Nisibis 49

The sound of his voice is strong. Look at the bitterness of the earth, which casts away the sin that is sent forth, the scattered and dispersed provision. It also provides sustenance and clothing for both of them, vines that do not yield fruit. The fruit, the early and the late, the fruit for the farmer, how much fruit for its owner! His seeds that do not grow, a deception. Your truth will be what it will be. The leaven that binds you, for it is not one body that is sown, and many, like sin from it, they seek in the furnace. One fell and stood up, the ear of your tribes, which hid from the deniers, how they denied! But if he had not put on a body, like you, he would have tasted death. And if his body had not been killed, it was in the sweat that he ended his bread. The earth also bears the reptile, giving birth by command, the crookedness of the pure ones, the reptile in its life, how it rejoices in its son, that he lives and is comforted, that by its cause he grew, that he was created. The hand of the Creator was heavy on its firmness, and by its cause it became ill. He bowed and walked in it. Evil is the root, from Sheol in the furnace, the seed of life is choked within its depth. For in Sheol, from the place, the living one is not buried. It is the body that enters it when it dies. If the root is, it will open the eyes of the people, how much fruit its belly, of the earth in the furnace! It is hard and also strong, from Sheol in the help of the living and the dead.

The earth swallows in its depth, the body within its womb. It kept by command, gave forth a shoot, and multiplied the gourd and the large plant. It opened for the beholders, instead of the third ones, it showed the fourth ones. The mountain is the one that for many ground in its depth; three fell into it and multiplied within its womb. The mountain that was dark over all that it devoured, it repaid the one who wished to be finished, who added to what was lost, and when it did not demand repayment, he added and took and shamed, and was repaid and was darkened. He is like a usurer who lends and does not demand; his money pursues him to the lender. The lender lends and takes it up, the interest and the large sum. The mountain outside its nature opens something that does not belong to it. How much does the earth repay? Its debt with interest to the creditor who demands it.

The dead body gives birth to shoots without coupling. And that which is dead, death, gave birth to life. How does the All-Enlivener revive the deadness of the dead body? The dead body gives birth within the depth. And that which is death cast down life. How do its bones cast down at the voice of the All-Enlivener? The shoots of the fissure and the branches of the tree, the bones without movement had cast down at the command. The house sought its own self, for its architect commanded it, and the death of the king was within the depth. The worker was from the rib, who brought bones and was strengthened by his requests of that temple which he built. The winter without mercy, in the pattern of the tyrant, went out and showed you the shoots. The All-Enlivener sends forth the trees, he makes their leaves wither, so that he may clothe them with garments of the season. He was a wonder to death in all things. Jesus repays you, and the mystery of the All-Enlivener. To the flowers and the trees, he changes their garments, to the grasses and roots, and the flowers and buds, he delights in their beauties and dyes their interiors. The good one who is over the flowers, who borrowed nothing, is wasted for his goodness in all things. He pitied the misery of the one who was oppressing and erring against the bodies of his beloved ones. At the coming of his advent, how does he conceal the sun within his cloud? How does he hide the mountain with its rocks? How does he cover the truth with its falsehoods? For he was a hope to the sick. How does he deceive the pain of the remedy? The good one whose witnesses testify to his zeal. If the joyful one is a liar who receives Abraham, and they will be in the kingdom.

Both of them in purity, how joyful the soul that it may receive its partner. Their separation testifies to their love. The wombs of your expanse, what they separate they cause to weep, so that again one to another they desire to see each other in resurrection. Call the body that it may be a witness to its resurrection, for when Adam was formed with that dark nature, the mixture of separations was placed in him in a hidden way. It was dust that was transformed into every form, which spoke, saw, and heard, and smelled, touched, and tasted, and cast sin and fell, and was deprived of life and ascended, a shoot and a branch that was established by command, which swallowed without profit, and was pursued without receiving, and when it did not profit from a sign, it repaid every sign with a channel. Death that was established is emptied in the cleft of the sound of silence, and the thunder of that shell, which is the shell of the dead, at the entrance of the son of the king. And just as it went from silence, within the night it happened, the thunder of the good and strong, and the cleft of the good and weak, it awakens the sleeping and restores the natures. Thus in that final shell, its voice raises the dead; it was not that it was strong, but rather the command was loosed in it in resurrection. And when they were awakened from silence, they are amazed and emboldened, for one remembers his iniquity, another his impurity. That hour, blessed are they who remember it, for in it the innocent tremble and confess that it is destructions that strike in it, of wrath against the wicked, and they seek after the afflicted. All of them in that time.