Joseph and Asenath 12

1The prayer and confession of Asenath: "Lord God of the righteous, who createst the ages and givest life to all things, who gavest the breath of life to all thy creation, who broughtest the invisible things out into the light, who madest all things and madest manifest things that did not appear, who liftest up the heaven and foundest the earth upon the waters, who fixest the great stones upon the abyss of the water, which shall not be submerged but are unto the end doing thy will, for that thou Lord, saidst the word and all things came into being, and thy word, Lord, is the life of all thy creatures, to thee I flee for refuge, Lord my God, from henceforth, to thee will I cry, Lord, and to thee will I confess my sins, to thee will I pour out my petition, Master, and to thee will I reveal my lawlessnesses. Spare me, Lord, spare, for that I committed many sins against thee, I did lawlessness and ungodliness, I have spoken things not to be uttered, and wicked in thy sight; my mouth Lord, hath been polluted from the sacrifices of the idols of the Egyptians, and from the table of their gods: I sinned, Lord, I sinned in thy sight, both in knowledge and in ignorance I did ungodliness in that I worshipped dead and deaf idols, and I am not worthy to open my mouth unto thee, Lord, I the miserable Asenath daughter of Pentephres the priest, the virgin and queen, who was once proud and haughty and one that prospered in my father's riches above all men, but now an orphan and desolate and abandoned of all men. To thee I flee, Lord, and to thee I offer my petition, and unto thee will I cry. Deliver me from them that pursue me, Master, before I be taken by them; for, as an infant in fear of some one fleeth to his father and mother, and his father stretcheth out his hands and catcheth him up against his breast, so also do thou, Lord, stretch out thine undefiled and terrible hands upon me like a child-loving father, and catch me out of the hand of the supersensual enemy. For lo! the ancient and savage and cruel lion pursueth me, for that he is father of the gods of the Egyptians, and the gods of the idol-maniacs are his children, and I have come to hate them, and I made away with them, because they are a lion's children, and I cast all the gods of the Egyptians from me and did them away, and the lion, or their father the devil, in wrath against me is trying to swallow me up. But thou, Lord, deliver me from his hands, and I shall be rescued from his mouth, lest he tear me asunder and cast me into the flame of fire, and the fire cast me into storm, and the storm prevail over me in darkness and cast me into the depth of the sea, and the great beast who is from everlasting swallow me up, and I perish forever. Deliver me, Lord, before all these things come upon me; deliver me, Master, the desolate and defenseless, for that my father and my mother have denied me and said, 'Asenath is not our daughter,' because I brake their gods in pieces and made away with them, as having wholly hated them. And now I am an orphan and desolate, and I have no other hope save thee, Lord, nor another refuge save thy mercy, thou friend of men, because thou only art father of the orphans and champion of the persecuted and helper of the afflicted. Have mercy on me Lord, and keep me pure and virgin, the forsaken and orphan, for that thou only Lord art a sweet and good and gentle father. For what father is sweet and good as thou, Lord? For lo! all the houses of my father Pentephres which he hath given me for an inheritance are for a time and vanishing; but the houses of thine inheritance, Lord, are incorruptible and eternal."