Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIII/Ephraim the Syrian and Aphrahat/Nisibene Hymns/Hymn I

Nisibene Hymns.

1.&#160; O God of mercies Who didst refresh Noah, he too refreshed Thy mercies.&#160; He offered sacrifice and stayed the flood; he presented gifts and received the promise.&#160; With prayer and incense he propitiated Thee:&#160; with an oath and with the bow Thou wast gracious to him; so that if the flood should essay to hurt the earth, the bow should stretch itself over against it, to banish it away and hearten the earth.&#160; As Thou hast sworn peace so do Thou maintain it, and let Thy bow strive against Thy wrath!

R.&#160; Stretch forth Thy bow against the flood, for lo! it has lifted up its waves against our walls!

2.&#160; In revelation, Lord! it has been proclaimed, that that lowly blood which Noah sprinkled, wholly restrained Thy wrath for all generations; how much mightier then shall be the blood of Thy Only Begotten, that the sprinkling of it should restrain our flood!&#160; For lo! it was but as mysteries of Him that those lowly sacrifices gained virtue, which Noah offered, and stayed by them Thy wrath.&#160; Be propitiated by the gift upon my altar, and stay from me the deadly flood.&#160; So shall both Thy signs bring deliverance, to me Thy cross and to Noah Thy bow!&#160; Thy cross shall cleave the sea of waters; Thy bow shall stay the flood of rain.

3.&#160; Lo! all the billows trouble me; and Thou hast given more favour to the ark:&#160; for waves alone encompassed it, mounds and weapons and waves encircle me.&#160; It was unto Thee a storehouse of treasures, but I have been a storehouse of debts:&#160; it in Thy love subdued the waves; I in Thy wrath, am left desolate among the weapons; the flood bore it, the river threatens me.&#160; O Helmsman of that ark, be my pilot on the dry land!&#160; To it Thou gavest rest in the haven of a mountain; to me give Thou rest also in the haven of my walls!

4.&#160; The Just One has chastened me abundantly, but it He loved even among the waves.&#160; For Noah overcame the waves of lust, which had drowned in his generation the sons of Seth.&#160; Because his flesh revolted against the daughters of Cain, his chariot rode on the surface of the waves.&#160; Because women defiled him not, he coupled the beasts, whereof in the ark he joined together, all pairs in the yoke of wedlock.&#160; The olive which with its oil gladdens the face, with its leaf gladdened their countenances:&#160; for me the river whereof to drink is wont to make joyful, lo! O Lord, by its flood it makes me mournful.

5.&#160; The foulness of my guilt Thy righteousness has seen, and Thy pure eyes abhor me.&#160; Thou hast gathered the waters by the hand of the unclean, that Thou mightest make for me purification of my guilt; not that in them Thou mightest baptize and purify me, but that in them Thou mightest chasten me with fear.&#160; For the waves will stir up to prayer, which shall wash away my guilt.&#160; The sight of them which is full of repentance, has been to me a baptism.&#160; The sea, O Lord, which should have drowned me, in it let Thy mercies drown my guilt.&#160; In the Red Sea Thou didst drown bodies; in this sea drown Thou my guilt instead of bodies!

6.&#160; An ark in Thy mercy Thou didst prepare, that Thou mightest preserve in it all the remnants.&#160; That Thou shouldest not desolate the earth in Thy wrath, Thy compassion made an earth of wood.&#160; Thou didst empty them one into the other; Thou didst render them back one unto the other.&#160; But my lands have thrice been filled and emptied again; and now against me the waves rebel, to overwhelm the remnant that has escaped in me.&#160; In the ark Thou didst save a remnant; save in me, O Lord, yea in me a leaven.&#160; The ark upon the mountain brought forth; let me in my lands bring forth my imprisoned ones!

7.&#160; O Lord, gladden Thou in me the imprisoned ones of my fortresses, Thou Who didst gladden those prisoners with the olive leaf!&#160; Thou sentest healing by means of the dove to the sick ones that were drowning in every wave; it entered in and drove out all their pains.&#160; For the joy of it swallowed up their sorrow, and mourning vanished away in its consolation.&#160; And as the chief of a host gives heartening to the fugitives, so the dove disseminated courage among the forsaken.&#160; Their eyes tasted the sight of peace, and their mouth hasted to open in Thy praise.&#160; As the olive leaf in the waves, save Thou me, that Thou mayest gladden in me the prisoners of my fortresses!

8.&#160; The flood assails, and dashes against our walls:&#160; may the all-sustaining might uphold them!&#160; It falls not as the building of the sand, for I have not built my doctrine upon the sand:&#160; a rock shall be for me the foundation, for on Thy rock have I built my faith; the secret foundation of my trust, shall support my walls.&#160; For the walls of Jericho fell, because on the sand she had built her trust.&#160; Moses built a wall in the sea, for on a rock his understanding built it.&#160; The foundation of Noah was on a rock; the dwelling place of wood it bore up in the sea.

9.&#160; Compare the souls which are in me, with the living things that were in the ark; and instead of Noah who mourned in it, lo! Thy altar mourning and humbled.&#160; Instead of the wedded wives that were in it, lo! my virgins that are unmarried.&#160; Instead of Ham who went forth from it and uncovered his father&#8217;s nakedness, lo! workers of righteousness, who have nourished and clothed apostles.&#160; In my pains, O my Lord, I rave in my speech; blame me not if my words provoke Thee!&#160; Thou puttest to silence the prosperous when they murmured:&#160; have mercy on me as on them that were silenced aforetime!

10.&#160; Before Thy wrath Thou madest a house of refuge, and all the nations rebelled against it.&#160; Noah was refreshed in rest, that his dwelling-place should give rest according to his name.&#160; Thou didst close the doors to save the righteous one; Thou didst open the floods to destroy the unclean.&#160; Noah stood between the terrible waves that were without, and the destroying mouths that were within:&#160; the waves tossed him and the mouths dismayed him.&#160; Thou madest peace for him with them that were within; Thou broughtest down before him them that were without:&#160; Thou didst speedily change his troubles, for light to Thee, O Lord, are hard things.

11.&#160; Hear and weigh the comparison of me with Noah, and though my suffering be light beside his, let Thy mercy make our deliverance alike; for lo! my children stand like him, between the wrathful and the destroyer.&#160; Give peace, O Lord, among them that are within, and humble before me them that are without; and give me twofold victory!&#160; And whereas the slayer has made his rage threefold, may He of the three days show me threefold mercy!&#160; Let not the Evil One overcome Thy lovingkindness:&#160; seeing he has assailed me twice and thrice overcome Thou him!&#160; Let my victory fly abroad through the world, that it may earn Thee praise in the world!&#160; O Thou who didst rise on the third day, give us not over to death in our third peril!