Introduction
The prophecy which came to Zerubavel son of Shealtiel the
governor of Judah.
On the twenty-fourth of the month Shevat, the Lord showed
me this vision, one similar to the vision I had seen on the Kevar River.
Then I remained in prayer before the Lord, and when I said: Blessed are
You, O Lord, Who bring the dead to life my heart murmured within me saying:
What will be the form of the eternal Temple? Then a Voice was revealed
to me, it spoke to me, just as one person speaks to his fellow –
{like Moses}: I heard a Voice, without seeing any appearance – It
answered me from the doors of heaven, and said to me: Are you Zerubbavel,
the Governor of Judah? Indeed I am, [so says] your servant, I answered.
Then I arose and I prayed as I had done earlier; when I had completed
my prayer, I turned, and made my way to my home.
I was extremely distressed, so much so that all my limbs became pained.
From my troubled situation, I arose in order to pray and entreat the Presence
of the God of Israel. I confessed my transgressions and sins, and I said:
Please! O Lord; I have sinned, I am guilty – You are the G-d of
Israel, Who made everything with the Breath of Your Mouth; by the Word
of Your Lips, the dead come to life.
Now, on the eleventh of Adar, that Angel approached me, and conversed
with me for a while; he said to me: Request from me something! I said:
What can I request? My end is near; my days are consummated. Then –
he said to me – I shall revive you.
Then a Spirit carried me between Heaven and Earth, and conveyed me to
the large city of Nineveh – namely, the City of Blood. He said to
me: Go to the House of Disgrace [=the shrine of idol-worship] {AV: to
the Frivolity-Club). So I went there, just as he had commanded me to do.
He then said: Make a digression and go further on! This is what I did.
Then a Hand touched me: I beheld a despicable and injured man (AV: a contrite
man, suffering chronic sickness). Then the despicable and injured man
said to me: Why are you here, Zerubabbel? So I answered, saying: the Spirit
of the Lord has whisked me, involuntarily, and brought me to this location.
So he said to me: Don’t be afraid: it is to show you something,
that you have been transported here!
When I heard his words, I felt relieved, and I asked him: What is the
name of this place? He replied to me: This is Great Rome. I addressed
him and said: Who are you and what is your name, and what do you do in
this place? He then said: I am Messiah of the Lord, and I am interned
here in a prison [and must remain so] until the ultimate End. When I heard
this, I was silent and I temporarily hid my face from him. Then my desire
was again excited, and I once again gazed at him. And again I concealed
myself, because I was afraid. Then he said to me: come near me! Don’t
be afraid or demoralized – Why are you silent? I said: Because I
have heard [your words] that you are the Messiah of God, servant of the
Lord and Light of Israel. He straightway seemed to me to be as a young
man – fine and handsome (AV: a smart, handsome youth: no-one could
match him). So I said to him: When will the Light of Israel shine forth?
When I said these words to him, a winged angel came to me and said to
me: Zerubbavel, what request have you to make of the Lord’s Messiah?
I answered and said to him: I simply ask him: When will come the Epoch
of the Salvation? So he said to me: Ask this of me, and I shall tell you!
I said to him: Who are you, my master?
(Main Version) He said to me: I am the
Prince of the Hosts of the Lord, God of Israel: I am he who waged all
the wars with the Cana’anite kings; I, as angel of the Lord, am
the one who fought with Sannacherib, and smote dead one hundred and eighty
five thousand warriors. I am the Prince of Israel, who am destined to
fight the wars of the Lord’s Messiah against an insolent king Armillus,
son of Satan, who will emerge from the stone idol. For the Lord has appointed
me as a minister over his nation, to fight with the princes of the pagan
nations.
(Alternative version) Then Michael
spoke up and said to me: I am the angel who guided Abraham all over the
Land of Canaan, and I blessed him by the name of the Lord; I am the one
who brought Sarah the tidings [about Isaac’s birth]. It is I who
rained down brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah – from the
Lord, from heaven; it is I who rescued Isaac and wept over him. It is
I who wrestled with Jacob at the Jabok crossing. It is I who led Israel
for forty years in the name of the Lord, for the Lord placed His name
within me {Alternative text: I am the [angelic being] the name of whom
is identical with his Master’s Name}. I am the one who revealed
himself to Joshua at Gilgal
Now you, Zerubbavel son of Shealtiel, son of Jekhoniah,
King of Judah, enquire of me: I shall then disclose to you what will happen
to your People at the latter End of Days.
Then I enquired and I said: What is the name of the Messiah of the Lord,
and what is his task in this place? He answered me: This is Messiah son
of David, and his name is Menahem son of Amiel. He was born of the dynasty
of David, King of Israel, when Nebuchadnezzar made his assault on Jerusalem.
The Lord appointed him [=the Messiah] that he be a distinguished and ‘covenanted’
Leader for the People. I carried him with the Lord’s spirit, and
I hid him in this location [where he must stay] until the time of the
End – as referred to by the Isaiah the Prophet: “For a fortified
city will be isolated; a fine dwelling – derelict and abandoned,
like a wilderness: there a calf will pasture, and there it will lie down,
and consume all its shoots.” [Is. 27, 6].
- - -
When I heard his words, I fell on my face and said to him:
Tell me the truth regarding the distinguished leader of the holy People!
So he took hold of me, and brought me to the House of Disgrace {or: Frivolity-Club}.
There he showed me a marble-stone, in the image of a woman: her appearance
was fair and her figure extremely fine. He said to me: Zerubbavel! What
do you see? I said to him: what I see is a marble-stone – its facial
form like that of a beautiful woman. He spoke up, further, and said to
me: With this stone, Satan {AV: Beliya’al} will copulate, and from
it[=her] will emerge Armilous.
(Main version) He will reign over all:
his dominion extending from one end of the Earth to the other. No one
will dare challenge him. And if any one fails to have faith in him, he
will put such a man to death with his ruthless sword. And with him there
will be ten kings.
(Alternative version) He will ascend
and rule despotically, instilling fear over the province of his father
the Satan {or: Beliya’al}. His features will be as follows: The
hair of his head – yellowish gold; his arms reach down to his lower
legs; his face’s width – a handbreadth; his eyes crooked;
he possesses two crowns – all who behold him shiver in dread of
him All the gentiles of the the provinces will go astray, after him. But
the Jews will not have faith in him. He will assail the men of the ‘Higher
Holy-ones’ in Jerusalem – with a vast army and forceful power.
AV: And ten kings will arise [to assail] the nations in the space of seven
years. They will not manage to rule for {half of a} septenate {AV: half
a septennium}.
AV: These are their names – with their city-names: The first king:
Saleicus; his [capital] city’s name Sefarrad {AV: that is Aspamiah,
an [over]seas province}; the second king: Arthemus, his city’s name
Gothia; the third king: Paleius, his city’s name Palueis; the fourth
king: Goleias, his city’s name Galyah; the fifth king: Demetrius;
his city’s name Murathia; the sixth king: Herculanus, his city’s
name Italy; the seventh king: Achteinus, his city’s name Durmeis;
the eighth king: Ethreimus; his city’s name Aram Naharayyim; the
ninth king: Shiroy the king of Persia; the tenth king Armilous son of
Satan, who is to emerge from the stone statue. He [=the latter] stands
to reign over all of them.
The ten kings are to come to Jerusalem. They will wage war
with a People of Holy Ones; they will defeat many of them. Shiroy will
slay {AV: pierce} Nehemiah son of Hushiel; sixteen righteous men will
be slain with him. They will then exile Israel to the Desert. Chefzi-Bah,
Mother of Menahem son of Amiel, shall stand firm in the Eastern Gate:
there [=beyond that point] that Wicked One shall not enter – thus
fulfilling the verse [Zac. 14]: “The rest of the people shall not
be cut off from the City”.
(Main version) There will be a state of
distress for Israel, such as has never been [experienced] earlier. They
will flee into turrets and into caves. They will have no way of hiding
from him.
(Alternative version) Then there will
be a great and exceedingly severe famine throughout all the land, for
forty-five days. During those days, men’s wages will not materialize,
and wages for the hire of animals will be lacking. All the Jews will make
their way towards the Wilderness of Judah and to the Brook of Shittim.
There they will eat striplex straight from the bushes and will pluck the
fruit of a palm, for their sustenance.
The Children of Israel are to lament [the death of] Nehemiah
son of Hushiel for forty-one days: his carcass will be cast facing the
gates of Jerusalem – pierced [as it was]; but no wild animal, fowl,
nor tame animal will touch it! {AV: But after the forty-one days, the
Holy-One Blessed be He will bury him in the tombs of the Kings of the
House of Judah}. The Children of Israel will cry out to the Lord, from
their dire suffering and great duress.
Then Armilous will ascend from Jerusalem to Rivlah {A.V.
– i.e. Antiochia}, and conquer it. He will enter, together with
the Children of the Orient, who held the kingly power there, and he will
incite a war with the Children of Kedar in the Valley of Arvel. He will
be successful and conquer the entire world.
After all these events, Menahem son of Amiel, together with all the People
of Israel, from near and from far, as well as Nehemiah son of Hushiel,
with all the dead who will have come alive, and Elijah the Prophet with
them, will make their way up to Jerusalem. In the month of Av, when they
had lamented Nehemiah, the ruins of Jerusalem will again be populated;
there will be a great rejoicing in Israel. They will offer a sacrifice
to the Lord, and it will be accepted favorably on their behalf. The meal-offering
of Israel will be sweet for the Lord, as it was in the beginning, and
in the days of old. The Lord will smell the pleasing scent [of the burnt
offerings] of His People Israel. He will greatly rejoice and be happy
with Israel. The Lord will bring down to Earth, the Temple which will
have been fully built on High; the Cloud of the Incense in the Lord’s
inner chamber will ascend heaven-wards. Then the Messiah of the Lord will
come forth, with all Israel following him {AV: accompanying him}, and
they will stop and stand facing the Gates of Jerusalem, opposite the Mount
of Olives. The Holy God will stand at the peak of the Mount. His awe will
be intensely felt throughout the Heavens and the Heavens’ Heavens
as well as through the Earth, right to all its lower depths, throughout
the Waters and their flowing springs, and through the Mountains with their
foundations, as well as upon all flesh and all living souls – for
the Lord God will have revealed Himself in the eyes of everyone. Then
all the Jews in the Diaspora will come up to the Mount of Olives, and
will behold Zion and Jerusalem and will rejoice. Then Zion will proclaim:
Who has born for me all these? These many – where are they [from]?
Then Nehemiah will go up to Jerusalem and say to her: Behold your children
which you have born, and who had earlier gone into exile far away from
you! Be greatly jubilant, daughter of Zion, shout for joy, daughter of
Jerusalem! Extend the area of your tent and of the drapes of your dwellings.
Then the high angel Metatron showed me Jeusalem, built up, its length
and breadth having been increased. He showed me the walls of Jerusalem
– walls of fire, around her – “from the wilderness,
and from Lebanon, from the great River, the Euphrates, right up to the
nether sea”. He showed me the Palace {AV the Temple}: the Palace
was built, erected on five mountain-peaks. He then said to me: These are
the mountains, on which the Lord has chosen to raise high His Sanctuary.
Then I asked: What are their names? He said to me: These are their names:
Lebanon, Moriyyah-Mount, Tabor, Carmel and Hermon.
Excerpt taken from Hebrew edition of: Midreshei Geula,
edited by Yehuda Even-Shmuel (Kaufmann), Book of Zerubbavel