Chapter 56 - Andrew interpreteth the twelfth penitence


Andrew interpreteth the twelfth penitence from Psalm cviii.


And Andrew came forward and said: 

"My Lord and Saviour, thy light-power hath prophesied aforetime through David concerning this repentance which Pistis Sophia hath uttered, and said in the one-hundred-and-eighth Psalm[1]:

"'1. God, keep not silent at my praise-singing.


"'2. For the mouths (of the sinner and crafty) have opened their chops against me and with crafty deceitful tongue have talked behind me.


"'3. And they have surrounded me with words (of hate) and have fought against me without a cause.


"'4. Instead of loving me they have slandered me. But I prayed.


"'5. They showed evil against me for good and hate for my love.


"'6. Set a sinner over him, and let the slanderer stand at his right hand.


"'7. When sentence is passed upon him, may he go forth condemned and his prayer become sin.


"'8. May his days be shortened and another receive his overseership.


"'9. May his children become orphans and his wife a widow.


"'10. May his children be carried away and be driven forth and beg; 

may they be thrown out of their houses.


"'11. May the money-lender sift out all that he hath, and may strangers plunder all his best efforts.


"'12. Let there be no man to back him, and no one to take pity on his orphans.


"'13. May his children be exterminated and his name blotted out in a single generation.


"'14. Let the sin (of his fathers) be remembered before the Lord, and the sin (of his mother) be not blotted out.


"'15. Let them be ever present to the Lord and his memory be rooted out from the earth;

"'16. In that he hath not thought of using mercy and hath persecuted a poor and wretched man and hath persecuted a sorry creature to slay him.


"'17. He loved cursing,--and it shall come unto him. He desired not blessing,--it shall stay far from him.


"'18. He clothed himself with cursing [as] with a vesture, and it entered into his bowels [as] water, and it was [as] oil in his bones.


"'19. May it be for him [as] a garment in which he shall be wrapped, and [as] a girdle with which he shall ever be girded.


"'20. This is the work (of them) who slander {me} before the Lord, and speak unlawfully against my soul.


"'21. But do thou, O Lord (God), be gracious unto me; 

for thy name's sake save me.


"'22. For I am poor and I am wretched; 

my heart is tumult within me.


"'23. I am carried away in the midst [as] a shadow which hath sunk down, and I am shaken out [as] grass-hoppers.


"'24. My knees have become weak from fasting, and my flesh is altered from {lack of} oil.


"'25. But I have become a mock unto them; 

they saw me and wagged their heads.[2]


"'26. Help, O Lord (God), and save me according to thy grace.


"'27. May they know that this is thy hand, and that thou, O Lord, hast fashioned them.'


"This is then the solution of the twelfth penitence which Pistis Sophia uttered, when she was in the chaos."




Chapter 57