Stars and Luminaries

A¹nd I saw one of those four who had come forth first, and he seized that first star which had fallen from the heaven, and bound it hand and foot and cast it into an abyss: now that abyss was narrow and deep, and horrible and dark.

² And one of them drew a sword, and gave it to those elephants and camels and asses: then they began to smite each other, and the whole earth quaked because of them. ³ And as I was beholding in the vision, lo, one of the four who had come forth stoned (them) from heaven, and gathered and took all the great stars whose privy members were like those of horses, and bound them all hand and foot, and cast them in an abyss of the earth. ⁴ And one said unto me: ‘Remain here till thou seest everything that befalls those elephants, camels, and asses, and the stars and the oxen, and all of them.’ LXXXVIII. _The Punishment of the Fallen Angels by the Archangels._ LXXXVIII. ⁵ And all the oxen feared them and were affrighted at them, and began to bite with their teeth and to devour, and to gore with their horns. ⁶ And they began moreover to devour those oxen; and behold all the children of the earth began to tremble and quake before them and to flee from them. LXXXVII. _The Advent of the Seven Archangels._ LXXXVII.

A¹nd on that day the night decreases in length, and the night amounts to ten parts and the day to eight.

² And on that day the sun rises from that portal, and sets in the west, and returns to the east, and rises in the third portal for one and thirty mornings, and sets in the west of the heaven. ³ On that day the night decreases and amounts to nine parts, and the day to nine parts, and the night is equal to the day and the year is exactly as to its days three hundred and sixty-four. ⁴ And the length of the day and of the night, and the shortness of the day and of the night arise—through the course of the sun these distinctions are made (lit. ‘they are separated’). ⁵ So it comes that its course becomes daily longer, and its course nightly shorter. ⁶ And this is the law and the course of the sun, and his return as often as he returns sixty times and rises, _i. e._ the great luminary which is named the Sun, for ever and ever. ⁷ And that which (thus) rises is the great luminary, and is so named according to its appearance, according as the Lord commanded. ⁸ As he rises, so he sets and decreases not, and rests not, but runs day and night, and his light is sevenfold brighter than that of the moon; but as regards size they are both equal. ⁹ And on that night has the night decreased in length by a ninth part, and the night has become eleven parts and the day seven parts. ¹⁰ And the sun has returned and entered into the second portal in the east, and returns on those his divisions of his orbit for thirty mornings, rising and setting.