Odes of Solomon

tr. Harris, 1911

Chapter 38

¹I went up to the light of truth as if into a chariot: ²and the Truth took me and led me: and carried me across pits and gulleys; and from the rocks and the waves it preserved me: ³and it became to me a haven of Salvation: and set me on the arms of immortal life: ⁴and it went with me and made me rest, and suffered me not to wander, because it was the Truth; ⁵and I ran no risk, because I walked with Him; ⁶and I did not make an error in anything because I obeyed the Truth. ⁷For Error flees away from it, and meets it not: but the Truth proceeds in the right path, and ⁸whatever I did not know, it made clear to me, all the poisons of error, and the plagues of death which they think to be sweetness: ⁹and I saw the destroyer of destruction, when the bride who is corrupted is adorned; and the bridegroom who corrupts and is corrupted; ¹⁰and I asked the Truth, ‘Who are these?’; and He said to me, This is the deceiver and the error¹: ¹¹and they are alike in the beloved and in his bride: and they lead astray and corrupt the ⌜whole⌝ world: ¹²and they invite many to the banquet, ¹³and give them to drink of the wine of their intoxication, and remove² their wisdom and knowledge, and ⌜so they⌝ make them without intelligence; ¹⁴and then they leave them; and then these go about like madmen corrupting: seeing that they are without heart, nor do they seek for it. ¹⁵And I was made wise so as not to fall into the hands of the deceiver; and I congratulated myself because the Truth went with me, ¹⁶and I was established and lived and was redeemed, ¹⁷and my foundations were laid on the hand of the Lord: because He established me. ¹⁸For He set the root and watered it and fixed it and blessed it; and its fruits are for ever. ¹⁹It struck deep and sprung up and spread out, and was full and enlarged; ²⁰and the Lord alone was glorified in His planting and in His husbandry: by His care and by the blessing of His lips, ²¹by the beautiful planting of His right hand³: and by the discovery of His planting, and by the thought of His mind. Hallelujah.

Notes

2 Joh. 7.
lit. they vomit up.
Is. lx. 21.