Ethiopic Didascalia

Ethiopic Didascalia — Platt English translation page 49

and soothsayers, and wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, to sin against him ; and he set up the graven image and the molten image which he had made, in the House of the Lord ; of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son. In this House, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I set my name for ever. And I will no more move the foot of Israel out of the land which I gave unto their fathers : only let them observe all that I have commanded them in my Law and my covenant and my judgments, by the hand of Moses. And Manasseh cor- rupted Judah, and them that dwelt in Jerusalem, to do evil above all the nations that the Lord had removed from before the face of the Children of Israel : and the Lord spake against Manasseh and against his people, but they hearkened not unto him. And the Lord sent against them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria ; and they took Manasseh in bonds, and bound him in fetters, and led him away to Babylon. And when he was afflicted, he sought the face of the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the face of the God of his fathers. And Manasseh the son of king Hezekiah prayed, and said thus : O Lord, Ruler of the whole world, God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of all their offspring that are righteous, who didst make heaven and earth with all the host of them, who didst rebuke the sea with the voice of thy H 49