1   But for thy holy ones there shone a great light. And so their enemies, hearing their voices but not seeing them, counted them happy because they had not suffered like themselves, 2   gave thanks for their forbearance under provocation, and begged as a favour that they should part company. 3   Accordingly, thy gift was a pillar of fire

Pattern of divine justice to be the guide of their uncharted journey, a sun that would not scorch them on their glorious expedition. 4   Their enemies did indeed deserve to lose the light of day and be kept prisoners in darkness, for they had kept in durance thy sons, through whom the imperishable light of the law was to be given to the world.

5   They planned to kill the infant children of thy holy people, but when one child had been exposed to death and rescued, thou didst deprive them of all their children in requital, and drown them all together in the swelling waves. 6   Of that night our forefathers were given warning in advance, so that, having sure knowledge, they might be heartened by the promises which they trusted. 7   Thy people were looking for the deliverance of the godly and the destruction of their enemies; 8   for thou didst use the same means to punish our enemies and to make us glorious when we heard thy call. 9   The devout children of a virtuous race were offering sacrifices in secret, and covenanted with one consent to keep the law of God and to share alike in the same blessings and the same dangers, and they were already singing their sacred ancestral songs of praise. 10   In discordant contrast there came an outcry from their enemies, as piteous lamentation for their children spread abroad. 11   Master and slave were punished together with the same penalty; king and common man suffered the same fate. 12   All alike had their dead, past counting, struck down by one common form of death; there were not enough living even to bury the dead; at one stroke the most precious of their offspring had perished. 13   Relying on their magic arts, they had scouted all warnings; but when they saw their first-born dead, they confessed that thy people have God as their father.

14   All things were lying in peace and silence, and night in her swift course was half spent, 15   when thy almighty Word leapt from thy royal throne in heaven into the midst of that doomed land like a relentless warrior, 16   bearing the sharp sword of thy inflexible decree, and stood and filled it all with death, his head touching the heavens, his feet on earth. 17   At once nightmare phantoms appalled them, and unlooked-for fears set upon them; 18   and as they flung themselves to the ground half dead, one here, one there, they confessed the reason for their deaths; 19   for the dreams that tormented them had taught them before they died, so that they should not die ignorant of the reason why they suffered.

20   The godly also had a taste of death when a multitude were struck

Pattern of divine justice down in the wilderness; but the divine wrath did not long continue. 21   A blameless man was quick to be their champion, bearing the weapons of his priestly ministry, prayer and the incense that propitiates; he withstood the divine anger and set a limit to the disaster, thus showing that he was thy servant. 22   He overcame the avenging fury not by bodily strength or force of arms; by words he subdued the avenger, appealing to the sworn covenants made with our forefathers. 23   When the dead had already fallen in heaps one on another, he interposed himself and beat back the divine wrath, barring its line of attack upon the living. 24   On his long-skirted robe the whole world was represented; the glories of the fathers were engraved on his four rows of precious stones; and thy majesty was in the diadem upon his head. 25   To these the destroyer yielded, for these made him afraid; only to taste his wrath had been enough.

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