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The execution ofjudgement on the wicked. God's sword R.
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Ishmael said: Metatron, the Angel, the Prince of the Presence, said to me : (1) When the Holy One, blessed be He, opens the Book half of which is fire and half flame, (then) they go out from before Him in every moment to execute the judgement on the wicked by His sword (that is) drawn forth out of its sheath and the splendour of which shines like a lightning and pervades the world from one end to the other, as it is written (Is. Ixvi. 16): "For by fire will the Lord plead (and by his sword with all flesh)." (2) And all the inhabitants of the world (lit. those who come into the world) fear and tremble before Him, when they behold His sharpened sword like unto a hghtning from one end of the world to the other, and sparks and flashes of the size of the stars of Raqia' going out from it; according as it is written (Deut. xxxii. 41):" If I whet the hghtning of my sword".