2 Meqabyan (Ethiopian) 3

And the prophet spoke to him, for Riemat of Moab is near to Syria.

And he dug into the ground and went down into it up to his neck, and he wept bitter weeping and repented because of the sin he had committed before the Lord.

And thus the Lord said to the prophet: Return from the land of Judah to the land of Riemat, to Meqabis the ruler of Moab, and say to him: Thus says the Lord. It is not you who did this thing—do not say, 'By the strength of my own might and by my own host I destroyed the holy city.' Rather, I am the Lord your Master; by My own will I sent you to destroy My land.

For she grieved Me with all her covetousness and her harlotry and her treachery.

And so I rejected her and gave her over into your hand; it was not because of you, who stiffened your neck and said, 'I encircled the city by the strength of my own hand.' And now, because of the children whom you have begotten, the Lord has pardoned you for your sin.

And now, repent with all your heart and be steadfast, and do not be of two minds; for those who waver are not resolute toward repentance.

But blessed are those who repent with all their heart and do not turn back to defilement and sin, in all wherein they repent of their wickedness.

And they are steadfast in weeping and in tears and in much supplication and in prostration before the Lord their Creator; for He said to the penitent: You are Mine, you who repented after you had gone astray and turned back in repentance.

And to the proud man also He said, after he had gone astray, when he returned to Him in repentance: Because of your dread and your fear I pardon your sin; for I am the Lord your Master, who visits the iniquity of the father upon the children unto the third and fourth generation, but to those who love Me and keep My commandments I show mercy unto a thousand generations.

And now, because of these children whom you have begotten, I will keep My covenant which is with you, and I will accept the repentance which you have made because of the evil of your deeds, said the Holy One of Israel, the Lord, who rules over all.

And at that time he came up out of the pit and bowed down to the prophet, saying: Thus and thus may the Lord do to me, if I depart from you; rather, make me to be whatever you desire. For I grieved the Lord and did not walk in His commandments, as did my fathers; for we had no law, and you yourself know that we worship idols, as our fathers taught us.

And I have not until now hearkened to the word of the prophets of the Lord; for I am a sinner who walked in my sin and in the pride of my heart and in the stiffness of my neck, whereby I grieved the commandment of the Lord; and I did not walk in His commandment and His judgment which He commanded me.

And the prophet answered and said to him: I perceive that the Lord has now received your repentance, for there was none before you, of all your kindred, who confessed his sin.

And from now, forsake the worship of idols and turn to the knowledge of the Lord, that your repentance may be true. And he bowed down beneath the feet of the prophet; and the prophet raised him up and instructed him in all the good works that are fitting.

And he did according to all that the Lord had commanded, and he returned to his house.

And this Meqabis set his soul aright and put away from his house all the divination and the idols and the diviners and the soothsayers and the sorcerers.

And the children of the captivity, whom he had brought from Jerusalem, he examined evening and morning in all the commandment of the Lord and His law and His ordinance, as their fathers had done.

And from among the children of the captivity he appointed wise ones over his house.

And again he appointed wise teachers from among the younger ones over his chamber, who should watch over his little children to teach them the way of the Lord, even as the children of Israel kept His law and His ordinance and His judgments and His justice; and all the abominations which the Moabites observe he set aside, and he hearkened concerning them from the children of the captivity.

And he destroyed their abominations and all their divinations and all their idols and all their offerings and their altars, the bullocks of his pastures from among his fattened beasts, and the kids of the goats which he used to sacrifice to his gods evening and morning.

And he had sacrificed to them and worshipped them in every work at noon and at the hour, and entreated them and trusted in them, and did their will in all that the priests of his gods had told him.

And he never used to reject anything of their word in all that they told him, for it seemed to him that in all things they had delivered him.

But Meqabis forsook the way that was theirs.

And when he had heard the word of Reay which they call the prophet, he amended his way unto repentance; and all his house amended their way more than the children of Israel did in those days. For the children of Israel would at one time provoke the Lord, and when He chastised them they would acknowledge Him and cry out to the Lord.

And when He saw that they were brought low beneath the hands of those who oppressed them, and that they cried out before Him, on that day He would have mercy on them, remembering the covenant of their fathers, when they cried out to Him for the sake of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob their fathers.

But when He had delivered them, they would forget the One who had delivered them and return to the worship of idols.

And on that day He would send against them nations who oppressed them; and when these afflicted them and brought them low, they would cry out to the Lord, and at that time He would have mercy on them and be gracious to them, for He loved them, because they were the work of His hands.

And again, when He had given them respite, they would turn back to provoke Him by the worship of the idols round about them and by the evil work of their hands.

And He would raise up against them the people of the Philistines and Moab and Midian and Syria and Egypt; and they would weep and cry out when their enemies overcame them and afflicted them and enslaved them and made them tributary. And He would raise up for them judges, that the judges might deliver them.