1. But for your holy ones there was great light; And the Egyptians, hearing their voice but seeing not their form, Counted it a happy thing that they too had suffered,
2. Yet for that they do not hurt them now, though wronged by them before, they are thankful; And because they had been at variance with them, they made supplication to them.
3. Whereas you did provide for your people a burning pillar of fire, To be a guide for their unknown journey, And withal a kindly sun for their proud exile.
4. For well did the Egyptians deserve to be deprived of light and imprisoned by darkness, They who had kept in close ward your sons, Through whom the incorruptible light of the law was to be given to the race of men.
5. After they had taken counsel to kill the babes of the holy ones, And when a single child had been cast forth and saved to convict them of their sin, You took away from them their multitude of children, And destroyed all their host together in a mighty flood.
6. Of that night were our fathers made aware beforehand, That, having sure knowledge, they might be cheered by the oaths which they had trusted:
7. So by your people was expected salvation of the righteous and destruction of the enemies;
8. For as you did take vengeance on the adversaries, By the same means, calling us to yourself, you did glorify us.
9. For holy children of good men offered sacrifice in secret, And with one consent they took upon themselves the covenant of the divine law, That they would partake alike in the same good things and the same perils; The fathers already leading the sacred songs of praise.
10. But there sounded back in discord the cry of the enemies, And a piteous voice of lamentation for children was borne abroad.
11. And servant along with master punished with a like just doom, And commoner suffering the same as king,
12. Yes, all the people together, under one form of death, Had with them corpses without number; For the living were not sufficient even to bury them, Since at a single stroke their nobler offspring was consumed.
13. For while they were disbelieving all things by reason of the enchantments, Upon the destruction of the firstborn they confessed the people to be God’s son.
14. For while peaceful silence enwrapped all things, And night in her own swiftness was in mid course,
15. Your all-powerful word leaped from heaven out of the royal throne, A stern warrior, into the midst of the doomed land,