ADDITIONAL BOOKS
The prayer of Manasses, vvith the third & fourth Bookes of Esdras, extant in most Latin and vulgare Bibles, are here placed after al the Canonical bookes, of the old Testament: because they are not receiued into the Canon of Diuine Scriptures by the Catholique Church.
THE PRAYER OF MANASSES KING OF IVDA, WHEN HE WAS HELD CAPTIVE IN BABYLON.
LORD omnipotent God of our fathers, Abraham, & Isaac, and Iacob, and of their iust sede, (2 Par 33:12) [2] which didst make heauen and earth: with al the ornamentes of them, [3] which hast bound the sea with the word of thy precept, which hast shut vp the depth, and sealed it with thy terrible and laudable name: [4] whom al thinges dread, & tremble at the countinance of thy powre, [5] because the magnificence of thy glorie is importable, & the wrath of thy threatning vpon sinners is intollerable: [6] but the mercie of thy promise is infinite and vnsearchable: [7] because thou art our Lord, most high, benigne, long suffering, and very merciful, and penitent vpon the wickednes of men. Thou Lord according to the multitude of thy goodnes hast promised penance, and remission to them that haue sinned to thee, and by the multitude of thy mercies thou hast decreed penance to sinners, vnto saluation. [8] Thou therfore Lord God of the iust, hast not appointed penance to the iust, Abraham, & Isaac and Iacob, them that haue not sinned to thee, but hast appointed penance for me a sinner: [9] because I haue sinned aboue the number of the sand of the sea. Myne iniquities Lord be multiplied, mine iniquities be multiplied, and I am not worthie to behold, & looke vpon the height of heauen, for the multitude of mine iniquities. [10] I am made crooked with manie a band of yron, that I can not lift vp my head, and I haue not respiration: because I haue stirred vp thy wrath, and haue done euil before thee: I haue not done thy wil, and thy commandmentes I haue not kept: I haue set vp abominations, and multiplied offenses. [11] And now I bowe the knee of my hart, beseeching goodnes of thee. [12] I haue sinned Lord, I haue sinned, & I acknowlege myne iniquities. [13] Wherefore I beseech disiring thee, forgeue me Lord, forgeue me: and destroy me not together with myne iniquities, neither reserue thou for euer, being angrie, euils for me, neither damme me into the lowest places of the earth: because thou art Lord, God, I say, of the penitent: [14] in me thou shalt shew al thy goodnes because thou shalt saue me vnworthie according to thy great mercie, [15] and I wil prayse thee alwayes al the dayes of my life: because al the power of the heauens prayseth thee, and to thee is glorie for euer and euer. Amen.
THE THIRD BOOKE OF ESDRAS.
For helpe of the readers, especially such as haue not leysure to read al, vve haue gathered the contentes of the chapters; but made no Annotations: because the text it self is but as a Commentarie to the Canonical bookes; and therfore we haue only added the concordance of other Scriptures in the margin.
CHAP. I.
Iosias king of Iuda maketh a great Pasch, 7. geuing manie hostes to such as wanted for sacrifice: 14. the Priestes and Leuites performing their functions therin: 22. in the eightenth yeare of his reigne, 25. He is slayne in battel by the king of AEgypt, 32. and much lamented by the Iewes. 34. His sonne Ieconias succedeth. 37. After him Ioacim, 40. who is deposed by the king of Babylon. 43. Ioachim reigneth three monethes, and is caried into Babylon. 46. Sedecias reigneth eleuen yeares wickedly. 52. and he with his people is caried captiue into Babylon, the citie and temple are destroyed. 57. so remayned til the Monarchie of the Persians.
AND Iosias made a Pasch in Ierusalem to our Lord & immolated the Phase the fourtenth moone of the moneth: (4 Kings 23:21 / 2 Par 35:1) 2 appointing the Priestes by courses of dayes clothed with stoles in the temple of our Lord. 3 And he spake to the Leuites the sacred seruantes of Isreal, that they should sanctifie them selues to our Lord in the placing of the holie arke of our Lord in the house, which king Salomon sonne of Dauid built. 4 It shal not be for you to take it vpon your shoulders. And now serue your Lord, and take the care of that nation Israel, in part according to your villages and tribes, 5 according to the writing of Dauid king of Israel, and according to the magnificence of Salomon his sonne, al in the temple, and according to your fathers portion of principalitie, among them that stand in the sight of your brethren the children of Isreal. 6 Immolate the Pasch, and prepare the sacrifices for your bretheren, and doe according to the precept of our Lord which was geuen to Moyses. (Ex 12 / Lev 23 / Num 28) 7 And Iosias gaue vnto the people that was found of / sheepe, lambes, and kiddes, and goates thirtie thousand, calues there thousand. 8 These thinges were geuen to the people of the kinges goodes according to promisse: and to the priestes for the Phase, sheepe in number two thousand, and calues an hundred. 9 And Iechonias, and Semeias, and Nathanael bretheren, and Hasabias, and Oziel, and Coraba for the Phase sheepe fiue thousand, calues fiue hundred. 10 And when these thinges were done in good order, the Priestes an the Leuites stood hauing azymes by tribes. 11 And according to the portions of their fathers principalitie, in the sight of the people they did offer, to our Lord according to those thinges, which were written in the booke of Moyses: 12 and rosted the Phase with fire as it ought: and the hostes they boyled in cauldrons, and in pottes with beneuolence: 13 and they brought to al that were of the people: and afterward they prepared for them selues and the priestes. 14 For the Priestes offered the fatte, vntil the houre was ended: and the Leuites prepared for them selues, and their brethren, the children of Aaron. 15 And the sacred singing men, the children of Asaph were by order according to the precept of Dauid and Asaph, and Zacharias, and Ieddimus, which was from the king. 16 And the porters at euerie gate, so that none transgressed his owne: for their brethren prepared for them. 17 And the thinges were consummate that perteyned to the sacrifice of our Lord. 18 In that day they celebrated the Phase, and offered hostes vpon the sacrifice of our Lord, according to the precept of king Iosias. 19 And the children of Israel, that were found at that time, celebrated the Phase: and the festiual day of Azymes for seuen dayes: 20 and there was not celebrated such a Phase in Isreal, from the times of Samuel the prophet: 21 and al the kinges of Israel did not celebrate such a Phase as Iosias did, and the Priestes, and the Leuites, and the Iewes, and al Israel, that were found in their abode at Ierusalem. 22 In the eightenth yeare, Iosias reigning was the Phase celebrated. 23 And the workes of Iosias were directed in the sight of his Lord in a hart ful of feare: 24 and the thinges concerning him are writen in the ancient times, touching them that sinned, and were irreligous against our Lord aboue al nations, and that sought not the wordes of our Lord vpon Israel. 25 And after al this fact of Iosias, came vp Pharao the king of AEgypt comming in Charcamis from the way vpon Euphrates, and Iosias went forth to meete him. (4 Kings 23:29 / 2 Par 35:20) 26 And the king of AEgypt sent to Iosias saying: What is there betwen me & thee king of Iuda? 27 I was not sent of the Lord to fight against thee: for my battel is vpon Euphrates, goe downe in hast. 28 And Iosias did not returne vpon his chariote: but endeuoured to ouerthrow him, not attending the word of the prophet from the mouth of our Lord: 29 but he made battel against him in the field of Mageddo. And princes went downe to king Iosias. 30 And the king said to his seruantes: Remoue me from the battel, for I am weakned excedingly. And forthwith his seruantes remoued him out of the battel. 31 And he went vp into his second chariote: & comming to Ierusalem, dyed, and was buried in his fathers sepulchre. 32 And in al Iurie they mourned for Iosias, & the rulers with their wiues lamented him vntil this day. And this was geuen out to be done alwayes vnto al the stocke of Israel. 33 But these thinges were writen before in the booke of the histories of the kinges of Iuda: and al the actes of the doing of Iosias, and his glorie and his vnderstanding in the law of our Lord: and the thinges that were done by him, and that are not writen in the booke of the kinges of Israel and Iuda. 34 And they that were of the nation, taking Iechonias the sonne of Iosias, made him king for Iosias his father, when he was three and twentie yeares old. (4 Kings 23:30 / 2 Par 36:1) 35 And he reigned ouer Israel three monethes. And the king of AEgypt remoued him, that he should not reigne in Ierusalem: 36 and he put a taxe vpon the nation of siluer an hundred talentes, and of gold one talent. 37 And the king of AEgypt made Ioacim his brother king of Iuda and Ierusalem: 38 and he bound the magistrates of Ioacim, and Zaracel his brother, and taking them brought them backe into AEgypt. 39 Ioacim was fiue and twentie yeares old when he began to reigne in the land of Iuda and Ierusalem: and he did euil in the sight of our Lord. 40 And after this man came vp Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon, and binding him with a bande of brasse, brought him into Babylon. 41 And Nabuchodonosor tooke the sacred vessels of our Lord, and carried away, and consecrated them in his temple in Babylon. 42 For his vncleanes, and lacke of religion is written in the booke of the times of the kinges. 43 And Ioachin his sonne reigned for him. And when he was made king, he was eightene yeares old. 44 And reigned three monethes and ten dayes in Ierusalem, and did euil in the sight of our Lord: 45 and after a yeare Nabuchodonosor sending, transported him into Babylon together with the sacred vessels of our Lord. (4 Kings 24:13) 46 And he made Sedecias king of Iuda and Ierusalem, when he was one and twentie yeares old: (4 Kings 24:17) and he reigned eleuen yeares. 47 And he did euil in the sight of our Lord, and was not afraid of the wordes which were spoken by Ieremie the prophet from the mouth of our Lord: (Jer 37:2) 48 and being sworne of king Nabuchodonosor, forsworne he did reuolt: and his necke being hardened, & his hart, he transgressed the ordinances of our Lord the God of Israel. 49 And the princes of the people of our Lord did manie thinges wickedly, and they did impiously aboue al the vncleannes of the nations: and they polluted the temple of our Lord that was holie of Ierusalem. 50 And the God of their fathers sent by his messenger to reclame them, for that he would spare them, and his tabernacle. 51 But they scorned at his messengers: and in the day that our Lord spake to them, they were mocking his prophetes. 52 Who was moued euen vnto wrath vpon his nation for their impietie, and commanded the kinges of the Chaldees to come vp. 53 These slewe their yong men with the sword, round about their holie temple, and spared not yong man, and old man, and virgin, and youth: 54 but al were deliuered into their handes: & taking al the sacred vessels of our Lord, and the kinges treasures, they caried them into Babylon, 55 and burnt the house of our Lord, and threwe downe the walles of Ierusalem: and the towres therof they burnt with fire, 56 and consumed al their honorable thinges, and brought them to naught, and those that were left of the sword, they led into Babylon. 57 And they were his seruants vntil the Persians reigned in the fulfilling of the word of our Lord by the mouth of Ieremie: (Jer 25:12 / Jer 29:10 / Dan 9:2) 58 as long as the land quietly kept her sabbathes, al the time of her desolation she sabbathized in the application of seuentie yeares.