1 And in the third week of this jubilee the unclean demons began to
lead astray the children of
2 the sons of Noah, and to make to err and destroy them. And the sons
of Noah came to Noah their father, and they told him concerning the demons
which were leading astray and blinding and
3 slaying his sons' sons. And he prayed before the Lord his God, and
said:
'God of the spirits of all flesh, who hast shown mercy unto me
And hast saved me and my sons from the waters of the flood,
And hast not caused me to perish as Thou didst the sons of perdition;
For Thy grace has been great towards me,
And great has been Thy mercy to my soul;
Let Thy grace be lift up upon my sons,
And let not wicked spirits rule over them
Lest they should destroy them from the earth.
4 But do Thou bless me and my sons, that we may increase and Multiply
and replenish the earth.
5 And Thou knowest how Thy Watchers, the fathers of these spirits,
acted in my day: and as for these spirits which are living, imprison them
and hold them fast in the place of condemnation, and let them not bring
destruction on the sons of thy servant, my God; for these are malignant,
and
6 were created in order to destroy. And let them not rule over the spirits
of the living; for Thou alone canst exercise dominion over them. And let
them not have power over the sons of the righteous
7,8 from henceforth and for evermore.' And the Lord our God bade us
to bind all. And the chief of the spirits, Mastema, came and said: 'Lord,
Creator, let some of them remain before me, and let them harken to my voice,
and do all that I shall say unto them; for if some of them are not left
to me, I shall not be able to execute the power of my will on the sons
of men; for these are for corruption and leading astray before my judgment,
for great is the wickedness of the sons of men.'
9 And He said: Let the tenth part of them remain before him, and let
nine parts descend into the
10 place of condemnation.' And one of us He commanded that we should
teach Noah all their
11 medicines; for He knew that they would not walk in uprightness,
nor strive in righteousness. And we did according to all His words: all
the malignant evil ones we bound in the place of condemna-
12 tion and a tenth part of them we left that they might be subject
before Satan on the earth. And we explained to Noah all the medicines of
their diseases, together with their seductions, how he
13 might heal them with herbs of the earth. And Noah wrote down all
things in a book as we instructed him concerning every kind of medicine.
Thus the evil spirits were precluded from
14 (hurting) the sons of Noah. And he gave all that he had written
to Shem, his eldest son; for he
15 loved him exceedingly above all his sons. And Noah slept with his
fathers, and was buried on
16 Mount Lubar in the land of Ararat.