The Nisibene Hymns · Part 5

[Hymn VIII. is wanting, as also the earlier part of IX.]

Hymn IX.

...My afflictions are as Job's. Thy justice delivered him; let Thy grace have mercy on me!

2. In these two things is profit; that neither should the just, be weary in supplication, nor should the rebellious, multiply transgression.

3. With the sons Thou labourest, to chastise and help them; and that the fathers should not be grieved, by the sound of the scourge, they left me in peace.

4. Look, O my Lord, on my woods without, how they have been cut down! behold, O my Lord, my breasts within, that they are too weak, for me to bear my beloved ones!

5. With swords they have cut off, my wings that are without; again the fire kindles, in my bosom within, the incense of burnt offering.

6. The sun-worshippers have killed, my sons in the plain: and they that offer to Baal, have sacrificed my bulls in the city, my sheep with my babes.

7. In my fields is lamentation; in my halls wailing; in my vineyards terror; in my streets confusion. Who can suffice for me?

8. The Evil One who dealt treacherously, and disturbed me with his words, stirred up trouble within, so that my inward part, is wholly as my outward part.

9. With what face, O my Lord, shall I call on Thee to send, a camp of holy ones, to guard my bosom, which is full of uncleanness?

10. With Thy new leaven, Thou hast chastened creation. Make Thou the old leaven, which ensnares and humbles, to be like the new leaven!

11. By the manifest striving, of Thy power let us conquer; lest error should crown, those that strive for Thee, cleaving to them with blandishment!

12. If we look into our time, it is like our deceit; --for in the years of truthfulness, we practised divinations,--and secretly used enchantments.

13. If I look into the time, it provokes and into light,--brings secret things, that our deceit may be shamed,--which wore the raiment of Truth.

14. Verily it is truth, that overcomes all; --and the sea with its bitterness, cannot trouble it,--for it is pure in its nature.

15. In wisdom Thou hast made it, O my Lord, that it has laid bare our lust.--That the foolish should come to nought, and should not be encouraged,--Truth has withheld the crown.

16. On the tottering walls, whereon Thou hast given me victory,--the unthankful repay Thee, with sacrifice and libation, which provoke Thee openly.

17. If it were at that time, sacrifices had been offered;--there had been room even, for delusion to suppose,--that in these I was delivered.

18. Through the multitude of deliverances, Thou hast rebuked two things:--the delusion of graven images, and the teaching of magicians;--for in Thee, O my Lord, have I been delivered!

Hymn X.

1. My children have been slain; and my daughters that are without me,--their walls are overthrown, their children scattered,--and their holy places trodden down. R., Blessed is Thy chastisement!

2. The fowlers have taken, my doves out of my strongholds,--which quitted their nests, and fled to the caves;--in the net have they taken them.

3. After the manner of wax, that melts before the fire,--thus melted and dissolved, the bodies, of my sons before the heat--and the drought of my strongholds.

4. And instead of streams, of milk that used to flow,--for my sons and my little ones, milk fails the sucklings, and water the weaned children.

5. The suckling falls, from its mother and gasps,--because it cannot suck, nor can she give suck:--they breathe out their spirit and die.

6. How is it possible, that Thy grace can refrain--the welling of its stream, when it is not possible to restrain--the abundance of its flow?

7. And why has Thy grace, shut up its mercies,--and withheld its streams, from the people that cry,--for one to moisten their tongue?

8. And there was a pit, between them and their brethren;--like the rich man who cried, and there was none to answer,--to moisten his tongue.

9. And as into the midst of fire, the wretched ones were cast;--and heat in the midst of thirst, the fire was blowing,--and kindling upon them.

10. Their carcases were melted, and dissolved by the heat;--they that had thirsted gave in turn the earth to drink,--of the reek of their bodies.

11. And the fort that with thirst, had killed, its dwellers,--it drank in its turn of the flux from the corpses,--that were melted by thirst.

12. Who has seen a people--that were burning with thirst,--while there surrounded them a wall of water and they could not--moisten their tongue!

13. Surely with the judgment of Sodom, were my beloved judged,--and my children smitten, with the torment of Sodom;--though that was but for one day.

14. The torment of fire, though it be for one hour, O my Lord,--in lingering thirst, is a lingering death, and a subtle punishment.

15. After my sorrows, O my Lord, and my bitter sufferings,--this is the best comfort, wherewith Thou hast comforted me,--that Thou hast multiplied my afflictions.

16. The medicine that I hoped, it is sorrow decreed;--the binding up that I looked for, it is bitter calamity,--that it seeks to work for me.

17. And whereas I hoped to escape, from the midst of the storm;--worse for me is the storm in it, even in the harbour,--than that in the sea.

18. Whereas I thought in my folly, that I should anchor and escape--from the midst of the Gulf; my sins have cast me back--again into the midst of it.

19. Look, O my Lord, on my limbs, how the swords are thick in me,--and have left their mark on my arms; and the scars of the spears,--are planted in my sides!