Chapter IX

Of Solomon. For rebuke.

¹

When Israel was led away in captivity to a foreign land,  When they fell away from the Lord who redeemed them, (2) ¹They were cast out from the inheritance which the Lord had given them. ² The dispersion of Israel was among every nation, according to the word of God, (3) That thou mightest be justified, O God, in thy righteousness by reason of our transgressions; (4) For thou art a just judge over all the peoples of the earth. (5) ³For no one who does evil shall be hidden from thy knowledge, (6) And the righteous deeds of thy holy ones are before thee, O Lord;  And where shall man hide himself from thy knowledge, O God?. (7) ⁴Our actions ¹ Lit. ‘works’. are subject to our own choice and freedom of will,  To do right or wrong in the works of our hands; (8) And in thy righteousness dost thou visit the sons of men. (9) ⁵And he who does right lays up life for himself with the Lord,  And he who does wrong is responsible for his own destruction; (10) For the judgements of the Lord are given in righteousness for each man and his house. (11) ⁶Unto whom wilt thou show kindness, O God, if it be not to them that call upon the Lord? (12) He will purify a soul in sin when confession and acknowledgement is made; (13) For shame is upon us and upon our faces on account of all these things. (14) ⁷And to whom will he forgive sins, if it be not to those who have sinned? (15) Thou shalt bless the righteous and not call them to account ² The sense of the verb is uncertain – possibly ‘and wilt thou not guide them (in cases where they have sinned)?’ for the sins they have committed;  And thy goodness is upon sinners when they repent. (16) ⁸And now, thou art our God, and we are the people whom thou hast loved:  Look and show pity, O God of Israel, for we are thine;  And remove not thy mercy from us, lest they assail us. (17) ⁹For thou didst choose the seed of Abraham above all the nations,  And didst set thy name upon us, O Lord; (18) And thou wilt never cast us off. ³ Lit. ‘And thou wilt not rest (or ‘cease’) for ever’: von Gebhardt, by conjecture, ‘and thou wilt not reject us for ever’. ¹⁰ Thou didst make a covenant with our fathers concerning us; (19) And we shall hope in thee, as our souls turn to thee.  The mercy of the Lord be upon the house of Israel for ever and ever.