Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/228

112 old man, made up one hundred and eleven years, for so my heavenly Father decreed. And the day on which his soul departed from his body, was the twenty-sixth of the month Abib. For now the fine gold began to lose its brightness, and the silver to be worn with use, I mean his intellect and understanding. Moreover, he loathed his food and drink, and his skill in the carpenter's trade failed him, nor did he any longer have regard to it. It came to pass, therefore, at daybreak on the twenty-sixth day of the month of Abib, that the soul of the old man, Joseph the Just, was rendered unquiet as he lay in his bed. Wherefore, he opened his mouth and sighed, and smote his hands together, and cried out, with a loud voice, saying after this manner:—

to the day on which I was born into the world! woe to the womb which bore me! woe to the body which received me! woe to the breasts which gave me suck! woe to the knees on which I sat and rested! woe to the hands which carried and led me till I grew up! For I was conceived in iniquity, and in sin my mother longed for me! Woe to my