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

1.&#160; Death was weeping for her, even for Sheol, when he saw her treasury that it was emptied.&#160; And he said, Who, then, has plundered thy riches?&#160; Gehazi stole and was discovered; I am stealing every day, but theft has not been laid to my charge.&#160; I am sent to Kings, in their sicknesses, their guards are set around them, guards are also at their gate.&#160; The soul of kings I snatch and I go forth.&#160; R., Blessed is He Who has broken the sting of Death by His Cross!

2.&#160; All women grieve that are barren; Sheol rejoices because of her barrenness; she is desolate if so be that she brings forth.&#160; The all-compelling Power constrained it, even the bosom that was barren and cold, and it rendered back though wont to deny its debts.&#160; Rebekah, when the two babes afflicted her, asked for death.&#160; How great then the pain of Sheol, when there smote her strange pangs; the dead were roused and brake forth and came out from her bowels.

3.&#160; Is this then perchance that saying, which was heard by me from Isaiah? (but I despised it) when he arose and said, &#8220;Who hath heard such a thing as this? that the earth should travail in one day, and bring forth a nation in one hour.&#8221;&#160; Is it this that has come to pass? or else, is it reserved for us hereafter?&#160; And if it be this it is a vain shadow that I thought I am a king; I knew not it was but a deposit I was keeping.

4.&#160; Two utterances that were different, have I heard from him, even this Isaiah.&#160; For he said that a virgin should conceive and bring forth; and he said again that the earth should bring forth.&#160; But lo! the Virgin has brought Him forth, and Sheol the barren has brought Him forth; two wombs that contrary to nature, have been changed by Him; the Virgin and Sheol both of them.&#160; The Virgin in her bringing forth He made glad; but Sheol He grieved and made sad in His Resurrection.

5.&#160; I saw in the valley that Ezekiel, who quickened the dead when he was questioned; and I saw the bones that were in heaps and they moved.&#160; There was a tumult of bones in Sheol, bone seeking for his fellow, and joint for her mate.&#160; There was there none that questioned, or that was questioned, whether those bones lived.&#160; Unquestioned, the voice of Jesus, the Master of all creatures quickened them.

6.&#160; Sheol was made sorrowful when she saw them, even the sorrowful dead made to rejoice.&#160; She wept for Lazarus when he went forth, &#8220;Go in peace thou dead that livest, bewailed by two houses of mourning.&#8221;&#160; Within and without were lamentations for him; for his sisters wept for him when he came into the grave unto me, and I wept for him as he went forth.&#160; In his death there was weeping among the living; likewise in Sheol is great mourning at his resurrection.

7.&#160; Now it is that I have tasted the taste of his sorrow, even of him who weeps over his beloved.&#160; The dead that are thus beloved of Sheol, how dear were they to their fathers!&#160; The limbs which I severed and carried away, lo! they are shorn away and carried off from me.&#160; If I thus suffer for the departure of him, the youth who was restored to life, blessed is He Who had compassion on the widow; in her only son He gave peace to her dwelling that had been made desolate.

8.&#160; Lo! this suffering which I cause men to suffer in their beloved ones, in the end on me it gathers itself altogether.&#160; For when the dead shall have left Sheol, for every man there will be resurrection, and for me alone torment.&#160; And who is he then that shall bear for me all these things, that I shall see Sheol left alone, because this voice which has rent the graves, makes her desolate and sends forth the dead that were in her midst?

9.&#160; If a man reads in the Prophets, he hears there of righteous wars.&#160; But if a man meditate in the story of Jesus, he learns of grace and tender mercy.&#160; And if a man think of Jesus, that He is a strange God it is a reproach against me.&#160; No other strange key into the gate of Sheol could ever be fitted.&#160; One is the key of the Creator, that which has opened it, yea, is to open it at His Coming.

10.&#160; Who is he that is able to join the bones, save that Power which created them?&#160; What is it that shall reunite the shreds of the body, save the hand of the Maker?&#160; What is it that shall restore the forms, save the finger of the Creator?&#160; He, who created and turned and destroyed, is He that is able also to renew and raise up.&#160; Another God is unable to enter in and restore creatures not his own.

11.&#160; But were he another Power, I should be very joyful that He is coming to me.&#160; Into the bosom of Sheol He would descend and learn that One alone is God.&#160; Mortals that have erred and preached that there are Gods many, lo! they are bound for me in Sheol, and their Gods have never grieved because of them.&#160; One God do I know, and His Prophets and His Apostles do I acknowledge.