Prayer of Manasses. Chapter 1
- O LORD Almighty, the God of our fathers Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob and of their righteous seed;
- that hast made the heaven and the earth with all their adornment;
- that hast bound the sea with the word of thy commandment; that
hast closed the abyss and sealed it with thy fearful and glorious
name;
- whom all things revere and tremble before the face of thy power,
- because the magnificence of thy glory is unendurable and
irresistible the wrath of thy threatening against sinners:
- the mercy of thy promise is both immeasurable and inscrutable;
- for thou art the Lord most high, compassionate, longsuffering, and
most merciful, repenting of the evils of men. Thou, Lord, according to
the abundance of thy goodness, hast proclaimed repentance and
forgiveness to those that have sinned against thee, and in the
multitude of thy kindnesses thou hast decreed for sinners repentance
unto salvation.
- Surely thou, O Lord, the God of the just, hast not appointed
repentance for the just, for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who have not
sinned against thee; but thou hast appointed repentance for me a
sinner:
- for I have sinned above the number of the sand of the sea. My
transgressions are multiplied, O Lord, they are multiplied, and I am
not worthy to look at or see the height of heaven, for the multitude
of my iniquities,
- being bowed down by many iron bonds, so that I cannot uplift my
head, and there is no release for me, because I have provoked thy
anger, and have done evil before thee, not doing thy will, nor keeping
thy commandments, but setting up abominations and multiplying
offences.
- And now I bend the knee of my heart, beseeching thy goodness:
- I have sinned, Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge my
transgressions:
- but I pray and beseech thee, release me, Lord, release me, and
destroy me not with my transgressions; keep not evils for me in anger
for ever, nor condemn me to the lowest parts of the earth: because
thou art God, the God of the repenting; and in me thou wilt shew all
thy benevolence, for that me unworthy thou wilt save, according to thy
great mercy:
- and I will praise thee continually all the days of my life: for
all the hosts of the heavens sings to thee, and thine is the glory for
ever and ever. Amen.
[English translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee
Brenton (1807-1862) originally published by Samuel Bagster & Sons,
Ltd., London, 1851]
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