is prophesied, and the victory over his adversaries described; an account of the prosperity and blessedness of the Messianic Kingdom follows, to which is added a recital of the signs which shall herald the end of all things: When swords upon the star-lit heavens Appear at even and at morn, Then will the whirlwind come from heaven Upon the earth; the sun above At mid-day e’en will cease to shine, The moon instead will give her light, And come again upon the earth. One sign will be that drops of blood Will flow down from the very rocks; And in the clouds shall ye behold A conflict fought ’twixt warriors fierce, Likewise a chase upon wild beasts,— All seemingly in hazy mist. Then shall the Lord Who dwells in heaven Bring all things to their final end (iii. 798-806). In book iv., as well as in book v., the apocalyptic element is absent, with the one exception that in the latter there is a prophecy of woe upon the idolatrous Gentiles, and of blessing upon Israel (v. 260-285). The superiority of Judaism over the heathen religions is, as one would expect in propagandist literature of this kind, again and again insisted upon. (_c_) THE TESTAMENTS OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS [LITERATURE.—Sinker, _Testamenta xii. Patriarcharum_ ... (1869); _Ante-Nicene Christian Library_, xxii. pp. 13-79 (1871); Schürer, II, iii., pp. 114-124; German ed., III, pp. 339-356; Schnapp, in Kautzsch, II, pp. 458-506; Charles, _The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs_ (1908), also in _The Apocr. and Pseudepigr. of the Old Testament_, II, pp. 282-367; Leszynsky, _Die Sadduzäer_, pp. 237-252 (1921). Burkitt, _Jewish and Christian Apocalypses_, pp. 34 ff. (1914). Two articles in _The Jewish Quarterly Review_, V, pp. 375-398, by Conybeare, “On the Jewish Authorship of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs,” and pp. 400-406 by Kohler on “The Pre-Talmudic Haggada” (1893).]