THE ODES OF SOLOMON.
translated by J. Rendel Harris.
Ode 1.
1. The Lord is on my head like a crown, and I shall not be
without Him. 2. They wove for me a crown of truth, and it
caused thy branches to bud in me. 3. For it is not like a withered
crown which buddeth not: but thou livest upon my head, and thou hast blossomed
upon my head. 4. Thy fruits are full-grown and perfect, they are
full of thy salvation.
Ode 2.
missing.
Ode 3.
1 ... I put on. 2. And his members are with him. And on
them do I hang, and He loves me: 3. For I should not have known
how to love the Lord, if he had not loved me. 4. For who is able to
distinguish love except the one that is loved? 5. I love the beloved and my
soul loves Him: 6 And where His rest is, there also am I; 7 And I shall be
no strangers for with the Lord Most High and Merciful there is no grudging.
8 I have been united to Him, for the Lover has found the Beloved, 9 And because
I shall love Him that is the Son, I shall become a son;. 10 For he that is
joined to Him that is immortal, will also himself become immortal; 11 And
he who has pleasure in the Living One, will become living. 12 This is the
Spirit of the Lord, which doth not lie, which teacheth the sons of men to
know His ways. 13 Be wise and understanding and vigilant. Hallelujah.
ODE 4.
1 No man, O my God, changeth thy holy place; 2 And it is not (possible)
that he should change it and put it in another place: because he hath no
power over it: 3 For thy sanctuary thou hast designed before thou didst make
(other) places: 4 That which is the elder shall not be altered by those that
are younger than itself. 5 Thou has given thy heart, O Lord, to thy believers:
never wilt thou fail, nor be without fruits: 6 For one hour of thy Faith
is days and years. 7 For who is there put on thy grace, and be hurt? 8 For
thy seal is known: and thy creatures know it: and thy (heavenly) hosts possess
it: and the elect archangels are clad with it. 9 Thou hast given us thy fellowship:
it was not that thou wast in need of us: but that we are in need of thee:
10 Distill thy dews upon us and open thy rich fountains that pour forth to
us milk and honey: 11 For there is no repentance with thee that thou shouldest
repent of anything that thou hast promised: 12 And the end was revealed before
thee: for what thou gavest, thou gavest freely: 13 So that thou mayest not
draw them back and take them again: 14 For all was revealed before thee as
God, and ordered from the beginning before thee: and thou, O God, hast made
all things. Hallelujah,
ODE 5.
1 I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, because I love thee; 2 O Most High,
thou wilt not forsake me for thou art my hope: 3 Freely I have received thy
grace, I shall live thereby: 4 My persecutors will come and not see me: 5
A cloud of darkness shall fall on their eyes; and an air of thick gloom shall
darken them: 6 And they shall have no light to see: they may not take hold
upon me. 7 Let their counsel become thick darkness, and what they have cunningly
devised, let it return upon their own heads: 8 For they have devised a counsel
and it did not succeed: 9 For my hope is upon the Lord and I will not fear,
and because the Lord is my salvation, I will not fear: and He is a garland
on my head and I shall not be moved; even if everything should be shaken,
I stand firm; 11 And if all things visible should perish, I shall not die;
because the Lord is with me I and I am with Him. Hallelujah.
ODE 6.
1 As the hand moves over the harp, and the strings speak, 2 So speaks in
my members the Spirit of the Lord, and I speak by His love. 3 For it destroys
what is foreign and everything that is bitter: 4 For thus it was from the
beginning and will be to the end, that nothing should be His adversary, and
nothing should stand up against Him. 5 The Lord has multiplied the knowledge
of Himself, and is zealous that these things should be known, which by His
grace have been given to us. 6 And the praise of His name He gave us: our
spirits praise His holy Spirit. 7 For there went forth a stream and became
a river great and broad; 8 For it flooded and broke up everything and it brought
(water) to the Temple; 9 And the restrainers of the children of men were
not able to restrain it, nor the arts of those whose business it is to restrain
waters; 10 For it spread over the face of the whole earth, and filled everything:
and all the thirsty upon earth were given to drink of it; 11 And thirst was
relieved and quenched: for from the Most High the draught was given. 12 Blessed
then are the ministers of that draught who are entrusted with that water
13 They have assuaged the dry lips, and the will that had fainted they have
raised up; 14 And souls that were near departing they have caught back from
death: 15 And limbs that had fallen they straightened and set up: 16 They
gave strength for their feebleness and light to their eyes: 17 For everyone
knew them in the Lord, and they lived by the water of life forever. Hallelujah.
Ode 7.
1 As the impulse of anger against evil, so is the impulse of joy over what
is lovely, and brings in of its fruits without restraint: 2 My joy is the
Lord and my impulse is toward Him: this path of mine is excellent: 3 For I
have a helper, the Lord. 4 He hath caused me to know Himself, without grudging,
by His simplicity: His kindness has humbled His greatness. 5 He became like
me, in order that I might receive Him: He was reckoned like myself in order
that I might put Him on; 7 And I trembled not when I saw Him: because He was
gracious to me: 8 Like my nature He became that I might learn Him and like
my form, that I might not turn back from Him: 9 The Father of knowledge is
the word of knowledge: 10 He who created wisdom is wiser than His works: 11
And He who created me when yet I was not knew what I should do when I came
into being: 12 Wherefore He pitied me in His abundant grace: and granted me
to ask from Him and to receive from His sacrifice: 13 Because He it is that
is incorrupt, the fulness of the ages and the of them. 14 He hath given Him
to be seen of them that are His, in order that they may recognize Him that
made them: and that they might not suppose that they came of themselves: 15
For knowledge He hath appointed as its way, hath widened it and extended it;
and brought to all perfection; 16 And set over it the traces of His light,
and I walked therein from the beginning even to the end. 17 For by Him it
was wrought, and He was resting in the Son, and for its salvation He will
take hold of everything. 18 And the Most High shall be known in His Saints,
to announce to those that have songs of the coming of the Lord: 19 That they
may go forth to meet Him, and may sing to Him with joy and with the harp of
many tones: 20 The seers shall come before Him and they shall be seen before
Him, 21 And they shall praise the Lord for His love: because He is near and
beholdeth. 22 And hatred shall be taken from the earth, and along with jealousy
it shall be drowned: 23 For ignorance hath been destroyed, because the knowledge
of the Lord hath arrived. 24 They who make songs shall sing the grace of
the Lord Most High; 25 And they shall bring their songs, and their heart
shall be like the day: and like the excellent beauty of the Lord their pleasant
song; 26 And there shall neither be anything that breathes without knowledge
nor any that is dumb: 27 For He hath given a mouth to His creation, to open
the voice of the mouth towards Him, to praise Him: 28 Confess ye His power,
and show forth His grace. Hallelujah.
Ode 8.
1 Open ye, open ye your hearts to the exultation of the Lord: 2 And let
your love be multiplied from the heart and even to the lips, 3 To bring forth
fruit to the Lord, living [fruit], holy [fruit], and to talk with watchfulness
in His light. 4 Rise up, and stand erect, ye who sometime were brought low:
5 Tell forth ye who were in silence, that your mouth hath been opened. 6 Ye,
therefore, that were despised be henceforth lifted up, because your righteousness
hath been exalted. 7 For the right hand of the Lord is with you: and He is
your helper: 8. And peace was prepared for you, before ever your war was.
9. Hear the word of truth, and receive the knowledge of the Most High. 10
Your flesh has not known what I am saying to you: neither have your hearts
known what I am showing to you. 11 Keep. my secret, ye who are kept by it.
l2 Keep my faith, ye who are kept by it. l3 And understand my knowledge, ye
who know me in truth, 14 Love me with affection, ye who love! 15 For I do
not turn away my face from them that are mine; 16 For I know them and before
they came into being I took knowledge of them, and on their faces I set my
seal: 17 I fashioned their members: my own breasts I prepared for them, that
they might drink my holy milk and live thereby 18 I took pleasure in them
and am not ashamed of them: 19 For my workmanship are they and the strength
of my thoughts: 20 Who then shall rise up against my handiwork, or who is
there that is not subject to them? 21 I willed and fashioned mind and heart:
and they are mine, and by my own right hand I set my elect ones: 22 And my
righteousness goeth before them and they shall not be deprived of my name,
for it is with them. 23 Ask, and abound and abide in the love of the Lord,
24 And yet beloved ones in the Beloved: those who are kept, in Him that liveth:
25 And they that are saved in Him that was saved; 26 And ye shall be found
incorrupt in all ages to the name of your Father. Hallelujah.
Ode 9.
1 Open your ears and I will speak to you. Give me your souls that I may
also give you my soul, 2 The word of the Lord and His good pleasures, the
holy thought which He has devised concerning his Messiah. 3 For in the will
of the Lord is your salvation, and His thought is everlasting life; and your
end is immortality. 4 Be enriched in God the Father, and receive the thought
of the Most High. 5 Be strong and be redeemed by His grace. 6 For I announce
to you peace, to you His saints; 6 That none of those who hear may fall in
war, and that those again who have known Him may not perish, and that those
who receive may not be ashamed. 8 An everlasting crown forever is Truth. Blessed
are they who set it on their heads: 9 A stone of great price is it; and there
have been wars on account of the crown. 10 And righteousness hath taken it
and hath given it to you. 11 Put on the crown in the true covenant of the
Lord. 12 And all those who have conquered shall be written in His book. 13
For their book is victory which is yours. And she (Victory) sees you before
her and wills that you shall be saved. Hallelujah.
ODE 10.
1 The Lord hath directed my mouth by His word: and He hath opened my heart
by His light: and He hath caused to dwell in me His deathless life; 2 And
gave me that I might speak the fruit peace: 3 To convert the souls of them
who are willing to come to Him; and to lead captive a good captivity for freedom.
4 I was strengthened and made mighty and took the world captive; 5 And it
became to me for the praise of the Most High, and of God my Father. 6 And
the Gentiles were gathered together who were scattered abroad. 7 And I was
unpolluted by my love for them, because they confessed me in high places:
and the traces of the light were set upon their heart: 8 And they walked in
my life and were saved and be came my people for ever and ever. Hallelujah.
ODE 11.
A beautiful sketch of Paradise regained and the blessedness of those who
have returned to the privileges of the fallen Adam. 1 My heart was cloven
and its flower appeared; and grace sprang up in it: and it brought forth
fruit to the Lord, 2 For the Most High clave my heart by His Holy Spirit and
searched my affection towards Him: and filled me with His love. 3 And His
opening of me became my salvation; and I ran in His way in His peace even
in the way of truth: 4 from the beginning and even to the end I acquired His
knowledge: 5 And I was established upon the rock of truth, where He
had set me up: 6 And speaking waters touched my lips from the fountain of
the Lord plenteously: 7 And I drank and was inebriated with the living water
that doth not die; 8 And my inebriation was not one without knowledge, but
I forsook vanity and turned to the Most High my God, 9 And I was enriched
by His bounty, and I forsook the folly which is diffused over the earth; and
I stripped it off and cast it from me: 10 And the Lord renewed me in His
raiment, and possessed me by His light, and from above He gave me rest in
incorruption; 11 And I became like the land which blossoms and rejoices in
its fruits: 12 And the Lord was like the sun shining on the face of the land;
13 He lightened my eyes and my face received the dew; the pleasant odour
of the Lord; 14 And He carried me to His Paradise; where is the abundance
of the pleasure, of the Lord; 15 And 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; 16 And they grow by the fruits of
the trees. And they have changed from darkness to light. 17 Behold! all thy
servants are fair, who do good works, and turn away from wickedness to the
pleasantness that is thine: 18 And they have turned back the bitterness of
the trees from them, when they were planted in thy land; 19 And everything
became like a relic of thyself, and memorial for ever of thy faithful works.
20 For there is abundant room in thy Paradise, and nothing is useless therein;
21 But everything is filled with fruit; glory be to thee, O God, the delight
of Paradise for ever. Hallelujah.
ODE 12.
An exceptionally high level of spiritual thought. 1 He hath filled
me with words of truth; that I may speak the same; 2 And like the flow of
waters flows truth from my mouth, and my lips show forth His fruit. 3 And
He has caused His knowledge to abound in me, because the mouth of the Lord
is the true Word, and the door of His light; 4 And the Most High hath given
it to His words, which are the interpreters of His own beauty, and the repeaters
of His praise, and the confessors of His counsel and the heralds of His thought
and the chasteners of His servants. 5 For the swiftness of the Word is inexpressible,
and like its expression is its swiftness and force; 6 And its course knows
no limit. Never doth it fail, but it stands sure, and it knows not descent
nor the way of it. 7 For as its work is, so is its end: for it is light and
the dawning of thought; 8 And by it the worlds talk one to the other; and
in the Word there were those that were silent; 9 And from it came love and
concord; and they spake one to the other whatever was theirs; and they were
penetrated by the Word; 10 And they knew Him who made them, because they were
in concord; for the mouth of the Most High spake to them; and His explanation
ran by means of it: 11 For the dwelling-place of the Word is man: and its
truth is love. 12 Blessed are they who by means thereof have understood everything,
and have known the Lord in His truth. Hallelujah.
ODE 13.
1 Behold! the Lord is our mirror: open the eyes and see them in Him: and
learn the manner of your face: 2 And tell forth praise to His spirit: and
wipe off the filth from your face: and love His holiness, and clothe yourselves
therewith: 3 And be without stain at all times before Him. Hallelujah.
ODE 14.
1 As the eyes of a son to his father so are my eyes, O Lord at all times
towards thee. 2 For with thee are my consolations and my delight. 3 Turn not
away thy mercies from me, O Lord: and take not thy kindness from me. 4 Stretch
out to me, O Lord, at all times thy right hand: and be my guide even unto
the end, according to thy good pleasure. 5 Let me be well-pleasing before
thee, because of thy glory and because of thy name: 6 Let me be preserved
from evil, and let thy meekness, O Lord, abide with me, and the fruits of
thy love. 7 Teach me the Psalms of thy truth, that I may bring forth fruit
in thee: 8 And open to me the harp of thy Holy Spirit, that with all its notes
I may praise thee, O Lord. 9 And according to the multitude of thy tender
mercies, so thou shalt give to me; and hasten to grant our petitions; and
thou art able for all our needs. Hallelujah.
Ode 15.
1 As the sun is the joy to them that seek for its daybreak, so is my joy
the Lord; 2 Because He is my Sun and His rays have lifted me up and His light
hath dispelled all darkness from my face. In Him I have acquired eyes and
have seen His holy day: 4 Ears have become mine and I have heard His truth.
5 The thought of knowledge hath been mine, and I have been delighted through
Him. 6 The way of error I have left, and have walked towards Him and have
received salvation from Him, without grudging. 7 And according to His bounty
He hath given to me and according to His excellent beauty He hath made me.
8 I have put on incorruption through His name: and have put off corruption
by His grace. 9 Death hath been destroyed before my face: and Sheol bath been
abolished by my word: 10 And there hath gone up deathless life in the Lord's
land, 11 And it hath been made known to His faithful ones, and hath been
given without stint to all those that trust in Him. Hallelujah.
ODE 16.
1 As the work of the husband man is the ploughshare: and the work of the
steersman is the guidance of the ship: 2 So also my work is the Psalm of the
Lord: my craft and praises: 3 Because His love hath nourished my heart, and
even to my lips His fruits He poured out. 4 For my love is the Lord, and
I therefore I will sing unto Him: 5 For I am made strong in His praise, and
I have faith in Him. 6 I will open my mouth and His spirit will utter in
me the glory of the Lord and His beauty; the work of His hands and the operation
of His fingers: 7 The multitude of His mercies and the strength of His word.
8 For the word of the Lord searches out all things, both the invisible and
that which reveals His thought; 9 For the eye sees His works and the ear
hears His thought; 10 He spread out the earth and He settled the waters in
the sea: 11 He measured the heavens and fixed the stars: and He established
the creation and set it up: 12 And He rested from His works: 13 And created
things run in their courses, and do their works: 14 And they know not how
to stand and be idle; and His heavenly hosts are subject to His word. 15
The treasure-chamber of the light is the sun, and the treasury of the darkness
is the night: 16 And He made the sun for the day that it may be bright, but
night brings darkness over the face of the land; 17 And their alternations
one to the other speak the beauty of God: 18 And there is nothing that is
without the Lord; for He was before any thing came into being: 19 And the
worlds were made by His word, and by the thought of His heart. Glory and
honour to His name. Hallelujah.
ODE 17.
1. I was crowned by my God: my crown is living: 2 And I was justified in
my Lord: my incorruptible salvation is He. 3 I was loosed from vanity, and
I was not condemned: 4 The choking bonds were cut off by her hands: I received
the face and the fashion of a new person: and I walked in it and was saved;
5 And the thought of truth led me on. And I walked after it and did not wander:
6 And all. that have seen me were amazed: and I was regarded by them as a
strange person: 7 And He who knew and brought me up is the Most High in all
His perfection. And He glorified me by His kindness, and raised my thoughts
to the height of His truth. 8 And from thence He gave me the way of His precepts
and I opened the doors that were closed,. 9 And brake in pieces the bars of
iron: but my iron melted and dissolved before me; 10 Nothing appeared closed
to me: because I was the door of everything. 11 And I went over all my bond
men to loose them; that I might not leave any man bound or binding: 12 And
I imparted my knowledge without grudging: and my prayer was in my love: 13
And I sowed my fruits in hearts, and transformed them into myself: and they
received my blessing and lived; 14 And they were gathered to me and were
saved; because they were to me as my own members and I was their head. Glory
to thee our head the Lord Messiah. Hallelujah.
ODE 18.
1 My heart was lifted up in the love of the Most High and was enlarged:
that I might praise Him for His name's sake. 2 My members were strengthened
that they might not fall from His strength. 3 Sicknesses removed from my
body, and it stood to the Lord by His will. For His kingdom is true. 4 O
Lord, for the sake of them that are deficient do not remove thy word from
me! 5 Neither for the sake of their works do thou restrain from me thy perfection!
6 Let not the luminary be conquered by the darkness; nor let truth flee away
from falsehood. 7 Thou wilt appoint me to victory; our Salvation is thy right
hand. And thou wilt receive men from all quarters. 8 And thou wilt preserve
whosoever is held in evils: 9 Thou art my God. Falsehood and death are not
in thy mouth: 10 For thy will is perfection; and vanity thou knowest not,
11 Nor does it know thee. 12 And error thou knowest not, 13 Neither does it
know thee. 14 And ignorance appeared like a blind man; and like the foam of
the sea, 15 And they supposed of that vain thing that it was something great;
16 And they too came in likeness of it and became vain; and those have understood
who have known and meditated; 17 And they have not been corrupt in their
imagination; for such were in the mind of the Lord; 18 And they mocked at
them that were walking in error; 19 And they spake truth from the inspiration
which the Most High breathed into them; Praise and great comeliness to His
name. Hallelujah.
ODE 19.
1 A cup of milk was offered to me: and I drank it in the sweetness of the
delight of the Lord. 2 The Son is the cup and He who was milked is the Father:
3 And the Holy Spirit milked Him: because His breasts were full, and it was
necessary for Him that His milk should be sufficiently released; 4 And the
Holy Spirit opened His bosom and mingled the milk from the two breasts of
the Father and gave the mixture to the world without their knowing: 5 And
they who receive in its fulness are the ones on the right hand. 6 The Spirit
opened the womb of the Virgin and she received conception and brought forth;
and the Virgin became a Mother with many mercies; 7 And she travailed and
brought forth a Son, without incurring pain; 8 And because she was not sufficiently
prepared, and she had not sought a midwife (for He brought her to bear) she
brought forth, as if she were a man, of her own will; 9 And she brought Him
forth openly, and acquired Him with great dignity, 10 And loved Him in His
swaddling clothes and guarded Him kindly, and showed Him in Majesty. Hallelujah.
ODE 20.
1 I am a priest of the Lord, and to Him I do priestly service: and to Him
I offer the sacrifice of His thought. 2 For His thought is not like the thought
of the world nor the thought of the flesh, nor like them that serve carnally.
3 The sacrifice of the Lord is righteousness, and purity of heart and lips.
4 Present your reins before Him blamelessly: and let not thy heart do violence
to heart, nor thy soul to soul. 5 Thou shalt not acquire a stranger by the
price of thy silver neither shalt thou seek to devour thy neighbour, 6 Neither
shalt thou deprive him of the covering of his nakedness. 7 But put on the
grace of the Lord without stint; and come into His Paradise and make thee
a garland from its tree,. 8 And put it on thy head and be glad; and recline
on His rest, and glory shall go before thee, 9 And thou shalt receive of His
kindness and of His grace; and thou shalt be flourishing in truth in the
praise of His holiness. Praise and honour be to His name. Hallelujah.
ODE 21.
1 My arms I lifted up to the Most High, even to the grace of the Lord: because
He had cast off my bonds from me: and my Helper had lifted me up to His grace
and to His salvation: 2 And I put off darkness and clothed myself with light,
3 And my soul acquired a body free from sorrow or affliction or pains 4 And
increasingly helpful to me was the thought of the Lord, and His fellowship
in incorruption: 5 And I was lifted up in His light; and I served before Him,
6 And I became near to Him, praising and confessing Him; 7 My heart ran over
and was found in my mouth: and it arose upon my lips; and the exultation of
the Lord increased on my face, and His praise likewise. Hallelujah.
ODE 22.
1 He who brought me down from on high, also brought me up from the regions
below; 2 And He who gathers together the things that are betwixt is He also
who cast me down: 3 He who scattered my enemies had existed from ancient and
my adversaries: 4 He who gave me authority over bonds that I might loose them;
5 He that overthrew by my hands the dragon with seven heads: and thou hast
set me over his roots that I might destroy his seed. 6 Thou wast there and
didst help me, and in every place thy name was a rampart to me. 7 Thy right
hand destroyed his Wicked poison; and thy hand levelled the way for those
who believe in thee. 8 And thou didst choose them from the graves and didst
separate them from the dead. 9 Thou didst take dead bones and didst
cover them with bodies. 10 They were motionless, and thou didst give them
energy for life. 11 Thy way was without corruption and thy face; thou didst
bring thy world to corruption: that everything might be dissolved, and then
renewed, 12 And that the foundation for everything might be thy rock: and
on it thou didst build thy kingdom; and it became the dwelling place of the
saints. Hallelujah.
ODE 23.
1. The reference to the sealed document sent by God is one of the great
mysteries of the collection. 1 Joy is of the saints! and who shall
put it on, but they alone? 2 Grace is of the elect! and who shall receive
it except those who trust in it from the beginning? 3 Love is of the elect?
And who shall put it on except those who have possessed it from the beginning?
4 Walk ye in the knowledge of the Most High without grudging: to His exultation
and to the perfection of His knowledge. 5 And His thought was like a letter;
His will descended from on high, and it was sent like an arrow which is violently
from the bow: 6 And many hands rushed to the letter to seize it and to take
and read it: 7 And it escaped their fingers and they were affrighted at it
and at the seal that was upon it. 8 Because it was not permitted to them to
loose its seal: for the power that was over the seal was greater than they.
9 But those who saw it went after the letter that they might know where it
would alight, and who should read it and who should hear it. 10 But a wheel
received it and came over it: 11 And there was with it a sign of the Kingdom
and of the Government: 12 And everything which tried to move the wheel it
mowed and cut down: 13 And it gathered the multitude of adversaries, and
bridged the rivers and crossed over and rooted up many forests and made a
broad path. 14 The head went down to the feet for down to the feet ran the
wheel, and that which was a sign upon it. 15 The letter was one of command,
for there were included in it all districts; 16 And there was seen at its
head, the head which was revealed even the Son of Truth from the Most High
Father, 17 And He inherited and took possession of everything. And the thought
of many was brought to nought. 18 And all the apostates hasted and fled away.
And those who persecuted and were enraged became extinct, 19 And the letter
was a great volume, which was wholly written by the finger of God: 20 And
the name of the Father was on it and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to
rule for ever and ever. Hallelujah.
ODE 24.
1 The Dove fluttered over the Messiah, because He was her head; and she
sang over Him and her voice was heard: 2 And the inhabitants were afraid
and the sojourners were moved: 3 The birds dropped their wings and all creeping
things died in their holes: and the abysses were opened which had been hidden;
and they cried to the Lord like women in travail: 4 And no food was given
to them, because it did not belong to them; 5 And they sealed up the abysses
with the seal of the Lord. And they perished, in the thought those that had
existed from ancient times; 6 For they were corrupt from the beginning; and
the end of their corruption was life: 7 And every one of them that was imperfect
perished: for it was not possible to give them a word that they might remain:
8 And the Lord destroyed the imaginations of all them that had not the truth
with them. 9 For they who in their hearts were lifted up were deficient in
wisdom and so they were rejected, because the truth was not with them. 10
For the Lord disclosed His way and spread abroad His grace: and those who
understood it, know His holiness. Hallelujah.
ODE 25.
1. I was rescued from my bonds and unto thee, my God, I fled: 2 For thou
art the right hand of my Salvation and my helper. 3 Thou hast restrained those
that rise up against me, 4 And I shall see him no more: because thy face
was with me, which saved me by thy grace. 5 But I was despised and rejected
in the eyes of many: and I was in their eyes like lead, 6 And strength was
mine from thyself and help. 7 Thou didst set me a lamp at my right hand and
at my left: and in me there shall be nothing that is not bright: 8 And I was
clothed with the covering of thy Spirit, and thou didst remove from me my
raiment of skin; 9 For thy right hand lifted me up and removed sickness from
me: 10 And I became mighty in the truth, and holy by thy righteousness; and
all my adversaries were afraid of me; 11 And I became admirable by the name
of the Lord, and I was justified by His gentleness, and His rest is for ever
and ever. Hallelujah.
ODE 26.
1. I poured out praise to the Lord, for I am His: 2 And I will speak His
holy song for my heart is with Him. 3 For His harp is in my hands, and the
Odes of His rest shall not be silent. 4 I will cry unto him from my whole
heart: I will praise and exalt Him with all my members. 5 For from the east
and even to the west is His praise: 6 And from the south and even to the north
is the confession of Him: 7 And from the top of the hills to their utmost
bound is His perfection. 8 Who can write the Psalms of the Lord, or who read
them? 9 Or who can train his soul for life that his soul may be saved, 10
Or who can rest on the Most High, so that with His mouth he may speak? 11
Who is able to interpret the wonders of the Lord? 12 For he who could interpret
would be dissolved and would become that which is interpreted. 13 For it
suffices to know and to rest: for in rest the singers stand, 14 Like a river
which has an abundant fountain, and flows to the help of them that seek it.
Hallelujah.
ODE 27.
1. I stretched out my hands and sanctified my Lord: 2 For the extension
of my hands is His sign: 3 And .my expansion is the upright tree [or cross].
ODE 28
1 As the wings of doves over their nestlings; and the mouth of their nestlings
towards their mouths, 2 So also are the wings of the Spirit over my heart:
3 My heart is delighted and exults: like the babe who exults in the womb of
his mother: 4 I believed; therefore I was at rest; for faithful is He in
whom I have believed: 5 He has richly blessed me and my head is with Him:
and the sword shall not divide me from Him, nor the scimitar; 6 For I am ready
before destruction comes; and I have been set on His immortal pinions: 7
And He showed me His sign: forth and given me to drink, and from that life
is the spirit within me and it cannot die, for it lives. 8 They who saw me
marvelled at me, because I was persecuted, and they supposed that I was swallowed
up: for I seemed to them as one of the lost; 9 And my oppression became my
salvation; and I was their reprobation because there was no seal in me; 10
Because I did good to every man I was hated, 11 And they came round me like
mad dogs, who ignorantly attack their masters, 12 For their thought is corrupt
and their understanding perverted. 13 But I was carrying water in my right
hand and their bitterness I endured by my sweetness: 14 And I did not perish,
for I was not their brother nor was my birth like theirs. 15 And they sought
for my death and did not find it: for I was older than the memorial of them;
16 And vainly did they make attack upon me and those who, without reward,
came after me: 17 They sought to destroy the memorial of him who was
before them. 18 For the thought of the Most High cannot be anticipated; and
His heart is superior to all wisdom. Hallelujah.
ODE 29.
1. The Lord is my hope: in Him I shall not be confounded. 2 For according
to His praise He made me, and according to His goodness even so He gave unto
me: 3 And according to His mercies He exalted me: and according to His excellent
beauty He set me on high: 4 And brought me up out of the depths of Sheol:
and from the mouth of death He drew me: 5 And thou didst lay my enemies low
and He justified me by His grace. 6 For I believed in the Lord's Messiah:
and it appeared to me that He is the Lord; 7 And He showed him His sign: and
He led, me by His light, and gave me the rod of His power 8 That I might subdue
the imaginations of the peoples; and the power of the men of might to bring
them low: 9 To make war by His word, and to take victory by His power. 10
And the Lord overthrew my enemy by His word: and he became like the stubble
which the wind carries away; 11 And I gave praise to the Most High because
He exalted me His servant and the son of His handmaid. Hallelujah.
ODE 30.
1 Fill ye waters for yourselves from the living fountain, of the Lord, for
it is opened to you: 2 And come all ye thirsty and take the draught; and rest
by the fountain of the Lord. 3 For fair it is and pure and gives rest to
the soul, Much ore pleasant are its waters than honey; 4 And the honeycomb
of bees is not to be compared with it. 5 For it flows forth from the lips
of the Lord and from the heart of the Lord is its name. 6 And it came infinitely
and invisibly: and until it was set in the midst they did not know it: 7 Blessed
are they who have drunk therefrom and have found rest thereby. Hallelujah.
ODE 31.
1 The abysses were dissolved before the Lord: and darkness was destroyed
by His appearance: 2 Error went astray and
perished at His hand: and folly found no path to walk in, and was submerged
by the truth of the Lord. 3 He opened His mouth and spake grace and joy: and
He spake a new song of praise to His name: 4 And He lifted up His voice to
the Most High and offered the sons that were with Him. 5 And His face was
justified, for thus His holy Father had given to Him. 6 Come forth, ye that
have been afflicted and receive joy, and possess your souls by His grace;
and take to you immortal life. 7 And they made me a debtor when I rose up,
me who had been a debtor: and they divided my spoil, though nothing was due
to them. 8 But I endured and held my peace and was silent as if not moved
by them. 9 But I stood unshaken like a firm rock which is beaten by the waves
and endures. 10 An I bore their bitterness for humility's sake: 11 In order,
that I might redeem my people, and inherit it and that I might not make void
my promises to the fathers to whom I promised the salvation of their seed.
Hallelujah.
ODE 32.
1 To the blessed there is joy from their hearts, and light from Him that
dwells in them: 2 And words from the Truth, who was self-originate: for He
is strengthened by the holy power of the Most High: and He is unperturbed
for ever and ever. Hallelujah.
ODE 33.
1 Again Grace ran and forsook corruption, and came down in Him to bring
it to nought; 2 And He destroyed perdition from before Him, and devastated
all its order; 3 And He stood on a lofty summit and uttered His voice from
one end of the earth to the other: 4 And drew to Him all those who obeyed
Him; and there did not appear as it were an evil person. 5 But there stood
a perfect virgin who was proclaiming and calling and saying, 6 O ye sons
of men, return ye, and ye daughters of men, come ye: 7 And forsake the ways
of that corruption and draw near unto me, and I will enter into you, and
will bring you forth from perdition, 8 And make you wise in the ways of truth:
that you be not destroyed nor perish: 9 Hear ye me and be redeemed. For the
grace of God I am telling among you: and by my means you shall be redeemed
and become blessed. 10 I am your judge; and they who have put me on shall
not be injured: but they shall possess the new world that is incorrupt: 11
My chosen ones walk in me, and my ways I will make known to them that seek
me, and I will make them trust in my name. Hallelujah.
ODE 34.
1 No way is hard where there is a simple heart. 2 Nor is there any wound
where the thoughts are upright: 3 Nor is there any storm in the depth of the
illuminated thought: 4 Where one is surrounded on every side by beauty, there
is nothing that is divided. 5 The likeness of what is below is that which
is above; for everything is above: what is below is nothing but the imagination
of those that are without knowledge. 6 Grace has been revealed for your salvation.
Believe and live and be saved. Hallelujah.
ODE 35.
1 The dew of the Lord in quietness He distilled upon me: 2 And the cloud
of peace He caused to rise over my head, which guarded me continually; 3 It
was to me for salvation: everything was shaken and they were affrighted; 4
And there came forth from them a smoke and a judgment; and I was keeping quiet
in the order of the Lord: 5 More than shelter was He to me and more than
foundation. 6 And I was carried like a child by mother: and He gave me milk,
the dew of the Lord: 7 And I grew great by His bounty, and rested in His
perfection, 8 And I spread out my hands in the lifting up of my soul: and
I was made right with the Most High and I was redeemed with Him. Hallelujah.
ODE 36.
1 I rested in the Spirit of the Lord: and the Spirit raised me on
high: 2 And made me stand on my feet in the height of the Lord, before His
perfection and His glory, while I was praising Him by the composition of His
songs. 3 The Spirit brought me forth before the face of the Lord: and, although
a son of man, I was named the Illuminate, the Son of God: 4 While I praised
amongst the praising ones, and great was I amongst the mighty ones. 5 For
according to the greatness of the Most High, so He made me: and like His
own newness He renewed me; and He anointed me from His own perfection: 6
And I became one of His Neighbours; and my mouth was opened; like a cloud
of dew; 7 And my heart poured out as it were a gushing stream of righteousness,
8 And my access to Him was in peace; and I was established by the Spirit of
His government. Hallelujah.
ODE 37.
1 I stretched out my hands to my Lord: and to the Most High I raised my
voice: 2 And I spake with the lips of my heart; and He heard me when my voice
reached Him: 3 His answer came to me and gave me the fruits of my labours;
4 And it gave me rest by the grace of the Lord. Hallelujah.
ODE 38.
1 I went up to the light of truth as if into a chariot: 2 And the Truth
took me and led me: and carried me across pits and gulleys; and from the
rocks and the waves it preserved me: 3 And it became to me a haven of Salvation:
and set me on the arms of immortal life: 4 And it went with me and made me
rest, and suffered me not to wander because it was the Truth. 5 And I ran
no risk, because I walked with Him; 5 And I did not make an error 4 anything
because I obeyed the Truth. 7 For Error flees away from it and meets it not:
but the Truth proceeds in the right path, and 8 What ever 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: 9 And I saw the destroyer of destruction, when
the bride who is corrupted is adorned: and the bridgegroom who corrupts and
is corrupted; 10 And I asked the Truth, 'Who are these?'; and He said to me,
'This is the deceiver and the error: 11 And they are alike in the beloved
and in his bride: and they lead astray and corrupt the whole world: 12 And
they invite many to the banquet, 13 And give them to drink of the wine of
their intoxication, and remove their wisdom and knowledge, and so they make
them without intelligence; 14 And then they leave them; and then these go
about like madmen corrupting: seeing that they are with out heart, nor do
they seek for it.' 15 And 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,
16 And I was established and lived and was redeemed, 17 And my foundations
were laid on the hand of the Lord: because He established me. 18 For He set
the root and watered it and fixed it and blessed it; and its fruits are for
ever. 19 It struck deep and sprung up and spread out and was full and enlarged;
20 And the Lord alone was glorified in His planting and in His husbandry:
by His care and by the blessing of His lips, 21 By the beautiful planting
of His right hand: and by the discovery of His planting, and by the thought
of His mind. Hallelujah.
ODE 39.
1 Great rivers are the power of the Lord: 2 And they carry headlong those
who despise Him: and entangle their paths: 3 And they sweep away their fords,
and catch their bodies and destroy their lives. 4 For they are more swift
than lightning and more rapid, and those who cross them in faith are not moved;
5 And those who walk on them without blemish shall not be afraid. 6 For the
sign in them is the Lord; and the sign is the way of those who cross in the
name of the Lord; 7 Put on, therefore the name of the Most High, and know
Him and you shall cross without danger, for the rivers will be subject to
you. 8 The Lord has bridged them by His word; and He walked and crossed them
on foot: 9 And His footsteps stand firm on the water, and are not injured;
they are as firm as a tree that is truly set up. 10 And the waves were lifted
up on this side and on that, but the footsteps of our Lord Messiah stand firm
and are not obliterated and are not defaced. 11 And a way has been appointed
for those who cross after Him and for those who adhere to the course of faith
in Him and worship His name. Hallelujah.
ODE 40.
1 As the honey distills from the comb of the bees, 2 And the milk flows
from the woman that loves her children; 3 So also is my hope on Thee, my
God. 4 As the fountain gushes out its water. 5 So my heart gushes out the
praise of the Lord and my lips utter praise to Him, and my tongue His psalms,
6 And my face exults with His gladness and my spirit exults in His love and
my soul shines in Him: 7 And reverence confides in Him; and redemption in
Him stands assured: 8 And His inheritance is immortal life, and those who
participate in it are incorrupt. Hallelujah.
ODE 41.
1 All the Lord's children will praise Him, and will collect the truth of
His faith. 2 And His children shall be known to Him. Therefore we will sing
in His love: 3 We live in the Lord by His grace: and life we receive in His
Messiah: 4 For a great day has shined upon us: and marvellous is He who has
given us of His glory. 5 Let us, therefore all of us unite together in the
name of the Lord, and let us honour Him in His goodness, 6 And let our faces
shine in His light: and let our hearts meditate in His love by night and by
day. 7 Let us exult with the joy of the Lord. 8 All those will be astonished
that see me, For from another race am I; 9 For the Father of truth remembered
me: He who possessed me from the beginning: 10 For His bounty begat me, and
the thought of His heart: 11 And His Word is with us in all our way; 12 The
Saviour who makes alive and does not reject our souls; 13 The man who was
humbled, and exalted by His own righteousness, 14 The Son of the Most High
appeared in the perfection of His Father; 15 And light dawned from the Word
that was beforetime in Him;. 16 The Messiah is truly one; and He was known
before the foundation of the world, 17 That He might save souls forever by
the truth of His name: a new song arises from those who love Him. Hallelujah.
ODE 42.
1 I stretched out my hands and approached my Lord: 2 For the stretching
of my hands is His sign: 2 My expansion is the outspread tree which was set
up on the way of the Righteous One. 4 And I became of no account to those
who did not take hold of me and I shall be with those who love me. 5 All my
persecutors are dead; and they sought after me who hoped in me, because I
was alive: 6 And I rose up and am with them; and I will speak by their mouths.
7 For they have despised those who persecuted them; 8 And I lifted up over
them the yoke of my love; 9 Like the arm of the bridegroom over the bride,
10 So was my yoke over those that know me: 11 And as the couch that is spread
in the house of the bridegroom and bride, 12 So is my love over those that
believe in me. 13 And I was not rejected though I was reckoned to be so.
14 I did not perish, though they devised it against me. 13 Sheol saw me and
was made miserable: 16 Death cast me up and many along with me. 17 I had
gall and bitterness, and I went down with him to the utmost of his depth:
18 And the feet and the head he let go, for they were not able to endure
my face: 19 And I made a congregation of living men amongst his dead men,
and I spake with them by living lips: 20 Because my word shall not be void:
21 And those who had died ran towards me: and they cried and said, Son of
God, have pity on us, and do with us according to thy kindness. 22 And bring
us out from the bonds of darkness: and open to us the door by which we shall
come out to thee. 23 For we see that our death has not touched thee. 24 Let
us also be redeemed with thee: for thou art our Redeemer. 25 And I heard
their voice; and my name I sealed upon their heads: 26 For they are free
men and they are mine. Hallelujah.