Ephraim: The Nisibene Hymns
Nisibene Hymn 6: The City Stripped Bare
I will run in my longing
to the One who heals freely.
He who healed my sorrows, the first and the second,
he who cured the third, will heal the fourth.
Refrain: Heal me, Son, the Firstborn!
My sons, my Lord, drank and became drunk
on the news that wrath had mixed;
and they rushed on my adornments,
and plundered and threw away my ornaments;
they tore and did not spare
my clothes and my crowns.
They uncovered me, and I was left bare.
Because I was shamed only a little
by that stripping, the first and the second,
because I was shamed a third time,
see, they have stripped me a fourth time.
For they have seized and carried off my clothes,
my ornaments and my gardens.
Look, my Lord, on the sackcloth that girds my altar,
and have pity on me!
Let the sackcloth be to me, my Lord,
the breastplate of salvation!
See, it is not by the hand of the chaste
that you have chastened me, my Master!
For see, his shame is before him,
and behind him his disgrace;
as for his marriage,
adultery is better than it.
See, his daughter is his wife,
and his sister his consort;
and his mother, from whom he came forth,
he turns around and takes as his wife!
The heavens are astonished that he provokes you like this,
and see, he prospers.
And though my crimes are many, my Lord,
are my offenses so heavy
that you should hand over a chaste woman, mother of chaste daughters,
to foul Assyria, mother of defiled daughters?
Hold him back, so that he does not come
and wag his head at me,
and stamp his heel on me,
and rejoice that the sound of his fame
troubles the world like this,
and be lifted up a little longer!
My sons, my Lord, have seen my nakedness;
yes, they have uncovered me and wept.
Uncover me before my children,
who are pained by my pain,
and do not let them mock me,
the accursed who have no pity!
My lands had brought forth fruits and pleasant things:
good things in the vineyard, abundance in the fields.
But while I rested secure,
wrath suddenly overtook me.
The farmers were plundered;
the spoilers heaped up the grain;
what you had borrowed and sown, these destroyed.
Along with his debt, a man’s hunger too
will perhaps remain unsatisfied,
for his bread is snatched from him.
The farmer, my Lord, is plundered,
for he lent to the earth.
She received the deposit and gave it to a stranger;
she borrowed it from the farmer
and paid it to the spoiler.
Be jealous over me, for I am yours,
and to you, my Lord, I am betrothed!
The apostle who betrothed me to you
told me that you are jealous.
For the jealousy of their husbands
is like a wall to chaste wives.
Samson stirred up seas,
because he was fiercely jealous over his wife,
though she was badly defiled
and was divided against him.
Keep your Church, for she has no other
besides you!
Whoever is not jealous over his wife despises her.
It is jealousy that can make known
the love that is within.
You are called jealous
to show me your love.
The nature of woman is this:
it is weak and rash;
it is jealousy that keeps it
in fear every hour.
You have been named among the jealous
to make known your care.
Every man has been master
of something that was not his own;
every man has gone out gathering
something that he did not scatter.
By my crimes I have prepared for myself
the day of confusion.
How will they bear the suffering,
the laborers and the tillers?
Before the vinedresser’s face they have cut down the vines,
and driven away the farmer’s flocks;
they have reaped his sowing and carried it off.
They had yoked the cattle, sown and harrowed;
they had plowed, planted and tended.
They stood far off and wept,
and they went away stripped of everything.
The labor was for the toilers,
the increase for the spoilers.
The rulers, my Lord, did not keep order
in the middle of your wrath.
If they had wanted to, they could have kept order,
but our iniquity did not allow it.
Though wrath had greatly eased,
wrath drove them to plunder.
To whom, on any side,
shall I look for comfort,
for my plantations that are laid low
and my possessions that are laid waste?
Let the message of the voice of peace
drive my sadness away from me!
Do not give me up,
or it will be thought that you have given me
a certificate of divorce,
and sent me away and driven me out!
Do not let them call me, my Lord,
the forsaken and the disgraced!
I have nothing
to bring to mind before your eyes,
for I am utterly despised.
Bring to mind for me, my God, this one thing only:
that I have set no other before me
but you!
Who would not weep for me
with voice and wailing?
For before the days of the full moon
I was chaste and crowned;
and after the days of the full moon
I was uncovered and stripped bare.
My chaste daughters of the inner rooms
wander in the fields;
for the wrath that makes everyone drunk
has caused my honorable women to be despised.
Let your mercy, which gives peace to all,
restore these beloved ones to honor!
My older daughters and my younger,
see, they cry before you:
the young women with their voices,
the old women with their tears,
my virgins with their fasts,
my chaste ones with their sackcloth!
I lift my eyes to all the streets,
and see, they are deserted.
Of a hundred, ten are left,
and of ten thousand, a thousand.
Give peace, and fill my streets
with the bustle of my people!
Bring back those who are outside,
and make glad those who are inside!
Your grace is mighty,
for you stretch it out inside and outside.
Let the wings of your grace
gather my chicks together!
Let the prayer of my just men
save my fugitives!
The unbelievers have plundered me,
and the believers have upheld me.
By those who believe,
put to shame those who do not believe!
Two festivals came together on one day, as one:
the Feast of your Ascension,
and the Feast of your Champions;
the feast that wove your crown,
and the memorial of the crowning of your servants.
Have mercy, because these feasts
were doubled for us on one day;
and in their place there were doubled for us,
two feasts in one,
suffering from the sound of bad news,
and mourning from devastation!
Give peace to my festivals!
For both my feasts have ceased;
and instead of the rejoicing of my remnant in festivals,
trembling and devastation
meet me everywhere.
Bring home my own who are far off,
make glad my own who are near;
and in the middle of our land
good news of joy will be proclaimed,
and in return for peace I will render
praise from every mouth!