1. AND now o Lord omnipotent, God of Israel, the soule in distresses, & the pensive spirite cryeth to thee:
2. heare Lord, and haue mercie vpon vs: because we haue sinned before thee.
3. Because thou sittest for euer, and shal we perish euerlastingly?
4. O Lord omnipotent, God of Israel, heare now the prayer of the dead of Israel, and of their children, that haue sinned before thee, and haue not heard to voice of the Lord their God, and euils haue stoocke faste to vs.
5. Remember not the iniquities of our fathers, but remember thy hand, and thy name in this time:
6. because thou art the Lord our God, and we wil praise thee o Lord:
7. because for this end thou hast geuen thy feare in our hartes, and that we may inuocate thy name, and may praise thee in our captiuitie, because we are conuerted from the iniquitie of our fathers, which haue sinned before thee.
8. And behold we are in our captiuitie, this day, wherby thou hast dispersed vs into reproch, and into malediction, and into sinne, according to al the iniquities of our fathers, which haue reuolted from thee o Lord our God.
9. Heare Israel the commandments of life: harken with your eares, that you may know prudence.
10. What is the matter Israel that thou art in the land of the enemies?
11. Thou art waxen old in a strange land, thou art defiled with the dead: thou art reputed with them that goe downe into hel.
12. Thou hast forsaken the fountaine of wisdom:
13. for if thou hadst walked in the way of God, thou hadst verely dwelt in peace euerlasting.
14. Learne where wisedom is, where strength is, where vnderstanding is: that thou mayst know withal where is the long continuance of life and liuing, where the light of the eyes, and peace is.
15. Who hath found the place therof? and who hath entered into the treasures therof?
16. Where are the princes of the Gentiles, and they that rule ouer the beasts, that are vpon the earth?
17. that play with the birdes of the heauen,
18. that treasure vp siluer, and gold, wherin men haue confidence, and is there no end of their getting? which fashion siluer & are careful, neither is there invention of their workes?
19. They are destroyed, and are gone downe to hel, and others are risen vp in their place.
20. Yong men saw the light, and dwelt vpon the earth: but the way of discipline they knew not,
21. neither vnderstood they the pathes therof, neither haue their children receiued it, it is made farre from their face.
22. It hath not bene heard in the Land of Channan, neither hath it bene seene in Theman.
23. The children of Agar also, that seke out the prudence, that is of the earth, merchants of Merrhe, and of Theman, and fablers, and searchers of prudence and vnderstanding: but the way of wisedom they haue not knowne, neither haue they remembered the pathes therof.
24. O Israel how great is the house of God, and how great is the place of his possession!
25. It is great, and hath no end: high and vnmeasurable.
26. There were the giants thos renowned, that were from the beginning, of big stature, expert in warre?
27. These did not our Lord choose, neither found they the way of discipline: therfore did they perish.
28. And because they had not wisedom, they perished through their follie.
29. Who hath ascended into heauen, and taken her, and brought her downe from the clowdes?
30. Who hath passed ouer the sea, and found her, and brought her aboue chosen gold?
31. There is none that can know her waies, nor that can search out her pathes:
32. but he that knoweth al thinges, knoweth her, & hath found her out by his prudence: he hath prepared the earth in time euerlasting, and replenished it with cattel, and fourefooted beastes:
33. he that sendeth forth light, and it goeth: and hath called it, and it obeyeth him with trembling.
34. And the starres haue geuen light in their watches, and reioyced:
35. they were called, and they said: here we are: and they haue shined to him with cheerfulnes, that made them.
36. This is our God, and there shal none other be estemed against him.
37. He found out al the way of discipline, and deliuered it to Iacob his seruant, and to Israel his beloued.
38. After these thinges he was sene vpon the earth, and was conuersant with men.