Ethiopic Didascalia

Ethiopic Didascalia — Platt English translation page 126

to be far from those that plunder widows and orphans, from those that fill prisons with the pure who have done no wrong, and from those that oppress their ser- vants with heavy and evil servitude, and torment them with hunger and thirst. The offering of such men is polluted : receive it not of them ; for every one who doeth evil, and speaketh iniquity, is rejected before the Lord. Let us be far from thieves and pubhcans, and from them that make idols, and from seducers, and such as use false balances, and wicked soldiers, who plunder the houses of the poor and needy, and seize their goods by violence. Take heed of murderers, and those that lie in wait by the way ; and of such as overthrow good works ; of impure vdzards, and all such persons ; of blasphemers ; and especially of those that take usury ; for it is written, saying, A little with righteousness is better than great riches of the sinner. And again it is written, saying. Thou, O Lord, hatest all the workers of iniquity, and shalt cast off all them that speak falsehood. And he that neglecteth to feed the vddow and orphan shall be condemned before the Lord. For that which Adonias did is written in the Book of Kings, how he transgressed against the Lord, and eat bread and drank water in the place of which the Lord commanded that he should not eat in it, because of the transgression of Jeroboam the son of Nebat ; and for this cause he was slain. 126