2714 verses about Death

And it came to pass that the same hap befell them; like as death was to Adam, so was the flood to these.

For the first Adam bearing a wicked heart transgressed, and was overcome; and not he only, but all they also that are born of him.

and we pass away out of the world as grasshoppers, and our life is as a vapor, neither are we worthy to obtain mercy.

Then said I, no, Lord, that can it not. And he said to me, in the grave the chambers of souls are like the womb:

And he said to me, You can not. And I said, Wherefore, Lord, or whereunto was I born? or why was not my mother’s womb then my grave, that I might not have seen the travail of Jacob, and the wearisome toil of the stock of Israel?

The beginning of a man is his hand, and the end of a man is his heel; between the heel and the hand seek you nothing else, Esdras.

but the entrance thereof is narrow, and is set in a dangerous place to fall, having a fire on the right hand, and on the left a deep water:

and there is one only path between them both, even between the fire and the water, so small that there could but one man go there at once.

Now therefore why you disquiet yourself, seeing you are but a corruptible man? and why are you moved, whereas you are but mortal?

After these years shall my son Christ die of those who, and all that have the breath of life.

And the world shall be turned into the old silence seven days, like as in the first beginning: so that no man shall remain.

And after seven days the world, that yet awakens not, shall be raised up, and that shall die that is corruptible.

And the earth shall restore those that are asleep in her, and so shall the dust those that dwell therein in silence, and the secret places shall deliver those souls that were committed to them.

For an evil heart has grown up in us, which has led us astray from these statutes, and has brought us into corruption and into the ways of death, has showed us the paths of perdition and removed us far from life; and that, not a few only, but well near all that have been created.

And I will not grieve over the multitude of those who perish; for these are those who are now like to vapor, and are become as flame and smoke; they are set on fire and burn hotly, and are quenched.

And I answered and said, O you earth, wherefore have you brought forth, if the mind is made out of dust, like as all other created things?

For it were better that the dust itself had been unborn, so that the mind might not have been made therefrom.

But now the mind grows with us, and by reason of this we are tormented, because we perish and know it.

Let the race of men lament and the beasts of the field be glad; let all that are born lament, but let the four-footed beasts and the cattle rejoice.

For it is far better with them than with us; for they look not for judgement, neither do they know of torments or of salvation promised to them after death.

and if after death we were not to come into judgement, perhaps it had been better for us.

And I answered and said, if I have found grace in your sight, O Lord, show this also to your servant, whether after death, even now when every one of us gives up his soul, we shall be kept in rest until those times come, in which you shall renew the creation, or whether we shall be tormented forthwith.

For concerning death the teaching is: When the determinate sentence has gone forth from the Most High that a man should die, as the spirit leaves the body to return again to him who gave it, it adores the glory of the Most High first of all.

these spirits shall not enter into habitations, but shall wander and be in torments forthwith, ever grieving and sad, in seven ways.

The second way, because they can’t now make a good returning that they may live.

Now this is the order of those who have kept the ways of the Most High, when they shall be separated from the corruptible vessel.

The first order, because they have striven with great labor to overcome the evil thought which was fashoned together with them, that it might not lead them astray from life into death.

The fifth order, they rejoice, seeing how they have now escaped from that which is corruptible, and how they shall inherit that which is to come, while they see moreover the straitness and the painfulness from which they have been delivered, and the large room which they shall receive with joy and immortality.

And I answered and said, shall time therefore be given to the souls after they are separated from the bodies, that they may see that whereof you have spoken to me?

and Elijah for those that received rain; and for the dead, that he might live:

I answered then and said, this is my first and last saying, that it had been better that the earth had not given you Adam: or else, when it had given him, to have restrained him from sinning.

For what profit is it for all that are in this present time to live in heaviness, and after death to look for punishment?

O you Adam, what have you done? For though it was you that sinned, the evil is not fallen on you alone, but upon all of us that come of you.

For what profit is it to us, if there be promised us an immortal time, whereas we have done the works that bring death?

For while we lived and committed iniquity, we considered not what we should have to suffer after death.

Then he answered and said, This is the condition of the battle, which man that is born upon the earth shall fight;

For you are come here without your will, and depart when you would not: for there is given you no longer space than only to live a short time.

For we and our fathers have passed our lives in ways that bring death: but you because of us sinners are called merciful.

For indeed I will not think on the fashioning of them which have sinned, or their death, their judgement, or their destruction;

The root of evil is sealed up from you, weakness is done away from you, and [death] is hidden; hell and corruption are fled into forgetfulness:

Therefore ask you no more questions concerning the multitude of them that perish.

and said in their heart, that there is no God; yes, and that knowing they must die.

For as the things aforesaid shall receive you, so thirst and pain which are prepared shall receive them: for the Most High willed not that men should come to nothing:

the same must know it after death by torment.

And when I spoke these things in my heart, I looked about me with my eyes, and upon the right side I saw a woman, and, behold, she mourned and wept with a loud voice, and was much grieved in mind, and her clothes were tore, and she had ashes upon her head.

And it so came to pass, that when my son was entered into his wedding chamber, he fell down, and died.

Then we all overthrew the lights, and all my neighbors rose up to comfort me: and I remained quiet to the second day at night.

And I do now purpose not to return into the city, but here to stay, and neither to eat nor drink, but continually to mourn and to fast until I die.

It is right now to mourn very sore, seeing we all mourn, and to be sorrowful, seeing we are all in sorrow, but you sorrowest for one son.

For ask the earth, and she shall tell you, that it is she which ought to mourn for so many that grow upon her.

For out of her all had their beginnings, and others shall come; and, behold, they walk almost all into destruction, and the multitude of them is utterly rooted out.

Who then should make more mourning, she, that has lost so great a multitude, or you, which are grieved but for one?

but if you say to me, My lamentation is not like the earth’s, for I have lost the fruit of my womb, which I brought forth with pains, and bare with sorrows:

but it is with the earth after the manner of the earth; the multitude present in it is gone, as it came:

And she said to me, That will I not do: I will not go into the city, but here will I die.

Where is Uriel the angel, who came to me at the first? for he has caused me to fall into this great trance, and my end is turned into corruption, and my prayer to rebuke.

and, behold, I lay as one that had been dead, and my understanding was taken from me; and he took me by the right hand, and comforted me, and set me upon my feet, and said to me,

and whereas she told you of the death of her son, this is the solution:

And whereas she said to you, My son coming into his marriage chamber died, and that misfortune befell her: this was the destruction that came to Jerusalem.

And whereas you saw that the great head appeared no more, it signifieth that one of them shall die upon his bed, and yet with pain.

But for the two that remained, the sword shall devour them.

For we are not better than those who died there. And they wept with a loud voice. And I answered them, and said,

Know therefore, that they which be left behind are more blessed than those who are dead.

Therefore if so be that you⌃ will rule over your own understanding, and instruct your hearts, you⌃ shall be kept alive, and after death you⌃ shall obtain mercy.

For after death shall the judgement come, when we shall live again: and then shall the names of the righteous be manifest, and the works of the ungodly shall be declared.

For all the unbelievers shall die in their unbelief.

Behold, says the Lord, I bring evils upon the whole earth; sword and famine, and death and destruction.

For the Lord knows all those who trespass against him, therefore has he delivered them to death and destruction.

I will send evils upon you; widowhood, poverty, famine, sword, and pestilence, to waste your houses to destruction and death.

if you had not always slain my chosen, exalting the stroke of your hands, and saying over their dead, when you were drunken,

And your children shall die of hunger, and you shall fall by the sword: and your cities shall be broken down, and all your shall perish by the sword in the field.

And those who are in the mountains shall die of hunger, and eat their own flesh, and drink their own blood, for very hunger of bread, and thirst of water.

Gird up yourselves with sackcloth and garments of hair, and bewail your children, and lament; for your destruction is at hand.

For many of those who dwell upon earth shall perish of famine; and the other, that escape the famine, shall the sword destroy.

And the dead shall be cast out as dung, and there shall be no man to comfort them: for the earth shall be left desolate, and the cities thereof shall be cast down.

but I shall prove it with the greatest force from the fortitude of Eleazar, and seven kindred, and their mother, who suffered death in defence of virtue.

For all these, contemning pains even to death, by this contempt, demonstrated that reasoning has command over the passions.

For their virtues, then, it is right that I should commend those men who died with their mother at this time in behalf of rectitude; and for their honors, I may count them happy.

For he said that he had sinned, so as to be consequently worthy of death; and that if he were saved, he would celebrate to all men the blessedness of the holy place.

For being at war with Ptolemy in Egypt, he heard that on a report of his death being spread abroad, the inhabitants of Jerusalem had exceedingly rejoiced, and he quickly marched against them.

And having subdued them, he established a decree that if any of them lived according to the laws of his country he should die.

for even women, because they continued to circumcise their children, were flung down a precipice along with them, knowing beforehand of the punishment.

And should any of them be unwilling to eat the accursed food, they were to be tortured on the wheel, and so killed.

I would counsel you, old man, before your tortures begin, to taste the swine’s flesh, and save your life; for I feel respect for your age and hoary head, which since you have had so long, you appear to me to be no philosopher in retaining the superstition of the Jews.

No, not if you pluck out my eyes, and consume my entrails.

Mouth! you shall not pollute my old age, nor the full stature of a perfect life.

My fathers shall receive me pure, not having quailed before your compulsion, though to death.

And falling upon the ground, from his body having no power to support the pains, he yet kept his reasoning upright and unbending.

then one of the harsh spearbearers leaped upon his belly as he was falling, to force him upright.

Wherefore, partly in pity for his old age,

Why do you unreasonably destroy yourself, O Eleazar, with these miseries?

It would be disgraceful if we should live on some short time, and that scorned by all men for cowardice,

and be condemned by the tyrant for unmanliness, by not contending to the death for our divine law.

Wherefore do you, O children of Abraham, die nobly for your religion.

You⌃ spearbearers of the tyrant, why do you⌃ linger?

Beholding him so high-minded against misery, and not changing at their pity, they led him to the fire:

And he being at length burned down to the bones, and about to expire, raised his eyes Godward, and said,

You know, O God, that when I might have been saved, I am slain for the sake of the law by tortures of fire.

Let my blood be a purification for them, and take my life in recompense for theirs.

Thus speaking, the holy man departed, noble in his torments, and even to the agonies of death resisted in his reasoning for the sake of the law.