Odes of Solomon

tr. Harris, 1911

Chapter 18

¹My heart was lifted up in the love of the Most High and was enlarged: that I might praise Him for His¹ name’s sake. ²My members were strengthened that they might not fall from His strength. ³Sicknesses removed from my body, and it stood to the Lord by His will. For His Kingdom is true. ⁴O Lord, for the sake of them that are deficient do not remove thy word from me! ⁵Neither for the sake of their works do thou restrain from me thy perfection! ⁶Let not the luminary be conquered by the darkness; nor let truth flee away from falsehood². ⁷Thou wilt appoint me to victory; our Salvation is thy right hand³. And thou wilt receive men from all quarters, ⁸and thou wilt preserve whosoever is held in evils: ⁹Thou art my God. ⁴Falsehood and death⁴ are not in thy mouth: ¹⁰for thy will is perfection; and vanity thou knowest not, ¹¹nor does it know thee. ¹²And error thou knowest not, ¹³neither does it know thee. ¹⁴And ignorance appeared like a blind man; and like the foam of the sea, ¹⁵and they supposed of that vain thing that it was something great; ¹⁶and they too came in likeness of it and became vain; and those have understood who have known and meditated; ¹⁷and they have not been corrupt in their imagination; for such were in the mind of the Lord; ¹⁸and they mocked at them that were walking in error; ¹⁹and they spake truth from the inspiration which the Most High breathed into them; Praise and great comeliness⁵ to His name. Hallelujah.

Notes

Cod. my.
Cf. Joh. i. 5.
Or, To Victory may thy right hand bring our Salvation.
Perhaps Falsehood and the like.
Gk. μεγαλοπρέπεια.