The Douay Old Testament (Doway, 1609–1610) — the Prayer of Manasseh

The Prayer of Manasses (the Prayer of Manasseh) as printed in the original Douay Old Testament, in its own spelling. The Douay translators set it, with the third and fourth books of Esdras, after all the canonical books, as not received into the canon; their own note on this is given first. The verse numbers were supplied by the transcriber from other versions.

The prayer of Manasses, vvith the third & fourth Bookes of Esdras, extant in most Latin and vulgare Bibles, are here placed after al the Canonical bookes, of the old Testament: because they are not receiued into the Canon of Diuine Scriptures by the Catholique Church.

Chapter 1

1 LORD omnipotent God of our fathers, Abraham, & Isaac, and Iacob, and of their iust sede, (2 Par 33:12)

2 which didst make heauen and earth: with al the ornamentes of them,

3 which hast bound the sea with the word of thy precept, which hast shut vp the depth, and sealed it with thy terrible and laudable name:

4 whom al thinges dread, & tremble at the countinance of thy powre,

5 because the magnificence of thy glorie is importable, & the wrath of thy threatning vpon sinners is intollerable:

6 but the mercie of thy promise is infinite and vnsearchable:

7 because thou art our Lord, most high, benigne, long suffering, and very merciful, and penitent vpon the wickednes of men. Thou Lord according to the multitude of thy goodnes hast promised penance, and remission to them that haue sinned to thee, and by the multitude of thy mercies thou hast decreed penance to sinners, vnto saluation.

8 Thou therfore Lord God of the iust, hast not appointed penance to the iust, Abraham, & Isaac and Iacob, them that haue not sinned to thee, but hast appointed penance for me a sinner:

9 because I haue sinned aboue the number of the sand of the sea. Myne iniquities Lord be multiplied, mine iniquities be multiplied, and I am not worthie to behold, & looke vpon the height of heauen, for the multitude of mine iniquities.

10 I am made crooked with manie a band of yron, that I can not lift vp my head, and I haue not respiration: because I haue stirred vp thy wrath, and haue done euil before thee: I haue not done thy wil, and thy commandmentes I haue not kept: I haue set vp abominations, and multiplied offenses.

11 And now I bowe the knee of my hart, beseeching goodnes of thee.

12 I haue sinned Lord, I haue sinned, & I acknowlege myne iniquities.

13 Wherefore I beseech disiring thee, forgeue me Lord, forgeue me: and destroy me not together with myne iniquities, neither reserue thou for euer, being angrie, euils for me, neither damme me into the lowest places of the earth: because thou art Lord, God, I say, of the penitent:

14 in me thou shalt shew al thy goodnes because thou shalt saue me vnworthie according to thy great mercie,

15 and I wil prayse thee alwayes al the dayes of my life: because al the power of the heauens prayseth thee, and to thee is glorie for euer and euer. Amen.

Colophon

This page gives the Prayer of Manasses, from the Douay Old Testament printed at Doway in 1609–1610. It comes from the appendix of early texts carried by the public-domain electronic transcription of the Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision) prepared by Dennis McCarthy and Tad Book and distributed by Project Gutenberg (eBook no. 1581; first released December 1998, last revised 23 September 2023). The transcriber describes the method as follows: "The transcriber has done his best to render the text accurately. ... only obvious errors have been amended. Where the transcriber has doubt between whether an irregular spelling is either an error and a variant, the printed text stands." Characters the transcription could not represent were replaced with modern equivalents; marginal verse numbers were moved into the text, and marginal references were moved into the text in parentheses with their abbreviations modernised by the transcriber. These references are kept where the transcription places them. The transcriber states that the verse numbers of this prayer were supplied from other versions. The transcription runs the verses on as prose with their numbers inline, and leaves the opening verse of each chapter unnumbered, its numbering beginning at 2; here each verse is set as its own paragraph and that opening verse is marked 1. Spelling is left exactly as transcribed (i/j and u/v as printed, "vv" for w).

Licence: public domain. This is an archival transcription, not a Good Works Translation.

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