Book XI

Adam and Eve, moved by grace, pray in penitence; their prayers fly to Heaven where the Son presents them before the Father and intercedes, promising to bear their punishment himself.

God accepts the Son's intercession, granting Adam and Eve reprieve from immediate death; but He decrees they must leave Paradise, and He commissions Michael to reveal their future and drive them out.

God instructs Michael to expel the pair from Eden, but to comfort them by revealing future events; Michael descends with a company of cherubim while Adam and Eve enjoy a calm morning moment.

Adam notices omens of change in nature; Michael descends in human form and announces that Adam and Eve must leave Paradise at once, striking Adam with grief and Eve to open lamentation.

Eve mourns Paradise and her garden; Michael gently rebukes her and reminds her that where her husband goes she belongs; Adam, recovering, humbly submits, though grieving he will lose God's visible presence.

Michael tells Adam that to comfort him he will reveal what shall come to his race; he purges Adam's eyes and leads him up the highest hill of Paradise to begin the visions.

Adam sees his sons Cain and Abel offer sacrifice; Abel's is accepted, Cain's rejected, and in jealous rage Cain kills Abel—Adam's first sight of death leaves him horrified.

Michael explains that Cain is punished and Abel's faith rewarded; then he shows Adam a vision of a lazar-house full of every disease and misery that sin has brought upon humanity.

Adam sees a vision of civilized life—herds, music, metalwork—followed by a scene where the godly sons of Seth intermarry with Cain's beautiful but corrupt daughters, abandoning virtue.

Adam sees a vision of warfare and tyranny among the Nephilim giants; one just man (Enoch) speaks truth against the wicked and is snatched to Heaven before the crowd can kill him.

Adam sees the universal corruption of mankind; Noah alone is righteous and builds an ark; God sends the flood to destroy all living creatures, and only Noah's family is saved.

The flood abates; Noah and his family descend from the ark; God sets the rainbow in the sky as a sign of His covenant never again to destroy the world by flood.

Michael explains the meaning of the rainbow covenant and its limits; God's patience with sin will persist until the final judgment by fire, and the just shall dwell in a renewed world.