2 Baruch

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wit 14 15 16 17 18 ve ET ee II BARUCH 54. 4-18 (Thou) who revealest to those who fear Thee what is prepared for them, That thenceforth they may be comforted. Thou showest great acts to those who know not ; Thou breakest up the enclosure of those who are ignorant, And lightest up what is dark, And revealest what is hidden to the pure, [Who in faith have submitted themselves to Thee and Thy law.] Thou hast shown to Thy servant this vision ; Reveal to me also its interpretation. For I know that as regards those things wherein I besought Thee, I have received a response, And as regards what 1 besought, Thou didst reveal to me with what voice I should praise Thee, And from what members I should cause praises and hallelujahs to ascend to Thee. For if my members were mouths, And the hairs of my head voices, Even so I could not give Thee the meed of praise, Nor laud thee as is befitting, _ Nor could I recount Thy praise, Nor tell the glory of Thy beauty. For what am I amongst men, Or why am I reckoned amongst those who are more excellent than I, That I have heard all these marvellous things from the Most High, And numberless promises from Him who created me? Blessed be my mother among those that bear, And praised among women be she that bare me. For I will not be silent in praising the Mighty One, And with the voice of praise I will recount His marvellous deeds. For who doeth like unto Thy marvellous deeds, O God, Or who comprehendeth Thy deep thought fof lifet. For with Thy counsel Thou dost govern all the creatures which Thy right hand has created, And Thou hast established every fountain of light beside Thee, And the treasures of wisdom beneath Thy throne hast Thou prepared. And justly do they perish who have not loved Thy law, And the torment of judgement shall await those who have not submitted themselves to Thy power. For though Adam first sinned And brought untimely death upon all, Yet of those who were born from him Each one of them has prepared for his own soul torment to come, And again each one of them has chosen for himself glories to come. [For assuredly he who believeth will receive reward. But now, as for you, ye wicked that now are, turn ye to destruction, because ye shall speedily be visited, in that formerly ye rejected the understanding of the Most High. For His works have not taught you, Nor has the skill of His creation which is at all times persuaded you. | 4. Thee. So I emend text = ‘Him’. 5. in faith. See note on liv. 21. 1 have bracketed this line as a later addition. 10, An interpolation? it breaks the connexion. Cf. Luke xi. 27. 14. Cf, xlviii. 40. 15-19. The two doctrines of fate and free-will, though seen to be mutually exclusive, were accepted ¢heoretically as equally imperative by the Pharisees. St. Paul alone develops them into naked antagonism. The general tendency was to insist on free-will as here, and in the Talmud (Weber, /id. Theol. 224 sq.). See my Commentary, 7 doc. 15. The effect of Adam’s sin is limited to physical results—the premature death of his descendants. Contrast the pessimism of 4 Ezra. untimely. See xxiii. 4, note. 16-18. See xlviii. 48-50, note. These verses break the context and are out of place here. They properly precede xlviii. 48-50. A direct address to the wicked could not occur in a prayer to God. 18. God’s law can be learnt in nature. Cf. Rom. i. 20. This argument is as o!d as the Psalter, Job, and Isaiah (e.g. Ps. xix. 1). 511