which is also the case of the history of Bel and the Dragon. But
both the one and the other are received by the Catholic Church: and were
from the very beginning a part of the Christian Bible.

13:1. Now there was a man that dwelt in Babylon, and his name was
Joakim:

13:2. And he took a wife, whose name was Susanna, the daughter of
Helcias, a bery beautiful woman, and one that feared God.

13:3. For her parents being just, had instructed their daughter
according to the law of Moses.

13:4. Now Joakim was very rich, and had an orchard near his house: and
the Jews resorted to him, because he was the most honourable of them
all.

13:5. And there were two of the ancients of the people appointed judges
that year, of whom the Lord said: That iniquity came out from Babylon,
from the ancient judges, that seemed to govern the people.

13:6. These men frequented the house of Joakim, and all that hand any
maters of judgment came to them.

13:7. And when the people departed away at noon, Susanna went in, and
walked in her husband's orchard.

13:8. And the old men saw her going in every day, and walking: and they
were inflamed with lust towards her:

13:9. And they perverted their own mind, and turned away their eyes,
that they might not look unto heaven, nor remember just judgments.

13:10. So they were both wounded with the love of her, yet they did not
make known their grief one to the other.

13:11. For they were ashamed to declare to one another their lust, being
desirous to have to do with her:

13:12. And they watched carefully every day to see her. And one said to
the other:

13:13. Let us now go home, for it is dinner time. So going out, they
departed one from another.

13:14. And turning back again, they came both to the same place: and
asking one another the cause, they acknowledged their lust: and then
they agreed together upon a time, when they might find her alone.

13:15. And it fell out, as they watched a fit day, she went in on a
time, as yesterday and the day before, with two maids only, and was
desirous to wash herself in the orchard: for it was hot weather.

13:16. And there was nobody there, but the two old men that had hid
themselves, and were beholding her.

13:17. So she said to the maids: Bring me oil, and washing balls, and
shut the doors of the orchard, that I may wash me.

13:18. And they did as she bade them: and they shut the doors of the
orchard, and went out by a back door to f