1 Meqabyan (Ethiopian) 13

Tyre and Sidon and all the borders of the land of Judah, who exalt themselves, now woe to them when I lay hold of them in My wrath; for they shall be put to shame and scourged.

The Lord said, For there shall come forth from among them one proud and haughty, a son of perdition, an enemy of righteousness, who stiffens his neck and boasts and does not know his Maker; for I have set him as a vessel for My wrath, that I may show My power upon him, says the Lord who rules over all.

This is Capernaum of theirs, and Samaria and Galilee and Syria and Damascus and Cyprus and Achaia and all the regions of Jordan, peoples stiff of neck, who walk in their own way, whom darkness and the shadow of death have covered; and they do not turn to the fear of the Lord, those whose heart Sablanyos has covered; and you shall not obey that proud one.

Woe to them in that day, to those who obey the defiled ones and offer sacrifice in their name; for they rebel against the Lord who created them, and they become like beasts that have no heart, because that wicked one, the son of perdition, sets up his image in every place, and makes merry with the work of his hands and with the lust of his soul, and with every oppression and violence and iniquity and deceit, and with everything that works fornication and violence and falsehood.

For in his days it is appointed that he should do thus; for from the Lord it is numbered that he should do this.

The sun too shall be darkened, and the moon shall become blood, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and all the works shall be destroyed by the signs that come in the latter days, that He may judge the earth and all that is in it according to the work of the hands of those who dwell in it.

And death shall destroy that last enemy, because he exalted himself above the creation of the Lord and did as he pleased for one hour.

And after him there is no respite, for I will avenge Myself, says the Lord who rules over all.

And he too shall go down into chastisement and into a judgment severe for him, from the day he is laid hold of in My wrath; for he draws all who are with him into perdition and into chastisement and destruction; for I am He who brings out and brings in, into the judgment of Gehenna.

And let not the mighty man boast in his might; for it is He who gives strength and power to the weak, and again gives weakness to the strong and the mighty.

And vengeance shall be required for the helpless women and the orphans; for He is the One who lays hold and avenges those who are oppressed by the hand of their oppressors.

Woe to you who boast and stiffen your neck, and to whom it seems that He will not lay hold of you nor avenge Himself upon you in My wrath; even as it is said, How are you fallen, O bright morning star, that rises in the time of dawn?

For he said in his pride and in his boasting, I will set my throne above the heavens and the stars, and I will be like the Most High.

This you dared in your pride, and you did not remember the Lord who created you and made you with His hands. Why did you exalt yourself, that you should go down beneath the lowest depths in the haughtiness of your heart?

And in your pride you made yourself lower than all the angels who are like you; for they praise their Maker in lowliness of spirit, and do not transgress His commandment, because they know that He it is who made them and created them; and they kept their understanding, that they should not pass away nor go beyond His commandment.

But you, in the pride of your heart, did evil and became more vile than your fellows; for you are the keeper of all iniquity and violence and oppression and tyranny, in which the sinners who are like you walk, and the wicked who are of your own making; and they rebel like you, and walk in all your will and your commandment, the violence that you teach them.

Woe to you and to those whom you led astray; with your thought you go down together into destruction.

And you children of God whom you have led astray by that ruler who errs, woe to you; you go down together into the chastisement that is for ever, because you erred in the same way, in that which you were taught by him and his demons.

And of old, in the days of Moses, the Lord wrought wonders, and you provoked Him at Horeb and at the waters of strife, and at Mount Sinai and against Amalek.

And again, when you sent the seventy spies into the land of inheritance, and when they said to you, Far is its way and strong are their walls, which reach up to heaven, and their watchtowers are high, and those who dwell there are mighty and abide there; when they said this to you, on that day you provoked Him and despised the word of the Lord, so as to turn back to the land of Egypt, into your harsh bondage.

And you did not remember the Lord who saved you out of your distress, who wrought great things in Egypt, and led you by the hand of His angel; so that the sun should not scorch you, the cloud shadowed you by day; and so that your foot should not stumble in the darkness, He gave you light by night with a pillar of fire.

And when Pharaoh and his hosts frightened you, you cried out and groaned to Moses, and Moses cried out and groaned to the Lord; and by His angel He led you, so that you should not be overtaken by the hosts of Pharaoh.

And He gave them over to torment; for the Lord said, He alone shall lead them, and there is no strange god with them. But your enemies He covered in the sea in a moment, and He did not leave a single survivor among them.

And Israel He led across on foot through the midst of the sea, and nothing of harm came upon them from the Egyptians; and He brought them to Mount Sinai, and there He fed them with manna for forty years.

And they grew weary of the worship of the Lord, for all the good things He did for them; for they continually provoked the Lord, as it is written in the book of the generations of the fathers; and it says, The heart of the children of men is ashes, and all their works are in oppression and evil; they run, and there is none among them who desires uprightness, but only the gathering of goods by iniquity, and false swearing, and the wronging of a neighbour, and theft, and oppression.

And toward this evil they all run, all the days of their life. And all the more did the children of Israel provoke the Lord, transgressing the commandments of the Lord from first to last.