Yet when Noah and his sons heard these voices from those dead bodies, they wondered greatly, and their faith in God was strengthened.
2Then they went out of the cave and began to go down the Holy Mountain, weeping and wailing with a fervent heart, for their being thus parted from the holy mountain, the abode of their fathers.
3And Noah and his sons went back and sought the cave, yet could not find it.
4Then they broke out into bitter lamentation and deep sorrow; for they saw that from that day forth, they should have neither existence nor abode in it.
5Then once more they raised their eyes and looked at the garden and at the trees that were in it, and they lifted up their voices in weeping and in loud crying, and said,
6"We salute thee in worship, O garden of joy! O abode of brilliant beings, a place for the righteous!
7We salute thee, O place of joy that was the abode of our father Adam, the chief of creation; that, when he had transgressed, fell from thee; and then saw his body in life, naked and disgraced."
8And we, behold, we depart from the Holy Mountain to the lower side of thee; neither shall we dwell in it, nor yet behold thee so long as we live.
9We wish God would remove thee with us to the country to which we shall go; yet God would not remove thee into a cursed land."
10Yet God will take us, and will bring us into that land with our children, until He has ended the punishment for our trans gression of His commandment."
11Noah and his sons said also, "We salute thee, O cave, abode of the bodies of our holy fathers;
12we salute thee, O pure spot, hidden from our eyes, yet fit to have those bodies laid within thee!
13The Lord God preserve thee, for the sake of the bodies of our fathers!
14Again they said, "We greet you, O our fathers, righteous judges, and we ask you to pray for us before God, that He will have pity on us, and deliver us out of this passing world."
15We ask you to pray for us — for us, the only ones left of your seed; We give you a greeting of peace !
16"O Seth, great master, among the fathers, we greet thee with peace!
17O Holy Mountain abode of our fathers, we give thee a greeting of peace!"
18Then Noah and his sons wept again, and said, "Alas, for us eight souls that are left! Behold we are taken away from the sight of the garden."
19And as they were coming down the mountain they greeted the stones, took them in their hands and put them upon their shoulders; they stroked down the trees, and did so weeping.
20And they continued coming down from the mountain, until they came to the door of the ark.
21Then Noah and his sons turned their faces to the east, and requested the Lord to have mercy on them, to save them, and to command them where to lay the body of our father Adam.
22Then the Word of God came to Noah, saying, "Lift up the body of Adam to the third story of the ark, and lay it there on the eastern side; and the gold, the incense and the myrrh together with him.
23And thou and thy sons shall stand before him praying, yet thy wife, and the wives of thy sons, shall be on the western side of the ark; and they and their wives shall not come together."
24Then when Noah heard these words from God, he and his sons went into the ark, and laid the body of our father Adam on the eastern side, and the three offerings together with him.
25And Noah brought into the ark the body of Adam, on a Friday, at the second hour, on the twenty-seventh of the month of Gembot.