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After the seventh day I prayed before the Mighty One and said:
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O Yahuah, You summon the coming of the times and they stand before You. You cause the rule of the ages to pass and they do not resist You; You govern the course of the appointed seasons and they obey You.
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You alone know the span of the generations, and You do not reveal Your mysteries to the many.
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You make known the abundance of fire and weigh the swiftness of ruach.
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You examine the ends of the heights and search the depths of darkness.
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You command the number that passes and is preserved, and prepare a dwelling for those appointed to be.
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You remember the beginning You made and do not forget the destruction appointed.
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By signs of fear and power You command flames, and they change into ruachot. By the Word You establish what did not exist, and by great power hold what has not yet come.
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You teach creation through Your understanding and make the luminaries wise to minister in their orders.
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Innumerable camps stand before You and quietly minister in their orders at Your sign.
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Hear Your servant, and listen to my petition.
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For in a little time we are born, and in a little time we return.
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But with You hours are as a time, and days as generations.
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Therefore do not be wrathful against the son of adam, for he is nothing, and do not reckon our works.
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For what are we? By Your gift we come into the world, and we depart without our will.
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We did not tell our fathers to beget us, nor did we send to Sheol and say, “Receive us.”
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What strength have we to bear Your wrath, or what are we, that we should endure Your Judgment?
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Protect us in Your compassion and help us in Your Favor.
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Look upon the little ones who submitted to You. Save all who draw near You; do not cut off the hope of our people or shorten the times of our help.
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For this is the people You chose, and these are the people for whom You found no equal.
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But now I shall speak before You and say what my heart considers.
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We trust in You, for behold, Your Torah is with us. We know we shall not fall while we hold Your Covenant.
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We are favored at all times, even in this: that we have not mingled with the nations.
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For we are all one renowned people, receiving one Torah from the One. The Torah among us helps us, and the excellent Wisdom within us supports us.
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When I had prayed and spoken these things, I was greatly weakened.
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He answered and said to me: You have prayed with singleness, Baruk, and all your Words have been heard.
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But My Judgment demands its own, and My Torah demands its Righteousness.
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From your Words I shall answer you, and from your prayer I shall speak with you.
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The corruptible one became nothing, acted wickedly as though able to accomplish something, did not remember My Goodness, and did not receive My long-suffering.
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Therefore you shall surely be taken, as I told you beforehand, and the time of which I spoke shall come.
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That constraining time shall arise, pass with sharp violence, and be troubled when it comes in wrathful power.
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In those days all inhabitants of the earth shall rest upon one another, because they do not know that My Judgment has drawn near.
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Many wise ones shall not be found in that time; the understanding shall be few, and even those who know shall chiefly be silent.
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Many reports shall arise, and not a few messages; works of apparitions shall be shown and many promises recounted—| some empty, and some confirmed.
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Honor shall turn into disgrace, strength be humbled into contempt, stability be dissolved, and beauty become ugliness.
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Many shall say to many in that time: Where has abundant understanding hidden, and where has abundant Wisdom departed?
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While they consider these things, zeal shall rise in those not expected, sorrow seize the quiet, and many be stirred in wrath to strike many. They shall awaken forces to shed blood and at last perish together with them.
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In that time the change of the times shall appear openly to everyone, because through all these times they defiled themselves, prevailed, walked each in his works, and did not remember the Torah of the Mighty One.
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Therefore fire shall consume their thoughts, and the meditations of their inward parts shall be tested in flame, for the Judge shall come and shall not delay.
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Each inhabitant of the earth knew when he practiced injustice, yet in their pride they did not know My Torah.
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Then many shall truly weep—| more over the living than over the dead.
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I answered and said: O Adam, what have you done to all born from you? What shall be said to the first Hawah, who obeyed the serpent?
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For this whole multitude goes to corruption, and those whom fire consumes cannot be numbered.
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But again I shall speak before You.
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You, Yahuah my Adonai, know what is in Your creation.
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You commanded the dust beforehand to give Adam, and You know the number of those born from him and how many who came to be sinned before You and did not confess You as their Maker.
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Concerning all these, their end reproves them, and Your Torah, which they transgressed, repays them in Your Day.
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But now let us leave the wicked and inquire concerning the Righteous.
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I shall recount their favor and shall not be silent from praising their praise preserved for them.
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For as you endured much labor during a little time in this passing world in which you live, so in the world without end you shall receive great light.