Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
abide near our Creator and near His Holy Throne." Jubilating thus, they
flew upward, and uttered song and praise to the Creator of the world.
Sadness fell upon the waters below. They lamented: "Woe unto us, we
have not been found worthy to dwell in the presence of God, and praise
Him together with our companions." Therefore they attempted to rise
upward, until God repulsed them, and pressed them under the earth.[52]
Yet they were not left unrewarded for their loyalty. Whenever the
waters above desire to give praise to God, they must first seek
permission from the waters below.[53]
The second day of creation was an untoward day in more than the one
respect that it introduced a breach where before there had been nothing
but unity; for it was the day that saw also the creation of hell.
Therefore God could not say of this day as of the others, that He "saw
that it was good." A division may be necessary, but it cannot be called
good, and hell surely does not deserve the attribute of good.[54]
Hell[55] has seven divisions,[36] one beneath the other. They are
called Sheol, Abaddon, Beer Shahat, Tit ha-Yawen, Sha'are Mawet,
Sha'are Zalmawet: and Gehenna. It requires three hundred years to
traverse the height, or the width, or the depth of each division, and
it would take six thousand three hundred[37] years to go over a tract
of land equal in extent to the seven divisions.[38]
Each of the seven divisions in turn has seven subdivisions, and in each
compartment there are seven rivers of fire and seven of hail. The width
of each is one thousand ells, its depth one thousand, and its length
three hundred, and they flow one from the other, and are supervised by
ninety thousand Angels of Destruction. There are, besides, in every
compartment seven thousand caves, in every cave there are seven
thousand crevices, and in every crevice seven thousand scorpions. Every
scorpion has three hundred rings, and in every ring seven thousand
pouches of venom, from which flow seven rivers of deadly poison. If a
man handles it, he immediately bursts, every limb is torn from his
body, his bowels are cleft asunder, and he falls upon his face.[56]
There are also five different kinds of fire in hell. One devours and
absorbs, another devours and does not absorb, while the third absorbs
and does not devour, and there is still another fire, which neither
devours nor absorbs, and furthermore a fire which devours fire. There
are coals big as mountains, and coals big as hills, and coals as large
as the Dead Sea, and coals like huge stones, and there are rivers of
pitch and sulphur flowing and seething like live coals.[60]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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