On Reproof

On Reproof Ninth Memra On reproof, and it is fitting for fasting and prayer. The mortal nature is weak, which approaches perfection. For flesh and blood cannot inherit the life of the future. The inclination of his thought is set upon evil from the beginning, and when the desire for good stirs, his inclination turns it to evil. And when his will is set on good, two opposing thoughts contend. His inclination conquers his will, and leads it toward sins. His free desire subjects itself to the servitude of the lust of the flesh. And it binds him entirely in a chain from the pains of mortality. It is not for the good that he desires that he can accomplish his desire. But for the evil that he does not desire, his inclination compels him to do. He is cast into a prison of darkness, while struggling with his inclination. And he brings forth against sins the weapon of his free desire. Every man sins from his inclination and is enslaved to the passions. And the power of his desire does not prevail before the force of the lust of the flesh. Every human being is drunk who is troubled with himself. How can he be purified from the pains of mortality? There is one righteous victory that conquers the guilty body. For mortality has weakened his strength with the weapon of the Holy Spirit. To you, my Lord, are the praises of both, for your treasure is your sign, the sign of your mercy.

The power of the will, which is not something, and the unity that is not destroyed. It was not for your power, O will, that you called the evil inclination. To the evil inclination, O will, which is evil, that brings it against your will. Not in your nature did you bind the good and the evil of your nature. But to the freedom of your will you gave the two of them. It is your will that draws you toward the pains of mortality. And when your will desires, it ascends above the pains. It is your freedom that is sold into the servitude of the lust of the flesh. And if it pleases, it is freed from the bondage of the passions. And when the good is strong, your freedom has authority over both. Your nature is weak from this, that it alone is justified. By the power of your love you justified when your folly erred. And it cut off your will for the victory of the great power. And if, when your folly erred, your love did not withdraw from your iniquity. How much more now will your mercies heal your sin, your debts. And if, when we died in our sins, when we died in our sins: Christ died and revived us all. How much more now is it justified for the blood that sanctified our impurity. And if, when there were multitudes, they were in the death that blessed your flock. How much more now, through his awakening, will they be partners in his life. Where your folly erred, the power of grace was victorious.

The meaning of the just one stands, that the mercy of the wicked is for sinners. The wicked one, my lord, has turned aside from the path of rebellion against your nature. Let your mercy flow to the sinner who has sinned in the face of your evil. The cloud of the ranks of the passions conceals your separateness. Reveal your sin, the hiddenness that you spread, the error upon your heart. You do not know that your thought has blinded you from the truth. Let the light of your knowledge dawn, and see in it the blindness of your own self. The snares of the ranks of the passions spread out the salt of your teaching. Your sin is bitter to your thought, the sweet taste that destroys you. Your love is not needed for the persuader who, before he persuades, you already know. It was not in words that are spoken that the just one spoke to your chosen ones. It is not the anger over your transgressions that provoked you when it made you evil. You were being sought in your nature until you came into being. The pains of your weeping were revealed to your knowledge before you existed. And your laughter was for your desire, your hidden things and your secrets. You knew that the inclination that is in you would enslave you to the ranks of the passions, and you were persuaded that through death your nature turns your weeping to dust. In the marketplace of his life you would look before the yoke of your oppression. And you filled your body with life, the pleasure that is full of poison. You knew that two dwellings were fitting for him, for your weeping: the earth for the childhood of your thought, and the heaven for perfection.

The mystery of salvation was hidden by your knowledge with your concealment. And when the time of the decree arrived, you revealed your hidden will. You knew that one man would take from the body like a beginning. And by the sacrifice of his body you began to cut the judgment and death that were upon them. The mystery was hidden in the concealment of your knowledge, the arrogance of the rebellious body. And you revealed it after the time for the preparation of the concealment of your love. And if these revelations were to your just knowledge, they would not be. With your greater faculty you looked that you would not be troubled before the threats. You brought being into existence and you were heavy with speech. You turned from error to the path of the concealment of your lordship. By the slackness of your self you diminished the honor of the greatness of your image. And you raised the life of your help from the corpse to greatness. Your tyranny changed you from mercy to hardness. And your love became middling, and it will dwell with you with its greatness. Yours is the dwelling and the mercy that you will dwell with its sign. There is no pure one for you in the sanctuary except your sin that supports all. Because of you I was covered by the names of your remembrance. And when they are not worthy of your purity, you took a sign because of your love. Not your purity was diminished by the weak names of ours. To the madness of the body you added that you covered yourself with their names. There is no pure one of your essence, a place for you to go or to dwell.

And because of your love for us, you came to us in your humility. Your hiddenness is not diminished by the revelation of your face to the eyes of flesh. And in your body, as in a vision, we beheld the glory of your greatness. Your nature, the foundation of everything, neither descends nor ascends. And by the lowering of your will, you became heavy, like one who has descended. Joy does not gladden you, nor does sorrow grieve you. And you rejoiced at our deliverance and grieved over the small child. You divided the great treasure of your wisdom between the two heirs. And you did not consider it with your leniency concerning the confusion of your decree. Through the request of your lost ones, the will of your essence went forth. And when you found your joy for the heavens in its purity, you concealed the glory of the revelation of the error of the wicked with a stole. And by the seal of faith, you confirmed your confession for us. The seed of your word they received, and they bore in it the fruit of life. Do not give it to the cunning one who would cast his own tares into it. In your own vessels, you are weighed with love and not with humility. Let the name of the sonship of your economy be established in the deed. To the dwelling above your thirst, and to the life of the spirits. Do not let the evil of your self be stamped by the occurrence of great negligence. The hope of the greatness of your kingdoms makes the heart swell with pride. For how long will evil be done? Your reproof conquers our errors.

with unceasing reproofs you sealed the path to your kingdom. And your great weeping is a sea, and you do not lie in your weeping. In this vessel of your body, the petition for your lordship: that it is a sign you sought of the covenants, and you did not cut off the former ones. Upon the hope of your cross all are suppliant. It opened the door to the supplication of one who knocks at the door of your grace. Gently in your mourning, so that it not be disturbed over iniquity. Your arrow is the love of your will, that as is customary you act. Do not let your knowledge be scattered among the helps deceitfully. And do not ascend to the summit in that which is known, which consumes all. For the word of your petition is brief and does not reach the height of the above. Stretch out the hand of your cross and ascend with it to forgiveness. For the wing of your thought is heavy and cannot fly toward your love. With the wings of your mercies, be lifted from the depth to your greatness. For the light of your knowledge is deep from the confusion of the world. Let the light of your knowledge shine and show in it the blemishes of yourself. For those who do evil are strangers from the inheritance of the good. In the order of dogs, be arrayed from the pardons of your cross. So that the burden of the day not weary you in the labor of the vineyard of your knowledge. Your thanksgiving is not to be compared with the labor of the idle. How great is your folly, very small is your cross.

and there is no limit to your goodness. Your grace is like a shadow; yours is the debt and the mercies, and there is no limit to the wealth of your love. And the multitude of your reproofs bears witness that you established the way in mercies. Your grace is not to be measured, nor the treasure of your mercies to be exhausted. For when many take from it, they take and it remains as it was. From it spirits grow rich, and power cries out for its service. And by the power of his word he is strengthened, and all his desires are fulfilled. By him the paths of the dying who put on the body are filled. And by his help they ascend above the pains of the weeping one. To all ends he is distributed, to the heavens and to the earths, and to the eloquent and the silent he goes, and he is not diminished from what he is. Nothing can hold the gate of the great wealth of your debt. And your petition is not hindered at the face of the gate of your foolishness. Do not, O Lord, establish the deeds of the evil inclination of your knowledge. For how long will the flesh conquer, even when it conquers it is guilty? Again, all your reproof is the same, and in pains is the boundary of your life. And the gift of the life that stands, its course is after its cuttings. The waters of pains water it, the dust of your dying body. And the serpent of iniquity drags it and brings it down to humiliation. The power of the beast that is in the soul leads it to the good things.

and the impulse of his heart sinks him into the great depth of evils. He wages battles with himself and contends with his thoughts. And in the quest for mortality he shoots arrows at his limbs. He wins and loses at all times and does not cease from the struggle. And he is wholly shaken by the signs of sins. He is set against his own life, the mortality that dwells in him. And he is tormented by his mind, the painful sensation of his limbs. With these snares he entangles the impulse that is hidden in his limbs. When he binds him with the chain of the strong one, the sparks. O Lord, loosen his captivity, the key of whose sign is your reproof. And let your grace flow to him, the ear that seals his thoughts. Let the breath of your mercies go out, the one who binds his will. And let him be delivered from his sorrow by the hope of the greatness of your kingships. Let your reproof be a guide for the stranger who has no knowledge. And teach him the way of discipline, to the members of the kingdom of heaven. Let your mercies be poured out on his request, the one who has lost his way. And let your love reconcile him to the peace of the knowledge of faith. Let your sign be kindled in his fire, the pure one that lies in the wicked. And by the abundance of your sweetness let the blemishes of his soul be covered. If your help does not reach the death that is near to life. And if your remedy does not heal him, there is no cure for his wound.

The bitter poisons and the bodily pains. And his pain from iniquity day by day increases, goes astray, and is troubled. The pains have rebelled against the nature of the physicians of the earth. And the finger of iniquity has planted a cross from the spiritual and bodily. There is no physician for your sickness like the measure of your own mercy. And there is no one who strikes at it with his blow like the knowledge of your hiddenness. Are you not wearied by the pain of your foolishness, which has greatly increased? Your sin has hidden your blow and seized the limbs with sickness. There was no power in your sin to be turned away from help. The sick did not wish to receive the medicine of mercy for their healing. Are you not astonished at the iniquity that has been shattered by sin? It is your sickness that does not accept the medicine of life. It is sin that makes you stand in the places of the arrows of your mouth. And the afflictions of the body are many from the stones of the casting of your lips. Sin has found the knowledge of the separation of your sickness. And it has turned the word into a cry. By the request of cheapness. Your negligence has opened the door of sight, hearing, and speech. And thieves have entered and plundered the treasure of the deposits of the words of the spirit. The suitability of your thought did not detain you from the morning. And the day went out with its hours, and you did not work in it with profit. Your silence did not allow the mercy of the bowels to be poured out for the sake of Christ.

And he pattered and crushed the lamp of the clear light of the covering of the soul. The hidden things of the mysteries of the word of teaching were hidden from the kernel. And he did not distribute the hard ones to the silver of the word of Christ. By his wickedness he did not accept the forgiveness of the multitude of iniquity. So that he did not leave the thorns, the sight of bitterness became bitter and was embittered. Upon the rock of the hardness of the heart the word of teaching fell. And when the sun of the sins saw, the seed of the soul withered and dried up. By the path of your thought the word of life was sown. And a vulture in the form of a partridge snatched it from within your thoughts. Among the thorns of the steps of the ladder the ear of grain of life was dragged. And the forest of your errors grew up and choked the spiritual seed. The sins of the daughter did not give us that we might be ground in the path of the narrow one. And we went with many in the spacious paths of destruction. The weight of the hour of sin sank your light vessel. And your sleep did not awaken to receive the good of the king. These are the loosening of the bond of your error with your lordship. And after there was a door, your violence angered you. Not, my lord, did our destruction feel, and it will be sunk in sin. That you are from the depth of evils, as Simon from the sea. With buyers and heirs you astonish in the wealth of the multitude of your kingdoms. Do not falsify your promises. And let your wealth be for the poor.

He did not rejoice, the steward, when he left your inheritance. And he did not boast in his strength, he squandered the wealth of your possession. The spendthrift did not grow arrogant, that by his victory he conquered your gift. And he did not say, "I have conquered the way," and he did not stand before his heirs. The unclean demons did not rejoice over the humiliation of your evil deeds. He did not say, "I am the head of the air," that until now my authority rules. Let your love persuade the peacemaker, and let shame help the helper and the world. For your debt is great, the medicine for the pains of your iniquity. And it is easy for your goodness to find the blackness of your sins. Do not cut off your debtors, for without sinning, a person knows. For flesh and blood cannot be cleansed from stains. And if your petition is not fitting, that its questions be answered, you, have mercy, because you have been separated among the heirs of your greatness. Your peacemaker is a gentle love, and your helper is with your evil. And let your debt be moderate, and let it bring you a sign of the helper. Do you not know that he prays, as is fitting for forgiveness? Peacemaker, goodness upon your face, with supplication as is customary. Your peacemaker is with your goodness, even the beginning from the body. For because of the cause of your salvation, his equality is with your greatness. Receive from his hand your entreaty, from the midst of what you have chosen from us. And let the echo of the door of intention and forgiveness be answered for you.

Because of his wickedness he made his stewardship bitter, and in his sin he exalted his humiliation. And now that he has ascended and become arrogant, he takes up his causes in your presence. His choice is for your salvation, that he might live in his life your mortality. That he might be equal with you in the honor and authority of the essence. And he makes equal the power of his authority, which took the place of forgiveness. That it might be a refuge for your covering for the voluntary dweller. He took the place of forgiveness. That it might be a refuge for your covering for the voluntary dweller. And he dwells in the will of his love and purifies from the stains. By the consumption of his body he effaced the mark of wickedness from your heart. And he washes the cup of his blood for the turbidity of your thought. He gives the cause of forgiveness and the breadth of goods. They are established in both: forgiveness and the breadth of life. In his sin he annulled sin, and in his death he killed death. That your murderers might not be roused by the voice of the evils of their deeds. In the hope of these counsels, the evil of your petition is bound. Let not your trust be deceived, and let the evil that would stone you rejoice. Two sureties have been given to you: the faith of your thought. Hope and love that do not err, the affection of their kin. By love your thanksgiving is girded, and upon hope your trust is placed. And faith is surety that its promise is not deceived. Mercy comes to your house because of these counsels.

Lest the swift one be ashamed and become a maker of deceits. Let not your good things be turned into evil things because of sin. You, be steadfast in your serenity, and turn your face to the desire of your love. The wealth of your knowledge is not concerned with our petitions and reconciliations. For all that is good is yours. See and leave as is your custom. He has nothing to do that is not from the treasury of the maker himself. For even this reconciliation that he offers with the help of his own teaching is yours. The power of the wisdoms that dwell in the soul of the eloquent ones is yours. And from you they receive the gift of interpretation and discernment. By your treasury the wise become rich, and by your help the righteous. Your grace turns back the erring and increases hope for the lost. There is no good that is not yours, and no gift without your sign. For even this that calls to you, you yourself called and taught. Turn towards them and return to yourselves. Interpret the spirit among the simple. He does not desire your death, but your salvation. He has no thought for the dead that is not a desire for mortality. And he is not stirred by error. Spiritual thoughts. The thread of your love weaves from darkness to light. And it takes from him the covering that is spread over his mind. By your light the enlightened one sees, and by your knowledge he acquires life. From you he learns to interpret, and by your own he teaches others.

Whenever your wealth is increased and multiplied by your being mentioned, if you abandon your labor, it will be ruined and its treasures will be impoverished. Your wealth is bound by your goodness, and its poverty by your sorrow. If it is justified, it is adorned; if it is sinful, it is overturned. And when both sides are clearly seen, your servant is great and wise. He has put on pride to the point of death and boasts of his own servitude. When a little good ascends, his pride raises it to heaven; and when it is overturned by sin, his hope is cut off by destruction. If he stands in lamentation, he is cast down and becomes weak from pain, or is diminished according to his stature. For when wealth is heaped up by his labors, he scatters it by the laxity of his mind. By your foolishness your wealth is lost, and by your laxity your treasures are lost. And you diminish the honor of your image by the desire for evil loves. Your wealth is in heaven, and your shepherds are in the lands. You call to the dissolution of joys and delight in the dust of your mind. All your labor is in sin, and your business is in vanities. And the hours of night and day are not sufficient for your weariness. Your flesh is worn out, laboring in the field, weary over fruits. And when the causes wrong him, he is not left from his labor. The body and the soul's limbs are exhausted by the harsh yoke of sin. And they both bear the labor and do not perceive how deeply they are sunk.

There is no idle member that is not diligent for the sinews. Nor is there a moving joint that does not run after the seams. The whole of man offers himself every hour with his own self. And he divides his whole self over his whole self, and casts darts at his own person. The heart is divided over the members, and the members over the thought. And they conceal their doings from one another deceitfully. Without order, the members and the movements of the self run every hour. As they run in the stadium of no end and no crown. The sight of the eyes is cheap, and the hearing of the ears is false. The speech of the lips is deceitful, and your words are not true. With heart and heart the judge speaks with those near him. And the inner parts are not completed in outward deeds. Peace he bears on your lips, and he conceals anger in your thoughts. Sighs on your lips, and a sword hidden in your thoughts. False hearing enters and brings out a messenger of wrath. And it condemns the innocent and acquits the guilty. The eyes send out hunters after the prey of chastity. And the body is shaken, a lamb, by the victory of its own chastity. By the victory of the weak eye, the inclination is set like a snare. And instead of a voice, by a sign of fortune, it disturbs the weak inclination. It conceals the inclination of chastity within the door of the passions. And it changes voices by a sign that confuses the prey in its nets.

O the eye, the lamp of the body, the lantern of the outer senses, which became the cause of stumbling for the shepherds and the limbs. The heart signals to the tongue to speak deceitfully. And when the deed is not present, it translates it as if it were. With the reed of the mouth, the heart strikes the finger of the tongue. And the sound of the entrails does not correspond to the gesture of the finger of the speaker. It sings through it like a flute, sweet melodies. And the first hearing is sweet, but the end of the word is evil. Also the mouth, a trusty vessel, which stirs up the bitter chatter. For the sweetness of its market has turned and become the bitterness of evils. O the prison of victory, which turned and became a conqueror, and sold its freedom of authority into the slavery of conquest. O the tongue, the messenger, which delivers messages to two kings, which cast confusion among the limbs and divided against the self. O the chattering reed, whose voice of melodies has been silenced. O the arranger of silence, which fell silent and forgot its duty. The soul is weary over the body, and the body is not equal with the soul. For one thought is in the heart, and the mouth translates the opposite. Its slackness of will has cast down the writer and the book. And the writer and the book have become an excess for dissipation. The course of the writer is idle, and the sounds of the book are vain. And neither does the writer run in his order, nor according to the commands of the book.

In deceitful victory and shameful defeat. In gluttonous eating and drunken drinking. In contemptible sight and lying hearing. Slander upon the lips and death set at the head of the tongue. Deceit for the love of money and a bribe in the contest of the mouth. When one accuses his companion, that he might be more victorious. He strikes down all the contests of the dead for the prize of the love of glory. And when they thought they had conquered and ascended, glory ran and condemned them. Neither victory for their deceit nor reward for their labors. So that they might not sin against the evil of the spectator of vainglory. Fasting is slain by pride and prayer by praise. And the work of alms is nullified, and there are no fruits of forgiveness of iniquity. The body is sick with the desire of the flesh, and the soul with the love of praise. And the eye of reason is blind and not discerned in truth. The outer senses are weakened and the inner movements are disturbed. And the course of both is nullified from the discipline of sorrow. In the harsh fire of iniquity, members and thoughts are cast. And soul and body are submerged in the weight of the love of evils. O human, full of sorrows, from where will you be freed from sorrows? Seek and beseech if it is possible that mercy might come to your aid. If mercy does not heal you, there is no cure for your brokenness.

And if grace does not arise, your hope is cut off from sorrow. Good is He who created you in His image and likeness. Save your image and the work of your hands, and let not your nature be corrupted. In the name of your image, take honor upon your face for the sake of your image. Do not become a stranger to your household through alien thoughts. Your nature is small from this, and it is not equal to the name of your image. In you your salvation is fulfilled, like your first nature. Your slight gesture is easy, a renewal like nature. And your will is not bent because of the evil of your corruption. With mercy and love you establish, without entreaty and conciliation. Even now, with mercy and love, renew, embrace, live, and forgive. For your entreaty is not worthy that you be reconciled for the sake of forgiveness. Mercy and love are triumphant in your renewal as is your custom. Entreaty is not required for the Giver who is not impoverished. Nor does conciliation befit Him who knows all before. He has heard the voice of your entreaty until it comes to be. And He has smiled before His knowledge, conciliation until it is established. In you He would see from eternity, and He would be sought in all time. And ours and all are revealed to the hiddenness of His divinity. Not entreaty conciliates Him, the power of these His wisdoms. It is for you that He desires to show that will is what sins and repents.

By means of prayer he teaches you, that he may not be a bond that makes you sin. For as your nature distinguishes, it was easy for you not to sin. That nature which did evil and sinned, it was that which distinguished and was justified. And its own is the guilt and the victory of the foundations of the soul. Behold, the teaching that instructs you, the Creator, by means of prayer. That your will not be changed by your strength, as in the evil one. And when he knows well your ways, that his are both ends. He does not hinder from their correction because of his love for you. To your nature he gives victory because of the freedom of your will. And when your nature is freeborn, he teaches you how you may conquer. You, my Lord, have placed in your ways knowledge of these thoughts. You have taught me how your nature rules over your soul. And you have shown me as one who knows, and made me wise as one who is gentle. Accept now my prayer, in which is depicted the image of your wisdom. To you they give from what is yours; accept from my hand your gift. Take what is yours and give me what is yours, for it is fitting for you to give from what is yours. The prayer of the covering of your greatness has weakened the word of my frailty. And I have been stirred to be equal to the small treasure of your gift. By the abundance of your love, I have weighed the choice of my wretched thought. And I thought to seek if I might be able to receive the reward of forgiveness. Upon the completion of your law, the strength of the study of teaching has been established.

Show me the way to go in it to the sins of perfection. Stretch out your hand to nature that wishes to ascend from its iniquity. By the power of your help, the youth who begins to flicker is strengthened. The ember of love awakened me as from sleep. At the dawn of your sign, the sleep of iniquity will be driven from my mind. Against the light of your knowledge, the waves of my thoughts are troubled. Reveal the hiddenness of the cloud that is spread above my contemplation. The spiritual law set for me the foundation of victory. Bind my limbs with words toward the truth, the foundation of life. By the request of the word of teaching, you wished to make the beauty of my mind shine. By the irrigation of the spirit, the dryness of my thoughts will be watered. With the silver of your word, I desire to be enriched if it is possible. At the eleventh hour, I am urged by the signs to take a reckoning, lest I forget the weight of the day. Your mercy is the remainder of your debt. Do not think of the mysteries, I will equal the reward by words. By the meditation of words, I desire to summon workers for your service. Hear my words, even the simple ones, that I may be a laborer in your vineyard. You wished to rebuke the spiritual loaf for the needy. And cover the members that are stripped of shame with mercy. Go out, your love, with words after the lost sheep. And be rebuked by all the fruits for the fitting bird of your mercy.

Be active with my hands as is customary to be active with the hand of sinners. And let me be a cause of increase for my standing and for the lowliness of my fellows. The bridegroom calls to death and hunts his companions to destruction. By the calling of the words of truth the dead who died in their sins. At the sound of their utterances they will awaken, the sleepers who were buried in sin. And they will cast off the weight of their debts at the hearing of the second morning. Your peace is for them your will, so that the one who comes to your peace does not cease. Your sending is your love with debts, so that the voice of repentance may be heard. Come to you, the dew of your mercy and the foundations of righteousness. And it will bear the fruit of the sign within the roots of your thought. Spiritual seed will sprout in your very soul, the fertile land. And it will bear fruits of life to your heart, giving joy. Let it resound with the voice of your commands, the dull hearing of your thought. And let your teaching be a way to the voice that brings consolation. By the choice of clarity, the lamp of your thought was darkened. Let your truth be a mirror, and let the help of your soul go out through it. The mouth that was a passage and a bridge for frivolous voices. Let it sing in it the voice of your will, a confession without division. Let the temple of your body be sanctified, and let the movements of your soul be purified. And let hope and love dwell in it in the perfection of faith. Let it say that your humanity is one, body and soul together as one.

And in the garment of humility, the evil inclination is condemned to be active. It justifies the separation, victory if it is found. And it is condemned like a guilty one, the weaknesses are slack in the arm. A voice of love comes to you, which strengthens the encampment of the body. And it subdues the power of the members with a cushion against pains. For the weapon of your mind is weak before the weaknesses of your belly. With faith you are nourished, receiving a reward for hardships. By the strength of your help, the evil inclination is condemned, the deceitful inclination is to be restrained, which fights against the self with the weapon of the freedom of your will. My Lord, the living one, makes the bird of life, your need seeks the mighty. And look at that with your truth, the watchers, servants of your will. Your sweet voice calls, that you may return among the penitent. And the wicked one has cast off the garment of your healing, and they have put on the garment of humility. The wicked one has cast off your shame and diminished the name of your honor. With the garment of your mercy, be covered, and your name will be exalted by your humility. The sinner has killed your honor and covered the face of your freedom. By a sign, your power is troubled by the wicked one, the grave of the two. By their sins, they are given over to the servitude of mortality. By the silver of your love, be freed from the slavery of sin. Your branches have healed the beauty of the fittingness of height and depth. And in your evils, the heavens and the earth have dried up from fruits.

In the harshness of your injustice, the elements are changed to shame. The mouth is dried up from glory, the seed is dried up along with the fruits. So that the thought of your mind becomes barren of the fruits of righteousness. The earth is silent over the fruits and does not bear for you a proper season. That truth may be changed into falsehood and not be established in verity. Outside of order, behold, it drives the changes of summer and winter. Winter is heaped up outside of order, and summer outside of propriety. When it drives your evil garment in a storm and heat without order. Hunger and thirst proclaim it to the profligacy of your mind. And your well-disposed heart is not aware of the garment that swallows up your mind. Your body is bound in fetters by a chain of pains and griefs. And violently it leads you, death drags you to the house of the dead. The rod of headship is erected and it tosses you about in confusion. When it pursues you violently, the head is ashamed and new burdens are taken up. Kings command anew and heads without cessation. And with the confusion of the mind, injustice increases and is troubled. And were it not for the abundance of your love and the wealth of your many mercies, the world would have perished from now in the harshness of your injustice. Your love conquers in fetters the multitude of our evils. And your worthlessness is covered by the beautiful garment of your help. To you, Lord, it is fitting to bear the difficulty of the evil of your inclination.

The treasure of your mercy is not to be exhausted, and your grace is not to be diminished. In the midst of our pride, you are harsh and a helper of the humble. And there is no sacrifice that is guilty before you, for your help conquers for us. Among all the Chaldeans with their courses, your sweet mercy runs. And it grows according to the measures of youth and old age. With us your grace goes forth and does not remain from the time that it came. When it pursues after our iniquity, it does not become weary and dwell with us. How can we have a likeness to you, a sinner who loves our pride? How can one who errs in our difficulties be like your sweet love? From what can the difficulties of our pride be filled like your treasure house? For when the first ones do not repay, your gift is abundant in mercies. The evil of your love toward us looks upon the word of our petition. How fitting you are to receive a reconciliation in place of sins, that the guilty may be subdued and rest from the difficulties of their lives. And your mercy cries out like thunder: "Arise, the lowly, and enrich the poor." Not our will snatches us to be cleansed over the pardons. You are the one who causes the penitent to offer even words in place of labors. They speak according to your will, the words of our mouth toward you. And those who are cast away from deeds, clothe them with the garment of your help. How can one trust in the ordinances of mortality? And how can one be justified from hidden things that are not revealed?

You are the one who dwells in the house of affliction, that we may be made wise by your hidden ways. You are the one who teaches us how to apply the medicine to our sickness. Help our weakness, which has no existence apart from your help. Do not cease from helping us, lest it perish forever. In its strength, bind ourselves with the fetters of labors for the sake of righteousness. And in every generation that has held us, with names, consume our members. And if there were in our members members that were not dissolved, your help stood before them, and the arrows from the evil one did not consume them. To you are indebted, grace, both good and evil equally. For if the righteous are justified, it is yours; and if sinners are forgiven in you, it is yours to forgive iniquity and to perfect righteousness. By your power, pursue the righteous; and by your help, the sinners. Do not cut off our youth, the ordinances of ignorance. When our good nature makes us sin, we sin and are not aware when we sin. Do not consider with our laxity the transgression that violates your commandments. For if you seek retribution, no man can avoid sinning, nor can a mortal be justified. For his creation is from the living one, and the living one loves his own. With his dust, the dust rejoices, and to his dust it returns every day. And his life passes away like a vapor, and is not preserved in the end. Mortality covers him, so that he does not weary in the regions. And pains and griefs pursue him, and his fire consumes him.

Your reproof pursues the sicknesses of the one who loves pains. And your hidden wisdom is mingled with the sweet taste of your commandments. Your wink opens the door of renewal in his relaxed countenance. And from him is loosed the chain by which iniquity cast his neck. Your sweet voice awakens the one who sleeps, who is immersed in sin. And he converses with the spirits, giving praise to the life-giver of sinners.