J. B. Lightfoot

1 Clement 53

JBL

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1 For ye know, and know well, the sacred scriptures, dearly beloved, and ye have searched into the oracles of God. We write these things therefore to put you in remembrance.

2 When Moses went up into the mountain and had spent forty days and forty nights in fasting and humiliation, God said unto him; Moses, Moses, come down , quickly hence, for My people whom thou leadest forth from the land of Egypt have wrought iniquity: they have transgressed quickly out of the way which thou didst command unto them: they have made for themselves molten images.

3 And the Lord said unto him; I have spoken unto thee once and twice, saying, I have seen this people, and behold it is stiff-necked. Let Me destroy them utterly, and I will blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make of thee a nation great and wonderful and numerous more than this.

4 And Moses said; Nay, not so, Lord Forgive this people their sin, or blot me also out of the book of the living.

5 O mighty love! O unsurpassable perfection! The servant is bold with his Master; he asketh forgiveness for the multitude, or he demandeth that himself also be blotted out with them.

Text: J. B. Lightfoot. Public-domain translation by J. B. Lightfoot (1828–1889), transcribed by CCEL. Chapter divisions and paragraph order are retained; prologues are presented separately. Translation details.