A man may order his thoughts, but the LORD inspires the words he uttersa

I, ISAAC, SON OF SOLOMON, DECLARE:

At the outset of any enterprise

It is one's duty first to eulogise

His name who is unique, concealed, His reign

As living God o’er all things sovereign.b

Ere time was, He, all-merciful, for aye

Israel's own glory, He will not betray

Nor change His mind:c to Him is apposite

Existence, mantled in majestic might,d

Perfect His princely primacy, decreed

By His will,e who of other has no need,

For, self-substantive, His existence fits

Not what potentiality admits.

His own eternityf gives life to all

Forms in the cosmos, yea, He holds in thrall

Each thing.g His knowledge, none can plumb:h no hap

Of chance affects Him, naught His strength can sap

With weariness,j cause of all causes He,

Whether remote, or such that man can see.

Through His inherent wisdom is He wise,

Whose power with power to act identifies.

He deigns—nay, chooses—praise to hear, though none

Was born His brother, and He sired no son.

Something of His own glory He distilled,

A glorious emanation that He willed

Should in His mystery yet find its base;

These are those favoured souls which, in their place,

Through the empyrean atmosphere may coast,

Mustered by thousand myriadsk their host.

His utterance and will they comprehend

Whose essence, and whose glory, must transcend

Their comprehension—He it is contains

The cosmos, unconfined Himself remains.

Into mankind, likewise, a form to fill

Their dust-compounded framel does He instil,

A lofty form, its glory of a class

Terrestrial creation must surpass;

That man superior to beastm must rate

His soul makes clear, being articulate:

The crown of this sublunar world, alone

Immortal—in all else decay is shown.

Therefore her duty is, with praise and prayer

To face her King, as David did declare

(In act, as counsel, great),n with his last chord

‘Let all in whom a soul is, praise the Lord.’

May God, then, in His mercy, hold us quit

Of error, cleansing faults, where we omit,

And sins which, arrogant, we did intend:

For Scripture says,o What man can comprehend

What causes him to err? Prithee, withhold

Thy humble servant from those overbold,

And may my words, O Lord, acceptance find

With Thee, likewise the musings of my mind.