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[111]
When the king had thus discoursed to the multitude, he looked again
towards the temple, and lifting up his right hand to the multitude, he
said, "It is not possible by what men can do to return sufficient
thanks to God for his benefits bestowed upon them, for the Deity stands
in need of nothing, and is above any such requital; but so far as we have
been made superior, O Lord, to other animals by thee, it becomes us to
bless thy Majesty, and it is necessary for us to return thee thanks for
what thou hast bestowed upon our house, and on the Hebrew people; for with
what other instrument can we better appease thee when thou art angry at
us, or more properly preserve thy favor, than with our voice? which, as
we have it from the air, so do we know that by that air it ascends upwards
[towards thee]. I therefore ought myself to return thee thanks thereby,
in the first place, concerning my father, whom thou hast raised from obscurity
unto so great joy; and, in the next place, concerning myself, since thou
hast performed all that thou hast promised unto this very day. And I beseech
thee for the time to come to afford us whatsoever thou, O God, hast power
to bestow on such as thou dost esteem; and to augment our house for all
ages, as thou hast promised to David my father to do, both in his lifetime
and at his death, that our kingdom shall continue, and that his posterity
should successively receive it to ten thousand generations. Do not thou
therefore fail to give us these blessings, and to bestow on my children
that virtue in which thou delightest. And besides all this, I humbly beseech
thee that thou wilt let some portion of thy Spirit come down and inhabit
in this temple, that thou mayst appear to be with us upon earth. As to
thyself, the entire heavens, and the immensity of the things that are therein,
are but a small habitation for thee, much more is this poor temple so;
but I entreat thee to keep it as thine own house, from being destroyed
by our enemies for ever, and to take care of it as thine own possession:
but if this people be found to have sinned, and be thereupon afflicted
by thee with any plague, because of their sin, as with dearth or
pestilence, or any other affliction which thou usest to inflict on those
that transgress any of thy holy laws, and if they fly all of them to this
temple, beseeching thee, and begging of time to deliver them, then do thou
hear their prayers, as being within thine house, and have mercy upon them,
and deliver them from their afflictions. Nay, moreover, this help is what
I implore of thee, not for the Hebrews only, when they are in distress,
but when any shall come hither from any ends of the world whatsoever, and
shall return from their sins and implore thy pardon, do thou then pardon
them, and hear their prayer. For hereby all shall learn that thou thyself
wast pleased with the building of this house for thee; and that we are
not ourselves of an unsociable nature, nor behave ourselves like enemies
to such as are not of our own people; but are willing that thy assistance
should be communicated by thee to all men in common, and that they may
have the enjoyment of thy benefits bestowed upon them."
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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(3):
- LSJ, ἀπάνθρωπ-ος
- LSJ, μεγα^λει-ότης
- LSJ, ὁπόθεν
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