Kingship and the House of David

T¹he interpretation and explanation of the Three Hundred and Eighteen Orthodox [Fathers] concerning splendour, and greatness, and dignity, and how God gave them to the children of Adam, and especially concerning the greatness and splendour of Zion, the Tabernacle (tabot) of the Law of God, of which He Himself is the Maker and Fashioner, in the fortress of His holiness before all created things, [both] angels and men.

² For the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit with good fellowship and right good will and cordial agreement together made the Heavenly Zion to be the place of habitation of their Glory. And then the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit said, " Let Us make man in Our similitude and likeness," and with ready agreement and good will They were all of this opinion. ³ And the Son said, " I will put on the body of Adam," and the Holy Spirit said, " I will dwell in the heart[s] of the Prophets and the Righteous "; and this common agreement and covenant was [fulfilled] in Zion, the City of their Glory. And David said, " Remember Thine agreement which Thou didst make of old for salvation, the rod of Thine inheritance, in Mount Zion wherein Thou dost dwell." And He made Adam in His own image and likeness, so that He might remove Satan because of his pride, together with his host, and might establish Adam — His own plant — together with the righteous, His children, for His praises. ⁴ For the plan of God was decided upon and decreed in that He said, " I will become man, and I will be in everything which I have created, I will abide in flesh." And in the days that came after, by His good pleasure there was born in the flesh of the Second Zion the second Adam, Who was our Saviour Christ. This is our glory and our faith, our hope and our life, the Second Zion.

A¹nd they made ready the ointment of the oil of kingship, and the sounds of the large horn, and the small horn, and the flute and the pipes, and the harp and the drum filled the air; and the city resounded with cries of joy and gladness.

² And they brought the young man into the Holy of Holies, and he laid hold upon the horns of the altar, and sovereignty was given unto him by the mouth of Zadok the priest, and by the mouth of Joas (Benaiah) the priest, the commander of the army of King Solomon, and he anointed him with the holy oil of the ointment of kingship. ³ And he went out from the house of the Lord, and they called his name David, for the name of a king came to him by the law. And they made him to ride upon the mule of King Solomon, and they led him round about the city, and said, " We have appointed thee from this moment "; and then they cried out to him, " Bah [Long] live the royal father! " And there were some who said, " It is meet and right that thy dominion of Ethiopia shall be from the River of Egypt to the west of the sun (i.e., to the setting sun); blessed be thy seed upon the earth! — and from Shoa to the east of India, for thou wilt please [the people of these lands]. ⁴ And the Lord God of Israel shall be unto thee a guide, and the Tabernacle of the Law of God shall be with all that thou lookest upon. And all thine enemies and foes shall be overthrown before thee, and completion and finish shall be unto thee and unto thy seed after thee; thou shalt judge many nations and none shall judge thee." ⁵ And again his father blessed him and said unto him, " The blessing of heaven and earth shall be thy blessing," and all the congregation of Israel said, " Amen." And his father also said unto Zadok the priest, " Make him to know and tell him concerning the judgment and decree of God which he shall observe there " [in Ethiopia].

A¹nd Azariah said, " Bring hither the jubilee trumpets, and let us go to Zion, and there we will make new the kingdom of our lord David." And he took the oil of sovereignty and filled the horn [therewith], and he anointed David with the unguent, that is to say, with the oil of sovereignty.

² And they blew horns and pipes and trumpets, and beat drums, and sounded all kinds of musical instruments, and there were singing and dancing and games, and [displays] with horses and shield [-men], and all the men and women of the people of the country of Ethiopia were present, small and great, and the little Blacks, six thousand in number, and virgin women whom Azariah had chosen for the women of Zion by the law, whom David the King had destined for [the service of] the table and banquets in the royal fortress when he should go up thereto [clad in] raiment of fine gold. ³ And in this wise was renewed the kingdom of David, the son of Solomon the king of Israel, in the capital city, in Mount Makeda, in the House of Zion, when the Law was established for the first time by the King of Ethiopia. ⁴ And then when he had completed the stablishing of the Law, they made, according to what they had seen in Jerusalem, the Law in the House of Zion for the nobles of the kingdom, and for those who were inside, and for those that were outside, and for the people, and for the islands, and for the cities, and for the provinces; and for all the inhabitants and for all their tribal kinsfolk they made ordinances in the same manner. ⁵ And thus the eastern boundary of the kingdom of the King of Ethiopia is the beginning of the city of Gaza in the land of Judah, that is, Jerusalem; and its boundary is the Lake of Jericho, and it passeth on by the coast of its sea to Leba and Saba; and its boundary goeth down to Bisis and 'Asnet; and its boundary is the Sea of the Blacks and Naked Men, and goeth up Mount Kebercneyon into the Sea of Darkness, that is to say, the place where the sun setteth; and its boundary extendeth to Fene'el and Lasifala; and its borders are the lands [near] the Garden (i.e. ⁶ Paradise), where there is food in plenty and abundance of cattle, and [near] Feneken; and its boundary reacheth as far as Zawel and passeth on to the Sea of India; and its boundary is as far as the Sea of Tarsis, and in its remote (?) part lieth the Sea of Medyam, until it cometh to the country of Gaza; and its boundary is the place where [our enumeration] began. And moreover, the dominion of the King of Ethiopia belongeth to him and to his seed for ever.

A¹nd the King of Rome, and the King of Ethiopia, and the Archbishop of Alexandria — now the men of Rome were orthodox — were informed that they were to destroy them. And they were to rise up to fight, to make war upon the enemies of God, the Jews, and to destroy them, the King of Rome 'nya, and the King of Ethiopia Pinhas (Phinehas); and they were to lay waste their lands, and to build churches there, and they were to cut to pieces Jews at the end of this Cycle in twelve cycles of the moon.

² Then the kingdom of the Jews shall be made an end of and the Kingdom of Christ shall be constituted until the advent of the False Messiah. And those two kings, Justinus the King of Rome and Kaleb the King of Ethiopia, met together in Jerusalem. ³ And their Archbishop was to make ready offerings and they were to make offerings, and they were to establish the Faith in love, and they were to give each other gifts and the salutation of peace, and they were to divide between them the earth from the half of Jerusalem, even as we have already said at the beginning of this book. ⁴ And for love's sake they were to have jointly the royal title [of King of Ethiopia]. They were to be mingled with David and Solomon their fathers. The one whom in faith they chose by lot to be named from the Kings of Rome was to be called " King of Ethiopia," and the King of Rome likewise was to bear the name of " King of Ethiopia," and he was to have part in the lot whereby he should be named with David and Solomon their fathers, after the manner of the Four Evangelists. ⁵ And the fourth the one whom they were to choose each in his own country... And thus after they had become united in a common bond, and had established the right faith they were to determine that the Jews were no longer to live, and each of them was to leave his son there; and the King of Ethiopia was to leave there his firstborn son whose name was Israel, and was to return to his own country in joy. ⁶ And when he came to his royal house, he was to give abundant thanks unto God, and to offer up his body as an offering of praise to his God. And God shall accept him gladly, for he shall not defile his body after he hath returned, but he shall go into a monastery in purity of heart. ⁷ And he shall make king his youngest son, whose name is Gabra Maskal, and he himself shall shut himself up [in a monastery]. And when one hath told this to the King of Nagran, the son of Kaleb, he shall come in order to reign over Zion, and Gabra Maskal shall make his armies to rise up, and he shall journey in a chariot, and they shall meet together at the narrow end of the Sea of Liba, and shall fight together. ⁸ And on the same night the two of them shall pray from sunset until the dawn, when the fight waxeth strong upon them. And when they have cried out to Him with tears God will look upon the prayer of both of them, and the penitent prayer of their father, and will say, " This one is the elder and he hath stood up to perform the will of his father, and that one, the younger, hath loved his father, and hath prayed to God [for him]." ⁹ And God will say to Gabra Maskal, " Choose thou between the chariot and Zion," and He will cause him to take Zion, and he shall reign openly upon the throne of his father. And God will make Israel to choose the chariot, and he shall reign secretly and he shall not be visible, and He will send him to all those who have transgressed the commandment of God. ¹⁰ And no one shall build houses, and they shall live in tents, and none shall suffer fatigue in labouring, and none shall suffer thirst on the journey. And their days shall be double of those of [ordinary] men, and they shall use bows and arrows, and shall shoot at and pierce him that God hateth. ¹¹ Thus hath God made for the King of Ethiopia more glory, and grace, and majesty than for all the other kings of the earth because of the greatness of Zion, the Tabernacle of the Law of God, the heavenly Zion. And may God make us to perform His spiritual good pleasure, and deliver us from His wrath, and make us to share His kingdom. ¹² Amen. And they answered and said unto him, " Verily, thou hast spoken well, for thus was it revealed unto thee by the help of the Holy Spirit. Thou hast told us everything which hath taken place, and thou art in agreement with the book of Damotiyos (Domitius) of Rome. ¹³ And thou hast prophesied also what shall happen to the two cities, the brides of Christ, the Churches Nestasya and 'Arkadya, and Marena, and Ethiopia, the great cities of God, wherein pure sacrifices and offerings shall be offered up at all times. ¹⁴ May God show us His grace! The blessing of all the saints and martyrs [be with us] for ever and ever! Amen. Christ is our King, and in Christ is our life for ever and ever. Amen. And Amen."

A¹nd Joshua, the son of Non, was the governor of the children of Israel for twenty-seven years. And after the death of Joshua, the son of Non, Kishan, the Wicked (Chushanrishathayim), was lord over the people for eighty years. And ‘Athnail (Othniel), the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, was lord over Israel for forty years.

² And then the children of Israel were in subjection to the Moabites for eighteen years. And Ahor (Ehud), the son of Gera, ruled the children of Israel for eighty years. AND IN THE TWENTY-Sixth year of his life the fourth thousand years came to an end. Nabhin (Jabin), who was dried up in body, ruled twenty years. ³ Deborah and Barak [ruled them] forty years. The children of Israel were in subjection to the Midianites seven years, and God delivered them by the hands of Gideon, who ruled them forty years. Abimelech his son reigned after him three years. Tala’ (Tola), the son of Puah [ruled them] twenty-three years. ⁴ Yair, the Gileadite, twenty-two years. And again the children of Israel were in subjection to the Ammonites eighteen years, and God delivered them by the hand of Naphtah (Jephthah), the man who offered up his daughter as a sacrifice, and he ruled them six years. Abhisan (Ibzan of Bethlehem), who is Nahshón (sic), ruled them seven years. ⁵ Alón (Elon), who was from Zebulon, ruled them ten years. ‘Abhrón (Abdon, the son of Hillel, the Pirathonite) ruled them eight years. And the children of Israel were in subjection to the Philistines forty years, and God delivered them by the hand of Samson, and he ruled them twenty years. And the children of Israel lived without a governor for eighteen years, and then Eli the priest rose up and ruled them forty years. ⁶ And Samuel rose up over them and ruled them twenty years. And in the days of Samuel the children of Israel provoked to wrath God, Who had delivered them from the servitude of the Egyptians, and they made Saul, the son of Kish, king, and he reigned over them forty years. And in the days of Saul lived Gülyàdh (Goliath), a giant of the Philistines. ⁷ He came nigh and reviled Israel, and blasphemed against God, and David, the son of Jesse, killed him. And David was praised in songs by the daughters of Israel, and Saul persecuted him. And the Philistines slew Saul because he forsook the Lord, and took refuge with the devils. David reigned over the children of Israel forty years, and Solomon, his son, reigned forty years. ⁸ Aud Solomon did great and wonderful things, and it was he who sent to Ophir and brought gold from the mountains of gold, and the ships sailed the sea for thirty-six months, and then came forth (i.e. returned). It was he who built Tadmor (Palmyra) in the wilderness, and he carried out there great and wonderful works. ⁹ And when Solomon passed the borders of the mountain which is called Sa’ér, he found there the altar which Piórzákhár, and Piórzanai, and Neznádhór had built. These were they whom Nimrod, the giant, sent to Balaam, the priest of the Mountain of Sá’ér, because he heard that he was wont to consult the Signs of the Zodiac, and when they were passing the skirts of the mountain they built there an altar to the sun. ¹⁰ And when Solomon saw it he built a city there and called its name “Niapdlis” (more correctly, Heliopolis), that is to say, “City of the Sun.” And Solomon also built Aradus (Arvad) in the midst of the sea, and he became so famous and renowned that the report of his wise acts went out into all the ends of the earth. ¹¹ And the Queen of Sheba went to hold converse with him. And Solomon loved Hiram, king of Tyre, greatly. And Hiram reigned in Tyre five hundred years, from the days of the kingdom of David to the [days of] the kingdom of Zedekiah and of all the kings of the children of Israel. And at length he forgot that he was a man, and he blasphemed and said, “I am God, and I sit upon the throne of God in the middle of the sea.” And Nebuchadnezzar the king killed him.

A¹nd Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned after him. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when [he began] to reign, and he polluted Jerusalem with fornication, and the altars of devils, and the stink of heathendom; and the kingdom of Israel was rent in twain. And in the fifth year of his kingdom Shishak, the king of Egypt, went up against Jerusalem.

² And he carried off all the treasure of the service of the house of the Lord, and all the treasure of the kingdom of David, and of that of Solomon, and the vessels of gold and the vessels of silver. And he magnified himself and said, “I am not taking away treasure which is yours, but the wealth which your fathers took out of Egypt.” ³ And Rehoboam died in the heathen practices of his father Solomon. And Jehosaphat his son reigned after him, and he walked in the ways of Asa his father, and he did that which was pleasing before God. And God was angry with him because he was a friend of the house of Ahab, and for this reason God did not permit him to bring out gold from Ophir. ⁴ Now he made ships to send thither, and they were broken at Ezion Geber. He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and the name of his mother was’ Azóbhá (Azuba?), the daughter of Shalah. And Jehosaphat died in his righteousness. Joram reigned after him, and he was thirty-two years old when he began to reign; he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. ⁵ He did not do what was pleasing before God, for he sacrificed at the altar of devils, and he died in his heathen practices. Ahaziah his son reigned after him, and he was twenty-two years old when [he began] to reign; he lived for one year in Jerusalem, and did evil things before God in that year. Because of the wickedness and iniquity which he wrought, God delivered him into the hands of his enemies and they killed him. ⁶ When he was dead his mother [Athaliah] killed all the royal children of the house of David, imagining that she would uproot the children of the Jews. The only person of the seed of the royal house whom she did not slay was Joash, whom Yóshba’ (Jehosheba), the daughter of Joram, the son of Jehosaphat, carried away secretly and hid with her in her house.

A¹nd now, my children, love Levi, that ye may abide, and exalt not yourselves against him, lest ye be utterly destroyed.

² For to me the Lord gave the kingdom, and to him the priesthood, and He set the kingdom beneath the priesthood. ³ To me He gave the things upon the earth; to him the things in the heavens. ⁴ As the heaven is higher than the earth, so is the priesthood of God higher than the kingdom upon the earth. ⁵ For the Lord chose him above thee, to draw near to Him, and to eat of His table and first-fruits, even the choice things of the sons of Israel, and thou shalt be to them as a sea. ⁶ For as, on the sea, just and unjust are tossed about, some taken into captivity while others are enriched, so also shall every race of men be in thee, some are in jeopardy and taken captive, and others shall grow rich by means of plunder. ⁷ For they who rule will be as great sea-monsters, swallowing up men like fishes: free sons and daughters do they enslave; houses, lands, flocks, money, will they plunder; and with the flesh of many will they wrongfully feed the ravens and the cranes; and they will go on further in evil, advancing on still in covetousness. ⁸ And there shall be false prophets like tempests, and they shall persecute all righteous men.

A¹nd it came to pass in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah king of Judah that he called Manasseh his son. Now he was his only one.

² And he called him into the presence of Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet, and into the presence of Jésib the son of Isaiah, in order to deliver unto him the words of righteousness which the king himself had seen: ³ And of the eternal judgements and the torments of Gehenna, and of the prince of this world, and of his angels, and his authorities and his powers, ⁴ And the words of the faith of the Beloved which he himself had seen in the fifteenth year of his reign during his illness. ⁵ And he delivered unto him the written words which Samnas the scribe had written, and also those which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, had given to him, and also to the prophets, that they might write and store up with him what he himself had seen in the king’s house regarding the judgement of the angels, and the destruction of this world, and regarding the garments of the saints and their going forth, and regarding their transformation and the persecution and ascension of the Beloved. ⁶ In the twentieth year of the reign of Hezekiah, Isaiah had seen the words of this prophecy and had delivered them to Jésib his son. And whilst he (Hezekiah) gave commands, Jésib the son of Isaiah standing by, ⁷ Isaiah said to Hezekiah the king, but not in the presence of Manasseh only did he say unto him: ‘As the Lord liveth, whose name has not been sent into this world, and as the Beloved of my Lord liveth, and the Spirit which speaketh in me liveth, all these commands and these words will be made of none effect by Manasseh thy son, and through the agency of his hands I shall depart mid the torture of my body. ⁸ And Sammael Malchira will serve Manasseh, and execute all his desire, and he will become a follower of Beliar rather than of me: ⁹ And many in Jerusalem and in Judea he will cause to abandon the true faith, and Beliar will dwell in Manasseh, and by his hands I shall be sawn asunder. ¹⁰ And when Hezekiah heard these words he wept very bitterly, and rent his garments, and placed earth upon his head, and fell on his face. ¹¹ And Isaiah said unto him: ‘The counsel of Sammael against Manasseh is consummated: nought will avail thee.’ ¹² And on that day Hezekiah resolved in his heart to slay Manasseh his son. ¹³ And Isaiah said to Hezekiah: ‘the Beloved hath made of none effect thy design, and the purpose of thy heart will not be accomplished, for with this calling have I been called and I shall inherit the heritage of the Beloved.’