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

1.&#160; I will run in my affections, to Him who heals freely.&#160; He who healed my sorrows, the first and the second, He who cured the third, He will heal the fourth.&#160; R., Heal me, Thou Son the First Born!

2.&#160; My sons, O my Lord, drank and were drunken, of the tidings which wrath had mixed; and they rushed on my adornments, and spoiled and cast away my ornaments; they rent and spared not, my garments and my crowns.

3.&#160; They uncovered me and I was made bare.&#160; Because I was shamed a little, by means of that stripping, the first and the second, because I was shamed a third time, lo! they have stripped me a fourth time.

4.&#160; For they have seized and taken away my garments, my ornaments and my gardens.&#160; On the sackcloth that girds my altar, look Thou, O my Lord, and have pity on me!&#160; Let the sackcloth be to me, O my Lord, the breastplate of salvation!

5.&#160; Lo! it is not by the hand of the chaste, that Thou hast chastised me, O my Master!&#160; For lo! his shame is before him, and behind him his disgrace; for as to his marriage, adultery is better than it.

6.&#160; Lo! his daughter is his wife, and his sister his consort; and his mother whence he came forth, he turns again and takes her to wife!&#160; The heavens are astonished that thus, he provokes Thee, and lo! he prospers.

7.&#160; And though, O my Lord, my crimes are many, are my offences so heavy, that Thou shouldst make over a chaste woman, mother of chaste daughters, to foul Assyria, mother of defiled daughters?

8.&#160; Restrain him that he come not, and wag at me his head, and stamp on me his heel, and rejoice that the voice of his fame, thus troubles the world; and be uplifted yet a little!

9.&#160; My sons, O my Lord, have seen my nakedness, yea have uncovered me and wept.&#160; Uncover Thou me before my children, who are pained by my pain, and let not those mock at me, the accursed that have no pity!

10.&#160; My lands had brought forth fruits and pleasant things; good things in the vineyard, abundance in the fields.&#160; But as I rested secure, of a sudden wrath overtook me.

11.&#160; The husbandmen were plundered, the spoilers heaped the grain; what thou had borrowed and sown these destroyed.&#160; With one&#8217;s debt his hunger, haply will also remain unsatisfied, for his bread is snatched from him.

12.&#160; The husbandman, O my Lord, is plundered, for he lent to the earth; she has received the deposit, and given it to a stranger; she has borrowed it of the husbandman; and paid it to the spoiler.

13.&#160; Be jealous over me who am Thine, and to Thee, O my Lord:&#160; am I betrothed!&#160; The Apostle who betrothed me to Thee, told me that Thou art jealous.&#160; For as a wall to chaste wives is the jealousy of their husbands.

14.&#160; Samson stirred up seas, because he was mightily jealous over his wife, though she was greatly defiled, and was divided against him.&#160; Keep Thy Church, for no other, has she beside Thee!

15.&#160; Whoso is not jealous, over his spouse despises her.&#160; Jealousy it is that can make known, the love that is within.&#160; Thou art called jealous, that thou mayest show me Thy love.

16.&#160; The nature of woman is this; it is weak and rash: it is jealousy keeps it, under fear every hour.&#160; Thou hast been named among the jealous, that Thou mightest make known Thy solicitude.

17.&#160; Every man has been master, of something that was not his own; every man has gone forth gathering, something that he scattered not.&#160; The day of confusion, I have prepared for myself by my crimes.

18.&#160; How shall they bear the suffering, the labourers and tillers?&#160; In the face of the vinedresser, they have cut down the vines and driven away the flocks of the husbandman; his sowing they have reaped and carried off.

19.&#160; They had yoked cattle sown and harrowed, they had ploughed, planted, nurtured.&#160; They stood afar and wept; and they went away bereft of all.&#160; The labour was for the toilers, the increase for the spoilers.

20.&#160; The rulers, O my Lord, maintained not, order in the midst of Thy wrath.&#160; If they had willed it they might have kept order, but our iniquity suffered it not.&#160; Though wrath had greatly abated, wrath compelled them to spoil.

21.&#160; To whom on any side, shall I look for comfort, for my plantations that are laid low, and my possessions that are laid waste?&#160; Let the message of the voice of peace, drive away my sadness from me!

22.&#160; Give me not over; lest it be thought that Thou, hast given me a writing of divorce, and sent me away and driven me out!&#160; Let them not call me, O my Lord, the forsaken and the disgraced!

23.&#160; I have not anything, to call to mind before Thine eyes, for I am wholly despised.&#160; Call Thou to mind for me, O my God, this only that none other, have I set before me beside Thee!

24.&#160; Who would not weep for me, with voice and wailing? for before the days of full moon I was chaste and crowned; and after the days of full moon, I was uncovered and made bare.

25.&#160; My chaste daughters of the chambers, wander in the fields; for the wrath that makes all drunken, has caused my honourable women to be despised.&#160; Let Thy mercy which gives peace to all, restore these beloved ones to honour!

26.&#160; My elder daughters and my younger, lo! they cry before Thee; the damsels with their voices, they that are aged with their tears; my virgins with their fasts, my chaste ones with their sackcloth!

27.&#160; Mine eyes to all the streets, I lift up and lo! they are deserted.&#160; There are left of a hundred ten, and a thousand of ten thousand.&#160; Give Thou peace and fill my streets, with the tumult of my dwellers!

28.&#160; Bring back them that are without, and make them glad that are within!&#160; Mighty is Thy grace, that Thou extendest it within and without.&#160; Let the wings of Thy grace gather my chickens together!

29.&#160; Let the prayer of my just men, save my fugitives!&#160; The unbelievers have plundered me, and the believers have sustained me.&#160; In them that believe put Thou to shame them that believe not!

30.&#160; There came together on one day, two festivals as one:&#160; the Feast of Thine Ascension, and the Feast of Thy Champions; the feast that wove Thy Crown, and the memorial of the crowning of Thy servants.

31.&#160; Have thou mercy because there were doubled for us, these feasts on one day; and there were doubled for us instead of them, even the two feasts in one, suffering from the voice of ill tidings, and mourning from desolation!

32.&#160; Give peace to my festivals! for both my feasts have ceased; and instead of rejoicing, of my remnants in festivals, tremblings and desolations meet me in every place.

33.&#160; Bring home mine that are far off, make glad mine that are nigh; and in the midst of our land shall be preached, good tidings of joy; and I shall render in return for peace, praise from every mouth!