Odes of Solomon

tr. Harris, 1911

Chapter 11

¹My heart was cloven¹ and its flower appeared; and grace sprang up in it: and it brought forth fruit to the Lord, ²for the Most High clave ⌜my heart⌝² by His Holy Spirit and searched my affection³ towards Him: and filled me with His love. ³And His opening⁴ of me became my salvation; and I ran in His way in His peace, even in the way of truth: ⁴from the beginning and even to the end I acquired His knowledge: ⁵and I was established upon the rock of truth, where He had set me up: ⁶and speaking waters⁵ touched my lips from the fountain of the Lord plenteously: ⁷and I drank and was inebriated with the living water that doth not die; ⁸and my inebriation was not one without knowledge, but I forsook vanity and turned to the Most High my God, ⁹and I was enriched by His bounty, and I forsook the folly which is diffused⁶ over the earth; and I stripped it off and cast it from me: ¹⁰and the Lord renewed me in His raiment⁷, and possessed me by His light, and from above He gave me rest in incorruption; ¹¹and I became like the land which blossoms and rejoices in its fruits: ¹²and the Lord was like the sun shining on the face of the land; ¹³He lightened my eyes, and my face received the dew; and my nostrils⁸ enjoyed the pleasant odour of the Lord; ¹⁴and He carried me to His Paradise; where is the abundance of the pleasure of the Lord; ¹⁵and I worshipped the Lord on account of His glory; and I said, Blessed, O Lord, are they who are planted in thy land! and those who have a place in thy Paradise; ¹⁶and they grow by the fruits of thy trees⁹. And they have changed from darkness to light. ¹⁷Behold! all thy servants are fair, who do good works, and turn away from wickedness to the pleasantness that is thine: ¹⁸and they have turned back the bitterness of the trees from them, when they were planted in thy land; ¹⁹and everything became like a relic of thyself, and a memorial for ever of thy faithful works. ²⁰For there is abundant room in thy Paradise, and nothing is useless¹⁰ therein; ²¹but everything is filled with fruit; glory be to thee, O God, the delight of Paradise for ever. Hallelujah.

Notes

Or, circumcised.
lit. clave me or circumcised me. Cf. Rom. ii. 29.
lit. revealed my reins: cf. Sap. Sol. i. 6: Ps. vii. 9: Ps. lxii. (lxi.) 2: Apoc. ii. 23.
Or, circumcision.
Cf. Ignatius ad Rom. 7 ὕδωρ ζῶν καὶ λαλοῦν. Wellhausen: das redende Wasser findet sich bei den Mandäern.
lit. cast. U.-S.: die auf Erden lagert.
Cp. Ps. civ. 2.
lit. my breathing.
Better with Fl.: they grow according to the growth of thy trees.
Or, idle = ἀργός. Cf. 2 Pet. i. 8: οὐκ ἀργοὺς οὐδὲ ἀκάρπους.