Ode 4. The Irmos.
Anastasis liturgical translations — translated by Ephrem Lash
’Foreseeing your divine self-emptying on the Cross, Avvakum cried out marvelling: You have cut short the strength of the mighty, loving Lord, and preached to those in Hell, as all-powerful’. (**Twice)**
Your divine descent into Hell, Christ God, declared life to the dead; for you bound the enemies below, loving Lord, and opened to mankind the path to heaven. (**Twice)**
Let us honour the firstfruits of the Fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; for from their seed has shone out Christ, incarnate from a Virgin, as all-powerful.
Foretelling what would come to pass at Christ’s descent, Daniel revealed the wild beasts to be like sheep, as God’s prophet knowing in advance and clearly revealing the future to all.
Not having sucked in the poison of sin, the Youths were snatched from the flame; for being truly more precious than gold, they were not melted in the furnace of error.
Loudly the expectation of the Nations is proclaimed in advance, and the world’s salvation: your childbearing, O holy and immaculate, which the company of the Fathers hymns today.
Of the Forefeast. Rod out of Jesse’s root.
Rod out of Jesse’s root, O Virgin, you budded, and blossomed with a flower that does wither, the Creator of all, who as God decks the whole earth with flowers, which cries aloud to him: Glory to your power, O Lord!
O Word of God you came to get me back, who had been stolen through evil eating, had fallen away by my own will and become like the dumb beasts. So you became a babe and were laid in a manger for dumb beasts. Glory to your power, O Lord!
Avvakum foresaw you, Jesu, incarnate of a shaded mountain, the Virgin, crushing the evil mountains and hills and handing over to oblivion the uprisings of the evil one and the rebellions of the demons.
Rod out of Jesse’s root, and flower that blossomed from his stem, O Christ, you sprang from the Virgin, the praised from the mountain overshadowed by forest. You came, made flesh from her who knew not wedlock, yet God not formed of matter. Glory to your power, O Lord!
Of the Ancestors.
Translated by Ephrem Lash. Edition lash.en.anastasis.