Anonymous (Septuagint) · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| The memory of Josiah is like a blended incense, prepared by the perfumer's craft; it is sweet as honey in every mouth, and like music at a banquet of wine.
2| He was set right in the turning of the people, and he removed the abominations of lawlessness;
3| he directed his heart toward the Lord, and in the days of the lawless he made piety strong.
4| Except for David and Hezekiah and Josiah, all of them committed transgression; for the kings of Judah forsook the law of the Most High, they failed.
5| For they gave their horn to others, and their glory to a foreign nation;
6| they burned down the holy city set apart as the sanctuary, and left her streets deserted, by the hand of Jeremiah;
7| for they mistreated him, though he himself had been sanctified as a prophet from the womb, to root out and to afflict and to destroy, and likewise to build and to plant.
8| Ezekiel, who saw the vision of glory that was shown to him upon the chariot of the cherubim;
9| for he also remembered the enemies in the storm, and he did good to those who directed their ways aright.
10| And may the bones of the twelve prophets flourish again from their place. For he encouraged Jacob, and redeemed them by the faith of hope.
11| How shall we magnify Zerubbabel? He himself was like a seal upon the right hand.
12| So too Jeshua son of Josedek; in their days they built the house and raised up a holy people to the Lord, prepared for everlasting glory.
13| And great is the memory that lives on of him who raised our fallen walls, and set up gates and bars, and rebuilt our ruined homes.
14| No one was ever created upon the earth like Enoch, for he was taken up from the earth;
15| and Joseph became a man, a leader of his brothers, a support of the people, and his bones were cared for.
16| Shem and Seth were honored among men, but above every living being in creation stood Adam.