“And Hannah prayed and said, “My heart rejoices in the Lord; my horn is exalted in my God; My mouth is opened wide against my enemies, for I rejoice in Your salvation. [My heart is established in the Lord, my horn is exalted in my God, my mouth is enlarged against my enemies, they rejoice in Your salvation.] There is none so holy as the Lord; for there is no other besides You; and there is no stronghold like our God. [For there is nothing holy like the Lord, and nothing is righteous like our God, and nothing is holy more than You.] Do not multiply the speeches of arrogant ones; Do not let insolent words come out of your mouth; For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and with Him works are weighed. The bow of the mighty is broken, but the weak are girded with strength; the well-fed work from bread, and the hungry rest; even a barren woman gives birth seven times, but a woman with many children faints. The Lord kills and gives life, brings down to the underworld and raises up; The Lord makes the poor and enriches, humiliates and exalts.
He lifts up the poor from the dust, He lifts up the needy from clay, making Him sit with the nobles, and He gives them the throne of glory for an inheritance; [give prayer to the one praying and bless the righteous years.] For the Lord has the foundations of the earth, and He established the world on them. He watches the feet of His saints, and the wicked disappear in darkness; for man is not strong by strength. The Lord will wipe out those who argue with Him; will thunder upon them from heaven. The Lord is holy. [For it is not in strength that a man is strong; The Lord is weak and create his adversary, the Lord is holy.] Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the mighty boast in his strength, and let not the rich man boast in his wealth, but let him who desires to boast boast in the fact that he understands and knows the Lord. [But let him boast of this, that he may understand and know the Lord, and do justice and righteousness in the midst of the earth; The Lord ascended into heaven and thundered; The Lord will judge the ends of the earth, and will give strength to His king and exalt the horn of His anointed [and will give strength to our king and exalt the horn of His Christ].” (1 Samuel 2:1-10)
The 4th song of the canon goes back to the prophetic song-prayer of the prophet Habakkuk, who lived long before the birth of Christ. Spiritually contemplating the coming Lord Jesus Christ, the prophet said: “Lord, I heard Your hearing and was afraid... God will come from the south, and the Holy One from the mountain-shaded thicket; the heavens have covered His virtue, and the earth is full of His praises.”
We present the song of the prophet Habakkuk in the Russian Synodal translation of the Bible.
Prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, for singing.
God! I heard Your rumor and was afraid. [Lord, I heard Your hearing and was afraid; Lord, I understood Your works and was horrified.] Lord! complete your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years reveal it; In anger, remember mercy. [When you come closer in the summer, you get to know each other; when the time has come, appear; when my soul is ever troubled in anger, remember Thy mercy.]
God is coming from Teman, and the Holy One is coming from Mount Paran. [God will come from the south, and the Holy One from the mountain-shaded thicket.] His greatness covered the heavens, and the earth was filled with His glory. [The heavens have covered His virtue, and the earth has been filled with His praises.] Its brilliance is like sunlight; from the hand of His rays, and here is the hiding place of His power! A plague goes before His face, and a burning wind follows His steps. [The word will go before His face and go out into the field at His feet.] He stood and shook the earth; He looked up and made the nations tremble; the age-old mountains fell apart, the primeval hills fell; His ways are eternal. I saw the tents of Ethiopia sad; the tents of the land of Midian shook. Has Your anger kindled against the rivers, O Lord? Is it Thy indignation on the rivers, or Thy wrath on the sea, that Thou hast mounted Thy horses, Thy chariots of salvation? You have drawn Your bow according to the oath promise given to the tribes. You cut the earth with streams.
Seeing You, the mountains trembled, the waters rushed; the abyss gave its voice, raised its hands high; the sun and the moon stood still in their place [the sun and the moon rose a hundred in their rank] before the light of Your flying arrows, before the radiance of Your sparkling spears. You walk through the earth in anger and trample the nations in indignation. You come forward for the salvation of Your people, for the salvation of Your anointed. [Thou hast come forth to save Thy people, to save Thy anointed ones.] Thou shalt crush the head of the wicked house, stripping it bare from the foundation to the top. You pierce the head of his leaders with his spears, when they rushed like a whirlwind to defeat me, in joy, as if thinking to devour the poor man secretly. You and Your horses paved the way across the sea, through the abyss of great waters. I heard, and my insides trembled; at the news of this my lips trembled, pain penetrated into my bones, and the place beneath me trembled; but I must be calm in the day of disaster, when the plunderer comes against my people.
Even though the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit on the vines, and the olive tree fails, and the field does not yield food, even if there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, even then I will rejoice in the Lord and be glad in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength: He will make my feet like a deer’s, and He will lead me to my heights! (Hab.3:1-19)
The 5th hymn of the canon was compiled under the influence of the prayer of the prophet Isaiah, who foresaw the coming of the Savior: “From the night my spirit is awakened to Thee, O God, before the light of Thy commandment is upon the earth...”; the prayer ends with the solemn foreshadowing of the general resurrection.
With my soul I have longed for Thee at night, and with my spirit I will seek Thee within my being from early morning: for when Thy judgments are carried out on earth, then those who dwell in the world learn righteousness. [From the night my spirit will grow strong toward You, O God, for the light of Your commandment is on the earth: you who dwell on the earth will learn righteousness.] If the wicked is shown mercy, he will not learn righteousness; he will commit evil in the land of the righteous and will not look upon the greatness of the Lord. God! Thy hand was raised high [Lord, high is Thy arm], but they did not see it; Those who hate Your people will see and be ashamed; fire will devour your enemies.
God! You give us peace; for You also arrange all our affairs for us. Lord our God! other rulers besides You have ruled over us; but through You only we glorify Your name [Lord, do You know no other way; We call Your name]. The dead will not live; the rephaim will not rise [the dead cannot see their bellies; they will resurrect the doctors], because you visited and destroyed them, and destroyed all memory of them. You have multiplied the people, Lord, you have multiplied the people, you have glorified yourself, you have expanded all the borders of the earth. [Do evil to them, Lord, do evil to the glorious ones of the earth.] Lord! in distress he looked for You [in sorrow he remembered You]; poured out silent prayers when Your punishment befell him. As a pregnant woman, at the onset of labor, suffers and cries out from her pains, so we were before You, Lord. They were pregnant, they suffered, and they gave birth like the wind; salvation was not brought to the earth, and the other inhabitants of the universe did not fall. Your dead will live, your dead bodies will rise!
[The dead will rise again and those in their tombs will rise...] Arise and rejoice, you who have been cast down in the dust [and those on the earth will rejoice]: for Your dew is the dew of plants, and the earth will cast out the dead. (Isa.26:9-19)
The 6th song of the canon is modeled after the prayer of the prophet Jonah from the belly of a whale. In the 6th song of the canon, we express gratitude to the Lord for the fact that He did not despise us, who were mired in sins, but came, saved and made us worthy to glorify His greatness.
“And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the whale and said: