Chapter Thirty-six

About the future Messiah of the Jews

All the Jews acknowledge that a Messiah was promised to them. They also pray about this in their daily prayers that he should come soon, in their days, and in their lifetime. However, they remain in great doubt about what kind of person he will be, and when he will come.

The usually believe that he will be an ordinary man, but far surpassing other men in virtue. He will also marry a woman, and father children, who will rule after him.

Holy Scripture speaks of the Messiah in two different ways, that is, sometimes it speaks of an ordinary, poor, humble man who will eventually die, sometimes of a glorious, powerful, and exalted man. So too, they have two Messiahs. They call one of them Messia ben Joseph, the son of Joseph. He will be poor and ordinary, but still a powerful warrior. The other they call Messia ben David, the son of David, who will be the real Messiah and king over Israel, and rule them in their land.

They are not agreed about his coming. The old Jews before the birth of Christ were not far from the mark, for Elijah declared that the world would last six thousand years. For two thousand years it shall be Tohu, waste and void, that is to say, without God's precept; for two thousand years it shall be torah, under the Law; for two thousand years jeme Maschiach, under the Messiah. Thus they hoped that four thousand years after the creation of the world the Messiah would come, and this is about right. For according to the usual Christian reckoning, Christ, the right and true Messiah, was born in the year 3963, according to the usual Jewish reckoning in the year 3761, so they differ from us by 202 years. However, they would not accept Christ as the true Messiah, because he did not come like a great potentate and a powerful king, as David and Solomon had been, to extricate them from the tyranny of the foreigner Herod, and release them from the power of Rome. Moreover he did not carry an iron scepter to shatter all their foes, but rather the spiritual scepter of the word. [Ger: Mund] However, the elders and the pious were awaiting him, as we are told about Simeon Luke 2.25 who was waiting for the consolation of Israel, that is to say, for Christ. Also there was the aged prophetess Anna, Luke 2.38 who constantly told everyone that she was waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. And this is what the Apostle Paul says Romans 11.5 that some remain, chosen by grace, who recognised Christ as the true Messiah and Savior.

However, since they had lost all royal power, and the proper priestly honor and glory, the city of Jerusalem had been destroyed, and the Temple burned, it seemed to them that the time of the Messiah had passed away. Therefore, fifty-two years after the destruction of the Temple, a proud and arrogant Jew made himself out to be the Messiah, and applied to himself the prophecy of Balaam Num. 24.17: A STAR shall go forth from Jacob and a scepter shall come out of Israel, and shall shatter the princes of the Moabites and destroy the children of Seth. Edom will be captured, and Seir will be subjugated by its enemies. (They applied this to the newly begun empire of the Christians, and to this day they hold that the coming Messiah will fulfil it.) But Israel will be the victor. This was an agreeable message to them, that they would be lords and masters over the Romans, for just before they had destroyed their city and Temple. According to this he called himself Bar chochabh, a young star, and at first the very learned Rabbi Akibha approved of him, and proclaimed him openly: Hayenno Malca Meschicha, this is the King Messiah! Many of the people adhered to him, and he had his royal seat in the city of Bitter [Bethar, seven miles SW of Jerusalem.] However, after the Roman Emperor Hadrian besieged this messiah three and a half years in his city, he took the city and killed the messiah, slaughtering four hundred thousand Jews along with the star himself. The remainder saw they were misled by this star, and unto this day call this false messiah Bar cozaby or Cuzibhah, that is, a son of lies, a mendacious and false messiah. Subsequently many others passed themselves off as messiahs, as you can read in the book Schebet jehudah. In conscience the Jews must admit that the time of the Messiah is already passed.

Since now they despised Christ, the true Messiah, and would not accept him, they also falsified the tradition of Elijah, that the Messiah would come after four thousand years, and asserted that on account of their sins the time had been put farther off, and the Messiah has not yet come. Since they were unable to place a limit on when the Messiah might come, they placed an Anathema and curse on those who would reckon and declare the time and end of the Messiah: Tippach ruchan schel mechasschebhe kitzin, Every spirit who shall reckon the times, namely, when the Messiah shall come, shall swell up and burst.

Disregarding all of this, many of them knew in their inner conscience that according to prophecy the time of the Messiah had already passed and gone by, so they wrote they he actually had been born already, but had not yet revealed himself on account of their sins and impenitent life, and this they believe up to the present day. Rabbi Solomon Jarchi writes that the elders held that he was born on the day that Jerusalem was destroyed for the last time. However, it is unknown where he has been hiding himself for such a long time. Some believe that he resides in Paradise bound to the hair of a woman, and so understand this statement in the Song of Solomon, 7.5: The head which is on you is like Mount Carmel; the hair on your head is like purple, with which the King is tied up in the gangway, or walkway. "The King" means the Messiah, and "the gangway" means Paradise. [See note.] The aforementioned Rab. Solomon bases his interpretation on these old Rabbis. It is mentioned in the Talmud that he sits in Rome at the gate, among the sick and the lepers. They also understand so the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, verse 3, where it is written that he was despised and rejected by men, and was full of pain and sickness. Others invent other lies and fables. Let this all be the way they want it, the result is that they believe that he has yet to come.

Before his arrival, there will be ten remarkable wonders by which everyone will be warned and cautioned to pay attention to his coming, and he will not be so simple and ordinary as Christ was. I will recount here these ten signs, as they are listed in a little book called Abkas rochel.

1. God will raise up and bring three kings, who will be false and unfaithful to their own belief, but will mislead people into thinking that they serve the true God. This is not the case, but they will mislead and misguide all men so that they will fall away from belief in him, and many sinners in Israel will fail to be redeemed, rejecting God and departing from belief in him. Of such it will be said Is. 59.15: Truth is turned away. What is turned away? It will come to pass that all who love truth will run and flee away, and hide in holes and crevices of the earth, and the strong heroes and tyrants will follow them and kill them. Then Israel will have no king, as it is written Hos. 3.4: The Children of Israel will stay for a long time without king or prince, without offering or altar etc. There will be no Rosch jeschibja, head of the synagogue, no true pastor, who might take the people in the law of God, there shall be no more holy, famous, outstanding men. The heaven will be closed, and food and nourishment will be unobtainable. The three kings will issue many severe and tyrannical Decreta, [decrees] to the point that men would rather die than abjure God. Through God's order these kings will reign only nine months. They will lay double tribute upon them, so that the one who gave eight henceforth had to give eighty, and the one who had given ten had to give one hundred. The one who can give nothing will have to pay with his head. They will lay even longer and heavier burdens upon the people of Israel. From the end of the world will come men so black and frightful that the one who sees them will die of fright. Each one of them will have two heads and seven eyes filled with flames and fire. They will run as quickly and swiftly as the deer. Then Israel will cry out: Woe, woe unto us! And their little children will be afraid and cry out: Oh, woe, oh, woe, what shall we do, dear father? Then the father will say: The redemption of Israel is now very near and at hand.
2. God will bring a great heat of the sun into the world, with the result that many intense fevers, pestilences and other sicknesses will come about. Every day a thousand times a thousand of the heathens and nations of the world, also the impious among Israel, will die, so that the heathens will wail and cry out bitterly and say: Alas and alack! Where can we turn to hide ourselves? And they will run away and dig their own graves and beg for death on account of the great thirst and pains, and they will hide in the holes and crevices of the earth. However, the upright and pious among Israel will find healing in this heat, as it is written Mal. 4.2: The sun of righteousness will rise over you who fear my name, with health and healing in its wings. Impious Balaam prophesied about this also Num 24.23: Oh, who shall live when God does this?
3. God will bring a bloody dew upon the earth, which the Christians and nations of the world will regard as a delightful watery dew. They will drink from it, and all will die. Also the impious of Israel, who despised the redemption, will drink from it and die. However, it will not injure the pious and upright Jews who remained strong in the true belief in God, as it is written Dan. 12.3: The wise will shine like the stars in heaven. And the whole world will be full of blood for three days, as it is written Joel 2.30: I will give signs in the heaven and on the earth, namely, blood, fire, smoke and mist.
4. God will again bring a healthy dew. The moderately pious ones will drink from this, who drank from the previous dew and got sick. The will recover on account of this dew as it is written Hos. 14.6: I will be to Israel like a dew, so that he shall blossom like a rose.
5. God will turn the sun to darkness for thirty days, as it is written Joel 2.31: The sun shall be changed into darkness, and the world into blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. After thirty days its previous light will be restored, as it is written Is. 24.22: They shall be gathered in a group to a pit and will be locked up in a dungeon, and after a long time they shall have a visitation. At this the Christians will be sorely afraid, and be ashamed, and understand that this has happened on account of the people of Israel, and many will join the Jewish belief, as it is written Jon. 2.8: Those who regard idols and things of nothingness forsake their mercy.
6. God will allow the impious Kingdom of Edom (by which they understand the Roman Empire) to rule over the entire world. In particular there will be one at Rome who will have dominion over the entire world for nine months and desolate vast lands. His anger will rage against the people of Israel, and lay heavy tribute on them, and ordain for them much misery and calamities. Then the Israelites will be greatly diminished and almost extirpated, and have no one to help. Isaiah spoke of such a time when he prophesied Is. 59.16: He sees that there is no man there, and is surprised that no one champions them. After nine months God will send the Messiah ben Joseph, born of the children of Joseph, whose name is called Nehemiah son of Husiel, who will come with the stock of Mannaseh and Benjamin, and part of the children of Gad. As soon as the Israelites hear and comprehend this, they will gather to him from all the cities and lands, as it is written Jer. 3.14: Turn back, you backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I will make you trust in me, and will fetch you, taking one from a city, and two from a district, and I shall lead you to Zion. Then the Messiah ben Joseph will wage a bitter war against Edom (that is, against the Roman King or Pope) conquer him, and kill a great part of his people. Finally he will strangle the King of Edom, destroy the Roman kingdom medinas Romi, and bring back to Jerusalem certain holy vessels which are treasured up in the house of the Emperor Ælianus. The King of Egypt will also make a pact with the Israelites, and will kill all the men who live in Jerusalem, Damascus and Ashkelon. This will resound throughout the entire world, and great fear and dread will fall on all men on account of it.
7. They say that there is at Rome a marble in the shape of a beautiful young woman, which was not made by men's hands, but through divine power. The impious evildoers of the peoples will gather at this statue, and fall in love with it, and sleep with it in an unchaste manner. Thereupon God will form and build a creature of the same stone in the shape of a child, and eventually the marble will split open and the child will emerge. This child will be called Armillus harascha, impious Armillus, this is the same as the Umos, [gentiles] or Christians, call the Anti-Christ. His length and breadth shall be twelve ells. His eyes will be deep and red. His hair will be the color of gold. The soles of his feet will be green, and he will have two heads. He will come to Rome to the impious king, and say that he is the Messiah and their god. Straightway the Romans will believe in him, and make him king over them, and all the children of Esau will love him and adhere to him. He will bring the whole world under him, and say to the children of Esau (that is, the Christians): Bring here to me the law which I gave you. Then they will bring it to him, along with their prayer-book, and he will recognize it and say that he gave it to them, and they should believe in him. Thereupon he will send to Jerusalem, to Nehemiah son of Husiel and to the entire people of Israel, and bid them bring their law, and acknowledge that he is god. At this they will be terrified and greatly amazed. Then Nehemiah, along with thirty thousand strong warriors of the stock of Ephraim, will set out and take the book of the law with them. They will read before Armillus this statement Ex. 20.2-3: I am the Lord your God … you shall have no other gods before my countenance. Armillus will answer that there is no such thing in their law, but they should come and recognize that he is god, and accept him as their god, just as the Umos [gentiles] and other peoples have done. Nehemiah son of Husiel will immediately order his men to seize him and bind him. He will rise up with thirty thousand warriors, and slay twice one hundred thousand men of Armillus' people. At this Armillus will become furious and enraged, and he will gather all his people and gather them in a deep valley, and again fight with Israel and again kill many of them.
   In that very place, the good Messiah ben Joseph will die, and the holy angels will store him away, and bury him, and put him away safely with the other patriarchs of the world. However, the Israelites will be sore afraid, and their heart will melt like water. But Armillus will not be aware and know that the good Messiah ben Joseph is dead, otherwise he would not leave a single man of them alive. Thereupon all the peoples of the world will drive the Israelites out of their lands, and will not allow them to dwell with them any more, and there will be distress and pain among the Jews such as never occurred since the beginning of the world. Then the Angel Michaël will come, and separate the impious among Israel, as it is written Dan. 12.1: At that time the great prince Michaël who stands up for the people, will set out, and there will be a troublous time, such as has never been before. Those who remain will flee to the wilderness where God will try and refine them like gold and silver, as it is written Ezek. 20.38: And I will purge out from you the rebels. Dan. 12.10: Many shall be purified, refined and whitened. And all the remaining Israelites in the wilderness will be pure and holy, and at that very time there will remain 45 days, and they will eat only herbs, leaves and grass, and that which was said by the prophet Hosea 2.14: Behold, I will entice her, and lead her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart. From where can we ascertain that she shall wait 45 days in the wilderness? From what is written Dan. 12.11: From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the horrible thing of the desolate area will be set up, will be 1290 days. Happy the one who waits and reckons 1335 days. (Observe that when you add to the ninety forty-five days, you get the final count of 1335.) At that very time the impious in Israel, who are not worthy to see the redemption will die and pass away. Finally, impious Armillus will invade and subdue Egypt, as it is written Dan. 11.42: Egypt will not escape from him. From there he will again turn toward Jerusalem, and set out to destroy that city a second time, as it is written Dan. 11.45: And he will pitch the canopy of his palace between two seas and the holy water, until there is an end of him, and none shall help him.
8. The great angel Michael will arise, and blow thrice a great horn, as it is written Is. 27.13: At that time they will blow a great trumpet, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and the outcasts in the land of Egypt shall come and worship the Lord in the holy mountain in Jerusalem. Again, Zech. 9.14: The Lord will blow the trumpet, and come hither, like the stormclouds of the south. When he blows for the first time with a deep, steady sound, the right Messiah, son of David, and the prophet Elijah will appear and reveal themselves to the pious Israelites who escaped to the wilderness of Judah. Then they will pluck up courage, their weak hands will be strengthened, their lame legs will gather strength. All the Jews throughout the whole world will hear the sound of the horn, and understand that God has graciously summoned them home, and the total rememption is at hand. Also those who were imprisoned in Assyria will start out. However, great fear and terror will fall upon the Christians and other peoples of the world from the blast of the horn, and great and fearful sicknesses will grasp them. Meanwhile, the Jews will gird up their loins, and get up on their feet to travel to Jerusalem. The Messiah the son of David and Elijah the prophet along with the pious who escaped to the wilderness of Judah, and all the other Israelites who have joined him shall come to Jerusalem with great joy. As soon as the evil Armillus hears this, he will say: How long will this despicable and heedless people behave thus? And he will bring anew great troops and armies of the Christians to go to Jerusalem to attack the new king. But God will not bring them from one trouble into another, but will say to the Messiah Ps. 110.1: Come, sit at my right hand. And to the people of Israel Ex. 14.13: Be quiet and sit still, and see the great help which God will show you today. Then God will drop fire and brimstone from heaven, as it is written Ezek. 38.22: And I will contend with him by pestilence and blood; and will rain down a rainstorm with great hailstones, fire, and brimstone over him and his army, and over the large number of people who are with him. Then evil Armillus and his entire army will die, and the impious Edomites (that is, the Christians) who devasted the house of our God, and carried us off captive from our land, shall perish miserably, and the Jews will be avenged on them as it is written Obad. 18: And the house of Jacob shall be fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, but the house of Esau (that is, the Christian Empire, because they call us Esauites, Edomites, etc.) shall be stubble, and they shall burn and consume them so that the house of Esau (the Christians) shall have nothing remaining.
9. When the Archangel Michael blows a great and long blast for the second time, all the graves in Jerusalem will open, and God will revive all the dead. Also Messiah the son of David and the prophet Elijah will revive the pious Messiah ben Joseph, who was kept under the gate. Meanwhile the entire people of Israel will despatch the Messiah ben David, to the remaining Jews who are scattered here and there under the Christians and other peoples of the world, to bring them also to Jerusalem. Immediately all the kings of the peoples under whom the Jews lived will take them on their shoulders and their vehicles, and bring them to Jerusalem. Oh, would that we were there!
10. When the Angel Michael blows for the third time, God will lead out the Jews who live on the river Gosan, Lachlach and Chabor, and in the cities of Judah, and they, countless and numberless, shall come with the children of Moses into Paradise, and the Earthly Kingdom before and behind them shall be naught but fire and flame, and the Christians and other peoples shall have nothing left on which they might sustain themselves and live. And when the ten tribes of the Israelites set out, the clouds of glory and majesty of God will surround them, and God himself will set off before them, as it is written Micah 2.13: A breaker is gone up before them. They will break through, and go in and out of the door, and their king will draw near unto them, and the Lord will be before them. God will also open up springs unto them which flow from the tree of life, and they will drink from them on the way, never suffering from thirst, as it is written Is. 41.18: I shall open rivers on the high places, and springs on the fields. I shall make the deserts pools of water, and the dry land springs of water. Again, Is.49.10: They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them etc.

Corresponding to these ten signs of the coming of the Messiah during which they must suffer great travail and stress, shall be ten comforts:

1. The first comfort is that the Messiah will surely come, as it is written Zech. 9.9: Behold your king is coming to you etc.
2. He will assemble and bring together those who are dispersed throughout the whole world, as it is written Jer. 31.7: Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north, and will gather them from the ends of the earth, together the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman, and her who has just given birth, so that they will come here as a great multitude. From this we learn that when a lame or blind man dies, the Messiah will revive him in the same state. Thus one person can recognise the other. But God will thereupon make them whole, so that the lame will leap like the deer, as it is written Is. 35.6: Then the lame will leap like the deer, and the mute tongue will utter God's praise.
3. God will awaken the dead, as it is written Dan. 12.2: They who lie asleep under the earth shall awaken etc.
4. God will rebuild the third holy Temple, after the form which the prophet Ezekiel saw 41.1 et seqq.
5. Then the people of Israel will rule and have lordship over the entire world, from one end to the other, as it is written Is. 60.12: Such nation and kingdom which will not serve you will perish, and the nations will be destroyed. Also, the whole world will turn to God and submit to his rule and law, as it is written Zeph. 3.9: But then I shall end it, and give the nations a pure speech, so that they all call on the name of the Lord.
6. At this time, God will destroy and do away with all the enemies of his people, and exact great vengeance from them, as it is written Ezek. 25.14: I shall take vengeance again on Edom through my people Israel etc.
7. God will take away from the people of Israel all sicknesses and plagues, as it is written Is. 33.24: And no inhabitant shall say: I am weak. For the people that dwell therein will have forgiveness of sin.
8. God will then lengthen their years and lifetime as long as the life of an oak tree or similar, as it is written Is. 65.22: The days of my people shall be as the days of a tree. Again, Is. 65.20: There shall no more be children who will not live out their years, or old people who do not live their years to the full, but the children shall die at the age of one hundred. (That is, when someone dies at the age of one hundred, people will say that he died in infancy, or a young child has died, but they will live like the years of those from Adam to Noah, many hundreds of years, as Aben Ezra writes about this verse.)
9. God will manifest himself to the Israelites so that they will see him face to face, as it is written Is. 40.5: The glory of the Lord will be evident, and all flesh together will see that the Lord's mouth is speaking. Also, he will make prophets out of the entire people of Israel, as it is written Joel 2.23 (3.1): After this I will pour my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, etc.
10. God will take away from them the inborn desires, tendencies and attractions towards evil, as it is written Ezek. 36.26: And I shall give you a new heart, and a new spirit, and take away from you the stony heart from your flesh, and give you a fleshly heart.

So far from the little book Abhkas rochel, translated into German. In it you see the summary and content of what they believe with respect to the Messiah, and how he will bring them to their land. I deem it not inappropriate to expatiate a little on the solemnities with which the Messiah will welcome them to their land, and in what bliss they shall live under him.

So when the Messiah will have gathered all Jews from all lands and all directions, [Ger: von allen Winden] and brought them into Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey, he will lay out a royal banquet with great splendor and joy, and invite all Jews, and greet them warmly. There they will slaughter the largest beasts, birds and fish which God ever created, and drink delicious delicate wine which was grown in Paradise, and kept in Adam's cellar.

1. The wonderful, huge, strong ox will come which is described in the book of Job 4.10, and called Behemos. Their rabbis write that he is the same ox as that mentioned in Psalm 50.10: All the beasts of the field are mine, also the Behemos on a thousand mountains – that is, he daily denudes a thousand mountains. One has to ask what will happen when he has denuded all the mountains in the whole world. The most wise masters and rabbis answer that he always stays in his place, like a stalled ox, and what he denudes by day grows back by night, better and fuller than it was the previous day.
2. For this meal there will also be the great whale Leviathan (Lifjásan, according to the Jewish pronunciation) which is also described in the book of Job, and is spoken of elsewhere in Scripture. There is a tradition by the very wise rabbis in the Talmud about these two creatures thus: Rabbi Jehudah says: Everything which God created in his world he created male and female, so also he created the whale Leviathan. In order that they should not come together in the natural manner, and increase their species, and on account of their size and number destroy the entire world, God castrated and gelded the male, and killed the female, but he pickled her for the Tzaddikim [righteous] and god-fearing, upright Jews for a future time, namely the time of the Messiah, as it is written Is. 27.1: He slew the dragon in the sea. Similarly, he created the great ox Behemos on a thousand mountains, male and female. In order that they too should not increase, and be machribhim [destroying] what God made, he castrated and gelded the male, but the female he chilled and sterilized, and kept her for the pious Jews for a future time, as it is written Job 40.16: His strength is in his loins, and his force in the navel of his belly.
3. Elijah Levita writes in his Dictionarius Tisbe that he heard from many old and pious rabbis that at this sumptuous banquet they will also kill and roast the frightful large bird Bar juchne, about which it is written in the Talmud Bekhorot 57b: Once an egg fell from her nest which knocked down 300 tall cedars, and when it broke, it swamped sixty villages. From this you can ascertain that this bird was not unlike in size to the fish and the ox. Think what a delicious roast it would give!

No one should think that this is a mere fable, for there are more of these large birds in the Jewish land. At an earlier place in the Talmud Baba Batra 73b you can read about a crow, which also was not small, and was seen by a credible Rabbi. It goes like this: Rabba bar [bar] Channah said: I once saw a frog as big as the village of Akra in Hagonia. How big was that village? It was so big that there were sixty houses in it. A huge snake came and swallowed the frog. Soon there came a great raven, which swallowed the snake with the frog, flew away, and settled on a tree. Think how big and strong that tree must have been! Rabh Papa, son of Samuel, responded to this: Had I not been at the same place, and seen it myself, I would not have believed it! So far the Talmud. Who can accuse this Rabh-and-raven of lying? Good Kimchi writes about Psalm 50.11 in explaining the word Ziz: Rabbi Jehuda son of Simeon said: The Ziz is a bird so big, that when he spreads his wings, he darkens the Galgal hachamma, the orb of the sun, and makes darkness throughout the world. There was once a Rabbi sailing over the sea. Baba Batra, ibid. He saw a bird standing in the sea, and the water reached only to his knees. So he said to his companion: We can bathe, because it is not deep. A voice came forth from heaven and said: Don't do it, Rabbi! Someone dropped a hatchet here seven years ago, and it has not yet reached bottom. You can see how long the legs of the bird were, and how big in proportion to the legs the body must have been.

No doubt these large birds came from the forest of Ela, [Be-Ila'i] where there is also an unheard-of, frightful, huge lion, about which you can also read in the Talmud Hullin, 59b. Once the Roman Emperor asked Rab. Jehosua ben Hanania why their God compares himself to a lion, and whether he was strong enough to slay a lion. Rabbi answered: He does not compare himself to an ordinary lion, but to the one that lives in the forest of Ela. The Emperor said that he should show him that lion. The Rabbi prayed, and through his prayer made the lion run out of the forest. When he came within four hundred miles of the Emperor, he roared so fearfully, that all the pregnant women in Rome suffered miscarriages, and the walls of the city fell down. When he came another hundred miles closer, he roared again, and the teeth of all the inhabitants of Rome fell out. The Emperor fell off his throne, and almost died. Then the Emperor begged the Rabbi to make the lion turn back. This happened. But we get too far from the sumptuous banquet.

You need a good drink to go with this old flesh of the ox, and salted fish, otherwise it would stay undigested in your stomach. Therefore the Messiah will bring a fine old wine to this banquet which has matured in Paradise since close to the creation of the world in Adam's cellar, where it has been kept, as it is written Is. 27.2: At some time they will sing of the vineyard with the best wine: I, the Lord, guard it etc. Again, Ps. 75.9: The Lord has a winecup in his hand, with strong wine poured therein: he pours from it etc.

Ere and before this meal is served, this Messiah will put on a merry tournament and joust, just as other kings and princes are wont to do for honored banqueters and other distinguished guests, in order to amuse the guests and make them happy. He will make the great ox called Behemos, and the great whale called Lifjásan to come together in a broad place to sport and play a little before the Messiah, as it is written Job 40.15: All the wild beasts play thus. Again, Ps. 104.26: The Lifjásan which you made to play with him. Then the ox will run around, and stick his horns into the whale, so that the Messiah will have a good time, as it is written Ps. 69.32: It will please the lord more than a young bullock just putting out his horns. The Lifjásan will oppose the ox with his scales, as though with a coat of mail, and a helmet with a coat of arms dreadful to behold, as it is written Job 41.6: His proud scales are like a close shield, joined together close and tight. Then the real dance and alarm will take place, but to no purpose. Since they are both strong and powerful, one cannot overcome the other, but both will grow extremely tired, and they will fall down, and remain so. Then the Messiah will draw his sword, and run through both of them, and slay them, as it is written Is. 27.1: At that time the Lord will punish with his large, sharp, strong sword both the long Lifiásaan and the crooked Liviásaan fish. Again, Job 40.19: The one who made him grasps him with his sword. Yet again: Ps.74.13: You have smitten the head of the whale.

Thereupon they will boil and roast, and prepare a sumptuous and elegant meal, as it is written Is. 25.6: The Lord of Hosts will make for all peoples on this mountain a fat feast, a feast of clear wine, of fat and marrow, of pure wine in which are no dregs. Then they will apportion the fish and be happy, as it is written Job 40.20: The tradesmen shall divide him, and the merchants shall parcel him out. After this formal free meal, the Messiah will also take a wife, as it is written Ps. 45.10: In your honor are the daughters of kings, the queen (Schegal) stands at your right hand, in naught but precious gold of Ophir. This is the way the Jews themselves translate it into German, and have this interpretation; you can see it too in the comment of Kimchi. Among the precious wives whom the Messiah will have will be the daughters of the kings. Every king of the peoples of the world will consider it a great privilege to take the daughter of the Messiah to wife. But the true lawfully wedded wife of the Messiah, which is what the word Schegal usually means, will be of the most beautiful daughters of Israel, and she will sit at his right hand, and live constantly in the true royal apartments. The others, however, will only be in a hall, or woman's quarters, and will come to the king only when he desires it, at particular times. So in this marriage the Messiah will father children and grandchildren, then he will die like other men, and his children after him will govern the people of Israel, and possess the rulership, as it is written Is. 53.10: He will see progeny after him, and have a long life, and the will of the Lord will continue prosperously by his hand. That is, as the Rambam writes: The Messiah will live for a very long time, and will also die in great honor, and his son will rule after him, and his successors after him.

How then will the Jews live in their land under their Messiah? First, the Christians and other peoples who remain alive, and were not killed by them, shall come and build houses and cities for them, plant fields and vineyards for them, not for reward, but rather because they wish to do honor to them. Yea, princes and lords shall serve them, and be obedient to them. They will stroll in beautiful garments, like anointed priests, holy unto the Lord, as it is written Is. 60.10-12: Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall serve you, etc. Your gates shall always be open, day and night they shall not be shut, so that the nations shall bring you their goods and possessions, and their kings shall be led in procession to you, and those nations and kings who will not serve you shall die. Again, Is. 61.5-6: Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your field workers and vineyard workers, but you shall be called the priests of the Lord, and people will call you the servants of our God, and you will consume the good things of the nations, and glory in their precious things. (Oh, what great hunger and thirst the Jews have here! How many suffer for these people who make a hundred thousand florins without the sweat of their brow, while many Christians must sweat in sorrow and need!)

They will get a fresh, new, healthy atmosphere, as it is written Is. 65.17 I will create a new heaven and a new earth. On account of this they will remain healthy, and live for a long time, like men before they became sinful, and the flood came. Even in old age they shall be fresh and strong, as in youth, as it is written Ps. 92.15 When they become really old, they will still flourish, and be fruitful and fresh.

Once the grain is sown, it will grow every year of its own accord. Everything will be green, flower and ripen, no different from the grapevine which is only planted once, as it is written Hos. 14.8 They shall grow up like the corn, and blossom like the vine.

If someone desires a special rain for his garden, field or even for a single kitchen-garden, God will give it to him, as it is written Zech. 10.1: Ask then the early rain from the Lord, and the Lord will make clouds, and give you enough rain for every herb and what grows on the field.

Then they will gather in their grain and wine in great peace and security, and will not be oppressed by any foe, as it is written Is.62.8: I shall not again give grain to your enemies to eat, and I shall not let foreigners drink your must on which you have worked, but those who gather it shall also eat it.

There shall be no war or sound of war in the land, only freedom and security for men and wild animals, as it is written Hos. 2.18: At that time I shall make a covenant for you with the beasts of the field and with the birds of heaven and with the worms in the ground, and I shall break the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and will let you live in security. Again, Is. 11.7: The wolf will lie down with the lamb etc.

When there is war and disunity among the nations and foreign peoples, the Messiah will unite them, and make peace among them, so that no one need rely on force any more, as it is written Is. 2.4: He will judge among the nations, and admonish many peoples, they shall make their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles and no one will lift sword against another, nor learn war any more.

Then will the Jews live in everlasting joy, make new festivals, and constantly laud and praise God, and all peoples shall be full of wisdom and the knowledge of God, as it is written Jer. 33.10: On that place on which you said, it is desert, they shall hear again the sound of joy and happiness, the joyous voice of the bridegroom and the bride, and voices of which they shall say: Thank the Lord of Hosts, etc. Again, Is. 11.9: The land shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the sea is covered with water.

To sum up, the happiness of this holy people will be so great that it cannot be fathomed by thought, much less spoken of. So now I shall leave the Jews alone in this blessed state of theirs, and no further expose to Christians the secret of their belief. It is already too much, and it will hardly be pleasing to them that I have disclosed so much of their life and belief.

It will be sufficient for the Christian reader to comprehend from all of this that the Jewish faith and their entire religion is not based on Moses, but rather on nothing other than lies, false and baseless precepts, and fables of their Rabbis and far-fetched expositions of Scripture. Therefore no more should it be said amongst Christians that Jews hold strictly to Mosaic Law, but rather it is as the prophet Jeremiah said 8.5-6: They hold fast to the false service of God, and will not allow themselves to return, I see and hear that they do not learn correctly etc. Again, with Christ Matt. 15.3 et seqq.: They transgress the commandment of God for the sake of their interpretations, they serve God uselessly, since they teach only the commandments of men. They honor him with the mouth, but not with the heart. They say that they know God, but belie it by their works, since they are those whom God abominates. They do not obey, and are incapable of good works, as the apostle Paul has said. So it is clear that the punishments with which Moses threatened them have come to pass, namely, Deut. 16 et seqq. that God has smitten them with madness, blindness, and weakness of the heart, so that they stumble as a blind man stumbles in darkness. One sees so often that they pervert the word of God so sadly, misread it and misinterpret it in a totally shameless fashion.

May the merciful God vouchsafe that we Christians will be warned by this dreadful example of the wrath of God, and learn to love God and his word, and be respectful of it, so that the wrath of God may not overtake us also, and we lose the light of truth through our ingratitude. May God grant that the sun of righteousness shine ever brighter and longer in our hearts, and that he direct and guide us in all truth through his good spirit. Amen.