| 1 | Woe to them who act impiously, who laud and honour the word of falsehood. You have been lost in perdition; and have never led a virtuous life. |
| 2 | Woe to you who change the words of integrity. They transgress against the righteous divine law; |
| 3 | And cause the heads of those who are not sinners to be trodden down upon the earth. |
| 4 | In those days you, O righteous, shall have been deemed worthy of having your prayers rise up in remembrance; and shall have deposited them in testimony before the angels, that they might records the sins of the sinners in the presence of the Most High. |
| 5 | In those days the nations shall be overthrown; but the families of the nations shall rise again in the day of perdition. |
| 6 | In those days they who become pregnant shall go forth, carry off their children, and forsake them. |
| 7 | Their offspring shall slip from them, and while suckling them shall they forsake them; they shall never return to them, and never instruct their beloved. |
| 8 | Again I swear to you, sinners, that crime has been prepared for the day of blood, which never ceases. |
| 9 | They shall worship stones, and engrave golden, silver, and wooden images. They shall worship impure spirits, demons, and every idol, in temples; but no help shall be obtained for them. |
| 10 | Their hearts shall become impious through their folly, and their eyes be blinded with mental superstition. In their visionary dreams shall they be impious and superstitious, lying in all their actions, and worshipping a stone. Altogether shall they perish. |
| 11 | But in those days blessed shall they be, to whom the word of wisdom is delivered; who point out and pursue the path of the Most High; who walk in the way of righteousness, and who act not impiously with the impious. |
| 12 | They shall be saved. |
| 13 | Woe to you who expand the crime of your neighbour; for in hell shall you be slain. |
| 14 | Woe to you who lay the foundation of sin and deceit, and who are bitter on earth; for on it shall you be consumed. |
| 15 | Woe to you who build your houses by the labour of others, every part of which is constructed with brick, and with the stone of crime; I tell you, that you shall not obtain peace. |
| 16 | Woe to you who despise the extent of the everlasting inheritance of your fathers, while your souls follow after idols; for to you there shall be no tranquillity. |
| 17 | Woe to them who commit iniquity, and give aid to blasphemy, who slay their neighbour until the day of the great judgment; for your glory shall fall; malevolence shall He put into your hearts, and the spirit of his wrath shall stir you up, that every one of you may perish by the sword. |
| 18 | Then shall all the righteous and the holy remember your crimes. |
| 19 | In those days shall fathers be struck down with their children in the presence of each other; and brethren with their brethren shall fall dead: until a river shall flow from their blood. |
| 20 | For a man shall not restrain his hand from his children, nor from his children's children; his mercy will be to kill them. |
| 21 | Nor shall the sinner restrain his hand from his honoured brother. From the dawn of day to the setting sun shall the slaughter continue. The horse shall wade up to his breast, and the chariot shall sink to its axle, in the blood of sinners. |
| 22 | In those days the angels shall descend into places of concealment, and gather together in one spot all who have assisted in crime. |
| 23 | In that day shall the Most High rise up to execute the great judgment upon all sinners, and to commit the guardianship of all the righteous and holy to the holy angels, that they may protect them as the apple of an eye, until every evil and every crime be annihilated. |
| 24 | Whether or not the righteous sleep securely, wise men shall then truly perceive. |
| 25 | And the sons of the earth shall understand every word of that book, knowing that their riches cannot save them in the ruin of their crimes. |
| 26 | Woe to you, sinners, when you shall be afflicted on account of the righteous in the day of the great trouble; shall be burnt in the fire; and be recompensed according to your deeds. |
| 27 | Woe to you, perverted in heart, who are watchful to obtain an accurate knowledge of evil, and to discover terrors. No one shall assist you. |
| 28 | Woe to you, sinners; for with the words of your mouths, and with the work of your hands, have you acted impiously; in the flame of a blazing fire shall you be burnt. |
| 29 | And now know, that the angels shall inquire into your conduct in heaven; of the sun, the moon, and the stars, shall they inquire respecting your sins; for upon earth you exercise jurisdiction over the righteous. |
| 30 | Every cloud shall bear witness against you, the snow, the dew, and the rain: for all of them shall be withholden from you, that they may not descend upon you, nor become subservient to your crimes. |
| 31 | Now then bring gifts of salutation to the rain; that, not being withholden, it may descend upon you; and to the dew, if it has received from you gold and silver. But when the frost, snow, cold, every snowy wind, and every suffering belonging to them, fall upon you, in those days you will be utterly incapable of standing before them. |
| 32 | Attentively consider heaven, all you progeny of heaven, and all the works of the Most High; fear him, nor conduct yourselves criminally before him. |
| 33 | If He shut up the windows of heaven, restraining the rain and dew, that it may not descend upon the earth on your account, what will you do? |
| 34 | And if He send his wrath upon you, and upon all your deeds, you are not they who can supplicate him; you who utter against his righteousness, language proud and powerful. To you there shall be no peace. |
| 35 | Do you not see the commanders of ships, how their vessels are tossed about by the waves, torn to pieces by the winds, and exposed to the greatest peril? |
| 36 | That they therefore fear, because their whole property is embarked with them on the ocean; and that they forbode evil in their hearts, because it may swallow them up, and they may perish in it? |
| 37 | Is not the whole sea, all its waters, and all its commotion, the work of him, the Most High; of him who has sealed up all its exertions, and girded it on every side with sand? |
| 38 | Is it not at his rebuke dried up, and alarmed; while all its fish with everything contained in it die? And will not you, sinners, who are on earth, fear him? Is not He the maker of heaven and earth, and of all things which are in them? |
| 39 | And who has given erudition and wisdom to all that move progressive upon the earth, and over the sea? |
| 40 | Are not the commanders of ships terrified at the ocean? And shall not sinners be terrified at the Most High? |
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Chapter - 39