Greeks, and, in the second century B.C.E., some
Alexandrian Jews made use of them to recommend Judaism to the heathen
world. In the Jewish Sibylline books the religion of Israel is presented
as a hope and a threat; a menace to those who refuse to follow the
better life, a promise of salvation to those who repent. About the year
80 C.E., a book of this kind was composed. It is what is known as the
Fourth Book of the Sibylline Oracles. The language is Greek, the form
hexameter verse. In this poem, the Sibyl, in the guise of a prophetess,
tells of the doom of those who resist the will of the one true God,
praises the God of Israel, and holds out a beautiful prospect to the
faithful.

The book opens with an invocation:

Hear, people of proud Asia, Europe, too,
How many things by great, loud-sounding mouth,
All true and of my own, I prophesy.
No oracle of false Apollo this,
Whom vain men call a god, tho' he deceived;
But of the mighty God, whom human hands
Shaped not like speechless idols cut in stone.

The Sibyl speaks of the true God, to love whom brings blessing. The
ungodly triumph for a while, as Assyria, Media, Phrygia, Greece, and
Egypt had triumphed. Jerusalem will fall, and the Temple perish in
flames, but retribution will follow, the earth will be desolated by the
divine wrath, the race of men and cities and rivers will be reduced to
smoky dust, unless moral amendment comes betimes. Then the Sibyl's note
changes into a prophecy of Messianic judgment and bliss, and she ends
with a comforting message:

But when all things become an ashy pile,
God will put out the fire unspeakable
Which he once kindled, and the bones and ashes
Of men will God himself again transform,
And raise up mortals as they were before.
And then will be the judgment, God himself
Will sit as judge, and judge the world again.
As many as committed impious sins
Shall Stygian Gehenna's depths conceal
'Neath molten earth and dismal Tartarus.

But the pious shall again live on the earth,
And God will give them spirit, life, and means
Of nourishment, and all shall see themselves,
Beholding the sun's sweet and cheerful light.
O happiest men who at that time shall live!

The Jews found some consolation for present sorrows in the thought of
past deliverances. The short historical record known as the "Scroll of
Fasting" (_Megillath Taanith_) was perhaps begun