He took me and seated me in his bosom. He said to me, “What dost thou see?” I said to him, “I see seven lightnings which strike as one.” He said to me, “My son, close thine eyes that thou not be shaken by those that shall go forth to meet David.” At once, all ophanim and seraphim and the holy beasts and treasuries of snow and treasuries of hail and clouds of glory and planets and stars and ministering angels and fiery spirits of the fourth heaven cried out in tumult, saying: “For the chief musician, a psalm of David. The heavens are telling the glory of God.” And I heard a sound of a great uproar which came from Gozen, saying: “The Lord shall reign forever and ever.” And behold David, the King of Israel, came first, and I beheld all the kings of the house of David following after him, and each had his crown on his head and the crown of David was more brilliant and differed from all the other crowns and its splendor went forth from one end of the world to the other.

When David went up to the great school which is in the firmament, there was set for him a throne of fire which was forty parasangs in height and double in length and double in breadth. And when David came and sat down upon his throne which was prepared for him opposite the throne of his Creator (and all the kings of the house of David sit before him, and all the kings of the house of Israel stand behind him) at once David arose and uttered songs and praises [such as] ear hath not heard from [the creation of] the world. And when David began and said, “The Lord shall rule forever; thy God, Zion, to all generations, Hallelujah!” Metatron and all his servants began and said, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, all the earth is full of His glory,” and the beasts praise God saying, “Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His [dwelling] place,” and the firmaments say, “The Lord shall reign forever,” and all the earth saith, “The Lord has been King, the Lord is King, the Lord shall be King, forever and ever,” and all the kings of the house of David say, “The Lord shall be King over all the earth, in that day shall the Lord be one and His name One.”

Said Rabbi Ishmael: When I came and bore witness to this [which I had received] from before the throne of glory, all [my] fellows rejoiced and they made that day before Rabbi Nehunya ben Hakkanah a day of feasting and rejoicing; and yet more - the Patriarch himself did say in his joy, “Bring in before us all manner of musical instruments, and we shall drink wine to their accompaniment, inasmuch as Zoharariel the Lord God of Israel shall surely wreak vengeance and do wonders and wonders of wonders upon the wicked city Rome, and we shall exult with joy of harp and flute.”...

Said Rabbi Ishmael: What then did the heavenly court of justice? They at once gave command to the angels of torment, and these descending, wrought upon Lupinus Caesar utter destruction; and there was not left in all his palace a fugitive nor a remnant, and Rufa the wife of his youth and all his mistresses and all his maid- servants and all his concubines were cast dead on the earth before him, and all his sons and all his daughters and all the delights of his eyes were rent asunder and thrown [dead] before him.

Said Rabbi Ishmael: What was done to that wicked man himself? He was abased and made contemptible by reason of his dead, that they lay ever before him. And whensoever and man stretched forth his hand to take one of the dead of Lupinus Caesar, that he should lay it upon the bier and take it forth to bury it, then would the abyss swallow up that body, and, when the burier withdrew his hand, would the abyss again vomit it forth. Thus did his dead lie ever before him; and yet more – they were noisome and stank throughout all his royal palace and he was ashamed before the royal princes who came in and went out before his face.