Kebra Nagast 60. How Solomon Lamented for Zion And Solomon entered into his tent, and wept bitterly, and said, “O God, willest Thou to take away the Tabernacle of Thy Covenant from us in my days? If only Thou hadst taken away my life before this which Thou hast taken away in my days! For Thou canst not make Thy word to be a lie, and Thou canst not break Thy Covenant which Thou didst make with our fathers, with Noah Thy servant who kept righteousness, and with Abraham who did not transgress Thy commandment, and with Isaac Thy servant who kept his body pure from the pollution of sin, and with Israel, Thy holy one, whom Thou didst make many by the Holy Spirit, and didst call ‘Thy trace’ [sic ], Israel, and with Moses and Aaron Thy priests, in whose days Thou didst make the Tabernacle of the Law to come down from heaven upon earth, to the children of Jacob Thine inheritance, with Thy Law and Thy Commandment, in the form of the constitution of the angels. For Thou hadst already founded Zion as the habitation of Thy glory upon the mountain of Thy sanctuary. And again Thou didst give it to Moses that he might serve it nobly upon the earth, and might make it to dwell in the ‘Tent of Witness,’ so that Thou Thyself mightest come there from the mountain of Thy sanctuary, and mightest make the people to hear Thy voice, so that they might walk in Thy Commandments.” “Now I know that Thou esteemest Thine inheritance more lightly than Thy people Israel. And until this present it was with us, and we did not minister unto it rightly, and for this reason Thou art angry with us, and Thou hast turned Thy face from us. O Lord, look not upon our evil deeds, but consider Thou the goodness of our forefathers. My father David, Thy servant, wished to build a house to Thy Name, for he had heard the word of Thy prophet, who said, ‘Which is the house for My habitation, and which is the place for Me to rest in? Is it not My hands that have made all this, saith the Lord,50 Who ruleth everything?’ And when he had meditated upon this Thou didst say unto him, ‘It is impossible for thee to build this, but he who hath gone forth from thy loins shall build a house for 50Isaiah lxvi, 1.
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