1 Then Abraham arose, and went into his house, and Death also accompanied him there. And Abraham went up into his chamber, and Death went up with him. And Abraham lay down upon his couch, and Death came and sat by his feet.
2 Then Abraham said, “Depart, depart from me, for I desire to rest upon my couch.”
3 Death said, “I will not depart until I take your spirit from you.”
4 Abraham said to him, “By the immortal God I charge you to tell me the truth. Are you death?”
5 Death said to him, “I am Death. I am the destroyer of the world.”
6 Abraham said, “I beseech you, since you are Death, tell me if you come thus to all in such fairness and glory and beauty?”
7 Death said, “Nay, my Lord Abraham, for your righteousnesses, and the boundless sea of your hospitality, and the greatness of your love towards God has become a crown upon my head, and in beauty and great peace and gentleness I approach the righteous,
8 but to sinners I come in great corruption and fierceness and the greatest bitterness and with fierce and pitiless look.”
9 Abraham said, “I beseech you, hearken to me, and show me your fierceness and all your corruption and bitterness.”
10 And Death said, “You can not behold my fierceness, most righteous Abraham.”
11 Abraham said, “Yes, I shall be able to behold all your fierceness by means of the name of the living God, for the might of my God that is in heaven is with me.”
12 Then Death put off all his comeliness and beauty, and all his glory and the form like the sun with which he was clothed,
13 and put upon himself a tyrant's robe, and made his appearance gloomy and fiercer than all kind of wild beasts, and more unclean than all uncleanness.
14 And he showed to Abraham seven fiery heads of serpents and fourteen faces, (one) of flaming fire and of great fierceness, and a face of darkness, and a most gloomy face of a viper, and a face of a most terrible precipice, and a face fiercer than an asp, and a face of a terrible lion, and a face of a cerastes and basilisk.
15 He showed him also a face of a fiery scimitar, and a sword-bearing face, and a face of lightning, lightening terribly, and a noise of dreadful thunder.
16 He showed him also another face of a fierce stormy sea, and a fierce rushing river, and a terrible three-headed serpent, and a cup mingled with poisons,
17 and in short he showed to him great fierceness and unendurable bitterness, and every mortal disease as of the odor of Death.
18 And from the great bitterness and fierceness there died servants and maid-servants in number about seven thousand,
19 and the righteous Abraham came into indifference of death so that his spirit failed him.