191 But upon the ungodly there came pitiless wrath to the uttermost;

For what they would do He knew before,

2 How that, having pressed them to be gone,

And having speeded them eagerly on their way,

They would repent themselves and pursue them.

3 For while they were yet in the midst of their mourning,

And making lamentation at the graves of the dead,

They adopted another counsel of folly,

And pursued as fugitives those whom with intreaties they had cast out.

4 For the doom they deserved was dragging them unto this end,

And made them forget what things had befallen them,

That they might fill up the punishment yet lacking to their torments,

5 And that thy people might journey by a marvellous road,

But they themselves might find a strange death.

Creation fought for the chosen people,

6 For the whole creation in its several kind was fashioned again anew,

Performing their several commands,

That thy servants might be guarded free from hurt.

7 Then was beheld the cloud that shadowed the camp,

And dry land rising up out of what before was water,

Out of the Red sea an unhindered highway,

And a grassy plain out of the violent surge;

8 Through which they passed with all their hosts,

These that were covered with thy hand,

Having beheld strange marvels.

9 For like horses they roamed at large,

And they skipped about like lambs,

Praising thee, O Lord, who delivered them.

10 For they still remembered what came to pass in the time of their sojourn,

How instead of bearing cattle the land brought forth lice,

And instead of fish the river cast up a multitude of frogs.

11 But afterwards they saw also a new race of birds,

When, led on by desire, they asked for luxurious dainties;

12 For, to solace them, there came up for them quails from the sea.

And against the Egyptians.

13 And upon the sinners came the punishments

Not without tokens given beforehand by the force of thunders;

For justly did they suffer through their own exceeding wickednesses,

For grievous indeed was the hatred which they practised toward guests.

14 For whereas certain men received not strangers who came among them,

These made slaves of guests who were their benefactors.

15 And not only so, but God shall visit the former after another sort,

Since they received as enemies them that were aliens;

16 Whereas these first welcomed with feastings,

And then afflicted with dreadful toils,

Them that had already shared with them in the same rights.

17 And they too were stricken with loss of sight

(Even as those others at the righteous man’s doors),

When, being compassed about with yawning darkness,

They sought every one the passage through his own door.

The marvels explained by the theory of the transmutation of the elements.

18 For the elements changed their order one with another,

Just as the notes of a psaltery vary the character of the rhythm,

Continuing always the same, each in its several sound;

As may clearly be divined from the sight of what came to pass.

19 For creatures of dry land were turned into creatures of waters,

And creatures that swim trode now upon the earth:

20 Fire kept the mastery of its own power in the midst of water,

And water forgat its quenching nature:

21 Contrariwise, flames wasted not the flesh of perishable creatures that walked among them;

Neither melted they the ice-like grains of ambrosial food, that were of nature apt to melt.

22 For in all things, O Lord, thou didst magnify thy people,

And thou didst glorify them and not lightly esteem them;

Standing by their side in every time and place.