Apocrypha.

Or, this praifing.

Chap. xvi.
art the exaltation of Jerufalem, thou art the
great glory of Ifrael, thou art the great rejoicing
of our nation.

10 Thou hast done all these things by thine
hand thou haft done much good to Ifrael, and
God is pleafed therewith: bleffed be thou of
the Almighty Lord for evermore; and all the
people faid, So be it.

And the people spoiled the camp, the space of thirty days; and they gave unto Judith, Holofernes his tent, and all his plate, and beds, and veffels, and all his stuff: and the took it, and laid it on her mule; and made ready her carts, and laid them thereon.

12 Then all the women of Ifrael ran together. to fee her, and blessed her, and made a dance among them for her: and the took branches in her hand, and gave also to the women that were with her.

13 And they put a garland of olive upon her, and her maid that was with her, and the went before all the people in the dance, leading all the women and all the men of Ifrael followed in their armour with garlands, and with songs in their mouths.

CHA P. XVI.

The Song of Judith. 19 She dedicateth the Stuff
of Holofernes. 23 She died at Bethulia, a widow
of great honour. 24 All Ifrael did lament her
death.

Tgiving in all Ifracl, and all the people fang

HEN Judith began to fing this thankf

after her this fong of praise.

2 And Judith faid, Begin unto my God with timbrels, fing unto my Lord with cymbals: Or, palm tune unto him a || new pfalm: exalt him, and and praife. call upon his name.

3 For God breaketh the battles: for amongft the camps in the midft of the people he hath delivered me out of the hands of them that perfecuted me.

4 Affur came out of the mountains from the north, he came with ten thousands of his army, Chap. 2. the multitude whereof ftopped the torrents, and their horsemen have covered the hills.

19.

5 He bragged that he would burn up my borders, and kill my young men with the fword, and dafh the fucking children against the ground, and make mine infants as a prey, and my virgins as a spoil.

6 But the Almighty Lord hath disappointed them by the hand of a woman.

7 For the mighty one did not fall by the young men, neither did the fons of the Titans fmite him, nor high giants fet upon him: but Judith the daughter of Merari weakened him with the beauty of her countenance.

8 For the put off the garment of her widowhood, for the exaltation of thofe that were oppreffed in Ifrael, and anointed her face with + Gr.mitre. ointment, and bound her hair in a ↑ tire, and took a linen garment to deceive him.

9 Her fandals ravifhed his eyes, her beauty took his mind prifoner, and the fauchion paffed through his neck.

Apocrypha.

10 The Perfians quaked at her boldness, and the Medes were || daunted at her hardinefs. | Or, con11 Then my afflicted fhouted for joy, and my founded. weak ones cried aloud; but they were aftonifh- || the Affyed: thefe lifted up their voices, but they were rians. overthrown.

iz The fons of the damfels have pierced them through, and wounded them as fugitives children: they perished by the battle of the Lord.

13 I will fing unto the Lord a new fong; Or, a song O Lord, thou art great and glorious, wonderful of praife. in ftrength, and invincible.

14 Let all creatures ferve thee: for thou fpakeft, and they were made, thou didst fend forth thy fpirit, and it created them, and there is none that can resist thy voice.

15 For the mountains fhall be moved from their foundations with the waters, the rocks fhalt melt as wax at thy prefence: yet thou art merciful to them that fear thee.

16 For all facrifice is too little for a sweet favour unto thee, and all the fat is not fufficient for thy burnt-offering: but he that feareth the Lord is great at all times.

17 Woe to the nations that rife up against my kindred: the Lord Almighty will take vengeance of them in the day of judgement, in putting fire and worms in their flefl; and they fhall fee! them, and weep for ever.

18 Now as foon as they entered into Jerufalem, they worshipped the Lord; and as foon as the people were purified, they offered their burnt-offerings, and their free-offerings, and their gifts.

19 Judith alfo dedicated all the ftuff of Holofernes, which the people had given her, and gave the canopy which he had taken out of his bed-chamber, for a gift unto the Lord.

20 So the people continued feafting in Jerufalem before the fanctuary, for the space of three months, and Judith remained with them.

21 After this time every one returned to his own inheritance, and Judith went to Bethulia, and remained in her own poffeffion, and was in her time honourable in all the country.

22 And many defired her, but none knew her all the days of her life, after that Manaffes her husband was dead, and was gathered to his people.

23 But the increased more and more in honour, and waxed old in her husband's house, being an hundred and five years old, and made her maid free; fo fhe died in Bethulia: and they buried her in the cave of her husband | Or, SepulManaffes.

chre.

24 And the houfe of Ifrael lamented her
bfeven days and before the died, the did diftri- b Gen. 50.
bute her goods to all them that were nearest of 10.
kindred to Manaffes her husband, and to them
that were the nearest of her kindred.

25 And there was none that made the children
of Ifrael any more afraid in the days of Judith,
nor a long time after her death.
D 4

¶ The

¶ The rest of the Chapters of the Book of ESTHER, which are found neither in the Hebrew, nor in the Chaldee.

Part of the Tenth Chapter after the Greek.

Mardocheus remembereth and expoundeth his dream
of the river and the two dragons.
HEN Mardocheus faid, God hath
done these things.

T

5 For I remember a dream which I faw concerning these matters, and nothing thereof hath failed.

6 A little fountain became a river, and there was light, and the fun, and much water: this river is Efther, whom the king married, and made queen.

7 And the two dragons are I and Aman. 8 And the nations were thofe that were affembled to destroy the name of the Jews.

9 And my nation is this Ifrael, which cried to God, and were faved: for the Lord hath faved his people, and the Lord hath delivered us from all thofe evils, and God hath wrought figns and great wonders, which have not been done among the Gentiles.

10 Therefore hath he made two lots, one for the people of God, and another for all the Gentiles.

11 And these two lots came at the hour and

time, and day of judgement before God amongst

all nations.

12 So God remembered his people, and juftified his inheritance.

13 Therefore those days fhall be unto them in the month Adar, the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the fame month, with an affembly, and joy, and with gladness before God, according to the generations for ever among his people. СНАР. XI.

2 The stock and quality of Mardocheus: 6 He dreameth of two dragons coming forth to fight, 10 and of a little fountain which became a great

water.

IN

N the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemeus and Cleopatra, Dofitheus, who faid he was a prieft and Levite, and Ptolemeus his fon brought this epiftle of Phurim, which they faid was the fame, and that Lyfimachus the fon of Ptolemeus, that was in Jerufalem, had interpreted it.

2 In the fecond year of the reign of Artaxerxes the great, in the first day of the month Nifan, Mar

7 And at their cry all nations were prepared to battle, that they might fight against the righteous people.

8 And lo, a day of darkness and obfcurity: tribulation and anguish, affliction, and great uprore upon the earth.

9 And the whole righteous nation was troubled, fearing their own evils, and were ready to perish.

10 Then they cried unto God, and upon their cry, as it were from a little fountain, was made a great flood, even much water.

11 The light and the fun rofe up, and the lowly were exalted, and devoured the glorious.

12 Now when Mardocheus, who had feen this dream, and what God had determined to do, was awake; he bare this dream in mind, and until night by all means was defirous to know it.

CHAP. XII.

2 The confpiracy of the two eunuchs is difcovered by
Mardocheus, 5 for which he is entertained by the
king, and rewarded.

Mardocheus took his reft

A with Gabatha and Tarra, tele in the court
two eunuchs
of the king, and keepers of the palace.

2 And he heard their devices, and searched a Efther 2.
out their purposes, and learned that they were 21. & 6. 2.
about to lay hands upon Artaxerxes the king,
and fo he certified the king of them.

3 Then the king examined the two eunuchs, and after that they had confeffed it, they were ftrangled.

4 And the king made a record of these things, and Mardocheus alfo wrote thereof.

5 So the king commanded Mardocheus to ferve in the court, and for this he rewarded him.

6 Howbeit Aman the son of Amadathus the Agagite, who was in great honour with the king, fought to moleft Mardocheus and his people, because of the two eunuchs of the king.

CHAP. XIII.

1 The copy of the king's letters to deftroy the Jews.
8 The prayer of Mardocheus for them.

docheus the fon of Jairus, the ion of Semei, the T

fon of Cifai of the tribe of Benjamin, had a dream;

3 Who was a Jew, and dwelt in the city of Sufa, a great man, being a fervitor in the king's court. 4 He was alfo one of the captives which Nabuchodonofor the king of Babylon carried from Jerufalem, with Jechonias king of Judea, and this was his dream.

5 Behold, a noise of a tumult, with thunder and earthquakes, and uprore in the land:

6 And behold, two great dragons came forth ready to fight, and their cry was great. b

HE copy of the letters was this: The great Jofeph. king Artaxerxes writeth these things to the Antiq. princes and governors that are under him from lib. 11. India unto Ethiopia, in an hundred and feven cap. 6. and twenty provinces.

2 After that I became lord over many nations, and had dominion over the whole world, not lifted up with prefumption of my authority, but carrying myself alway with equity and mildness, I purpofed to fettle my fubjects continually in a quiet life, and making my kingdom peaceable, || Or, milt. and open for page to the utmoft coafts, to renew peace which is defired of all men.

3 Now

Apocrypha.

Or, be jeuled.

Or, fecond from us.

Or, but, or, fep not.

Chap. xiv.
3 Now when I asked my counsellors how this
might be brought to pass, Aman, that excelled
in wifdom among us, and was approved for his
conftant good will, and fledfaft fidelity, and had
the honour of the fecond place in the kingdom,

4 Declared unto us, that in all nations
throughout the world there was scattered a cer-
tain malicious people, that had laws contrary to
all nations, and continually defpifed the com-
mandments of kings, fo as the uniting of our
kingdoms, honourably intended by us, cannot
go forward.

5 Seeing then we understand that this people alone is continually in oppofition unto all men, differing in the ftrange manner of their laws, and evil-affected to our state, working all the mifchief they can, that our kingdom may not be firmly ftablished:

6 Therefore have we commanded, that all they that are fignified in writing unto you by Aman (who is ordained over the affairs, and is | next unto us) fhall all with their wives and children be utterly deftroyed by the fword of their enemies, without all mercy and pity, the fourteenth day of the twelfth month Adar of this present year:

7 That they, who of old, and now alfo, are malicious, may in one day with violence go into the grave, and fo ever hereafter cause our affairs to be well settled, and without trouble.

8 Then Mardocheus thought upon all the works of the Lord, and made his prayer unto him,

9 Saying, O Lord, Lord, the King Almighty: for the whole world is in thy power, and if thou haft appointed to fave Ifrael, there is no man that can gainfay thee.

10 For thou haft made heaven and earth, and all the wonderous things under the heaven.

11 Thou art Lord of all things, and there is no man that can refift thee, which art the Lord.

12 Thou knoweft all things, and thou knoweft, Lord, that it was neither in contempt nor pride, nor for any defire of glory, that I did not bow down to proud Aman.

13 For I could have been content with good will, for the falvation of Ifrael, to kifs the foles of his feet.

14 But I did this, that I might not prefer the glory of man above the glory of God: neither will I worship any but thee, O God, neither will I do it in pride.

15 And now, O Lord God, and King, spare thy people for their eyes are upon us to bring us to nought; yea, they defire to deftroy the inheritance that hath been thine from the beginning.

16 Defpife not the portion which thou haft delivered out of Egypt for thine own felf.

17 Hear my prayer, and be merciful unto thine inheritance: turn our forrow into joy, that we may live, O Lord, and praife thy name: and deftroy not the mouths of them that praise thee, O Lord.

Apocrypha.

18 All Ifrael in like manner cried moft + ear- † Gr.
neftiy unto the Lord, because their death was mightily.
before their eyes.
CHAP. XIV.

The prayer of queen Efther for herself, and her
people.

Ο

UEEN Efther alfo being in fear of death,
reforted unto the Lord:

2 And laid away her glorious apparel, and put
on the garments of anguifh and mourning and
inftead of precious ointments, the covered her
head with ashes and dung, and the humbled her
body greatly, and all the places of her joy the
filled with her torn hair.

3 And the prayed unto the Lord God of Ifrael, faying, O my Lord, thou only art our King: help me defolate woman, which have no helper

but thee:

a

42 For my danger is in mine hand.

5

a 1 Sam.

Pfal.

119.

From my youth up I have heard in the tribe 28. 21. of my family, that thou, O Lord, tookeft Ifrael Job 13. 14. from among all people, and our fathers from all their predeceffors, for a perpetual inheritance, 109. and thou haft performed whatfoever thou didst promise them.

6 And now we have finned before thee: therefore haft thou given us into the hands of our enemies,

7 Because we worshipped their gods: O Lord, thou art righteous.

8 Nevertheless, it fatisfieth them not, that we are in bitter captivity: but they have ftricken hands with their idols,

9 That they will abolish the thing that thou with thy mouth haft ordained, and destroy thine inheritance, and ftop the mouth of them that praise thee, and quench the glory of thy house, and of thine altar,

10 And open the mouths of the heathen to fet forth the praises of the + idols, and to magnify + Gr. vain a fleshly king for ever.

things.

11 O Lord, give not thy fceptre unto them that + be nothing, and let them not laugh at our + Gr. be fall; but turn their device upon themselves, and not. make him an example that hath begun this against us.

12 Remember, O Lord, make thyself known in time of our affliction, and give me boldness, O King of the nations, and Lord of all power.

13 Give me eloquent speech in my mouth be-fore the lion: turn his heart to hate him that fighteth against us, that there may be an end of him, and of all that are like-minded to him,

14 But deliver us with thine hand, and help me that am defolate, and which have no other helper but thee.

15 Thou knoweft all things, O Lord; thou knowest that I hate the glory of the unrighteous, and abhor the bed of the uncircumcifed, and of + all the heathen.

Or, gods.

+ Gr. every franger. + Gr.pride.

16 Thou knoweft my neceffity: for I abhor the fign of my + high eftate, which is upon mine' head, in the days wherein I fhew myfelf, and that I abhor it as a menftruous rag, and that It Gr. quiet, wear it not when I am + private by myself, or, private.

Chap. i, ii.

¶ The WISDOM of SOLOMON. [