more there a person of immature years, or an old man who shall not fulfil his days.[1] For the young man shall be an hundred years old;[2] but the sinner who dies an hundred years old,[2] he shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and shall themselves inhabit them; and they shall plant vines, and shall themselves eat the produce of them, and drink the wine. They shall not build, and others inhabit; they shall not plant, and others eat. For according to the days of the tree of life shall be the days of my people; the works of their toil shall abound.[3] Mine elect shall not toil fruitlessly, or beget children to be cursed; for they shall be a seed righteous and blessed by the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call I will hear; while they are still speaking, I shall say, What is it? Then shall the wolves and the lambs feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent [shall eat] earth as bread. They shall not hurt or maltreat each other on the holy mountain, saith the Lord.'[4] Now we have understood that the expression used among these words, 'According to the days of the tree [of life[5]] shall be the days of my people; the works of their toil shall abound,' obscurely predicts a thousand years. For as Adam was told that in the day he ate of the tree he would die, we know that he did not complete a thousand years. We have perceived, moreover, that the expression, 'The day of the Lord is as a thousand years,'[6] is connected with this subject. And further, there was a certain man with us, whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, who prophesied, by a revelation that was made to him, that those who believed in our Christ would dwell[7] a thousand years in Jerusalem; and that thereafter the general, and, in short, the eternal resurrection and judgment of all men would likewise take place. Just as our Lord also said,
- ↑ Literally, "time."
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Literally, "the son of an hundred years."
- ↑ Or, as in margin of A.V., "they shall make the works of their toil continue long," so reading παλαιώσουσιν for πλεονάσουσιν: thus also LXX.
- ↑ Isa. lxv. 17 to end.
- ↑ These words are not found in the mss.
- ↑ Ps. xc. 4; 2 Pet. iii. 8.
- ↑ Literally, "make."
