The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Book of Ecclesiasticus
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Chapter 49
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Josias, too, is still remembered; a memory grateful as some mingled scent, pride of the perfumer’s art,
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or the honey that tastes sweet in all men’s mouths, or music over the wine.
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A king divinely ordained to make a nation’s amends, how he swept away all the foul idols of the law-breakers;
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how true he kept his heart to the Lord’s bidding, what comfort he gave to piety, when wickedness abounded!
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David, Ezechias, Josias, these three only were exempt from the guilt of their line;
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the other kings of Juda forsook the law of the most High, and counted the fear of God a light matter.
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What wonder if they were doomed to bequeath all the glories of their kingdom to strangers, to princes of an alien race,
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who set fire to the city that was God’s chosen sanctuary, and left the ways unfrequented?
… By means of Jeremias;✻
… By means of Jeremias;✻
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so ill they used him, that was set apart to be a prophet when he was yet in his mother’s womb, empowered to overthrow, to uproot, to destroy, then to rebuild and to plant anew.
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And next Ezechiel, to whose eyes God shewed the vision of glory, by wheeling cherubs borne aloft …
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And in storm he remembered the enemy … to reward all such as pointed men to the right path.✻
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May life spring from the bones of the twelve prophets, where they lie buried; men that put heart into the sons of Jacob, and by trusting in God’s power won deliverance.
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The fame of Zorobabel what words of ours shall enhance? The jewel God wore on his right hand for signet-ring;
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he, with Josue son of Josedec, rebuilt God’s house that then lay ruined; raised up a holy temple, of the divine glory the eternal dwelling-place.
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Nor shall Nehemias be soon forgotten, that mended these ruined walls of ours, our gates built and barred, our homes restored to us.
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Enoch no man born on earth can match, that from earth was taken away;
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nor Joseph, that was born to be his brethren’s master, and the bulwark of a great nation. Lord of his brethren, stay of a people,
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he left his bones to await the day of God’s deliverance, in death prophetic still.
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Seth and Sem are among the heroes of their race, and Adam, too, that when earth began was made Lord of all living creatures.
