2 Baruch 53:1–12

¹ And when I had said these things I fell asleep there, and I saw a vision, and lo! a cloud was ascending from a very great sea, and I kept gazing upon it, and lo! it was full of waters white and black, and there were many colours in those self-same waters, and as it were the likeness of great (2BA) ² lightning was seen at its summit. And I saw the cloud passing swiftly in quick courses, and it (2BA) ³ covered all the earth. And it came to pass after these things that cloud began to pour (2BA) ⁴ upon the earth the waters that were in it. And I saw that there was not one and the same likeness (2BA) ⁵ in the waters which descended from it. For in the first beginning they were black and many for a time, and afterwards I saw that the waters became bright, but they were not many, and after these things again I saw black (waters), and after these things again bright, and again (2BA) ⁶ black and again bright how this was done twelve times, but the black were always more numerous (2BA) ⁷ than the bright. And it came to pass at the end of the cloud, that lo! it rained black waters, and they were darker than had been all those waters that were before, and fire was mingled (2BA) ⁸ with them, and where those waters descended, they wrought devastation and destruction. And after these things I saw how that lightning which I had seen on the summit of the cloud, seized (2BA) ⁹ hold of it and hurled it to the earth. Now that lightning shone exceedingly, so as to illuminate the whole earth, and it healed those regions where the last waters had descended and wrought (2BA) ¹⁰ devastation. And it took hold of the whole earth, and had dominion over it. And I saw after these things, and lo! twelve rivers were ascending from the sea, and they began to surround (2BA) ¹² that lightning and to become subject to it. And by reason of my fear I awoke. (2BA)