III. O Lord aAlmighty, God of Israel, the soul in anguish, the troubled spirit, crieth unto thee. 2 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy; for thou art merciful: and have pity upon us, because we have sinned before thee. 3 bFor thou endurest for ever, and we perish utterly. 4 O Lord aAlmighty, thou God of Israel, hear now the prayers of the cdead Israelites, and of their children, which have sinned before thee, and not hearkened unto the voice of thee their God: for the which cause dthese plagues cleave unto us. 5 Remember not the iniquities of our forefathers: but think upon thy power and thy name now at this time. 6 For thou art the Lord our God, and thee, O Lord, will we praise. 7 And for this cause thou hast put thy fear in our hearts, to the intent that we should call upon thy name, and praise thee in our captivity: for ewe have fcalled to mind all the iniquity of our forefathers, that sinned before thee. 8 Behold, we are yet this day in our captivity, where thou hast scattered us, gfor a reproach and ha curse, and ito be subject to payments, according to all the iniquities of our fathers, which departed from the Lord our God.

9  Hear, Israel, the commandments of life:

Give ear to understand wisdom.

10  How happeneth it, Israel, that thou art in thine enemies’ land,

That thou art waxen old in a strange country, that thou art defiled cwith the dead,

11  That jthou art counted with them that kgo down into the grave?

12  Thou hast forsaken lthe fountain of wisdom.

13  For mif thou hadst walked in the way of God,

Thou shouldest have dwelled in peace for ever.

14  Learn where is wisdom, where is strength, where is understanding;

That thou mayest know also where is length of days, and life,

Where is nthe light of the eyes, and peace.

15  oWho hath found out her place?

Or who hath come into her treasures?

16  Where are the princes of the heathen become,

And such as pruled the beasts upon the earth;

17  They that qhad their pastime with the fowls of the air,

And they that hoarded up silver

And gold, rwherein men trust,

And made no end of their getting?

18  For they that wrought in silver, and were so careful,

And whose works are unsearchable,

19  They sare vanished and kgone down to the grave,

And others are come up in their steads.

20  Young men have seen light, and dwelt upon the earth:

But tthe way of knowledge have they not known,

21  Nor understood the paths thereof, nor laid hold of it:

Their children were far off from that way.

22  It hath not been heard of in Chanaan,

uNeither hath it been seen in vTheman.

23  The wAgarenes that seek wisdom upon earth,

The merchants of xMerran and of vTheman,

The * authors of fables, and searchers out of understanding;

None of these have known the way of wisdom,

Or remember her paths.

24  O Israel, how great is the house of God!

And how large is the place of his possession!

25  Great, and hath none end;

High, and unmeasurable.

26  There were the ygiants famous from the beginning,

That were zof so great stature, and so expert in war.

27  Those did not the Lord choose,

Neither gave he tthe way of knowledge unto them:

28  But they were destroyed, because they had no wisdom,

And perished through their own foolishness.

29  aWho hath gone up into heaven, and taken her,

And brought her down from the clouds?

30  aWho hath gone over the sea, and found her,

And will bring her bfor pure gold?

31  No man knoweth her way,

Nor thinketh of her path.

32  But he that knoweth all things knoweth her,

And hath found her out with his understanding:

He that prepared the earth for evermore

Hath filled it with fourfooted beasts:

33  He that sendeth forth light, and it goeth,

Calleth it again, and it obeyeth him with fear.

34  The stars shined cin their watches, and rejoiced:

When dhe calleth them, they say, Here we be;

And so with cheerfulness they shewed light unto him that made them.

35  This is our God,

And there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of him.

36  He hath found out all tthe way of knowledge,

And hath given it unto Jacob his servant,

And to Israel his ebeloved.

37  Afterward fdid he shew himself upon earth,

And fconversed with men.