Ephraim: The Nisibene Hymns
Nisibene Hymn 56: The Counsel of Sin and Sheol
Your struggle, Evil One, is with Freedom;
it can put a muzzle on you, if it pleases.
Refrain: Glory to you, in whose victory we have gained strength,
and in whose resurrection we defy even Death itself!
See, again these two have exposed each other, how weak they both are:
Death reminded the Evil One of your mightiness, O Freedom.
Your fire is in your own nest, Death, and you do not perceive it;
the fate of the departed is your overthrow.
See, Death and the Evil One proclaim your mightiness, O Freedom;
yes, the Evil One calls your faith to mind.
If, then, those who were against you are on your side,
it is a great thing that your persecutors have become your heralds.
I confess, Evil One, that I store up the King’s treasures
like money lent at interest, until his coming.
I, Death, deny rather that this belongs to God,
this treasure of cunning which I have stored up.
Then your coinage is counterfeit, Satan,
a coinage not received into the treasuries of God.
I strike a new coinage, as a king does.
Look, my merchants bring loss into the world.
God created everything out of nothing,
and I created great sin out of nothing.
Let your mouth be shut and bound, Evil One, you who are so bold
as to set yourself, look, beside the Creator!
I am allowed to dare and to speak, Death;
your tongue, even yours, is a slave and under fear.
From now on there is a gulf between us, Satan,
for, look, in your madness you attack your Lord.
Why do you doubt our harmony, Death?
Be our comrade and member, and see, we reign.
Come, let us draw our pair of swords against mankind,
I in secret, you openly, and see, we will make an end of them.
Sin and Sheol also gave counsel to those two, saying:
If you are divided, you are undone.
See how the waters run low if they are scattered,
but if they are gathered they gain strength; and so it is with you.
Divided, you perish like the feeble;
but yoked together, you reign like the mighty.
Love melts many down, as in a furnace,
and makes one powerful mass that overcomes all.
In it are wisdom and cunning, force and power;
it is far greater than an image ninety feet high.
Be reconciled! Let us gather and go against that party
which, if it is at one, can never be defeated.
These things the troublers talked over, and they gathered and came.
Your day, Lord, will gather them into Gehenna.
Through your mercy, Lord, I will worship you when I have risen;
at your trumpet I will praise your Son, when I have been made clean.