Chapter 77. [Cruelty to animals]

1. Then I saw souls whose backs, hands, and legs had wounds, (2) and they were suspended with the posteriors to the face [This sentence can also be read: 'head downwards in melted brass'; but the form avîtakht for 'melted' is unusual.]; (3) and heavy stones ever rained in their backs. 4. And I asked thus: 'Who are those? and what sin was committed by them?' 5. Srosh the pious, and Adar the angel, said (6) thus: 'These are the souls of those wicked who had beasts in the world, (7) and appointed them hard work, and made the burden unlawfully heavy, (8) and gave no sufficiency of food, so they suffered through leanness; (9) and when sores ensued, they were not kept back from work, and no remedy was provided.

(10) Now they (the souls) must suffer such severe punishment.'