And although these and the other such like strange and marvellous things have happened to you, and have been seen of you, each in its own time, you are convicted by the prophets, even after Moses’ warnings, of having gone so far as to sacrifice your own children to demons, and of having, in addition to all this, dared so much against Christ, and still do dare — for all which God grant that you may receive mercy from God and His Christ, and be saved.
For God, being aware beforehand that you would do all this, uttered a curse by the prophet Isaiah to this effect: Woe to their soul. They have counselled an evil counsel against themselves, saying: Let us bind the righteous because he is inconvenient to us. Therefore shall they eat the fruit of their works. Woe to the lawless man. Evils shall meet him in accordance with the works of his hands. My people, your exactors glean you, and the tax-gatherers shall lord it over you.
My people, they that call you happy deceive you, and trouble the path of your ways. But now [shall the Lord rise up for judgment and] shall set His people for judgment, and the Lord Himself shall come for judgment with the elders of the people and its rulers. But as for you, why did ye set my vineyard on fire, and why was the plunder of the poor in your houses? As for you, why do ye injure my people, and why did ye put the face of the poor to shame?
And again the same prophet spake to the same effect in another place: Woe to them who draw their sins as with a long rope, and their iniquities as with a cow-hide chariot trace; who say, Let His speed draw near, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it. Woe to them that say evil is good and good evil; that set light as darkness, and darkness as light; that set bitter as sweet and sweet as bitter. Woe to them that are understanding in their own eyes, and knowing in their own sight.
Woe to them among you that are strong, that drink the wine, and your nobles, and they that mix the strong drink; that justify the godless for gifts, and take away justice from the righteous. Therefore, even as a reed shall be burned by a coal of fire, and shall be burnt up by a burning flame, their root shall be as down, and their flower shall go up as dust. For they desired not the Law of the Lord of Sabaoth, but provoked the utterance of the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. And the Lord of Sabaoth was wroth in anger, and put forth His hands upon them, and smote them, and was indignant against the mountains, and their carcases were set in the midst like dung on the road. And at all these things they turned not back, but their hand was still high.
For still, of a truth, is your hand high to do evil, because though ye have slain Christ even so ye do not repent, but you hate and murder us also, who by Him have believed the God and Father of the universe, as often as you get authority; and without cessation do ye utter a curse against Him Himself and them who are of Him, though we all pray on behalf of you, and in fact on behalf of all men, as we were taught by our Christ and Lord to do. For He charged us to pray even on behalf of our enemies, and to love them that hate us, and to bless them that curse us.