Odes of Solomon 38–42

English translation by J. Rendel Harris (1911); the original is not shown

1 I went up to the light of truth as if into a chariot: 2 and the Truth took me and led me: and carried me across pits and gulleys; and from the rocks and the waves it preserved me: 3 and it became to me a haven of Salvation: and set me on the arms of immortal life: 4 and it went with me and made me rest, and suffered me not to wander, because it was the Truth; 5 and I ran no risk, because I walked with Him; 6 and I did not make an error in anything because I obeyed the Truth. 7 For Error flees away from it, and meets it not: but the Truth proceeds in the right path, and 8 whatever I did not know, it made clear to me, all the poisons of error, and the plagues of death which they think to be sweetness: 9 and I saw the destroyer of destruction, when the bride who is corrupted is adorned; and the bridegroom who corrupts and is corrupted; 10 and I asked the Truth, 'Who are these?'; and He said to me, This is the deceiver and the error: 11 and they are alike in the beloved and in his bride: and they lead astray, and corrupt the ⌜whole⌝ world: 12 and they invite many to the banquet, 13 and give them to drink of the wine of their intoxication, and remove their wisdom and knowledge, and ⌜so they⌝ make them without intelligence; 14 and then they leave them; and then these go about like madmen corrupting: seeing that they are without heart, nor do they seek for it. 15 And I was made wise so as not to fall into the hands of the deceiver; and I congratulated myself because the Truth went with me, 16 and I was established and lived and was redeemed, 17 and my foundations were laid on the hand of the Lord: because He established me. 18 For He set the root and watered it and fixed it and blessed it; and its fruits are for ever. 19 It struck deep and sprung up and spread out, and was full and enlarged; 20 and the Lord alone was glorified in His planting and in His husbandry: by His care and by the blessing of His lips, 21 by the beautiful planting of His right hand: and by the discovery of His planting, and by the thought of His mind. Hallelujah.

English translation by J. Rendel Harris (1911); the original is not shown

1 Great rivers are the power of the Lord: 2 and they carry headlong those who despise Him: and entangle their paths: 3 and they sweep away their fords, and catch their bodies and destroy their lives. 4 For they are more swift than lightning and more rapid, and those who cross them in faith are not moved; 5 and those who walk on them without blemish shall not be afraid, 6 For the sign in them is the Lord; and the sign is the way of those who cross in the name of the Lord; 7 put on, therefore, the name of the Most High, and know Him: and you shall cross without danger, for the rivers will be subject to you. 8 The Lord has bridged them by His word; and He walked and crossed them on foot: 9 and His footsteps stand firm on the water, and are not injured; they are as firm as a tree that is truly set up. 10 And the waves were lifted up on this side and on that, but the footsteps of our Lord Messiah stand firm and are not obliterated and are not defaced. 11 And a way has been appointed for those who cross after Him and for those who adhere to the course of faith in Him and worship His name. Hallelujah.

English translation by J. Rendel Harris (1911); the original is not shown

1 As the honey distils from the comb of the bees, 2 and the milk flows from the woman that loves her children; 3 so also is my hope on Thee, my God. 4 As the fountain gushes out its water, 5 so my heart gushes out the praise of the Lord and my lips utter praise to Him, and my tongue His psalms. 6 And my face exults with His gladness, and my spirit exults in His love, and my soul shines in Him: 7 and reverence confides in Him; and redemption in Him stands assured: 8 and His inheritance is immortal life, and those who participate in it are incorrupt. Hallelujah.

English translation by J. Rendel Harris (1911); the original is not shown

1 All the Lord's children will praise Him, and will collect the truth of His faith. 2 And His children shall be known to Him. Therefore we will sing in His love: 3 we live in the Lord by His grace: and life we receive in His Messiah: 4 for a great day has shined upon us: and marvellous is He who has given us of His glory. 5 Let us, therefore, all of us unite together in the name of the Lord, and let us honour Him in His goodness, 6 and let our faces shine in His light: and let our hearts meditate in His love by night and by day. 7 Let us exult with the joy of the Lord. 8 All those will be astonished that see me. For from another race am I: 9 for the Father of truth remembered me: He who possessed me from the beginning: 10 for His bounty begat me, and the thought of His heart: 11 and His Word is with us in all our way; 12 the Saviour who makes alive and does not reject our souls: 13 the man who was humbled, and exalted by His own righteousness, 14 the Son of the Most High appeared in the perfection of His Father; 15 and light dawned from the Word that was beforetime in Him; 16 the Messiah is truly one; and He was known before the foundation of the world, 17 that He might save souls for ever by the truth of His name: a new song arises from those who love Him. Hallelujah.

English translation by J. Rendel Harris (1911); the original is not shown

1 I stretched out my hands and approached my Lord: 2 for the stretching of my hands is His sign: 3 my expansion is the outspread tree which was set up on the way of the Righteous One. 4 And I became of no account to those who did not take hold of me; and I shall be with those who love me. 5 All my persecutors are dead; and they sought after me who hoped in me, because I was alive: 6 and I rose up and am with them; and I will speak by their mouths. 7 For they have despised those who persecuted them; 8 and I lifted up over them the yoke of my love; 9 like the arm of the bridegroom over the bride, 10 so was my yoke over those that know me: 11 and as the couch that is spread in the house of the ⌜bridegroom and bride⌝, 12 so is my love over those that believe in me. 13 And I was not rejected though I was reckoned to be so. 14 I did not perish, though they devised ⌜it⌝ against me. 15 Sheol saw me and was made miserable: 16 death cast me up and many along with me. 17 I had gall and bitterness, and I went down with him to the utmost of his depth: 18 and the feet and the head he let go, for they were not able to endure my face: 19 and I made a congregation of living men amongst his dead men, and I spake with them by living lips: 20 because my word shall not be void: 21 and those who had died ran towards me: and they cried and said, Son of God, have pity on us, and do with us according to thy kindness, 22 and bring us out from the bonds of darkness: and open to us the door by which we shall come out to thee. 23 For we see that our death has not touched thee. 24 Let us also be redeemed with thee: for thou art our Redeemer. 25 And I heard their voice; and my name I sealed upon their heads: 26 for they are free men and they are mine. Hallelujah.