Nisibis 1

Upon the voice that opened my mouth with knowledge, O God of mercies who gave rest to your wrath, Give rest also to your mercies. The sacrifice of the lamb, the whole offering, the victim, He offers oblations, he takes the gift. With prayer and incense, your intention; With plagues and the bow, his sin. And where the victim goes, His horn to the ground, The bow is stretched against him, That it might pursue him and make the ground tremble, That your plagues might protect the archer, And your bow might approach with wrath. The answer: Stretch your bow against the sea, For behold, it has raised its waves against the shores. Openly, my Lord, thunder, That the feeble blood that shook your wrath, The whole offering of wrath in every generation, from all. How much more powerful is the one of your only one, Whose whole offering shook the victim, For behold, in its mystery, that same power stood. The feeble sacrifices that your wrath offers, And the whole offering of wrath, By the offering of my altar, thunder, And cease from me the victim of life, And let the pair of your teeth be crowned. For me, your cross, and for your wrath, your bow. Your cross, let it thunder [the sea] of waters, Your bow, let it restrain the victim of rain. Behold, all my thoughts have disturbed me, And have given blessedness to the crown, That to it alone its waves surround. Shadows and caves and waves surround me. That was for you a treasure of treasures, And I was a treasure of sins. That, in your love, trampled waves, And I, in your wrath, Was blinded among the caves of caves. Its scent, the sea, has disturbed me, the river; Its salt, that of the crown, Has become a wall for me in the midst of the dry land. For that one, you gave rest in the fullness of the mountain.

And for me, open the door of the waves of mercy, O righteous one who pursues me with floods. And for her, love the eggs of the waves, that the pure one may take flight, the waves of desire, which were in his generation for the sons of Seth, that he rebelled with his flesh against the daughters of Cain. He subdued his chariot, the breast of the waves, that the holy ones might not defile him. That one for the beasts, in which, by the yoke, all pairs are yoked, the holy one yokes a yoke. The olive, whose oil gladdens faces, with its leaf gladdens their countenances. For me, the light of the hidden one has set; behold, my Lord, he kindles for me his lamp. The play of my sins has seen your righteousness, and still my pure eyes are open. The waters were troubled by the hand of the defiled one, that for me, my own, you would do my purification of sins, not that you would baptize them, that you would purify me, but that you would fear them, that you would pursue me. The waves and their watchmen for prayer, that my sins may be put to shame. See them, that full of repentance was for me the baptismal font. The sea, my Lord, which was for my embrace, and embrace in it mercies for sins. In the sea of the end, the embrace of bodies; in this, embrace sins instead of bodies. The yoke in mercies you placed, that it might preserve in it all my remnants, that the earth might not be rent in wrath. Make your need the earth of wood; I sufficed, I came one by one; I separated, I came one to one. My lands, three times, were filled and sufficed. And now, upon me, the waves press, that they might cut off the remnant that escaped in me. In the yoke, the remainder is preserved; preserve me, my Lord, also in me the leaven. The yoke in the mountain gave birth; in my lands, I will beget a father for the captives.

My Lord, rejoice in me, my imprisoned ones of mercy, for you rejoiced in the imprisoned ones of the olive. You sent a physician by the hand of a dove to the foundations that were shaken in all the waves. He pursued all their pains, for his joy swallowed up sorrow, and mourning is drowned in his exultation. And like a commander, he gave a signal to the bold ones. He sowed a voice among the persecutors. He tasted the fountains of the vision of the messenger, and hastened to open a mouth for your praise. Like an olive among the waves, let my eyes rejoice in me, my imprisoned ones of mercy. Support the sailor, and be fortified by your wall. Let the power that sustains all hold him, lest he fall like a weakling, for without my instruction, he fell upon weakness. My wall, be for me foundations, so that upon your wall my faith may be built. The hidden foundation of my trust, let it guide my walls, for the walls of Jericho fell, because their trust was built upon weakness. The wall sought a foundation in the sea, for upon the wall it sought its shepherd. Its foundation of spirit upon the wall, the beams of wood were planted in the waters. It darkens the souls within me for the creatures of the whole. And instead of the spirit of the mourner and the humble, it saw the fire that was sanctified in her. Behold, my virgins who were not wed, instead of the father-in-law who had spread the Persians, the hair of his father. Behold, the workers of righteousness who bent and clothed the apostles. With my pains I spoke, I uttered. My Lord, do not be angry that my words have angered the worthy ones who were silent, who were silent. My eyes are for me as for others who were at rest before anger made a nest of the house.

And they were rejoicing in him, all their waves. A spirit was blowing in the house of the wind, whose resting place is spread out like its nest. It closed the doors to guard the sick, it opened the treasuries to arm the pure. The spirit stood in the houses of the waves, of the mighty ones who died in the son, for the mouths of the destroyers who died within. The waves shook him, the mouths disturbed him. The inner ones helped him, the outer ones bowed before him. He quickly changed the difficulties, of the weak ones for you, my Lord, the shelters. Hear and weigh my breath with the spirit, and let my pain cease from his own. Your mercy makes the saviors equal, for here my children stand in his likeness, in the houses of the heat for the destroyers. Help, my Lord, with the inner ones, and bow before me, the outer ones, and crown my victory. And that the threefold slayer of his wrath, the threefold of his mercy, your third, the evil one will not prevail over your mercies, that you may come and set upon his deceit, and my victory will fly in the world, that glory may be gained for you in the world, or that the threefold may be considered. Do not let me die in the third.