1 When the throngs who were surrounding them heard this, they cried out with one accord, saying, “Truly everything which this venerable man has said is worthy of attention.”
2 But he remained silent, pulled up his cloak, and covered his face.
3 The assemblage and the priest who was present, after a silence, said: “Let him rest a little.”
4 Then the angel of God came to him and took him to the heavens.
5 There he beheld certain things in fear.
6 Many wild beasts(?) were within easy reach.
7 The sides . . . (?) like the brothers so that they could not get sight of one another.
8 Their faces were like the faces of camels and some were like the faces of dogs.
9 Others were like the faces of lions and hyenas and tigers; and some had only one eye.
10 Isaac said, “I looked and, behold, they had agreed on a person and were hurrying him along.
11 And when they had made a sign to the lions, those who were walking with him withdrew from him.
12 Then the lions turned upon him, tore him apart in the middle, dismembered him, and chewed and swallowed him.
13 After this they ejected him from their mouths and he returned to his original state.
14 And after the lions the others came forward and did the same thing to him.
15 One after the other they would take him, and every one of them would chew him, swallow him, and eject him, and he would return to his original state.”
16 Then I said to the angel, “O my lord, what is the sin which this man has committed that he should have to endure a burden like this?”
17 The angel said to me, “It is because this man, whom you see, was in enmity with his neighbor for five hours, and he died without having been reconciled with him.
18 So he was handed over to five of the tormentors that they might torment him a whole year for each of the five hours which he spent as the enemy of his friend.”
19 Then the angel said to me, “O my beloved Isaac, see here the sixty myriads who inflict torture for each hour that the man remains hostile to his neighbor.
20 He is brought here to these creatures who torture him, each one of them for an hour until a full year is completed if he had not been making peace and repenting of his sin before his removal and his separation from his body.”
21 Then he brought me to a river of fire. I saw it throbbing, with its waves rising to about thirty cubits; and its sound was like rolling thunder.
22 I looked upon many souls being immersed in it to a depth of about nine cubits.
23 They were weeping and crying out with a loud voice and great groaning, those who were in that river.
24 And that river had wisdom in its fire: It would not harm the righteous, but only the sinners by burning them.
25 It would burn every one of them because of the stench and repugnance of the odor surrounding the sinners.
26 Then I observed the deep river? whose smoke had come up before me, and I saw a group of people at the bottom of it, screaming, weeping, every one of them lamenting.
27 The angel said to me, “Look at the bottom to observe those whom you see at the lowest depth. They are the ones who have committed the sin of Sodom; truly, they were due a drastic punishment. ”
28 Then I saw the overseer of punishment and he was all of him fire.
29 He would strike the myrmidons of hell (his helpers) and say to them, “Kill them that it may be known that God exists forever.”
30 Then the angel said to me, “Lift up your eyes and look at the whole gamut of punishments.”
31 But I said to the angel, “‘My sight cannot embrace them because of their great number; but I desire to understand how long these people are to be in this torture.”
32 He said to me, “Until the God of mercy becomes merciful and has mercy on them.”