ODE 4.

This Ode is important because of the historical allusion with which it commences. This may refer to the closing of the temple at Leontopolis in Egypt which would date this writing about 73 A. D .

1 No man, O my God, changeth thy holy place;
2 And it is not (possible) that he should change it and put it in another place: because he hath no power over it:
3 For thy sanctuary thou hast designed before thou didst make (other) places:
4 That which is the older shall not be altered by those that are younger than itself.
5 Thou has given thy heart, O Lord, to thy believers: never wilt thou fail, nor be without fruits:
6 For one hour of thy Faith is more precious than all days and years.
7 For who is there that shall put on thy grace, and be hurt?
8 For thy seal is known: and thy creatures know it: and thy (heavenly) hosts possess it: and the elect archangels are clad with it.
9 Thou hast given us thy fellowship: it was not that thou wast in need of us: but that we are in need of thee:
10 Distill thy dews upon us and open thy rich fountains that pour forth to us milk and honey:
11 For there is no repentance with thee that thou shouldest repent of anything that thou hast promised:
12 And the end was revealed before thee: for what thou gavest, thou gavest freely:
13 So that thou mayest, not draw them back and take them again:
14 For all was revealed before thee as God, and ordered from the beginning before thee: and thou, O God, hast made all things. Hallelujah.