3
Instead thereof Thou gavest Thy people a burning pillar of fire, both to be a guide for the unknown journey and a harmless sun to entertain them honorably.
4
For the unrighteous were worthy to be deprived of light and imprisoned in darkness, who had kept Thy sons shut up, by whom the uncorrupt light of the law was to be given unto the world.
5
And when they had determined to slay the babes of the saints, one child being cast forth and saved, to reprove them Thou took away the multitude of their children, and destroyed them altogether in a mighty water.
6
Of that night our fathers were certified beforehand so that, assuredly knowing unto what oaths they had given credence, they might afterwards be of good cheer.
7
So by Thy people was accepted both the salvation of the righteous, and destruction of the enemies.
8
For with what Thou didst punish our adversaries, by the same Thou didst glorify us, whom Thou had called.
9
For the righteous children of good men offered sacrifice secretly, and with one accord made a holy law, that the saints should be like partakers of the same good and evil, the fathers now singing out the songs of praise.
10
But on the other side there sounded a discordant cry of the enemies, and a lamentable noise was carried abroad for children that were bewailed.
11
The master and the servant were punished in one manner, and as the king, so suffered the common person.
12
So they all together, by one kind of death, had innumerable dead, neither were the living sufficient to bury them; for in one moment the noblest offspring of them was destroyed.
13
For whereas they would not believe any thing by reason of the enchantments, upon the destruction of the first-born they acknowledged this people to be the sons of God.