t and My grace rested on you. But when you transgressed My
commandment, sorrow and misery came to you in this land."

5 And Adam cried and said, "O Lord, do not cut me off for this, neither
punish me with heavy plagues, nor yet repay me according to my sin; for
we, of our own will, transgressed Your commandment, and ignored Your
law, and tried to become gods like you, when Satan the enemy deceived
us."

6 Then God said again to Adam, "Because you have endured fear and
trembling in this land, languor and suffering, treading and walking
about, going on this mountain, and dying from it, I will take all this
on Myself in order to save you."

Chapter XXIII - Adam and Eve strengthen themselves and make the first
altar ever built.

1 Then Adam cried more and said, "O God, have mercy on me, so far as to
take on yourself, that which I will do."

2 But God withdrew His Word from Adam and Eve.

3 Then Adam and Eve stood on their feet; and Adam said to Eve,
"Strengthen yourself, and I also will strengthen myself." And she
strengthened herself, as Adam told her.

4 Then Adam and Eve took stones and placed them in the shape of an
altar; and they took leaves from the trees outside the garden, with
which they wiped, from the face of the rock, the blood they had spilled.

5 But that which had dropped on the sand, they took together with the
dust with which it was mingled and offered it on the altar as an
offering to God.

6 Then Adam and Eve stood under the Altar and cried, thus praying to
God, "Forgive us our trespass* and our sin, and look at us with Thine
eye of mercy. For when we were in the garden our praises and our hymns
went up before you without ceasing.

7 But when we came into this strange land, pure praise was not longer
ours, nor righteous prayer, nor understanding hearts, nor sweet
thoughts, nor just counsels, nor long discernment, nor upright
feelings, neither is our bright nature left us. But our body is
changed from the likeness in which it was at first, when we were
created.

8 Yet now look at our blood which is offered on these stones, and
accept it at our hands, like the praise we used to sing to you at
first, when in the garden."

9 And Adam began to make more requests of God.

* ORIGINAL OF THE LORD'S PRAYER SAID TO BE USED ABOUT 150 YEARS BEFORE
OUR LORD: Our Father, Who art in Heaven, be gracious unto us, O Lord
our God, hallowed be Your Name, and let the remembrance of Thee be
glorif