CHAPTER XII

How darkness came between Adam and Eve.

1 Then Adam beat his chest, he and Eve, and they mourned the whole night until the crack of dawn, and they sighed over the length of the night in Miyazia.

1. And Adam beat himself, and threw himself on the ground in the cave,

   from bitter grief, and because of the darkness, and lay there as dead.

2. But Eve heard the noise he made in falling on the ground. And she

   felt about for him with her hands, and found him like a corpse.

3. Then she was afraid, speechless, and remained by him.

4. But the merciful Lord looked on the death of Adam, and on Eve's

   silence from fear of the darkness.

5. And the Word of God came to Adam and raised him from his death, and

   opened Eve's mouth that she might speak.

6. Then Adam stood up in the cave and said, "O God, why has light

   departed from us, and darkness covered us? Why did you leave us in this long darkness? Why do you plague us like this?

7. And this darkness, O Lord, where was it before it covered us? It is

   because of this that we cannot see each other.

8. For so long as we were in the garden, we neither saw nor even knew

   what darkness is. I was not hidden from Eve, neither was she hidden from me, until now that she cannot see me; and no darkness came over us to separate us from each other.

9. But she and I were both in one bright light. I saw her and she saw

   me. Yet now since we came into this cave, darkness has covered us, and separated us from each other, so that I do not see her, and she does not see me.

10. O Lord, will You then plague us with this darkness?"