10 WISDOM IT WAS who kept guard over the first father of the human race, when he alone had yet been made; she saved him after his fall, and gave him strength to master all things. It was because a wicked man forsook her in anger that he murdered his brother in a fit of rage, and so destroyed himself. Through his fault the earth was covered with a deluge, and again wisdom came to the rescue, and taught the one good man to pilot the plain wooden hulk. It was she, when heathen nations leagued in wickedness were thrown into confusion, who picked out one good man and kept him blameless in the sight of God, giving him strength to resist his pity for his child. She saved a good man from the destruction of the godless, and he escaped the fire that came down on the Five Cities, cities whose wickedness is still attested by a smoking waste, by plants whose fruit can never ripen, and a pillar of salt standing there as a memorial of an un- believing soul. Wisdom they ignored, and they suffered for it, losing the power to recognize what is good and leaving by their lives a monument of folly, such that their enormities have never been forgotten. But wisdom brought her servants safely out of their troubles. It was she, when a good man was a fugitive from his brother's anger, who guided him on the straight path; she showed him that God is king, and gave him knowledge of his holiness; she prospered his labours and made his toil productive. When men in their rapacity tried to exploit him, she stood by him and made him rich. She kept him safe from his enemies, and preserved him from treacherous attacks; she gave him victory after a hard struggle, and taught him that godliness is the greatest power of all. It was she who refused to desert a good man when he was sold as a slave; she preserved him from sin and went down into the dungeon with him, nor did she leave him when he was in chains until she had brought him sceptre and kingdom and authority over his persecutors; she gave the lie to his accusers, and brought him un- dying fame. It was she who rescued a godfearing people, a blameless race, from a nation of oppressors; she inspired a servant of the Lord, and with his signs and wonders he defied formidable kings. She rewarded the labours of godfearing men, she guided them on a marvellous journey and became a covering for them by day and a blaze of stars by night. She brought them over the Red Sea and guided them through its deep waters; but their enemies she engulfed, and cast them up again out of the fathomless deep. So good men plundered the ungodly; they sang the glories of thy holy name, O Lord, and praised with one accord thy power, their champion; for wisdom taught the dumb to speak, and made the tongues of infants eloquent. 11 Wisdom, working through a holy prophet, brought them success in all they did. They made their way across an unpeopled desert and pitched camp in untrodden wastes; they resisted every enemy, and beat off hostile assaults. When they were thirsty they called upon thee, and water to slake their thirst was given them out of the hard stone of a rocky cliff. The self- same means by which their oppressors had been punished were used to help them in their hour of need: those others found their river no unfail- ing stream of water, but putrid and befouled with blood, in punishment for their order that all the infants should be killed, while to these thou gavest abundant water unexpectedly. So from the thirst they then endured, they learned how thou hadst punished their enemies; when they themselves were put to the test, though discipline was tempered with mercy, they understood the tortures of the godless who were sentenced in anger. Thy own people thou didst subject to an ordeal, warning them like a father; those others thou didst put to the torture, like a stern king passing sentence. At home and abroad, they were equally in distress, for a double misery had come upon them, and they groaned as they recalled the past. When they heard that the means of their own punishment had been used to benefit thy people, they saw thy hand in it, O Lord. The man who long ago had been abandoned and exposed, whom they had rejected with contumely, became in the event the object of their wonder and admiration; their thirst was such as the godly never knew. In return for the insensate imagination of those wicked men, which deluded them into worshipping reptiles devoid of reason, and mere vermin, thou didst send upon them a swarm of creatures devoid of reason to chastise them, and to teach them that the instruments of man's sin are the instruments of his punishment. For thy almighty hand, which created the world out of formless matter, was not without other resource: it could have let loose upon them a host of bears or ravening lions or unknown ferocious monsters newly created, either breathing out blasts of fire, or roaring and belching smoke, or flashing terrible sparks like lightning from their eyes, with power not only to exterminate them by the wounds they inflicted, but by their mere appearance to kill them with fright. Even with- out these, a single breath would suffice to lay them low, with justice in pursuit and the breath of power to blow them away; but thou hast ordered all things by measure and number and weight. Great strength is thine to exert at any moment, and the power of thy arm no man can resist, for in thy sight the whole world is like a grain that just tips the scale or a drop of dew alighting on the ground at dawn. But thou art merciful to all men because thou canst do all things; thou dost overlook the sins of men to bring them to repentance; for all existing things are dear to thee and thou hatest nothing that thou hast created — why else wouldst thou have made it? How could anything have continued in existence, had it not been thy will? How could it have endured unless called into being by thee? Thou sparest all things because they are thine, 12 our lord and master who lovest all that lives; for thy imperishable breath is in them all. For this reason thou dost correct offenders little by little, admonishing them and reminding them of their sins, in order that they may leave their evil ways and put their trust, O Lord, in thee. For example, the ancient inhabitants of thy holy land were hateful to thee for their loathsome practices, their sorcery and unholy rites, ruthless murders of children, cannibal feasts of human flesh and blood; they were initiates of a secret ritual in which parents slaughtered their defenceless children. Therefore it was thy will to destroy them at the hand of our forefathers, so that the land which is of all lands most precious in thine eyes could receive in God's children settlers worthy of it. And yet thou didst spare their lives because even they were men, sending hornets as the advance-guard of thy army to exterminate them gradually. It was well within thy power to let the godly overwhelm the godless in a pitched battle, or to wipe them out in an instant with cruel beasts or by one stern word. But thou didst carry out their sentence gradually to give them space for repentance, knowing well enough that they came of evil stock, their wickedness ingrained, and that their way of thinking would not change to the end of time, for there was a curse on their race from the beginning. Nor was it out of deference to anyone else that thou gavest them an amnesty for their misdeeds; for to thee no one can say 'What hast thou done?' or dispute thy verdict. Who shall bring a charge against thee for destroying nations which were of thy own making? Who shall appear against thee in court to plead the cause of guilty men? For there is no other god but thee; all the world is thy concern, and there is none to whom thou must prove the justice of thy sentence. There is no other king or ruler who can outface thee on behalf of those whom thou hast punished. But thou art just and orderest all things justly, counting it alien to thy power to con- demn a man who ought not to be punished. For thy strength is the source of justice, and it is because thou art master of all that thou sparest all. Thou showest thy strength when men doubt the perfection of thy power; it is when they know it and yet are insolent that thou dost punish them. But thou, with strength at thy command, judgest in mercy and rulest us in great forebearance; for the power is thine to use when thou wilt. By acts like these thou didst teach thy people that the just man must also be kind-hearted, and thou hast filled thy sons with hope by the offer of repentance for their sins. If thou didst use such care and such indulgence even in punishing thy children's enemies, who deserved to die, granting them time and space to get free of their wickedness, with what discrimina- tion thou didst pass judgement on thy sons, to whose fathers thou hast given sworn covenants full of the promise of good! So we are chastened by thee, but our enemies thou dost scourge ten thousand times more, so that we may lay thy goodness to heart when we sit in judgement, and may hope for mercy when we ourselves are judged. This is why the wicked who had lived their lives in heedless folly were tormented by thee with their own abominations. They had strayed far down the paths of error, taking for gods the most contemptible and hideous creatures, deluded like thoughtless children. And so, as though they were mere babes who have not learnt reason, thou didst visit on them a sentence that made them ridiculous; but those who do not take warning from such derisive correction will experience the full weight of divine judgement. They were indignant at their own suffering, but finding themselves chastised through the very creatures they had taken to be gods, they recognized that the true God was he whom they had long ago refused to know. Thus the full rigour of condemnation descended on them. 13 WHAT BORN FOOLS all men were who lived in ignorance of God, who from the good things before their eyes could not learn to know him who really is, and failed to recognize the artificer though they observed his works! Fire, wind, swift air, the circle of the starry signs, rushing water, or the great lights in heaven that rule the world — these they accounted gods. If it was through delight in the beauty of these things that men sup- posed them gods, they ought to have understood how much better is the Lord and Master of it all; for it was by the prime author of all beauty that they were created. If it was through astonishment at their power and influence, men should have learnt from these how much more powerful is he who made them. For the greatness and beauty of created things give us a corresponding idea of their Creator. Yet these men are not greatly to be blamed, for when they go astray they may be seeking God and really wish- ing to find him. Passing their lives among his works and making a close study of them, they are persuaded by appearances because what they see is so beautiful. Yet even so they do not deserve to be excused, for with enough understanding to speculate about the universe, why did they not sooner discover the Lord and Master of it all? The really degraded ones are those whose hopes are set on dead things, who give the name of gods to the work of human hands, to gold and silver fashioned by art into images of living creatures, or to a useless stone carved by a craftsman long ago. Suppose some skilled woodworker fells with his saw a convenient tree and deftly strips off all the bark, then works it up elegantly into some vessel suitable for everyday use; and the pieces left over from his work he uses to cook his food, and eats his fill. But among the waste there is one useless piece, crooked and full of knots, and this he takes and carves to occupy his idle moments, and shapes it with leisurely skill into the image of a human being; or else he gives it the form of some con- temptible creature, painting it with vermillion and raddling its surface with red paint, so that every flaw in it is painted over. Then he makes a suitable shrine for it and fixes it on the wall, securing it with iron nails. It is he who has to take the precautions on its behalf to keep it from falling, for he knows that it cannot fend for itself; it is only an image, and needs help. Yet he prays to it about his possessions and his wife and children, and feels no shame in addressing this lifeless object; for health he appeals to a thing that is feeble, for life he prays to a dead thing, for aid he implores something utterly incapable, for a prosperous journey something that has not even the use of its legs; in matters of earnings and business and success in handi- craft he asks effectual help from a thing whose hands are entirely in- effectual. 14 The man, again, who gets ready for a voyage, and plans to set his course through the wild waves, cries to a piece of wood more fragile than the ship which carries him. Desire for gain invented the ship, and the shipwright with his wisdom built it; but it is thy providence, O Father, that is its pilot, for thou hast given it a pathway through the sea and a safe course among the waves, showing that thou canst save from every danger, so that even a man without skill can put to sea. It is thy will that the things made by thy wisdom should not lie idle; and therefore men trust their lives even to the frailest spar, and passing through the billows on a mere raft come safe to land. Even in the beginning, when the proud race of giants was being brought o an end, the hope of mankind escaped on a raft and, piloted by hand, bequeathed to the world a new breed of men. For a blessing is on the wooden vessel through which right has prevailed; but the wooden idol made by human hands is accursed, and so is its maker — he because he made it, and the perishable thing because it was called a god. Equally hateful to God are the godless man and his ungodliness; the doer and the deed shall both be punished. And so retribution shall fall upon the idols of the heathen, because though part of God's creation they have been made into an abomination, to make men stumble and to catch the feet of fools. The invention of idols is the root of immorality; they are a contrivance which has blighted human life. They did not exist from the beginning, nor will they be with us for ever; superstition brought them into the world, and for good reason a s short sharp end is in store for them. Some father, overwhelmed with untimely grief for the child suddenly taken from him, made an image of the child and honoured thenceforth as a god what was once a dead human being, handing on to his household the observance of rites and ceremonies. Then this impious custom, established by the passage of time, was observed as a law. Or again graven images came to be worshipped at the command of despotic princes. When men could not do honour to such a prince before his face because he lived far away, they made a likeness of that distant face, and produced a visible image of the king they sought to honour, eager to pay court to the absent prince as though he were present. Then the cult grows in fervour as those to whom the king is unknown are spurred on by ambitious craftsmen. In his desire, it may be, to please the monarch, a craftsman skilfully distorts the likeness into an ideal form, and the common people, beguiled by the beauty of the workmanship, take for an object of worship him whom lately they honoured as a man. So this becomes a trap for living men: enslaved by mischance or misgovernment, men confer on stocks and stones the name that none may share. Then, not content with gross error in their knowledge of God, men live in the constant warfare of ignorance and call this monstrous evil peace. They perform ritual murder of children and secret ceremonies and the frenzied orgies of unnatural cults; the purity of life and marriage is abandoned; and a man treacherously murders his neighbour or corrupts his wife and breaks his heart. All is in chaos — bloody murder, theft and fraud, corruption, treachery, riot, perjury, honest men driven to dis- traction; ingratitude, moral corruption, sexual perversion, breakdown of marriage, adultery, debauchery. For the worship of idols, whose names it is wring even to mention, is the beginning, cause, and end of every evil. Men either indulge themselves to the point of madness, or produce inspired utterance which is all lies, or live dishonest lives, or break their oath without scruple. They perjure themselves and expect no harm be- cause the idols they trust in are lifeless. On two counts judgement will over- take the: because in their devotion to idols they have thought wrongly about God, and because, in their contempt for religion, they have deliber- ately perjured themselves. It is not any power in what they swear by, but the nemesis of sin, that always pursues the transgression of the wicked. 15 But thou, our God, art kind and true and patient, a merciful ruler of all that is. For even if we sin, we are thine; we acknowledge thy power. But we will not sin, because we know that we are accounted thine. To know thee is the whole of righteousness, and to acknowledge thy power is the root of immortality. We have not been led astray by the perverted inven- tions of human skill or the barren labour of painters, by some gaudy painted shape, the sight of which arouses in fools a passionate desire for a mere image without life or breath. They are in love with evil and deserve to trust in nothing better, those who do these evil things or hanker after them or worship them. For a potter kneading his clay laboriously moulds every vessel for our use, but out of the self-same clay he fashions without distinction the pots that are to serve for honourable uses and the opposite; and what the pur- pose of each one is to be, the moulder of the clay decides. And then with ill-directed toil he makes a false god out of the same clay, this man who not long before was himself fashioned out of earth and soon returns to the place whence he was taken, when the living soul that was lent to him must be repaid. His concern is not that he must one day fall sick or that his span of life is short; but he must vie with goldsmiths and silversmiths and copy the bronze-workers, and he thinks it does him credit to make counterfeits. His heart is ashes, his hope worth less than common earth, and his life cheaper than his own clay, because he did not recognize by whom he him- self was moulded, or who it was that inspired him with an active soul and breathed into him the breath of life. No, he reckons our life a game, and our existence a market where money can be made; 'one must get a living', he says, 'by fair means or foul'. But this man knows better than anyone that he is doing wrong, this maker of fragile pots and idols from the same earthy stuff. The greatest fools of all, and worse than infantile, were the enemies and oppressors of thy people, for they supposed all their heathen idols to be gods, although they have eyes that cannot see, nostrils that cannot draw breath, ears that cannot hear, fingers that cannot feel, and feet that are useless for walking. It was a man who made them; one who draws borrowed breath gave them their shape. But no human being has the power to shape a god like himself; he is only mortal, but what he makes with his impious hands is dead; and so he is better than the object of his worship, for he is at least alive — they never can be. Moreover, these men worship animals, the most revolting animals. Com- pared with the rest of the brute creation, their divinities are the least intel- ligent. Even as animals they have no beauty to make them desirable; when God approved and blessed his work, they were left out. 16 AND SO THE OPPRESSORS were fittingly chastised by creatures like these: they were tormented by swarms of vermin. But while they were punished, thou didst make provision for thy people, sending quails for them to eat, an unwonted food to satisfy their hunger; for thy purpose was that whereas those others, hungry as they were, should turn in loathing even from necessary food because the creatures sent upon them were so disgusting, thy people after a short spell of scarcity should enjoy unwonted delicacies. It was right that the scarcity falling on the oppressors should be inexorable, and that thy people should learn by brief experience how their enemies were tormented. Even when fierce and furious snakes attacked thy people and the bites of writhing serpents were spreading death, thy anger did not continue to the bitter end; their short trouble was sent them as a lesson, and they were given a symbol of salvation to remind them of the requirements of thy law. For any man who turned towards it was saved, not by the thing he looked upon but by thee, the saviour of all. In this way thou didst convince our enemies that thou art the deliverer from every evil. Those other men died from the bite of locusts and flies, and no remedy was found to save their lives, because it was fitting for them to be chastised by such creatures. But thy sons did not succumb to the fangs of snakes, however venomous, because thy mercy came to their aid and healed them. It was to remind them of thy utterances that they were bitten and quickly recovered; it was for fear they might fall into deep forgetfulness and become unresponsive to thy kindness. For it was neither herb nor poultice that cured them, but thy all-healing word, O Lord. Thou hast the power of life and death, thou bringest a man down to the gates of death and up again. Man in his wickedness may kill, but he cannot bring back the breath of life that has gone forth nor release a soul that death has arrested. But from thy hand there is no escape; for godless men who refused to acknowledge thee were scourged by thy mighty arm, pursued by extra- ordinary storms of rain and hail in relentless torrents, and utterly destroyed by fire. Strangest of all, in water, that quenches everything, the fire burned more fiercely; creation itself fights to defend the godly. At one time the flame was moderated, so that is should not burn up the living creatures inflicted on the godless, who were to learn that it was by God's justice that they were pursued; at another time it blazed even under water with more than the natural power of fire, to destroy the produce of a sinful land. By contrast, thy own people were given angel's food, and thou didst send them from heaven, without labour of thy own, bread ready to eat, rich in delight of every kind and suited to every taste. The sustenance thou didst supply showed thy sweetness towards thy children, and the bread, serving the desire of each man who ate t, was changed into what he wished. Its snow and ice resisted fire and did not melt, to teach them that whereas their enemy's crops had been destroyed by fire that blazed in the hail and flashed through the teeming rain, that same fire had now forgotten its own power, in order that the godly might be fed. For creation, serving thee its maker, exerts its power to punish the godless and relaxes into benevolence towards those who trust in thee. And so it was at that time too: it adapted itself endlessly in the service of thy universal bounty, according to the desire of thy suppliants. So thy sons, O Lord, whom thou hast chosen, were to learn that it is not the growing of crops by which mankind is nourished, but it is thy word that sustains those who trust in thee. That substance, which fire did not destroy, simply melted away when warmed by the sun's first rays, to teach us that we must rise before the sun to give thee thanks and pray to thee as daylight dawns. The hope of an ungrateful man will melt like hoar-frost of winter, and drain away like water that runs to waste. 17 Great are thy judgements and hard to expound; and thus it was that un- instructed souls went astray. Thus heathen men imagined that they could lord it over thy holy people; but, prisoners of darkness and captives of unending night, they lay each immured under his own roof, fugitives from eternal providence. Thinking that their secret sins might escape detection beneath a dark pall of oblivion, they lay in disorder, dreadfully afraid, terrified by apparitions. For the dark corner that held them offered no refuge from fear, but loud unnerving noises roared around them, and phantoms with downcast unsmiling faces passed before their eyes. No fire, however great, had force enough to give them light, nor had the brilliant flaming stars strength to illuminate that hideous darkness. There shone upon them only a blaze, of no man's making, that terrified them, and in their panic they thought the real world even worse than that imagin- ary sight. The tricks of the sorcerers' art failed, and all their boasted wisdom was exposed and put to shame; for the very men who profess to drive away fear and trouble from sick souls were themselves sick with dread that made them ridiculous. Even if nothing frightful was there to terrify them, yet having once been scared by the advancing vermin and the hiss- ing serpents, they collapsed in terror, refusing even to look upon the air from which there can be no escape. For wickedness proves a cowardly thing when condemned by an inner witness, and in the grip of conscience gives way to forebodings of disaster. Fear is nothing but an abandonment of the aid that comes from reason; and hope, defeated by this inward weak- ness, capitulates before ignorance of the cause by which the torment comes. So all that night, which really had no power against them because it came upon them from the powerless depths of hell, they slept the same haunted sleep, now harried by portentous spectres, now paralysed by the treachery of their own souls; sudden and unforeseen, fear came upon them. Thus a man would fall down where he stood and be held in durance, locked in a prison that had no bars. Farmer or shepherd or labourer toiling in the wilds, he was caught, and awaited the inescapable doom; the same chain of darkness bound all alike. The whispering breeze, the sweet melody of birds in spreading branches, the steady beat of water that rushes by, the headlong crash of rocks falling, the racing of creatures as they bound along unseen, the roar of fierce wild beasts, or echo reverberating from hollows in the hills — all these sounds paralysed them with fear. The whole world was bathed in the bright light of day, and went about its tasks un- hindered; those men alone were overspread with heavy night, fit image of the darkness that awaited them; and heavier than the darkness was the burden each was to himself. 18 But for thy holy ones there shone a great light. And so their enemies, hearing their voices but not seeing them, counted them happy because they had not suffered like themselves, gave thanks for their forbearance under provocation, and begged as a favour that they should part company. Accordingly, thy gift was a pillar of fire to be the guide of their uncharted journey, a sun that would not scorch them on their glorious expedition. Their enemies did indeed deserve to lose the light of day and be kept prisoners in darkness, for they had kept in durance thy sons, through whom the imperishable light of the law was to be given to the world. They planned to kill the infant children of thy holy people, but when one child had been exposed to death and rescued, thou didst deprive them of all their children in requital, and drown them altogether in the swelling waves. Of that night our forefathers were given warning in advance, so that, having sure knowledge, they might be heartened by the promises which they trusted. Thy people were looking for the deliverance of the godly and the destruction of their enemies; for thou didst use the same means to punish our enemies and to make us glorious when we heard thy call. The devout children of a virtuous race were offering sacrifices in secret, and covenanted with one consent to keep the law of God and to share alike in the same blessings and the same dangers, and they were already singing their ancestral songs of praise. In discordant con- trast there came an outcry from their enemies, as piteous lamentation for their children spread abroad. Master and slave were punished together with the same penalty; king and common man suffered the same fate. All alike had their dead, past counting, struck down by one common form of death; there were not enough living even to bury the dead; at one stroke the most precious of their offspring had perished. Relying on their magic arts, they had scouted all warnings; but when they saw their first-born dead, they confessed that thy people have God as their father. All things were lying in peace and silence, and night in her swift course was half spent, when the almighty Word leapt from thy royal throne in heaven into the midst of that doomed land like a relentless warrior, bear- ing with the sharp sword of thy inflexible decree, and stood and filled it all with death, his head touching the heavens, his feet on earth. At once night- mare phantoms appalled them, and unlooked-for fears set upon them; as they flung themselves to the ground half dead, one here, one there, they confessed the reason for heir deaths; for the dreams that tormented them had taught them before they died, so that they should not die ignorant of the reason why they suffered. The godly also had a taste of death when the multitude were struck down in the wilderness; but the divine wrath did not long continue. A blameless man was quick to be their champion, bearing the weapons of his priestly ministry, prayer and the incense that propitiates; he withstood the divine anger and set a limit to the disaster, thus showing that he was thy servant. He overcame the avenging fury not by bodily strength or force of arms; by words he subdued the avenger, appealing to the sworn covenants made with our forefathers. When the dead had already fallen in heaps one on another, he interposed himself and beat back the divine wrath, barring its line of attack upon the living. On his long-skirted robe the whole world was represented; the glories of the fathers were engraved on his four rows of precious stones; and thy majesty was in the diadem upon his head. To these the destroyer yielded, for these made him afraid; only to taste his wrath had been enough. 19 But the godless were pursued by pitiless anger to the bitter end, for God knew their future also: how after allowing thy people to depart, and even urging their departure, they would change their minds and set out in pursuit. While they were still in mourning, still lamenting at the graves of their dead, they rushed into another foolish decision, and pursued as fugitives those whom they had begged to leave. For the fate they had merited was drawing them on to this conclusion and made them forget what had happened, so that they might suffer the torments still needed to complete their punishment, and that thy people might achieve an incredible journey, and that their enemies might meet an outlandish death. The whole creation, with all its elements, was refashioned in subservience to thy commands, so that thy servants might be preserved unscathed. Men gazed at the cloud that overshadowed the camp, at dry land emerging where before was only water, at an open road leading out of the Red Sea, and a grassy plain in place of stormy waves, across which the whole nation passed, under the shelter of thy hand, after all the marvels they had seen. They were like a horse at pasture, like skipping lambs, as they praised thee, O Lord, by whom they were rescued. For they still remembered their life in a foreign land: how instead of cattle the earth bred lice, and instead of fish the river spewed up swarms of frogs; and how, after that, they had seen a new sort of bird when, driven by greed, they had begged for delicacies to eat, and for their relief quails came up from the sea. So punishment came upon those sinners, not unheralded by violent thunderbolts. They suffered justly for their own wickedness, for they had raised bitter hatred of strangers to a new pitch. There had been others who refused to welcome strangers when they came to them, but these made slaves of guests who were their benefactors. There is indeed a judgement awaiting those who treated foreigners as enemies; but these, after a festal welcome, oppressed with hard labour men who had earlier shared their rights. They were struck with blindness also, like men at the door of the one good man, when yawning darkness fell upon them and each went groping for his own doorway. For as the notes of a lute can make various tunes with different names though each retains its own pitch, so the elements combined among them- selves in different ways, as can be accurately inferred from the observa- tion of what happened. Land animals took to the water and things that swim migrated to dry land; fire retained its normal power even in water, and water forgot its quenching properties. Flames on the other hand failed to consume the flesh of perishable creatures that walked in them, and the substance of heavenly food, like ice and prone to melt, no longer melted. In everything, O Lord, thou hast made thy people great and glorious, and hast not neglected in every time and place to be their helper.
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
Submitted January 08, 2019 at 07:57PM by MarleyEngvall http://bit.ly/2Fe7MDF
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