Damascus Document

Divine foreknowledge; wrath for the wicked; remnant for the faithful (vv. 1-10)

1And now, hearken unto me all ye who have entered into the covenant, And I will disclose to you the ways of the wicked. God loveth [knowledge] wisdom : And counsel He hath set before Him: Prudence and knowledge minister unto Him. Longsuffering is with Him And plenteousness of forgivenesses To pardon those who repent of transgression. And power and might and great fury with flames of fire [therein are all the angels of destruction] For them who turned aside out of the way, And abhorred the statute, So that there should be no remnant, Nor any to escape of them. For God chose them not from the beginning of the world, And ere they were formed He knew their works. And He abhorred their generations from of old, And hid His face from their land till they were consumed. [And He knew the years of (their) office and the number and exact statement of their periods for all the things that belong to the ages and have been, moreover whatsoever shall come to pass in their periods for all the years of eternity. | Il.

2Yet in all of them He raised Him up men called by name, In order to leave a remnant to the earth, And to fill the face of the earth with their seed. And through His Messiah He shall make them know His holy spirit, And he is true, and in the true interpretation of his name are their names: But them He hated He made to go astray. I-IV. 1. Exhortation to choose God's Will and to shun the evil Inclination, 1-2; through it fell the mighty Men of old, the Watchers and their Children, 3-5; and all Flesh and also the Sons of 20/00, 6-iv. 1.