Chapter 86

15:6. So Nicanor being puffed up with exceeding great pride, thought to set up a public monument of his victory over Judas.

15:7. But Machabeus ever trusted with all hope that God would help them.

15:8. And he exhorted his people not to fear the coming of the nations, but to remember the help they had before received from heaven, and now to hope for victory from the Almighty.

15:9. And speaking to them out of the law, and the prophets, and withal putting them in mind of the battles they had fought before, he made them more cheerful:

15:10. Then after he had encouraged them, he shewed withal the falsehood of the Gentiles, and their breach of oaths.

15:11. So he armed every one of them, not with defence of shield and spear, but with very good speeches, and exhortations, and told them a dream worthy to be believed, whereby he rejoiced them all.

15:12. Now the vision was in this manner. Onias, who had been high priest, a good and virtuous man, modest in his looks, gentle in his manners, and graceful in speech, and who from a child was exercised in virtues holding up his hands, prayed for all the people of the Jews:

15:13. After this there appeared also another man, admirable for age, and glory, and environed with great beauty and majesty:

15:14. Then Onias answering, said: This is a lover of his brethren, and of the people of Israel: this is he that prayeth much for the people, and for all the holy city, Jeremias, the prophet of God.

15:15. Whereupon Jeremias stretched forth his right hand, and gave to Judas a sword of gold, saying:

15:16. Take this holy sword, a gift from God, wherewith thou shalt overthrow the adversaries of my people Israel.

15:17. Thus being exhorted with the words of Judas, which were very good, and proper to stir up the courage, and strengthen the hearts of the young men, they resolved to fight, and to set upon them manfully: that valour might decide the matter, because the holy city, and the temple were in danger.

15:18. For their concern was less for their wives, and children, and for their brethren, and kinsfolks: but their greatest and principal fear was for the holiness of the temple.

15:19. And they also that were in the city, had no little concern for them that were to be engaged in battle.

15:20. And now when all expected what judgment would be given, and the enemies were at hand, and the army was set in array, the beasts and the horsemen ranged in convenient places,

15:21. Machabeus considering the coming of the multitude, and the divers preparations of armour, and the fierceness of the beasts, stretching out his hands to heaven, called upon the Lord, that worketh wonders, who giveth victory to them that are worthy, not according to the power of their arms, but according as it seemeth good to him.

15:22. And in his prayer he said after this manner: Thou, O Lord, who didst send thy angel in the time of Ezechias, king of Juda, and didst kill a hundred and eighty-five thousand of the army of Sennacherib:

15:23. Send now also, O Lord of heaven, thy good angel before us, for the fear and dread of the greatness of thy arm,

15:24. That they may be afraid, who come with blasphemy against thy holy people. And thus he concluded his prayer.

15:25. But Nicanor, and they that were with him came forward, with trumpets and songs.

15:26. But Judas, and they that were with him, encountered them, calling upon God by prayers:

15:27. So fighting with their hands, but praying to the Lord with their hearts, they slew no less than five and thirty thousand, being greatly cheered with the presence of God.

15:28. And when the battle was over, and they were returning with joy, they understood that Nicanor was slain in his armour.

15:29. Then making a shout, and a great noise, they blessed the Almighty Lord in their own language.

15:30. And Judas, who was altogether ready, in body and mind, to die for his countrymen, commanded that Nicanor's head, and his hand, with the shoulder, should be cut off, and carried to Jerusalem.

15:31. And when he was come thither, having called together his countrymen, and the priests to the altar, he sent also for them that were in the castle,

15:32. And shewing them the head of Nicanor, and the wicked hand, which he had stretched out, with proud boasts, against the holy house of the Almighty God,

15:33. He commanded also, that the tongue of the wicked Nicanor should be cut out, and given by pieces to birds, and the hand of the furious man to be hanged up over against the temple.

15:34. Then all blessed the Lord of heaven, saying: Blessed be he that hath kept his own place undefiled.

15:35. And he hung up Nicanor's head in the top of the castle, that it might be an evident and manifest sign of the help of God.

15:36. And they all ordained by a common decree, by no means to let this day pass without solemnity:

15:37. But to celebrate the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, called in the Syrian language, the day before Mardochias' day.

15:38. So these things being done with relation to Nicanor, and from that time the city being possessed by the Hebrews, I also will here make an end of my narration.

15:39. Which if I have done well, and as it becometh the history, it is what I desired: but if not so perfectly, it must be pardoned me.

If not so perfectly, etc. . .This is not said with regard to the truth of the narration; but with regard to the style and manner of writing: which in the sacred penmen is not always the most accurate. See St. Paul, 2 Cor. 11.6.

15:40. For as it is hurtful to drink always wine, or always water, but pleasant to use sometimes the one, and sometimes the other: so if the speech be always nicely framed, it will not be grateful to the readers. But here it shall be ended.

APPENDICES

These texts come from the 1610 Doway printing of the second tome of the Old Testament (see the 'History' section at the top of the e-text). The primary sources provide a glimpse both into the history of the Douay- Rheims version and the English language itself. The reader will quickly notice that the letter 'j' does not appear in the texts, rather 'i' functions either as a vowel or a consonant. Likewise 'u' is not a distinct letter; it is employed typographically in the lower-case in place of 'v' where not starting a word. The letters 'u' and 'v' both function either as vowels or consonants. The word 'vniuersity' demonstrates this rule. The letter 'w' is often employed, but in some cases the earlier form of a double-v (vv) appears instead.

The transcriber has done his best to render the text accurately. Note the relaxed spelling standards of the time; many variants appear. While the errata section from the 1610 edition observed: "We haue also found some other faultes of lesse importance; and feare there be more. But we trust the reader may easely correct them, as they occurre." only obvious errors have been amended. Where the transcriber has doubt between whether an irregular spelling is either an error and a variant, the printed text stands. 7-bit ASCII cannot fully represent the typographical standards of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and many special characters have been replaced with modern equivalents. Where verse numbers stand in the margins of the printed texts, they have been transferred to the body; the verse numbers in the 'Prayer of Manasses' have been supplied from other versions. Reference notes have been transferred from the margins, and their abbreviations modernized.

ADDITIONAL BOOKS

The prayer of Manasses, vvith the third & fourth Bookes of Esdras, extant in most Latin and vulgare Bibles, are here placed after al the Canonical bookes, of the old Testament: because they are not receiued into the Canon of Diuine Scriptures by the Catholique Church.

THE PRAYER OF MANASSES KING OF IVDA, WHEN HE WAS HELD CAPTIVE IN BABYLON.

LORD omnipotent God of our fathers, Abraham, & Isaac, and Iacob, and of their iust sede, (2 Par 33:12) [2] which didst make heauen and earth: with al the ornamentes of them, [3] which hast bound the sea with the word of thy precept, which hast shut vp the depth, and sealed it with thy terrible and laudable name: [4] whom al thinges dread, & tremble at the countinance of thy powre, [5] because the magnificence of thy glorie is importable, & the wrath of thy threatning vpon sinners is intollerable: [6] but the mercie of thy promise is infinite and vnsearchable: [7] because thou art our Lord, most high, benigne, long suffering, and very merciful, and penitent vpon the wickednes of men. Thou Lord according to the multitude of thy goodnes hast promised penance, and remission to them that haue sinned to thee, and by the multitude of thy mercies thou hast decreed penance to sinners, vnto saluation. [8] Thou therfore Lord God of the iust, hast not appointed penance to the iust, Abraham, & Isaac and Iacob, them that haue not sinned to thee, but hast appointed penance for me a sinner: [9] because I haue sinned aboue the number of the sand of the sea. Myne iniquities Lord be multiplied, mine iniquities be multiplied, and I am not worthie to behold, & looke vpon the height of heauen, for the multitude of mine iniquities. [10] I am made crooked with manie a band of yron, that I can not lift vp my head, and I haue not respiration: because I haue stirred vp thy wrath, and haue done euil before thee: I haue not done thy wil, and thy commandmentes I haue not kept: I haue set vp abominations, and multiplied offenses. [11] And now I bowe the knee of my hart, beseeching goodnes of thee. [12] I haue sinned Lord, I haue sinned, & I acknowlege myne iniquities. [13] Wherefore I beseech disiring thee, forgeue me Lord, forgeue me: and destroy me not together with myne iniquities, neither reserue thou for euer, being angrie, euils for me, neither damme me into the lowest places of the earth: because thou art Lord, God, I say, of the penitent: [14] in me thou shalt shew al thy goodnes because thou shalt saue me vnworthie according to thy great mercie, [15] and I wil prayse thee alwayes al the dayes of my life: because al the power of the heauens prayseth thee, and to thee is glorie for euer and euer. Amen.

THE THIRD BOOKE OF ESDRAS.

For helpe of the readers, especially such as haue not leysure to read al, vve haue gathered the contentes of the chapters; but made no Annotations: because the text it self is but as a Commentarie to the Canonical bookes; and therfore we haue only added the concordance of other Scriptures in the margin.

CHAP. I.

Iosias king of Iuda maketh a great Pasch, 7. geuing manie hostes to such as wanted for sacrifice: 14. the Priestes and Leuites performing their functions therin: 22. in the eightenth yeare of his reigne, 25. He is slayne in battel by the king of AEgypt, 32. and much lamented by the Iewes. 34. His sonne Ieconias succedeth. 37. After him Ioacim, 40. who is deposed by the king of Babylon. 43. Ioachim reigneth three monethes, and is caried into Babylon. 46. Sedecias reigneth eleuen yeares wickedly. 52. and he with his people is caried captiue into Babylon, the citie and temple are destroyed. 57. so remayned til the Monarchie of the Persians.

AND Iosias made a Pasch in Ierusalem to our Lord & immolated the Phase the fourtenth moone of the moneth: (4 Kings 23:21 / 2 Par 35:1) 2 appointing the Priestes by courses of dayes clothed with stoles in the temple of our Lord. 3 And he spake to the Leuites the sacred seruantes of Isreal, that they should sanctifie them selues to our Lord in the placing of the holie arke of our Lord in the house, which king Salomon sonne of Dauid built. 4 It shal not be for you to take it vpon your shoulders. And now serue your Lord, and take the care of that nation Israel, in part according to your villages and tribes, 5 according to the writing of Dauid king of Israel, and according to the magnificence of Salomon his sonne, al in the temple, and according to your fathers portion of principalitie, among them that stand in the sight of your brethren the children of Isreal. 6 Immolate the Pasch, and prepare the sacrifices for your bretheren, and doe according to the precept of our Lord which was geuen to Moyses. (Ex 12 / Lev 23 / Num 28) 7 And Iosias gaue vnto the people that was found of sheepe, lambes, and kiddes, and goates thirtie thousand, calues there thousand. 8 These thinges were geuen to the people of the kinges goodes according to promisse: and to the priestes for the Phase, sheepe in number two thousand, and calues an hundred. 9 And Iechonias, and Semeias, and Nathanael bretheren, and Hasabias, and Oziel, and Coraba for the Phase sheepe fiue thousand, calues fiue hundred. 10 And when these thinges were done in good order, the Priestes an the Leuites stood hauing azymes by tribes. 11 And according to the portions of their fathers principalitie, in the sight of the people they did offer, to our Lord according to those thinges, which were written in the booke of Moyses: 12 and rosted the Phase with fire as it ought: and the hostes they boyled in cauldrons, and in pottes with beneuolence: 13 and they brought to al that were of the people: and afterward they prepared for them selues and the priestes. 14 For the Priestes offered the fatte, vntil the houre was ended: and the Leuites prepared for them selues, and their brethren, the children of Aaron. 15 And the sacred singing men, the children of Asaph were by order according to the precept of Dauid and Asaph, and Zacharias, and Ieddimus, which was from the king. 16 And the porters at euerie gate, so that none transgressed his owne: for their brethren prepared for them. 17 And the thinges were consummate that perteyned to the sacrifice of our Lord. 18 In that day they celebrated the Phase, and offered hostes vpon the sacrifice of our Lord, according to the precept of king Iosias. 19 And the children of Israel, that were found at that time, celebrated the Phase: and the festiual day of Azymes for seuen dayes: 20 and there was not celebrated such a Phase in Isreal, from the times of Samuel the prophet: 21 and al the kinges of Israel did not celebrate such a Phase as Iosias did, and the Priestes, and the Leuites, and the Iewes, and al Israel, that were found in their abode at Ierusalem. 22 In the eightenth yeare, Iosias reigning was the Phase celebrated. 23 And the workes of Iosias were directed in the sight of his Lord in a hart ful of feare: 24 and the thinges concerning him are writen in the ancient times, touching them that sinned, and were irreligous against our Lord aboue al nations, and that sought not the wordes of our Lord vpon Israel. 25 And after al this fact of Iosias, came vp Pharao the king of AEgypt comming in Charcamis from the way vpon Euphrates, and Iosias went forth to meete him. (4 Kings 23:29 / 2 Par 35:20) 26 And the king of AEgypt sent to Iosias saying: What is there betwen me & thee king of Iuda? 27 I was not sent of the Lord to fight against thee: for my battel is vpon Euphrates, goe downe in hast. 28 And Iosias did not returne vpon his chariote: but endeuoured to ouerthrow him, not attending the word of the prophet from the mouth of our Lord: 29 but he made battel against him in the field of Mageddo. And princes went downe to king Iosias. 30 And the king said to his seruantes: Remoue me from the battel, for I am weakned excedingly. And forthwith his seruantes remoued him out of the battel. 31 And he went vp into his second chariote: & comming to Ierusalem, dyed, and was buried in his fathers sepulchre. 32 And in al Iurie they mourned for Iosias, & the rulers with their wiues lamented him vntil this day. And this was geuen out to be done alwayes vnto al the stocke of Israel. 33 But these thinges were writen before in the booke of the histories of the kinges of Iuda: and al the actes of the doing of Iosias, and his glorie and his vnderstanding in the law of our Lord: and the thinges that were done by him, and that are not writen in the booke of the kinges of Israel and Iuda. 34 And they that were of the nation, taking Iechonias the sonne of Iosias, made him king for Iosias his father, when he was three and twentie yeares old. (4 Kings 23:30 / 2 Par 36:1) 35 And he reigned ouer Israel three monethes. And the king of AEgypt remoued him, that he should not reigne in Ierusalem: 36 and he put a taxe vpon the nation of siluer an hundred talentes, and of gold one talent. 37 And the king of AEgypt made Ioacim his brother king of Iuda and Ierusalem: 38 and he bound the magistrates of Ioacim, and Zaracel his brother, and taking them brought them backe into AEgypt. 39 Ioacim was fiue and twentie yeares old when he began to reigne in the land of Iuda and Ierusalem: and he did euil in the sight of our Lord. 40 And after this man came vp Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon, and binding him with a bande of brasse, brought him into Babylon. 41 And Nabuchodonosor tooke the sacred vessels of our Lord, and carried away, and consecrated them in his temple in Babylon. 42 For his vncleanes, and lacke of religion is written in the booke of the times of the kinges. 43 And Ioachin his sonne reigned for him. And when he was made king, he was eightene yeares old. 44 And reigned three monethes and ten dayes in Ierusalem, and did euil in the sight of our Lord: 45 and after a yeare Nabuchodonosor sending, transported him into Babylon together with the sacred vessels of our Lord. (4 Kings 24:13) 46 And he made Sedecias king of Iuda and Ierusalem, when he was one and twentie yeares old: (4 Kings 24:17) and he reigned eleuen yeares. 47 And he did euil in the sight of our Lord, and was not afraid of the wordes which were spoken by Ieremie the prophet from the mouth of our Lord: (Jer 37:2) 48 and being sworne of king Nabuchodonosor, forsworne he did reuolt: and his necke being hardened, & his hart, he transgressed the ordinances of our Lord the God of Israel. 49 And the princes of the people of our Lord did manie thinges wickedly, and they did impiously aboue al the vncleannes of the nations: and they polluted the temple of our Lord that was holie of Ierusalem. 50 And the God of their fathers sent by his messenger to reclame them, for that he would spare them, and his tabernacle. 51 But they scorned at his messengers: and in the day that our Lord spake to them, they were mocking his prophetes. 52 Who was moued euen vnto wrath vpon his nation for their impietie, and commanded the kinges of the Chaldees to come vp. 53 These slewe their yong men with the sword, round about their holie temple, and spared not yong man, and old man, and virgin, and youth: 54 but al were deliuered into their handes: & taking al the sacred vessels of our Lord, and the kinges treasures, they caried them into Babylon, 55 and burnt the house of our Lord, and threwe downe the walles of Ierusalem: and the towres therof they burnt with fire, 56 and consumed al their honorable thinges, and brought them to naught, and those that were left of the sword, they led into Babylon. 57 And they were his seruants vntil the Persians reigned in the fulfilling of the word of our Lord by the mouth of Ieremie: (Jer 25:12 / Jer 29:10 / Dan 9:2) 58 as long as the land quietly kept her sabbathes, al the time of her desolation she sabbathized in the application of seuentie yeares.

CHAP. II.

Cyrus king of Persia permitteth the Iewes to returne into their countrie: 10. and deliuereth to them the holie vessels, which Nabuchodonosor had taken from the temple. 16. Certaine aduersaries writing to king Artaxerxes, hinder those that would repayre the ruines of Ierusalem.