Ephraim: The Nisibene Hymns
Nisibene Hymn 3: Three Sieges, Three Hard Books
Hold our hearing steady, so that it is not loosed and does not wander!
For it is wandering if one asks who he is and what he is like.
For how can we manage to paint within ourselves the likeness
of that Being, which is like the mind?
There is nothing in it that is limited;
in all of it he sees and hears;
all of it, so to speak, speaks;
all of it is in all the senses.
Refrain: Praise to the One Being, who is unsearchable to us!
His appearance cannot be discerned,
so as to be portrayed by our understanding.
He hears without ears; he speaks without a mouth;
he works without hands, and he sees without eyes.
Because our soul does not cease or give up
in the presence of one who is like this,
in his grace he put on the form of humankind
and gathered us into his likeness.
Let us learn in what way that Being is spiritual
and appeared as bodily,
and how it is also calm and appears as wrathful.
These things were for our benefit:
that Being was made like us in our likeness,
so that we may be made like him.
There is One who is like him:
the Son who came forth from him,
who is stamped with his likeness.
Nisibis, hear these things,
for they were written and spoken for your sake.
Both to yourself and to others
you have been a cause of strife and of disputes in the world.
Mouths sang over you, you who were shut in;
even over you mouths sang.
When you triumphed and were given room,
mouths were opened in you for lamentation and for thanksgiving.
The prayer of your people was enough for your deliverance.
It was not that they were righteous, but that they were penitent:
as they were disgraced, so they hurried to submit to the rod.
They had an equal share in transgressions and in triumphs.
Those whose crimes were great, let their fruit be great;
those who triumphed in their sackcloth have triumphed also in their crowns.
The day of your deliverance is king of all days.
The Sabbath overthrew your walls; it overthrew the ungrateful.
The day of the Resurrection of the Son raised your ruins again;
the day of Resurrection raised you up as its name says;
it glorified its title.
The Sabbath relaxed its watch;
for the making of the breaches it took the blame on itself.
In Samaria hunger prevailed, but in you plenty prevailed.
In Samaria abundance broke in and came upon her all at once;
but in you a sea roared and came in on you all at once.
In her a child was eaten, and it kept her alive;
in you the body was eaten, living and all life-giving.
All at once he delivered them: the Eaten delivered the eaters.
We know that the Blessed One does not will the afflictions
that have been in every age.
Though he has brought them about,
it is our offenses that are the cause of our troubles.
No one can complain against our Creator;
it is for him to complain against us,
who have sinned and forced him to be wrathful though he does not will it,
and to strike though he does not desire it.
The earth, the vine and the olive need chastening.
When the olive is crushed, then its fruit smells sweet;
when the vine is pruned, then its grapes are fine;
when the soil is plowed, its yield is good.
When water is confined in channels, desert places drink from it;
bronze, silver and gold shine when they are polished.
If, then, a man makes all things fine by chastening them,
and if one who despises and rejects chastening
is hated and everyone rebels against him,
then by the things he chastens let him come to know the One who chastens him;
since whoever chastens does it to gain something by it.
For whoever chastens his servants does it so that he may possess them;
the good God chastens his servants so that they may possess themselves.
Let your afflictions be books to warn you.
For your three sieges
are enough to become books for you,
to meditate on their stories every hour.
Because you despised the two Testaments,
in which you could have read your life,
he wrote for you three hard books,
in which you were to read your chastenings.
By what has been, let us turn away what is still to be;
let us be taught by what has come, to escape what is coming;
let us remember what is past, to avoid what is ahead.
Because we had forgotten the first blow, the second fell on us;
because we forgot the second, the third weighed heavy on us.
Who will forget yet again!