Ephraim: The Nisibene Hymns
Nisibene Hymn 66: Death Gives Counsel to the Mourners
Be still a little while, you mortals (said Death),
and be like me, who am so silent in the midst of Sheol.
Refrain: Glory to you, Watcher, who came down after those who slept,
and uttered the voice from the Tree, and woke them!
You are grieving, yes, weeping, for the one who has gone,
as though he had come to grind at the mill for me in Sheol.
Great is the peace I give to the weary:
I do not grow weary as you do, nor do I weary them.
I hear all kinds of curses from ungrateful men:
the sons of Adam are like Adam, who was ungrateful to his Lord.
Your voices and your doings contradict each other:
with your voices you weep, and in your doings you fight every day.
I heard weeping, and I thought to myself that no one toils;
I saw toiling, and I thought to myself that no one dies.
The struggles of man made me think that he is not mortal;
his great weeping made me think that tomorrow he is gone.
Listen, and let me be your counselor, if you are willing:
for these two, these burdens, are very bitter.
Stop for a little while from this toil and from this weeping:
toil and weep as mortals, who vanish tomorrow.
You are frantic with weeping for your departed,
and you struggle in toiling for your possessions.
It is well with the infants who die, and they are blessed:
for they are freed from the misery into which you are thrown.
Let me go to Sheol and say there:
“Happy are you, silent dead! How peaceful you are!”
Hear the conclusion of our own words: if there is a resurrection,
do not weep, and do not toil, as though you were strangers.
You struggle like one who was to live here forever,
and you weep like one who would never rise again.
Hear my words, if there is room in you for hearing,
and prepare provisions for yourselves, so that when I call you may answer.
For I too listen to him who calls me,
and I will give back your bodies, with your treasures.
Let there be peace between us until that day;
and when you come out, I will cry out and say, “Go in peace!”
Come, you and I together, even now, will give glory
to him who brings to death and to life, so that he may give aid.
Praise from us all be to you, O Lord, the living Sacrifice,
who by the sacrifice of your Body have given life to the living and the dead!
Praise to him who clothed himself in our body, and died, and rose again!
He died in us, and we live in him. Blessed be he who sent him!