Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

522 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
"thee, and make it not a thing of naught for ever;'
"rejoice" thou thyself in the hearing of my counsel
"and do it.
Advice to "For I, Alexander, am a man like unto thyself
kings.
"and in sin was I conceived, and I have in me
"the pleasure of the lust of the body, which leadeth
"it astray as it doth all the children of Adam;
"but by the mercy of God Almighty and by His
"good pleasure He hath made the pleasure of lust
"in me as the dung and filth which are cast out
"into the draught. Do thou, then, likewise place
"thy confidence, and thy love, and thy desire, and
"thy belief in God Almighty, even like Elijah, the
"friend of God, who rejected the pleasure of the
"lust of this world, and who became like an angel
"in his body and who together with Enoch, the
"scribe of the statutes of God Almighty, inhe-
"rited the country of the living. And He it is
"Who hath ordered me to leave behind [me]
"counsel to those [kings] who will perform righteous
"judgment upon earth, and blessed is the king
"who will do it, and keep it, and will perform
"the will of God Almighty; for He will ordain^
"for him sovereignty, and He will set him [p. 327]
"over all the nations* of the earth. As God
"punisheth those who work iniquity, even so will
"He make to live those who do that which is
"good, and who walk in the right way. And as
Read Alf/V-^ • ^ Read ^'1-d,"ilh :
3 Read mmUfi ! 4 Read h^xHtl '•