Ephraim: The Nisibene Hymns
Nisibene Hymn 53: Death and Satan Contend for Victory
Come, let us hear how they contend for the victory,
the guilty ones who have never conquered, and never will.
Death said to the Evil One:
In the end the victory is mine,
for Death is master of the close, like a conqueror.
That would be Death indeed, if you were able
to bring a living man to death by means of lusts.
Look, I see the dead, both good and bad:
the righteous who despise you, Evil One, do not despise me.
This dying of the body is only sleep for a time.
Do not think, Death, that you are Death, you who are like a shadow.
The just have conquered you, Evil One, yes, and they will conquer you;
but these who have conquered you, look, I conquer.
Even this, that you bring the just to death, is not your own doing.
It is because of Adam, whom I conquered, that they drink this cup.
Look, Sheol is full of the men of Sodom and the Assyrians,
and of the giants who were in the flood. Who is like me?
All of these, Death, were slain by me.
I am the one who made them sin, so that they perished.
Joseph, who conquered you, I conquered, Satan.
In the chamber he conquered you, but I conquered him and cast him into the tomb.
Moses conquered you, Death, by the sprinkling of blood.
He conquered you in Egypt; but at the rock, who conquered him?
Elijah, who did not fear you, Satan,
fled before Jezebel’s face, because he feared me.
Aaron withstood you, Death, with the smoke of incense.
To him I gave earrings of gold, and he fashioned a calf.
You went down to contend with Job, and he conquered you and came up;
but after he had conquered you, I conquered him.
David, who by his sackcloth stopped that plague,
I conquered on the housetop, he who had conquered Goliath.
Jehu, who destroyed the house of Baal, the temple of the Evil One,
could not destroy Sheol, the stronghold of my kingdom.
Solomon, who by his judgment snatched a child from your mouth,
I made in his old age a builder of altars to idols.
Samuel, who scorned you, Satan, where gold was concerned,
I conquered, the conqueror who conquered bribes.
Samson, who scorned you, Death, in the matter of the lion’s cub,
I yoked to the mill through Delilah, a frail vessel.
Josiah despised you, Evil One, from his childhood;
but not even in his old age could he withstand me.
Hezekiah withstood you, Death, when he passed beyond the limit of his life.
I misled him; he neglected the miracle and showed his treasures.
John, who conquered you, Evil One, who absolved and baptized:
I put out that torch, which had exposed you.
Simon overcame you when he brought that blessed woman back to life.
In a woman he overcame you, and by a woman I overcame him and made him deny.
Apostles and prophets with one voice curse you, Death:
“Where is the victory of Death, and the sting of Sheol?”
You have shut up your Lord in Sheol, you cursed servant.
God hates you, and so does man; so hold your peace.
It was the will of the one who gives life to all that shut him in Sheol.
It was you who called him to this, when you made Adam sin.
You comrade of Nabal, who in the wilderness insulted his lord,
abhorred be your mouth, which said to him, “Fall down and worship me!”