Chapter 143
1 “And when he had spoken with me, I gained strength and said: Let my Lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”
2 For whenever the Word has made us of good hope toward the things to come, then easily are we able to hear his voice as well.
3 He says, then, to him: “Do you know why I have come to you? And now I will return to fight with the prince of the Persians; but I will declare to you what is written in the writing of truth, and there is no one who holds with me concerning these things except Michael your prince, and him I left there. For from the day on which you set your face to be afflicted before the Lord your God, your supplication was heard, and I was sent to fight with the prince of the Persians; for a counsel had arisen not to send forth the people. So that your request might be fulfilled swiftly, I withstood him and left there Michael your prince.”
4 And who is Michael but the angel given over to the people, as he says to Moses: “I will not go with you on the way, because the people is stiff-necked, but rather my angel shall go with you”?
5 This one withstood Moses at the lodging-place, when he was carrying the uncircumcised child into Egypt; for it was not permissible that Moses, who was becoming the elder and mediator of the law and proclaiming the covenant of the fathers, should bring along an uncircumcised child, lest he be reckoned by the people to be a false prophet and a deceiver.