RV-CE

SIRACH 48

1Also there arose Elijah the prophet as fire,

And his word burned like a torch:

2Who brought a famine upon them,

And by his zeal made them few in number.

3By the word of the Lord he shut up the heaven:

Thrice did he thus bring down fire.

4How wast thou glorified, O Elijah, in thy wondrous deeds!

And who shall glory like unto thee?

5Who did raise up a dead man from death,

And from the place of the dead, by the word of the Most High:

6Who brought down kings to destruction,

And honourable men from their bed:

7Who heard rebuke in Sinai,

And judgements of vengeance in Horeb:

8Who anointed kings for retribution,

And prophets to succeed after him:

9Who was taken up in a tempest of fire,

In a chariot of fiery horses:

10Who was recorded for reproofs in their seasons,

To pacify anger, before it brake forth into wrath;

To turn the heart of the father unto the son,

And to restore the tribes of Jacob.

11Blessed are they that saw thee,

And they that have been beautified with love;

For we also shall surely live.

12Elijah it was, who was wrapped in a tempest:

And Elisha was filled with his spirit;

And in all his days he was not moved by the fear of any ruler,

And no one brought him into subjection.

13 Nothing was too high for him;

And when he was laid on sleep his body prophesied.

14As in his life he did wonders,

So in death were his works marvellous.

15For all this the people repented not,

And they departed not from their sins,

Till they were carried away as a spoil from their land,

And were scattered through all the earth;

And the people was left very few in number,

And a ruler was left in the house of David.

16Some of them did that which was pleasing to God,

And some multiplied sins.

17Hezekiah fortified his city,

And brought in water into the midst of them:

He digged the sheer rock with iron,

And builded up wells for waters.

18In his days Sennacherib came up,

And sent Rabshakeh, and departed;

And he lifted up his hand against Sion,

And boasted great things in his arrogancy.

19Then were their hearts and their hands shaken,

And they were in pain, as women in travail;

20And they called upon the Lord which is merciful,

Spreading forth their hands unto him:

And the Holy One heard them speedily out of Heaven,

And delivered them by the hand of Isaiah.

21He smote the camp of the Assyrians,

And his angel utterly destroyed them.

22For Hezekiah did that which was pleasing to the Lord,

And was strong in the ways of David his father,

Which Isaiah the prophet commanded,

Who was great and faithful in his vision.

23In his days the sun went backward;

And he added life to the king.

24He saw by an excellent spirit what should come to pass at the last;

And he comforted them that mourned in Sion.

25He shewed the things that should be to the end of time,

And the hidden things or ever they came.