and cattle there shall be, Young lambs and kids of goats; earth shall break forth With sweet springs of white milk; and of good things 935 The cities shall be full and fat the fields; Nor sword nor uproar shall be on the earth; No more shall earth groan heavily and quake; Nor shall war longer be on earth, nor drought, Nor famine, nor the fruit-destroying hail; 940 But great peace, shall be upon all the earth, And king to king be friend until the end Of the age, and o'er all earth common law Will the Immortal in the starry heaven Perfect for men, touching whatever things 945 Have been by miserable mortals done; For he alone is God, there is no other; And the stern rage of men he'll burn with fire. But change entirely the thoughts in thy heart, And flee unrighteous worship; serve the One 950 Who liveth; guard against adultery

950 Who liveth; guard against adultery And deeds of lewdness; thine own offspring rear And do not murder; for the Immortal One Is angry with him who in these things sins. And then a kingdom over all mankind 955 Shall he raise up for ages, who once gave Holy law to the pious, unto whom He pledged to open every land, the world And portals of the blessed, and all joys, And mind immortal and eternal bliss. 960 And out of every land unto the house Of the great God shall they bring frankincense And gifts, and there shall be no other house [948-950. Cited by Lactantius, de Ira Dei, i, xxii [L., 7, 143].] (746-773) {p. 93} To be inquired of by men yet to be, But what God gave for faithful men to honor; 965 For mortal temple of the mighty God Shall call it. And all pathways of the plain And rough hills and high mountains and wild waves Of the deep shall be easy in those days For crossing and for sailing; for all peace 970 On the land of the good shall come; and sword Shall prophets of the mighty God remove; For they are judges and the righteous kings Of mortals. And there shall be righteous wealth Among mankind; for of the mighty God 975 This is the judgment and also the power. Be of good cheer, O maiden, and be glad; For he who made the heaven and earth gave thee Joy in thy age. And he will dwell in thee; And thine shall be immortal and wolves 980 And lambs shall in the mountains feed on grass

980 And lambs shall in the mountains feed on grass Together, and with kids shall leopards graze; And bears shall lodge among the pasturing calves; And the carnivorous lion shall eat chaff At the manger like the cow; and little children 985 In bonds shall lead them; for he will make beasts Helpless on earth. With babes shall fall asleep Serpents, along with asps, and do no harm; For over them shall be the hand of God. Now tell I thee a sign exceeding clear, 990 That thou may'st know when the end of all things [964. Cited by Lactantius, Div. Inst., iv, 6 [L., 6, 462]. 976. Comp. Zech. ii, 10; ix, 9. 979-987. Comp. Isa. xi, 6-9. Cited also, with some verbal variations, by Lactantius, Div. Inst., vii, 24 [L., 6, 811].] (774-797.) {p. 94} On earth shall be. When in the starry heaven Swords shall by night point straight toward west and east, Straightway shalt there be also from the heaven A cloud of dust borne forth to all the earth, 995 And the sun's brightness in the midst of heaven Shall be eclipsed, and the moon's beams appear And come again on earth; by drops of blood Distilling from the rocks a sign shalt be; And in the cloud shalt ye behold a war 1000 Of foot and horse, like the chase of wild beasts In the dense fog. This end of all things God Shalt consummate, whose dwelling is in heaven. But all must sacrifice to the great King. These things I show thee, I who madly left 1005 The long walls of Assyrian Babylon

1005 The long walls of Assyrian Babylon For Hellas to proclaim to all the wrath Of God, fire sent. . . . . . . . . . . And that I might to mortals prophesy Of mysteries divine. And men shalt say 1010 In Hellas that I am of foreign Land, Of Erythre born, shameless; others say That I'm a Sibyl, born of mother Circe And father Gnostos raving mad and false; But at that time when all thing come to pass 1015 Ye shall remember me, and no one more [991-1000. Comp. with this section Josephus, Wars, vi, v, 3. 1005. Babylon.--Lactantius understood the Sibyl to predict that she would be called Erythræan, "although she was born in Babylon." Div. Inst., i, 6 [L., 6, 145]. 1013. Gnostos.--Some have thought that Glaucus is intended, the seagod and father of Deiphobe. See Vergil, Æn., vi, 36. 1014-1016. Cited by Lactantius, Div, iv, 15 [L, 6, 495].] (798-817.) {p. 95} Shall call me mad, the great God's prophetess, For he showed me what happened formerly To my ancestors; what things were the first Those God made known to me; and in my mind 1020 Did God put all things to be afterwards, That I might prophesy of things to come, And things that were, and tell them unto men. For when the world was deluged with a flood Of waters, and one man of good repute 1025 Alone was left and in a wooden house Sailed o'er the waters with the beasts and birds, In order that the world might be refilled, I was his son's bride and was of his race

To whom the first things happened, and the last 1030 Were all made known; and thus from mine own mouth Let all these truthful things remain declared. [1028. His son's bride.--Literally and strictly, I was his bride ({Greek nu'mfh}) but the word is probably employed here as in the later Greek usage, in the use of daughter-in-law. Nevertheless, in book vii, 219, the Sibyl says she had a son by her father. Compare, however, book i, 350-353; ii, 416-425. In book v, 15, she calls herself sister of Isis.] (818-829.) {p. 96} {p. 97}