Second Baruch

Nevertheless, because you asked the Most High to reveal to you

the interpretation

of the vision that you saw,

I was sent to tell you

that the Mighty One has made known to you the courses of the times that have passed

and of those that are destined to pass in his world,

from the beginning

of his creation

and unto its end,

both those which are in deceit and those which are in truth.

For just as you saw a great cloud that arose from the sea,

and went and covered the earth,

this is the duration of the world which the Mighty One made,

when he planned to make a world.

And it came to pass that when the word had gone forth from before him,

the duration of the world stood as something small,

and it was established

according to the abundance of the understanding of him who sent it.

And as you saw at first on the top of the cloud black waters

that descended first upon the earth,

this is the transgression that Adam, the first man, committed.

For because he transgressed, untimely death came to be,

and mourning was named,

and grief was prepared,

and pain was created,

and toil was perfected,

and pride began to be established,

and Sheol demanded

to be renewed

with blood,

and the begetting of children

came to be,

and the passion

of parents

was produced.

and the greatness of humanity was brought low,

and goodness faded.

What, then,

could be blacker

or darker than these things?

This is the beginning of the black waters which you saw.

And from these black waters again,

blacker ones were born,

and utter darkness was produced.

For he became a danger to himself,

and he was a danger also to the angels.

For yet

at that

time in which he was created,

they possessed freedom.

And some of them descended and mingled with women.

And then those who acted thus

were tormented in chains.

Now the rest of the multitude of the angels, who had no

number,

restrained themselves.

And those who lived on the earth perished together

through the waters of the flood.

These are the first black waters.