Odes of Solomon/Ode 7

And So God Was Merciful to Me

¹ Like the impulse of <love> over <infancy>,

so is the impulse of joy over the beloved,

who brings in joy’s fruits unhindered.

² My joy is the Lord, and my impulse is toward him.

This my path is good,

³ for to me it is a help because of the Lord.

He has caused me to know him in his simplicity without envy,

diminishing his greatness with his kindness.

⁴ He became like me, so that I could receive him.

He appeared to have a likeness like mine, so that I could put him on.

⁵ And I trembled not when I saw him.

Because of who he is, he was gracious to me.

⁶ Like my nature he became, so that I could learn to know him,

and like my form, so that I could avoid turning away from him.

⁷ <From> the Father of knowledge is the utterance of knowledge.

⁸ The one who created Wisdom

is wiser than his works.

⁹ And the one who created me when I did not yet exist,

knew what I would do after I came into being.

¹⁰ And so he was merciful to me in his abundant mercy,

and granted me to ask from him and to receive from his offering.

¹¹ Because of who he is, he is imperishable,

the fulfillment of the ages and their Father.

¹² He granted that he would be seen by those who are his,

so that they can recognize the one who made them,

and so that they might not suppose that they were from themselves.

¹³ For he laid out his path towards knowledge;

he widened (knowledge) and lengthened it, and brought it over all the fullness.

¹⁴ And he set over (the fullness) the footprints of his light,

and (the light) reached from in the beginning to the end.

¹⁵ For by (the path) was (the light) served,

and (the light) rested in a son.

¹⁶ And because of his salvation he will take hold of everything,

and the Most High will be known in his saints,

¹⁷ to announce to those who have songs of the coming of the Lord,

that they may go out to meet him, and may sing to him with joy

and with the lyre of many tones.

¹⁸ They will go before him, those who see,

and they will be seen in front of him.

¹⁹ And they will praise the Lord in his love,

because he is near and sees.

²⁰ And hatred will be lifted from off the earth,

and together with envy it will be drowned,

²¹ for what is not knowledge has been destroyed,

because the knowledge of the Lord has come.

²² The singers will sing the goodness of the Lord, the Most High,

and they will bring their songs,

²³ and their heart will be like the day,

and their sound like the majesty of the Lord’s beauty.

And nothing that has breath will be without knowledge or without speech,

²⁴ for he has given a mouth to his creation,

to open the voice of the mouth to him,

and to praise him.

²⁵ Praise his power,

and tell his goodness.

Hallelujah!