CHAPTER 23

1. I also saw the soul of a man (2) who, because of hunger and thirst, ever cried thus: 'I shall die.' 3. And he ever tore out his hair and beard, and devoured blood, and cast foam about with his mouth. 4. And I asked thus: 'What sin was committed by this body, whose soul suffers such a punishment?' 5. Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said (6) thus: 'This is the soul of that wicked man who, in the world, devoured talkatively, and consumed unlawfully, the water and vegetables of Hordad and Amurdad, and muttered no grace; (7) and through sinfulness, he celebrated no Yasht; (8) such was his contempt of the water of Hordad, and the vegetation of Amurdad.

9. Now this soul must suffer so severe a punishment.'