1 Clement
Chapter 17
- 1 Let us also be imitators of those who went about “in the skins of goats and sheep,” heralding the coming of Christ; we mean Elijah and Elisha, and moreover Ezekiel, the prophets, and in addition to them the famous men of old.
- 2 Great fame was given to Abraham, and he was called the Friend of God, and he, fixing his gaze in humility on the Glory of God, says “But I am dust and ashes.”
- 3 Moreover it is also written thus concerning Job: “Now Job was righteous and blameless, true, a worshipper of God, and kept himself from all evil.”
- 4 But he accuses himself, saying, “No man is clean from defilement, not even if his life be but for a single day.”
- 5 Moses was called “Faithful with all his house,” and through his ministry God judged Egypt with their scourges and torments; but he, though he was given great glory, did not use great words, but, when an oracle was given to him from the bush, said: “Who am I that thou sendest me? Nay, I am a man of feeble speech, and a slow tongue.”
- 6 And again he says, “But I am as smoke from a pot.”