Chapter XLIX

XLIX.

Enoch instructs his sons not to swear either by heaven or earth, and shows God's promise, even in the mother's womb

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I SWEAR to you, my children, but I swear not by any oath, neither by heaven nor by earth, nor by any other creature which God created.

2 The Lord said: 'There is no oath in me, nor injustice, but truth.'

3 If there is no truth in men, let them swear by the words 'yea, yea,' or else, 'nay, nay!

4 And I swear to you, yea, yea, that there has been no man in his mother's womb, but that already before, even to each one there is a place prepared for the repose of the soul, and a measure

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fixed how much it is intended that a man be tried in this world.

5 Yea, children, deceive not yourselves, for there has been previously prepared a place for every soul of man.