The Lord heard their prayers and had regard for their distress, for the people fasted many days throughout Judea and in Jerusalem before the sanctuary of the Lord Almighty.

You are putting the Lord Almighty to the test, but you will never learn anything!

You have done all this with your own hand; you have done great good to Israel, and God is well pleased with it. May the Almighty Lord bless you forever!” And all the people said, “Amen.”

“But the Lord Almighty has foiled them by the hand of a woman.

“Woe to the nations that rise up against my people! The Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them in the day of judgment; he will send fire and worms into their flesh; they shall weep in pain forever.”

For she is a breath of the power of God and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.

The Lord has not empowered even his holy ones to recount all his marvelous works, which the Lord the Almighty has established so that the universe may stand firm in his glory.

Finishing the service at the altars and arranging the offering to the Most High, the Almighty,

Then all the people together quickly fell to the ground on their faces to worship their Lord, the Almighty, God Most High.

“O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, the soul in anguish and the wearied spirit cry out to you.

O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, hear now the prayer of those of Israel who have died and of the children of those who sinned before you, who did not heed the voice of the Lord their God, so that calamities have clung to us.

you alone are bountiful; you alone are just and almighty and eternal. You rescue Israel from every evil; you chose the ancestors and consecrated them.

The Lord Protects His Temple

While they were calling upon the Almighty Lord that he would keep what had been entrusted safe and secure for those who had entrusted it,

they praised the Lord who had acted marvelously for his own place. And the temple, which a little while before was full of fear and disturbance, was filled with joy and gladness, now that the Almighty Lord had appeared.

Therefore the place itself shared in the misfortunes that befell the nation and afterward participated in its benefits, and what was forsaken in the wrath of the Almighty was restored again in all its glory when the great Lord became reconciled.

Even if for the present I would avoid the punishment of mortals, yet whether I live or die I will not escape the hands of the Almighty.

You have not yet escaped the judgment of the almighty, all-seeing God.

and through me and my brothers to bring to an end the wrath of the Almighty that has justly fallen on our whole nation.”

So he immediately sent to the towns on the seacoast, inviting them to buy Jewish slaves and promising to hand over ninety slaves for a talent, not expecting the judgment from the Almighty that was about to overtake him.

“For they trust to arms and acts of daring,” he said, “but we trust in the Almighty God, who is able with a single nod to strike down those who are coming against us, and even, if necessary, the whole world.”

With the Almighty as their ally, they killed more than nine thousand of the enemy and wounded and disabled most of Nicanor’s army and forced them all to flee.

He exhorted his troops not to fear the attack of the nations but to keep in mind the former times when help had come to them from heaven and so to look for the victory that the Almighty would give them.

He showed them the vile Nicanor’s head and that profane man’s arm, which had been boastfully stretched out against the holy house of the Almighty.

When he opened the law, they all stood erect. And Ezra blessed the Lord God Most High, the God of hosts, the Almighty,

Ascription of Praise

O Lord Almighty, God of our ancestors, of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and of their righteous offspring,