Nisibis 16

In the voice of his son, In this present spectacle, the beautiful one shows the depth of her simplicity, That there are seals in her substance, that she has a side upon which A covering is placed before the viewers: A hidden one. Blessed is the one who adorns the spectacle Without beauty being fashioned in it, and without a blemish being defiled in it. A middle [is] she, all of her, for the beautiful ones whose beauties are not bartered. Adornments like advantages, Blemishes are not uprooted in her, nor do faults increase in her. A blemish that is firm like a middle, that which was not a fault, a loss it was. The middle encountered loss. The spectacle is a dark joy, all of her, for the blind, Whose blemishes are not covered; but for the empty and clear one, That freedom of yours which is to be fashioned, The middle encountered loss for the blind and the beautiful ones. The not-beautiful were crowned, and the blind were not fashioned. The middle divided the spectacle. There is no end that the spectacle bore in the short one for the one who looks after her, Nor the grace that came upon the distress of the tyrant. The short one of the tyrant is a voice. Distress was for youth, a fashioning of the short one, For the youth was indeed a service; its fashioning was in the short one, While its freedom did not shave. Throwing and striking, distress began against youth. When her blow disturbed her, her strike, insolence, rebuked; Her throw is pleasing to the minds. ------ That was fashioned on the days of my brothers For another hope, it is a child in the sacrifice of the greatness of the mind.

He had that which is without thought, For by the step of perfection, that one descended to infancy, To that law which loves servants, where it extends, it strikes him, And where it expands, it leaps upon him. All his intention regarding the knot was not true, for it was a question. This great thing for God, who from himself made a sign, was prepared. In the likeness he took the knot, So that just as distinctly in his offering he gave the knot, So distinctly he took it in the offering of his replacements. Humility is required, For how fitting it is for the childhood that was a run under the rod. It is very fitting that under the rod, wisdom be subjected, For the knot is master over it. Look therefore, according to the order, also my God, In the intentions that were mine and in the teachings that he gave me, And in the fathers who brought me, That they be weighed with their offerings, the forms of their schemes, In which one is worthy of authority and in which one is suitable for reproach, And in which one is fitting for humility. In the balance, let my habits walk; for my childhood I let loose the rein. Also for my youth, authority for my wisdom and for my distinctness, I let loose, giving it humility. In boldness and the step of childhood, the nourisher of strength was to me. His rod restrained me from captivity and from the corruption of its rein, And from the loosening of its authority. A different father gave to my youth that which was in me from childhood. There was in him from the hardness that was in me from old age. There was in him humility.

When I was raised from the steps of childhood and youth, the first threshold passed, the threshold of adolescence passed, it gave me a sweet shepherd. Behold, for my perfection, his food; and for my wisdom, his interpretations; and for my tranquility, his humility; and for my sweetness, his pleasantness; and for my severity, his gravity. Blessed is he who, as if by a measure, weighed and gave me fathers against my storms of wrath, and against my pains of poison, [and against my beauties of desire. He it is, then, who prepared for me a yoke and a seemly order, that in the storm of trampling, behold, harshness seeks to be seated in it like a child.]