Ecclesiasticus 36

How to read these pages: the text itself comes first, verse by verse, in the volume's own translation. Beneath each verse stands its Meaning — a rendering of what the passage's terms name in the inner life, drawn from the correspondences the text itself uses. The text is never altered; the meaning is offered, not imposed.

King James Version

1Have mercy upon us, O Lord God of all, and behold us:

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, the Divine Mind of all, and behold us:

2And send thy fear upon all the nations that seek not after thee.

And send thy awe upon all the nations — the outer sense-states — that seek not after thee.

3Lift up thy hand against the strange nations, and let them see thy power.

Lift up thy hand — thy acting power — against the strange nations, the states foreign to the order, and let them see thy power.

4As thou wast sanctified in us before them: so be thou magnified among them before us.

As thou wast sanctified in us before them — set apart and shown holy in us in their sight: so be thou magnified among them before us.

5And let them know thee, as we have known thee, that there is no God but only thou, O God.

And let them know thee, as we have known thee, that there is no God but only thou, O Source — no other creative Mind.

6Shew new signs, and make other strange wonders: glorify thy hand and thy right arm, that they may set forth thy wondrous works.

Show new signs — works in the outer that signify a greater work in the inner — and make other strange wonders: glorify thy hand and thy right arm, that they may set forth thy wondrous works.

7Raise up indignation, and pour out wrath: take away the adversary, and destroy the enemy.

Raise up indignation, and pour out wrath — the divine order confronting the disordered state all at once: take away the adversary, the adversarial sense-mind, and destroy the enemy-state.

8Sake the time short, remember the covenant, and let them declare thy wonderful works.

Make the time short, remember the covenant — the law of relationship written into the state — and let them declare thy wonderful works.

9Let him that escapeth be consumed by the rage of the fire; and let them perish that oppress the people.

Let him that escapes be consumed by the rage of the fire — truth's consuming judgment; and let them perish that oppress the people.

10Smite in sunder the heads of the rulers of the heathen, that say, There is none other but we.

Smite in sunder the heads of the rulers of the heathen — the ruling states of the sense-nations — that say, There is none other but we.

11Gather all the tribes of Jacob together, and inherit thou them, as from the beginning.

Gather all the tribes of Jacob — the striving intellect and all its faculties — together, and inherit thou them, as from the beginning.

12O Lord, have mercy upon the people that is called by thy name, and upon Israel, whom thou hast named thy firstborn.

O indwelling LORD, have mercy upon the people that is called by thy name, and upon Israel — Jacob transformed, the spiritual man in whom God prevails — whom thou hast named thy firstborn.

13O be merciful unto Jerusalem, thy holy city, the place of thy rest.

O be merciful unto Jerusalem — the foundation of peace, the established centre of spiritual consciousness — thy holy city, the place of thy rest.

14Fill Sion with thine unspeakable oracles, and thy people with thy glory:

Fill Sion — Zion, the love-height where God is enthroned — with thine unspeakable oracles, and thy people with thy glory, the manifested weight of the Presence.

15Give testimony unto those that thou hast possessed from the beginning, and raise up prophets that have been in thy name.

Give testimony unto those that thou hast possessed from the beginning, and raise up prophets — the forth-telling faculties — that have been in thy name.

16Reward them that wait for thee, and let thy prophets be found faithful.

Reward them that wait for thee, and let thy prophets, thy forth-telling faculties, be found faithful.

17O Lord, hear the prayer of thy servants, according to the blessing of Aaron over thy people, that all they which dwell upon the earth may know that thou art the Lord, the eternal God.

O indwelling LORD, hear the prayer of thy servants, according to the blessing of Aaron — the speaking priest-faculty — over thy people, that all they which dwell upon the earth, the outer life, may know that thou art the indwelling LORD, the eternal Source.

18The belly devoureth all meats, yet is one meat better than another.

The belly devours all meats — all nourishment taken in — yet is one meat, one truth-food, better than another.

19As the palate tasteth divers kinds of venison: so doth an heart of understanding false speeches.

As the palate tastes divers kinds of venison: so does a heart of understanding discern false speeches.

20A froward heart causeth heaviness: but a man of experience will recompense him.

A froward heart — a heart turned crookedly from the order — causes heaviness: but a man of experience will recompense him, answering the state as it has acted.

21A woman will receive every man, yet is one daughter better than another.

A woman will receive every man, yet is one daughter better than another — the affection-faculties are not equal in their yield.

22The beauty of a woman cheereth the countenance, and a man loveth nothing better.

The beauty of a woman cheers the countenance — the surface of awareness lit by a rightly ordered affection — and a man loves nothing better.

23If there be kindness, meekness, and comfort, in her tongue, then is not her husband like other men.

If there be kindness, meekness, and comfort in her tongue, then is not her husband like other men — the ruling thought joined to such an affection is set apart.

24He that getteth a wife beginneth a possession, a help like unto himself, and a pillar of rest.

He that gets a wife begins a possession, a help like unto himself, and a pillar of rest — the affection joined to the thought as its support and stay.

25Where no hedge is, there the possession is spoiled: and he that hath no wife will wander up and down mourning.

Where no hedge is — no guarded boundary set round the state — there the possession is spoiled: and he that has no wife will wander up and down mourning, an affection-less thought restless in the wandering state.

26Who will trust a thief well appointed, that skippeth from city to city? so [who will believe] a man that hath no house, and lodgeth wheresoever the night taketh him?

Who will trust a thief well appointed, that skips from city to city — from state to state? so who will believe a man that has no house, no settled dwelling-state, and lodges wheresoever the night, the hidden state, takes him?

Companion volume to The Why Bible — the King James Apocrypha, rendered in its spiritual meanings. First final edition, October 2026.