Nisibene Hymn 9: Afflictions Like Job’s

… My afflictions are like Job’s.

Your justice rescued him;

let your grace have mercy on me!

In these two things there is profit:

that the righteous should not grow weary of pleading,

and the rebellious should not multiply transgression.

With the sons you labor, to chasten them and to help them;

and so that the fathers would not be grieved

by the sound of the whip, they left me in peace.

Look, O my Lord, at my woods outside, how they have been cut down!

See, O my Lord, my breasts within, how they are too weak

for me to carry my beloved ones!

With swords they have cut off my wings that are outside;

and again the fire kindles in my bosom within

the incense of burnt offering.

The sun worshipers have killed my sons in the plain;

and those who make offerings to Baal have sacrificed my bulls in the city,

my sheep along with my babies.

In my fields there is lamentation, in my halls wailing,

in my vineyards terror, in my streets confusion.

Who is equal to my need?

The Evil One, who dealt treacherously and unsettled me with his words,

stirred up trouble within,

so that what is inside me is wholly like what is outside.

With what face, O my Lord, shall I call on you to send

a camp of holy ones to guard my bosom,

which is full of uncleanness?

With your new leaven you have chastened creation.

Make the old leaven, which ensnares and humbles,

to be like the new leaven!

By the open struggle of your power let us conquer,

so that error may not crown those who strive for you,

clinging to them with flattery!

If we look into our time, it is like our deceit;

for in the years of truthfulness we practiced divination,

and in secret we used enchantments.

If I look into the time, it provokes,

and it brings secret things into the light, so that our deceit may be shamed,

the deceit that wore the clothing of Truth.

Truly, it is truth that overcomes all;

and the sea with its bitterness cannot trouble it,

for it is pure in its nature.

In wisdom, O my Lord, you have made it so that it has laid bare our lust.

So that the foolish would come to nothing and not be encouraged,

Truth has withheld the crown.

On the tottering walls on which you gave me victory,

the unthankful repay you with sacrifice and libation,

which openly provoke you.

If it had been at that time that sacrifices were offered,

there would have been room even for delusion to suppose

that it was by these that I was delivered.

Through the multitude of deliverances you have rebuked two things:

the delusion of carved images and the teaching of magicians;

for it is in you, O my Lord, that I have been delivered!