THE PSALMS OF SOLOMON (SYRIAC VERSION, HARRIS AND MINGANA TRANSLATION)
English translation (public domain) · SermonIndex
Psalms of Solomon · 1st century BC

English translation (J. Rendel Harris and Alphonse Mingana, 1920; public domain), OCR text, prepared for reading by SermonIndex. https://www.sermonindex.net/fathers/psalms-of-solomon-syriac-harris-mingana/


PSALM 43 (PSALMS OF SOLOMON I)

(1) I cried unto the Lord when I was in affliction at my end; and to God when sinners set upon me: (2) for suddenly there was heard before me the sound of war: for He will hear me because I am filled with righteousness. (3) And I reckoned in my heart that I was filled with righteousness; in the day that I became rich and was with the multitude of (my) children. (4) Their wealth, however, has been given to the whole earth: and their glory as far as the ends of the earth. (5) And they were lifted high as the stars: and they said (6) that they will not fall, and they were insolent in their good things, and they spake without knowledge. (7) For their sins were in secret and I knew them not: (8) and their wickedness had exceeded that of the nations that had been before them: and they defiled the sanctuary of the Lord with pollution.


PSALM 44 (PSALMS OF SOLOMON II)

(1) In the insolence of the sinful man, he cast down with battering rams the strong walls, and thou didst not restrain him. (2) And the Gentile foreigners went up on thy altar, and were XLIV]

trampling on it with their shoes in their insolence. (3) For the children of Jerusalem had polluted the Holy House of the Lord: and they were profaning the offerings to God with wickedness.

(4) Wherefore He said, Remove them, cast them away from me. And He did not establish with them the beauty of His glory; (5) it was rejected before the Lord: and it was utterly torn in pieces. (6) Her sons and her daughters were in bitter captivity, and on their neck was put the sealed yoke of the Gentiles: (7) According to their sins so He dealt with them: for He suffered them to pass into the hand of him that was stronger than they. (8) For He turned away His face from His mercy: young men and old men and their children together; (9) because they also had worked evil together, that they might not hearken unto me. (10) And the heaven was mightily angered, and the earth rejected them: (11) because none in (the earth) had done therein like their doings; (12) and that the earth may know all thy righteous judgements, O God. (13) They set up the sons of Jerusalem for mockery within her, in the place of harlots; and every one that transgressed was transgressing as if before the sun: while they made sport in their villainies as they were used to do. (14) In the face of the sun they made show of their villainies. And the daughters of Jerusalem were polluted according to thy judgements; (15) for they had polluted themselves in lustful intercourse. My belly and my bowels are in pain over these things. (16) But I will justify thee, O Lord, in the uprightness of my heart; because in thy judgements is thy righteousness, O God. (17) For thou dost reward sinful men according to their deeds: and according to their wicked and bitter sins. (18) Thou didst disclose [XLIV

their sins, in order that thy judgement might be known. (19) And Thou didst not blot out their remembrance from the earth. God is a judge and righteous, and accepteth no man's person. (20) For the Gentiles reproached Jerusalem in their wickedness, and her beauty was cut off from the throne of His glory. (21) And she was covered with sackcloth instead of beauteous raiment: and there was a rope on her head instead of a crown. (22) She cast off from her the dazzling glory which God had put upon her; (23) and in contempt her beauty was cast away on the ground. (24) And I beheld and I besought the face of the Lord, and I said, Enough! Thou hast made Thy hand heavy. O Lord, upon Israel, by the bringing in of the Gentiles; (25) for they have mocked and not pitied, in anger; (26) and in reproach they are consumed, unless thou, O Lord, shalt restrain them in thy wrath. (27) For it is not in zeal that they did (this), but in the lust of the soul: (28) That they might pour out their wrath upon us in plundering us. But thou, O Lord, delay not to recompense them upon their own heads; (29) to cast down the pride of the dragon to contempt. (30) And I delayed not until the Lord showed me his insolence smitten on the mountains of Egypt: and despised more than him that is least (honoured) on land and sea:

(31) and his body coming on the waves in much contempt, and none to bury (him). (32) Because he had rejected Him with scorn, for he did not consider that he is a man. And the end he did not regard. (33) For he said, I will be the Lord of land and sea: and he knew not that the Lord is God, great, mighty, and powerful, (34) and He is King over Heaven and over Earth: and He judges kingdoms and princes, (35) He who raiseth me up in glory and layeth low the proud for destruction, not for a time but for ever, in contempt; because they knew Him not.

(36) And now behold, ye great ones of the earth, the judgement of the Lord, for He is a righteous King, and judges what is under the whole Heaven. (37) Bless ye the Lord, ye who fear the Lord reverently; for the mercies of the Lord are on them that fear Him with judgement, (38) to separate between the righteous and the sinful, and to reward the sinful for ever according to their deeds—(39) and to be gracious to the righteous after their oppression by sinners: and to reward the sinful for what he has done to the righteous: (40) because the Lord is kind to those that call upon Him in patience, to do according to His mercy to His saints: so as to stand before Him at all times in strength. (41) Blessed is the Lord for ever by His servants.


PSALM 45 (PSALMS OF SOLOMON III)

(1) Why sleepest thou, my soul, and dost not bless the Lord? (2) Sing a new song to God and keep vigil in His watch. For a Psalm is good (to sing) to God out of a good heart. (3) The righteous will ever make mention of the Lord: in confession and in righteousness are the judgements of the Lord. (4) The righteous will never neglect when he is chastened by the Lord: because his will is always before the Lord. (5) The righteous stumbles and justifies God: he falls and I wait what the Lord will do to him.

(6) And he looks to see from whence his salvation comes. (7) The stability of the righteous is from God their Saviour: for in the house of the righteous there does not lodge sin upon sin; (8) because he always visits the house of the righteous to remove the sins of his transgressions. (9) And he delivers his soul, in whatever he has sinned without knowledge, by fasting and humiliation; (10) and the Lord purifies every holy man and his house. (11) But the sinner stumbleth and curseth his own life, and the day in which he was born: and the birth-pangs of his mother; (12) and he adds sin upon sin to his life: (13) he falls, and because his fall is grievous, he rises not again: for the destruction of the sinner is for ever. (14) And he will not remember Him when He visits the righteous. (15) This is the portion of sinners for ever. (16) But those who fear the Lord shall rise to eternal life: and their life shall be in the light of the Lord, and (their life) shall not fail any more. (Hallelujah).


PSALM 46 (XLVII)

PSALMS OF SOLOMON IV.
(1) Why sittest thou, O wicked man, in the congregation of the righteous, and thy heart is far removed from God; and by thy wickedness thou provokest to anger the God of Israel, (2) exceedingly by thy words and exceedingly by thy outward signs more than all men? He who is severe in his words in his condemnation of sinners in judgement, (3) and his hand is the first to be on him, as though (he acted) in zeal: and he is guilty himself of all kinds XLVI]

of sinful crimes. (4) His eyes are on every woman immodestly and his tongue lies when he answers with oaths. (5) In the night and in the darkness as if he were not seen; by his eyes he talketh with every woman in the cunning of wickedness: (6) and he is quick to go into every house with joy as if he had no wickedness. (7) God shall move those who judge with respect of persons: but He lives with the upright, in the corruption of his body and in the poverty of his life. (8) God will disclose the deeds of those who are men-pleasers: in scorn and derision are his works. (9) And let the saints justify the judgement of their God, when the wicked shall be removed from before the righteous. (10) The accepter of persons who talks law with guile, (11) and his eyes are on a house, quietly like a serpent, to dispel the wisdom of each one by words of villainy: (12) his words are with an evil intent, with a view to the working of the lust of wickedness: (13) and he does not remove until he has scattered in bereavement, and has desolated the house because of his sinful lust: (14) and he supposes in his words that there is none that sees and judges: (15) and he is filled with this sinfulness; and his eyes are on another house to devastate it with words of prodigality; and his soul is, like Sheol, never satisfied.

(16) For all these things, let his portion O Lord, be before thee in dishonour; let his going out be with groans and his coming in with curses: (17) in pains, and in poverty, and in destitution, O Lord, let his life be: let his sleep be in anguish, and his waking in vexation: (18) let sleep be removed from his eyelids by night: let him fall from every work of his hands in dishonour, (19) and let him enter his house empty-handed, and let his house be destitute of everything that can satisfy his soul: (20) and from his offspring let not one draw near unto him: (21) let the flesh of the hypocrites be scattered by wild beasts: and the bones of the wicked (lie) before the sun in dishonour: (22) let the raven pick out the eyes of those who are men-pleasers. (23) Because they have laid waste many houses of men in dishonour: and have scattered them in lust: (24) and they remembered not God; nor feared God in all these things; (25) and they provoked God, and He was angered to destroy them from the earth: because with crafty intent they had played the hypocrite with innocent souls. (26) Blessed are they that fear the Lord in their innocency: (27) and the Lord will save them from all the cunning and wicked men; and he will redeem us from every stumbling-block of the wicked.

(28) God has destroyed all them that work fraud with pride, for a strong judge is the Lord our God in righteousness. (29) Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon all them that love thee.


PSALM 47 (XLVIII)

Psalms of Solomon V.

(1) O Lord my God, I will praise thy name with exultation, amongst those that know thy righteous judgements. (2) For thou art gracious and merciful, and the place of refuge of the poor. (3) When I cry unto thee, be not thou silent unto me. (4) For one does not take spoil from the strong man. (5) Or who will take aught from what thou hast made unless thou give it to him? (6) Because he is man, and his portion is before thee in the balance: and he shall not add aught to better it apart from thy judgement, O God. (7) In our afflictions, we call thee to our help: and thou hast not turned away our petition: for thou art our XLVII]

God. (8) Delay not thou thy hand from us lest we be strengthened to sin: (9) and turn not away thy face from us, lest we remove away from thee: and to thee we will come: (10) for if I should be hungry, O Lord, unto thee will I cry, O God: and thou wilt bestow. (11) For the fowl and the fish thou dost feed. When thou givest rain in the desert to cause the grass to spring up, (12) to prepare food in the wilderness for every living thing, and if they shall be hungry, unto thee will they lift up their faces: (13) kings and rulers and peoples thou dost provide for, O God: and the hope of the poor and the miserable, who is it except thyself, O Lord? (14) And thou wilt answer him because thou art kind and gentle: and his soul shall be satisfied when thou openest thy hand in mercy: (15) for the kindness of a man is with parsimony, to-day and to-morrow; and if it should be that he repeats his gift and does not grumble, he is wonderful. (16) But thy bounty is plenteous in kindness and in wealth; and there is no expectation towards thee that He will be sparing in gifts. (17) For over all the earth is thy mercy, O Lord, in kindness. (18) Blessed is the man whom the Lord shall remember in poverty: for that a man should exceed his measure (means that) he will sin. (19) Sufficient is a low estate with righteousness (20) For those that fear the Lord are pleased with good things: and thy grace is on Israel in thy kingdom. (21) Blessed be the glory of the Lord, for He is our King.


PSALM 48 (XLIX)

Psalms of Solomon VI.

(1) Blessed is the man whose heart is prepared to call upon the name of the Lord: (2) and when he shall remember the name of the Lord, he will be saved. (3) His ways are directed from before the Lord: and the works of his hands are preserved by his God. (4) And 'in' the evil vision of the night his soul shall not be moved: because he is His: (5) and his soul shall not be affrighted in the passing through the rivers and in the tumult of the seas. (6) For he rose from his sleep and praised the name of the Lord: (7) and in the quietness of his heart he praised the name of the Lord and he made request from the face of the Lord concerning all his house. (8) And the Lord hears the prayer of every one that is in His fear, and every petition of the soul that trusts in Him; and the Lord fulfils it. (9) Blessed is He who doeth mercy upon them that love Him in truth.


PSALM 49 (L)

Psalms of Solomon VII.

(1) Remove not thy tabernacle from us, O God, lest those rise up against us who hated us without a cause: (2) for thou hast put them away, O God, that their foot may not tread the inheritance of thy sanctuary. (3) Thou in thy good pleasure chasten me, and deliver us not over to the Gentiles. (4) For if thou shouldest send death, it is thou who givest it command against us: (5) for thou art the merciful one, and wilt not be angry so as to consume us utterly. (6) For because of thy name that encamps amongst us, mercies shall be upon us: and the Gentiles shall not be able to prevail against us. (7) For thou art our strength: we will call upon thee and thou wilt answer us: (8) for thou wilt be gracious XLIX-L]

to the seed of Israel for ever, and thou wilt not forget him. (9) Establish us in the time of thy help to show favour to the house of Jacob in the day that is prepared for them.


PSALM 50 (LI)

Psalms of Solomon VIII.

(1) Distress and the sound of war mine ears have heard, the sound of the trumpet and the noise of slaughter and destruction: (2) the sound of much people like a mighty and frequent wind: like the tempest of fire which comes over the wilderness. (3) And I said to my heart: Where will [God] judge him? (4) And I heard a sound in Jerusalem the Holy City. (5) The bonds of my loins were loosed at the report (6) and my knees trembled and my bones were moved like flax. (7) And I said, they will make straight paths in righteousness, and I remembered the judgements of the Lord, from the creation of the heaven and the earth: and I justified God in all his judgements from the beginning. (8) But God lay bare their sins before the sun: and to all the earth were known the righteous judgements of the Lord. (9) For in the secret places of the earth were they doing evil; (10) the son had connexion with the mother and the father with the daughters: (11) and all of them committed adultery with their neighbours' wives: and they made them solemn covenants among themselves concerning these things: (12) they were plundering the Holy House of God, as if there were none to inherit and to deliver. (13) And they were treading His sanctuary in all their pollutions, [I.

and in the time of their separation they polluted the sacrifices, as common meat: (14) and they left no sins which they did not commit, and even worse than the Gentiles. (15) For this cause God mingled for them a spirit of error, and caused them to drink an unmixed cup of drunkenness: (16) He brought him from the other side of the world, the one that afflicts grievously: (17) and he decrees war against Jerusalem and against her land: (18) and the judges of the land met him with joy: and they said to him: Thy path shall be ordered, come, enter in peace. (19) They levelled the rough paths for his entering: they opened the doors against Jerusalem: and they crowned her walls. (20) And he entered like a father into the house of his children in peace: and he set his feet 'there' in great firmness: (21) and they took possession of the towers and walls of Jerusalem. (22) For God brought him in assurance against their error. (23) And they destroyed their princes, because he was cunning in counsel: and they poured out the blood of the dwellers in Jerusalem like the water of uncleanness: (24) and he carried off their sons and their daughters, who had been (born) in pollution, (25) and had wrought their pollution even as also their fathers had done. (26) And Jerusalem defiled even those things that were consecrated to the name of God: (27) and God was justified in his judgements upon the nations of the earth, (28) and the saints of God were as innocent lambs in their midst. (29) God is to be praised who judges all the earth in His righteousness. (30) Behold, O God, thou hast shown us 'thy judgement' in thy righteousness, (31) and our eyes have seen thy judgements, O God; and we have justified thy name that is honoured for ever.

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(32) For thou art a God of righteousness: who judgest Israel with chastening. (33) Turn thy mercy towards us and be gracious to us: (34) and gather the dispersion of Israel, in mercy and in kindness: (35) for thy faithfulness is with us: and we are stiff-necked and thou art our chastener: (36) do not desert us, O our God! lest the Gentiles should swallow us up, as though there were none to deliver: (37) and thou art our God from the beginning, and upon thee is our hope, O Lord: (38) and we will not depart from thee, for thy judgements are good; (39) and upon us and upon our children is thy good will for ever, O Lord God, Our Saviour, and we will not be shaken again for ever. (40) The Lord is to be praised for His judgements by the mouth of His saints: (41) and blessed is Israel from the Lord for evermore.


PSALM 51 (LII)

PSALMS OF SOLOMON IX.
(1) When Israel went forth into captivity to a strange land, because they departed from the Lord their Saviour: (2) then were they cast out from the inheritance that God gave them: amongst all the Gentiles was the dispersion of Israel according to the word of God, (3) that thou mightest be justified, O God, in thy righteousness over our wickedness: (4) for thou art a just judge over all the peoples of the earth. (5) For there will not be hidden from thy knowledge any one who doeth wickedness: (6) and the righteousness of thy upright ones, O Lord, is before thee. And where shall a man be hidden from thy knowledge, O God? (7) For we work by freewill and the choice of our own souls to do either [LI-1.1]

good or evil by the work of our hands: (8) and in thy righteousness thou dost visit the children of men. (9) For he who does righteousness lays up a treasure of life with the Lord: and he who does wickedness incurs judgement upon his soul in perdition.

(10) For His judgements are in righteousness upon every man and his house. (11) For with whom will the Lord deal graciously unless with them that call upon the Lord? (12) For he purifies the sins of the soul by confession, (13) because shame is on us and our faces because of all these things. (14) For to whom will He remit sins except to those that have sinned? (15) For the righteous thou dost bless, and dost not reprove them for any of their sins; for thy grace is on those that have sinned when they have repented. (16) And now, thou art our God, and we are thy people whom thou hast loved: behold, and have mercy, O God of Israel; for thine we are: remove not thy compassions from us, lest the Gentiles should set upon us; (17) for thou hast chosen the seed of Abraham rather than all the Gentiles, (18) and thou hast put on us thy Name, O Lord: and thou wilt not remove for ever. (19) Thou didst surely covenant with our Fathers concerning us; and we hope in thee in the repentance of our souls. (20) The mercies over the house of Israel are of the Lord now and evermore.


PSALM 52 (LIII)

Psalms of Solomon X.

(1) Blessed is the man whom God remembered with reproof: and He has restrained from him the way of evil by stripes: so as to be purified from his sin, that it may not abound. (2) For he who prepares his loins for beating shall also be purified:

for He is good to those that receive chastening. (3) For the way of the righteous is straight, and chastisement does not turn it aside. (4) For the face of the Lord is upon them that love Him in truth, and the Lord will remember His servants in mercy. (5) For the testimony is in the law of the everlasting covenant; the testimony of the Lord is in the ways of the children of men, by 'His' visitations. (6) Righteous and upright is our God in all His judgements, and Israel will praise the Name of the Lord with joy. (7) And the saints shall give thanks in the congregation of the People: and on the poor the Lord will have mercy in the gladness of Israel. (8) For the Lord is kind and merciful for ever: and the congregations of Israel shall praise the Name of the Lord. (9) For of the Lord is the salvation upon the house of Israel, unto the everlasting kingdom.


PSALM 53 (LIV)

PSALMS OF SOLOMON XI.
(1) Blow ye 'the trumpet' in Zion, the well-known trumpet of the saints: (2) proclaim in Jerusalem the voice of the heralds, because God is merciful to Israel in His visitation. (3) Stand up on high Jerusalem, and behold thy children, who are all being gathered from the east and the west by the Lord: (4) and from the north they come to the joy of their God: and from the far-away islands God gathered them. (5) Lofty mountains has He humbled and made plain before them: and the hills fled away before their entrance: (6) the cedars He caused to shelter them as they passed by: and every tree of sweet odour God made to breathe upon them: (7) in order that Israel might pass by in the visitation of the glory of their God. (8) O Jerusalem, put on the garments of thy glory; and make ready thy robe of holiness. For God has spoken good things to Israel now and ever. (9) May the Lord do what He hath spoken concerning Israel: and concerning Jerusalem: may the Lord raise up Israel in the name of His glory. May the mercies of the Lord be upon Israel now and evermore.


PSALM 54 (LV)

Psalms of Solomon XII.

(1) O Lord, save my soul from the perverse and wicked man, and from the whispering and transgressing tongue, that spake lies and deceit. (2) For in the (cunning) response of his words is the tongue of the transgressor of the law: for he shows like one whose deeds are fair, and kindles fire among the people. (3) For his sojourning is to fill (set fire to) houses by his lying talk: cutting down the trees of his delight with the flame of his tongue that does lawlessly. (4) He has destroyed the houses of the transgressors by war: and the slandering lips God has removed from the innocent, the lips of the transgressors: and the bones of the slanderer shall be scattered far from those who fear the Lord. (5) By flaming fire will be destroyed the slanderous tongue from LIV-LV]

among the upright, and their houses. (6) And the Lord shall preserve the soul of the righteous which hateth them that are evil; and the Lord shall establish the man that makes peace in the house of the Lord. (7) Of the Lord is salvation upon Israel his servant for ever: (8) and the sinners shall perish together from before the face of the Lord: and the saints of the Lord shall inherit the promises of the Lord.


PSALM 55 (LVI)

Psalms of Solomon XIII.

(1) The right hand of the Lord has covered us: the right hand of the Lord has spared us: (2) and the arm of the Lord has saved me from the spear that goes through and through, and from famine, and the pestilence of sinners. (3) Evil beasts ran upon them: and with their teeth were tearing their flesh; and with their jaw-teeth were breaking their bones. But us the Lord has delivered from all these things. (4) But the wicked man was troubled on account of his transgressions: lest he should be broken along with the evil men. (5) Because dread is the fall of the wicked: but the righteous not one of these things shall touch. (6) For one cannot compare the chastening of the righteous who have (sinned) ignorantly with the overthrow of evil men who (sin) knowingly. (7) For the righteous is chastened so that the sinner will not exult over him. (8) For the Righteous One will admonish him as His beloved son;

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and his chastening is like that of the first-born: (9) for the Righteous One will spare His saints, and their transgressions He will blot out by (His) chastisements. For the life of the righteous is for ever. (10) But sinners shall be cast into perdition: and their memorial shall no more be found. (11) But upon the saints shall be the mercy of the Lord. He will cherish all them that fear Him.


PSALM 56 (LVII)

Psalms of Solomon XIV.

(1) The Lord is faithful to them that love Him in truth: even to them that abide His chastening: to them who walk in righteousness in His commandments: He has given us the law for our life: (2) and the saints of the Lord shall live thereby for ever. The Paradise of the Lord are the trees of life which are His saints: (3) and the planting of them is sure for ever; nor shall they be rooted up all the days of the heaven. For the portion of the Lord and His inheritance is Israel. (4) Not so are the sinners and evil men, those who have loved a day in the participation of sin: for in the brevity of wickedness is their lust; (5) and they did not remember God; that the ways of the children of men are open before Him continually: and the secrets of the heart He knoweth before they come to pass: (6) therefore their inheritance is Sheol and Perdition and Darkness: and in the day of mercy upon the righteous they shall not be found. (7) For the saints of the Lord shall inherit life in delight.

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PSALM 57 (LVIII)

PSALMS OF SOLOMON XV.
(1) In my affliction I called on the name of the Lord, and for my help I called on the God of Jacob: and I was delivered. (2) Because thou, O God, art the hope and refuge of the poor. (3) For who that is strong will praise thee in truth? (4) And what is the strength of a man except that he should praise thy name? (5) A new song with the voice in the delight of the heart: the fruit of the lips with the instrument attuned to the tongue: the firstfruits of the lips from a heart that is holy and just. (6) No one that doeth these things shall ever be moved by evil: the flame of fire and the anger of sinners shall not touch them, (7) when it goeth forth against the sinners from before the Most High to root up all the roots of sinners: (8) because the sign of the Lord is upon the righteous for their salvation: death and the spear and famine shall remove from the righteous; (9) for they shall flee from them as death flees from life: but they shall pursue after the wicked and catch them: and those who do evil shall not escape from the judgement of the Lord: for they will get before them like skilled warriors: (10) for the sign of destruction is upon their faces, (11) and the inheritance of sinners is Perdition and Darkness: and their iniquity shall pursue them down to the lower hell. (12) And their inheritance shall not be found by their children: (13) for their sins shall lay waste the houses of sinners: and sinners shall perish for ever in the day of the Lord's judgement, (14) When God shall visit the earth in His judgement. (15) And upon those who fear the Lord there shall be mercy therein; and they shall live in the compassion of our God: and sinners shall perish unto eternity.

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PSALM 58 (LIX)

PSALMS OF SOLOMON XVI.
(1) When my soul declined a little from the Lord, I had almost been in the lapses of the sleep of destruction; and when I was far away from the Lord, (2) my soul had almost been poured out to death, hard by the gates of Sheol along with the sinners: (3) and when my soul separated from the God of Israel, unless the Lord had helped me by His mercy which is for ever! (4) He pricked me, like the spur of the horse, according to His watchfulness: my Saviour and Helper at all times is He: He saved me. (5) I will praise thee, O God, because thou hast helped me with thy salvation: and hast not reckoned me with sinners for destruction. (6) Withdraw not thy mercy from me, O God: and let not the remembrance of thee remove from my heart until I die: (7) save me, O God, from the wicked and sinful woman and from every wicked woman who sets traps for the simple: (8) and let not the beauty of a wicked woman cause me to slip, nor any sin that is, (9) and establish the work of my hands before thee: and preserve my walk in the remembrance of thee. (10) My tongue and my lips in words of truth do thou establish; anger and unreasonable passion, (11) grumbling and little-mindedness in affliction do thou remove from me: for if I shall sin when thou hast chastened me, it is for repentance: (12) but by the good will of joy establish my soul: and when thou shalt strengthen my soul whatever has been given shall be sufficient for me: (13) for if thou strengthenest me not, who can endure thy chastening in poverty? (14) For a soul shall be reproved in his flesh and by the affliction of his poverty: (15) and when a righteous man shall endure these things, mercy shall be upon him from the Lord.


PSALM 59 (LX)

Psalms of Solomon XVII.

(1) O Lord, thou art our King, now and for ever: for in thee, O God, our soul shall glory. (2) And what is the life of man upon earth? For according to his time, so also is his hope. (3) But we hope on God our Saviour: for the empire of our God is for ever according to mercy: (4) and the kingdom of our God is over the Gentiles for ever with judgement. (5) Thou, O Lord, didst choose David for king over Israel: and thou didst swear to him concerning his seed, that their kingdom should not be removed from before thee. (6) But for our sins sinners rose up against us: and they set upon us and removed me far away: those to whom thou gavest no command have taken by violence, (7) and have not glorified thy honourable Name with praises: and they have set up a kingdom instead of that which was their pride. (8) They laid waste the throne of David in the exultation of their change. But thou wilt overthrow them and wilt remove their seed from the earth: (9) even when there shall rise up against them a man that was a stranger to our race. (10) According to their sins thou wilt reward them, O God: and it shall befall them according to their works. (11) And thou wilt not have mercy upon them, O God. Uproot their seed, and do not leave a single one of them.

(12) The Lord is faithful in all His judgements which He has done upon the earth. (13) The wicked man has devastated our land, so that there is none to dwell therein. They have destroyed both young and old and their children together. (14) In the splendour of his wrath he sent them away to the West, and the princes of the land to mockery without sparing. (15) In his foreign way the enemy exults, and his heart is alien from our God. (16) And Jerusalem did all things according as the Gentiles did in their cities to their gods. (17) And the children of the Covenant took hold of them in the midst of the mingled Gentiles: and there was none amongst them that did mercy and truth in Jerusalem. (18) They that love the assemblies of the saints fled away from them: and they fled like sparrows who fly from their nests: (19) and they were wandering in the wilderness, in order to save their souls from evil: and precious in their eyes was the sojourning with them of any soul that was saved from them. (20) Over all the earth they were scattered by the wicked. Therefore were the heavens restrained that they should not send down rain upon the earth, (21) and the everlasting fountains were restrained, both (from) the abysses, and from the lofty mountains: because there was none among them who did righteousness and judgement: from their ruler to the lowest of them they were in every sin.

(22) The king was in transgression and the judge in provocation of wrath, and the people in sin. (23) Behold, O Lord, and raise up to them their King, the Son of David, according to the time which thou seest. O God: and let Him reign over Israel thy servant, (24) and strengthen him with power that He may humble the sinful rulers: (25) and may purify Jerusalem from the Gentiles who trample her down to destruction, (26) so as to destroy the wicked from thy inheritance: and to break their pride like the potter's vessel: to break with LIX]

a rod of iron all their firmness: (27) to destroy the sinful Gentiles with the word of His mouth: at His rebuke the Gentiles shall flee from before His face: and to reprimand sinners by the word of their heart: (28) that He may gather together a holy people who shall exult in righteousness: and may judge the tribes of the people whom the Lord His God sanctifies: (29) and He shall not any more suffer sin to lodge among them; and no more shall dwell amongst them the man that knoweth evil. (30) For He knoweth them that they are all the children of God, and He shall divide them according to their tribes upon the earth: (31) and the sojourner and the foreigner shall not dwell with them: for He will judge the Gentiles and the peoples in the wisdom of His righteousness: (32) and He shall possess a people from among the Gentiles: that it may serve Him under His yoke: and may praise the Lord openly over all the earth: (33) and He shall purify Jerusalem in holiness, as it was of old time: (34) that the Gentiles may come from the ends of the earth to behold His glory: bringing gifts to her sons who were scattered from her, (35) and to see the glory of the Lord, wherewith He hath glorified her: and He, the righteous King, taught of God, is over them:

(36) and there is no wicked person in His days amongst them, because they are all righteous and their King is the Lord Messiah: (37) for He will not trust on horse nor on his rider; nor on the bow: nor shall He multiply to himself gold and silver for war: nor shall He rely on a multitude in the day of war: (38) for the Lord is His King: His hope and His strength are in the hope of God, and He will have compassion (over all . . . (39) for He will smite the earth with the word of His mouth for ever: (40) and He will bless the people of the Lord in . . . and delight (41) and He is pure . . . the head of a great people, to (confute) the rulers and to destroy sinners by His word: (42) and He shall not be weakened in His days from His God: because (God hath made Him powerful by His Holy Spirit) and wise in the counsel of the prudent with strength and righteousness. (43) and with the blessing of the Lord in Him, and (He shall not be weak). (His hope) is on his Lord and who shall stand against Him? (44) For He is strengthened in His deeds, and is mighty in the fear of His God: (45) feeding the flock of the Lord in righteousness and in faith; and He will not suffer that any one . . . in His pasturage: (46) He will gather them with equality:

and pride shall not be found in them that it should rule over them. (47) This is the beauty of the King of Israel . . . to raise him up over the house of Israel, to chasten him. (48) His words are more choice than gold, and they are precious in the synagogues to distinguish . . . from a holy people. (49) His words are like the words of the saints among a holy people: (50) blessed are they who are in those days to see the good men of Israel in the congregation of the people (which God will make), (51) to hasten His mercies upon Israel, and to redeem us from the pollutions of the filthy Gentiles: for the Lord is our King for ever.


PSALM 60 (PSALMS OF SOLOMON XVIII)

(1) O Lord, thy mercy is upon the work of thy hands for ever: (2) and thy grace with a rich gift upon Israel. (3) Thine eyes behold everything and there is nothing hid from them. And thine ears hear the hope of . . . . Thy judgements are upon all the earth in mercy: and thy love is upon the seed of Israel the son of Abraham. (Thy chastisement is) upon us as upon an only firstborn son: to turn away the soul . . . . which is not instructed and not . . . . (May God purify) Israel for the day in blessing for His mercy . . . .

Caetera desunt.

A NEW FRAGMENT OF THE PSALMS OF SOLOMON IN SYRIAC
The first six verses of the third Psalm are quoted on the margin of a manuscript of the Hymns of Severus, and it has been suggested that they represent a different translation of the Psalm from that which occurs in our two manuscripts. The quotation is as follows (see Hymns of Severus, ed. Brooks, Patr. Or. vii. 726, 727):

[] .

F f . . .. .

Here then we have, as the variations from our text show, either a revision of that text, or, more probably, as Prof. Nau suggests, an independent rendering of the Greek. As the next quotation is from the Wisdom of Solomon, and is introduced by the formula 'Again from the same' (fem.), it is probable that the extract from the Psalms of Solomon was incorrectly referred to the Wisdom of Solomon.

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