On Reproof

On Reproof Memra Thirteen On reproof and the one who contends with petition. A reproof that has been received by me through my dwelling-place, and it shakes in it the course of spiritual life. Evil is the conduct that has been established for me among the earthly ones, and it is very difficult for one who wishes to live beautifully. The structure of the Sabbath of my days is disturbed from all my days, and there is in it no order that resembles the ancient word. The light of separation is dim, the light of the two, and there is no one who exalts its honor with the word of truth. The foundation of faith is weak, the whole is confused, and no one knows how to teach the beautiful purity of his soul. The love of the one whose boiling is good is cold from fire, and everyone boils in harsh anger against his companion. The hope of the one who holds the gate of the kingdom is weak in meaning, and the body is strong in its movements, the soul in the passions of the earth. Life and the books of the wise of humanity are scattered and despised, and the course of separation and the writings are idle. The exercise of spiritual things is considered as nothing, and everyone speaks of earthly things without satiety. The conduct of holiness is small, the pure mouth, and the foolishness of cheapness is loved, a foul help. The order of the ordinance of creation is confused, the sound of the creator, and everyone runs on the drunken path of fornication.

Deceit and murder and sorcery have greatly increased upon the earth, and they have destroyed and ruined the fruits of love from humanity. Sorcerers and diviners and soothsayers and empty ones have multiplied in the creation, and they have persecuted truth so that it cannot prevail among mortals. The harsh authority of demons has been extended in their actions, and they have struck the world with the harsh rod of their blasphemies. The band of ministers of righteousness has become small, and every laborer of the earth has ceased without ceasing. The lovers of the thought of spiritual things have become few, and there is no number for the lovers of the love of earthly things. In earthly things, earthly ones have become dark day and night, and the air is not sufficient for their gaze to look upon the face of the height. Those below desire the mixed ones who are near to the kingdom of the height, and here they are eager to remain in the dwelling-place of the earth. Mortality has imprisoned them in the bonds of pains, and it has brought everyone to the prison of mortality. No person perceives the harshness of the yoke of suffering, and there is none who knows how to escape from its harshness. In the despised dwelling-place that is full of thorns, they are eager to live, and they are not wearied for that place which is not corrupted. The precious and beloved sacrifice is cut off from their lives, as if the delight of tranquil life is not considered true. There is none who knows that interpretation which is full of blessings, and if not, it is of words that he speaks to him and not of actions.

In words they show all the good deeds that are not spoken, and when they are true, they are not true to their thoughts. Like a story, they consider the course of the world that is to come, and every man fears when he does not fear truly. They make true things not true for the untrue, and deceitfully they show shame in their deeds. They put on the garment of love of truth upon the limbs, and the movements of the soul are revealed and they please without purity. The body is adorned like a tree that bears fruit that withers, and in the thoughts there is no possession of stability. With leaves he adorns his vineyard of love like a vine, and within his branches are hidden carobs that are not edible. For winter, the sacrifice of the one who errs resembles that of the earth-dwellers, and like trees that are pruned, the fruit is cut off from the good deeds. The wild beast of iniquity has seized the land of speech, and the laborers have ceased from the work of the beautiful things. The snow of wickedness has fallen upon the movements like upon mountains, and it has blocked the entire path, and there is none who walks toward righteousness. The love of money has struck the soul in the form of hail, and the leaves of faith have withered from the thought. Like a whirlwind, it has broken the branches in the heat of the air, and the skilled craftsman, the weaver of the tomb, has trembled and been confounded. The harsh mill of the wheels has ground in the creation, and thoughts have arrived that are not beautiful in the request of love.

Injustice has cast its net over the earth without equity, and it sees the oppressor, and the wombs have dried up, and the need has passed. The love of truth is the cause of the birth of life within thoughts, and like a wasp it strikes and destroys the root of the self. The swollen pride has rebelled in the cleft of the height of the spirit, and it begins to offer opposition to the ranks of humility. Envy grinds and smolders in the paths before the travelers, and it strikes the world with the hard stones of its bitterness. And like a moth, destruction has crept into the thoughts of man, and it has consumed the fruits and the leaves, and the root remains. Like a root, the thought remains without deeds, and only a little life of life stands in it. The speaking vineyard of Adam's branches has become desolate and withered, and demons have trampled its shoots with wild beasts like passersby. Not a single grape remains in it that has not been crushed, and if one remains, there is no wine of life in it. Woe to us, lest the master of the vineyard come with us and accuse our injustice like the Jews. Woe to us, lest the herald call the silent witnesses who were witnesses to our wickedness that has destroyed its love. Woe to us, he will say with the glorious herald of the spirit, that man was the harvest of summer as it is written. There is no cluster in our vineyard that is sweet like the firstborn, nor a firstling that has been ripened in it, a sign of its planting.

He speaks like the daughter of the voice of falsehood, that the just one has perished and there is no longer one who is upright among the judges. In their heart is guile and on their lips are lies. And like hunters they set snares with their tongues. The ruler stands, demands unjustly, and the judge also increases, pursues rapaciously. The great one speaks according to his will and is not ashamed, and as if he were not a man, a man is considered for the height of his spirit. The one who teaches with authority teaches, and not from love; and the one who learns with the affection of the grade is negligent toward his master. The teacher does not live for the sake of the great one, the Messiah; nor does the learner follow the order of discipleship. The light of the masterhood is darkened for the disciples, and the taste of discipleship is bitter in the mouths of the masters. The great one teaches words that are audacious, and not deeds; and the disciple also hears words, and not the meaning. With the eyes of the flesh he meditates on youths with words of the spirit, and to the members he shows the powers of the mysteries. The flesh looks fleshly at spiritual things, and like a shadow he considers the reality of future things. With the senses of the body, man is hindered from true perceptions, and as in a dream he marvels at divine mysteries. Truth is like a dream in our generation when it is seen, and yet the dream is more true to the foolish than it is.

The true one is a dream to the false, and when the good one is a liar and turns aside from his path when the good one is confounded by the truth. Truth cries out in the scriptures, and no man heeds, and the knowledge of the earth-dwellers sinks down to hear the earth. The swift runner runs alone among the letters, and great is the weariness of those who pursue the broad path of iniquity. The good one is brighter than the sun for those who see clearly, and to the dark ones the good one loves darkness more than his light. The good one's wealth is more desirable than gold and pearls, and the pursuers of silver do not even perceive that he has wealth. The good one is sweeter than honey and honeycomb to the palate, but to the unjust his cup is bitter and not to be received. To the lovers of his love his wealth is beloved and his food is sweet, but to the oppressors his very portion is harsh when it is spoken. The good one cries out that he is heavier than all and sweeter than all, and upon the proud his taste is insipid and his wealth is spread out. David receives that his words are preserved with caution: and the crooked of heart fled from his presence from the evil one. Evil men consider the good one to be evil for the wealth of truth, and as from a potent poison they recoiled from his cup. The dead are cast down by the severe pains of desires upon that harsh word of truth concerning their pains. To the sick the body resembles a man, to the sick of soul the good one of falsehood is the difficulty of his pain for the physicians.

The true one is a dream to the false, and when the good one is a liar and turns aside from his path when the good one is confounded by the truth. Truth cries out in the scriptures, and no man heeds, and the knowledge of the truth is a physician of the magi. They are ashamed of the shame of their sins, and they do not approach the gate of truth. They conceal the blemishes of their deeds with ignorance, and they do not seek that after death there is no healing. They wander in the hope of the mercy of the living magi, and they do not understand that if there is mercy, there is also wrath. If there is mercy for you, O man, what do you accept that there is wrath that cannot be conquered? If mercy conquers, there is no wrath in judgment; and if wrath judges wrathfully, there is no forgiveness. If wrath accepts what is judged by its trial, and learns well that wrath and good are not equal. For the Creator judges well, and every creature confesses; and the merciful one testifies to the debt of the flesh. It is necessary to distinguish and call wrath and good, for good is for the penitent, and wrath for the one who does not repent. It is clear that the inclination rules over both, and if it pleases him, he changes the natures toward forgiveness. And in him is placed the treasury of the treasures of life and death; why does the evil inclination boastfully exult? The inclination holds the gate of the kingdom if it wills, and it is he who brings in and he who sends out according to his will.

Also that voice which preaches the path of the kingdom of heaven cries out concerning the kingdom, that within man it is and in it he begins. And if the kingdom fills with life in man who begins, there is no one more foolish than the man who wastes his life. As if he did not waste his life, he wastes the truth, who abandons the path of the broad life and pursues error. Against his own nature and against the truth, man stands, and though he knows, he oppresses himself and his perfection. A great oppression: the dead have oppressed the life that is in them, who have despised the law that the Creator set for their correction. They have abandoned the command of the Most High, who raised them above all, and have loved the sin of the slanderer who made them small. They have cast away the name of the honor of their greatness in his praises, and have given the honor of the name of greatness to the one who is not God. They have trampled the law, the light and the salt, and also the quiet one who preaches the path and sets taste and shows the way. They have blocked his commands, the high wall against the faces of iniquity, and wild beasts have entered, evil habits, and have destroyed its fruits. Locusts and bears and lions, evil beasts, have come upon the vineyard of the law of the work of man. Mosquitoes and gnats and also flies, creeping vermin, have settled on its leaves, have plucked its fruits, and have scattered its seed. In the likeness of vermin, thoughts have crept, wild and untamed, and have climbed and reached the great height of the law of the spirit.

The body and soul grew weary and bowed down under the burdens, and they were not preserved in the vessels of their thoughts. The barking of a dog stands against the truth, and the more it barks at its brightness, it is as it is. Audacity bites at the impudence of a wolf, and even if many voices cry out against it, it is not hindered. Greed, the flesh that begets murder, preys like a lion and raises its voice against judges and their laws. Covetousness became like a bear, roaring, and the more it drinks of what it has seized, it is again inflamed. The love of money buried the nets in the sea and gathered them in, and it hunted peoples and cities into its depth. The love of glory closed its ears to supplication, and like a hangman it cut off the power within the books. Falsehood, the daughter of the evil one who bore her after him, surpassed her father in the art of slander. It resembles a fox in its deceitful transformations, and like moles it burrows in the earth without being stopped. Insolence, the madness that runs in the desert without supplication, fled from the thorn of humility that pierces the flesh. Gluttony, the insatiable belly of Sheol, swallowed the world and it was not known that it had consumed anything. Wrath, the bitter poison that rages in its hour and whose harm is evil, passed over the field of discernment and destroyed its fruits.

Anger placed a fire in the likeness of a flame in the vessel of the soul, and the senses and limbs burned together in its heat. As a fire blazed and consumed the beautiful things, and no fruit of tranquility remained in the vineyard of humanity. As wild beasts, the passions entered into the den of the heart, and devoured its fruits and left it bare like winter. A harsh winter of disturbances raged in creation, and the world ceased from spiritual labor. The darkness of error, the night of doubt, overcame the truth, and falsehood ascended to a high rank above righteousness. As the days of winter are few in good things, and as the multitude of nights, so evil abounded. There is in our generation no likeness of summer in the labor of life, and no one who trembles before the passions as before a fever. As in winter, the mind is imprisoned in the temple of the body, and the nakedness of iniquity twists its diligence. Through the channels of summer, the season brings life to the earthly ones, and through the storms of winter, the hidden one conceals the soul. For the labor of iniquity, the change of the months of the year is small, and for the pursuit of righteousness, not even one day. In the harvests of summer and winter, humanity does not become weary, and in the divisions of the day, there is much murmuring. The sacrifice is exhausted, there is no satiety for the one who offers, and the end of life conceals its weariness as something excessive.

Anger placed a fire in the likeness of a flame in the vessel of the soul, and the senses and limbs burned together in its heat. As a fire blazed and consumed the beautiful things, and no fruit of tranquility remained in the vessel. Like a tyrant, he considered the foolish ones worthy of the spirit's wrath, and like a whirlwind, he was calm and hastened away from the good things. Like a beast, the body together with the mind was submerged, and it was not roused by the voice of the call that proclaims life. The beast of iniquity loved the dens greatly, and it did not incline its ear to hear the voice of the church at dawn. In poverty, it was eager for the soul among the poor, and it was not grieved for the great wealth that is hidden in height. In the place of height, a joy that cannot be destroyed is hidden, and upon the earth, the earth loved the good more than the height. The heavenly ones, who cannot be seen, are full of hidden things, and the earthly ones seek to stand firm in the earth. In the height, he fixed the living foundation of the confession of his words, and there is none who can compare, not even in words, to approach his likeness. By the power of the spirit, he interpreted the future things, and like a finger, he pointed through his heralds. Like a threshold, he formed the good things and the cords in the revelations, so that he might rule over the eyes of the flesh to see the hidden things. In the form of an image, he fixed his commandments in the writings, so that all might see the true physician whose name is by the revelations. Within the palace of the writings, he inscribed his concealment, so that every man might enter and see the essence in one letter. The greatness of his love desired to show the works of his hands, and he wrote a book and read it as a debt of love.

the vessel. The great power of his anger pressed upon the letters, not upon his essence, and gathered his actions in the limbs, not in his covering. The man sought a palace of the tablets of the scriptures and placed within it the memory of the mysteries of his secrets. Like a treasury, he made a spiritual law and gathered and filled it with the decrees of judgments concerning the erring. He sought a kingdom for himself in the land, filled all creatures, and established the rule of the dweller within him in a holy manner. He placed within it a treasury of the spirit that cannot be counted, which would suffice for the earthly and the heavenly. He made his treasurers from the sons of his love, who are called by his name, so that they might wisely distribute their portions like knowers. The keepers of the divine treasury were chosen ones, and they exchanged the wealth of glories for trifles. The sons of the palace brought out the secrets of the king of kings and raised a hand against the creator of the honor of his essence. The servants of the king fled from the king who rules over all and bound secrets with the rebel who would be his own. The sons of the kingdom abandoned the custom of the royal house and began to traffic in the works of agriculture. The guests of sin drank spiritual delight and went out to shine in the streets for trade. The sons of God who were equal to the name of the immortals descended from the divine rank and stood upon the earth.

They died the deaths of the tablets, not the deaths of the letters, and they cut off hope that the name of those they destroyed would ever again be active. With all their limbs they trampled the hidden sign of the weight of the letter, and they rejected his law and emptied his words, which are indissoluble. By means of the law the letter was hidden, how many times he besought them, and through the scriptures he chose the foam of their thoughts. As if into a furnace the letter entered by means of his commandments, and the letter was purified, but they were not purified from the sects. Again, then, he speaks like a daughter of the voice of chastity, who vainly exercises the spirit in the furnace of the law. He spreads his grace like Jeremiah to the sons of his people, for whom there was no profit in rebellion against wickedness. Your tyranny is very similar to that of the Jews, and your thoughts rebel more than theirs from instruction. They did not thirst for the words of the spirit as they did for water, nor did they dispute about the future in the silence of their own. The Israelites did not reject and cast off their teachers, as the peoples thirsted and raged against the knowers of truth. The name of the Creator was not blasphemed among the Hebrews, as the blasphemies with which the impious raged against our faith. The people were broken towards the conduct of perfection, and at the time of his sacrifice he did not delay much in those we have mentioned. The peoples who received the full wage of the kingdom of Rome turned the customs of frivolity better than the youths.

They cast down the weight that is placed in the writing that cannot be destroyed, and they overturned the heavy yoke of the tablets. They always persecute Judaism and paganism, and they are not ashamed how much they are wounded from both sides. They judge with them concerning what they err from the side of truth, and they are not ashamed that they themselves err with the erring ones. The pagans honor their gods as good, and God restrains his honor from his worshippers. The teaching of every heresy is beloved to its hearers, and the teaching of truth is despised and diminished by its servants. The Jews are occupied with tablets that are not true, and when it is good they cast aside, they are quickly many like householders. They keep the order of their ancient masters, and they are not separated from their conduct when it is good, it is a lie. They repay the debt to their teachers the Marcionites, and when they lie, they put on the likeness of truths. The followers of Arius err well concerning the writings, and they increase inquiry upon a foundation that is not true. The magicians are pressed by magic, the vain knowledge of demons, and they adorn it as if it exists when it does not exist. There is no people in creation that errs so as to worship it, and none that changes the worship of the Lord whom it serves. The sound of his calling awakened the city to the heir of his lot, that he might stand and complete the silent letters as before.

Arise, Jeremiah, and weep bitterly as is your custom, and call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against wickedness. The two evils have also done to the peoples in the likeness of the people who abandoned the yearning for spiritual things and loved that of the earth. They abandoned the law, a gentle yoke that subdues life, and dug a pit of falsehood, crumbling pits. Among the peoples, even that which he said, that the people do, who abandoned truth and pursued the vanity of emptiness, is fitting. Upon them also the roaring of the lions that opened the mouth of demons to blaspheme is fitting. Against the Hebrews are the Babylonians and Assyrians; upon them, behold, the eloquent lion, the accuser, is raging. For the people who did evil with their own people, the peoples who are worse than him, and woe upon the sinners, behold, the demons and afflictions press upon you. The penalty of his iniquity the people receive at the hand of the peoples, and ours remains the cord of our iniquity until the day of judgment. How much more does the penalty of ours surpass that of the Jews, for whom it is proclaimed at the hand of Esau, and for us at his rising? Severe and great is the penalty of him who is better than Esau, and Paul testifies that it is a great slaughter to fall into his hands. His word is living and sharper than a sword, and like a fire it burns the filth that is within the soul. In deceit it enters with the evil thoughts that pursue, and it separates them from the company of angels and from the children of the church.

Arise, Jeremiah, and weep bitterly as is your custom, and call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against wickedness. The two evils have also done to the peoples in the likeness of the people who abandoned the yearni. The great judge says to the people of separation, that injustice is to it and to its children, its holy voices. With the great judge, the evil one administers the iniquity of laxity, that his words are foolish and he is not restrained from his commandments. Wisely he arranges the cords over the evil deeds, of those who trample the order that is established in the books and in the scriptures. Faithfully he pursues labors with the palm of his sign, and he rejects the one who trembles and chooses the one who is fit to enter with perfection. A harsh pursuit and thick cords fill his commandment, against the lax ones who do not advance, they burn in the furnace of his judgment. The signs of repentance pursue because of his great love and his illuminations, that before they show his love and his cords, they did not distinguish and know. According to his counsels he increases and pursues from his houses, that they did not weary themselves to gain the future life. The counsel of life without end he inscribed in his books, that he who sees the sign in the scriptures for the one without end. The good path that is full of the tranquility that he set in his fingers, that everyone who enters the house of courses towards the accustomed ones. Like a spectacle he establishes the law in the house of the earths, that they may look into it and see the blemishes that the waters cover. The two he shows through the law to the one who looks into it, chosen blessings and thick cords for the one who transgresses it. Over both he judges the people and glorifies them, he increases blessings and arranges cords like separators.

For the separation of the two evils, it was fitting to distinguish which is the more seemly, and which is not to be separated; it was destined that it be separated from its kingdom. For the faculty of speech, it was necessary to seek truth, and which did not seek it, behold, it is being sought in a place of sorrow. For guilt, it was fitting to repay glory, and which did not repay it, behold, it is being repaid without delay. For the two evils are joined together in a double manner, and they have given a place of sorrow that does not accuse our debts in the place of our own self. How blind from weeping, as if from a friend, that it does not know its own self until the mighty one comes. How hard is the heart of stone in the silence of our own, that it is not softened either by confessions or by entreaties. They are hard fruits for our rebelliousness, and they are bitter fruits for the idleness of our own self. Neither to the heralds in the scriptures nor to any man does it listen, and the power of their tongues is exhausted from shouting. The likenesses and types are finished, and our iniquity stands firm, and visions and revelations have ceased, and he is as he is. You have killed the way of the embassy of the heavens, and the course of our wantonness has not ceased from the paths. Only the deaf have been sent in the embassy, and behold, it is well evident that even they have not ceased from this. Well have the silent also spoken to you, when the deaf are well, and instead of a voice they have spoken to you through their changes.

The sun of darkness hid its light from the ranks of the orders, and the moon of gloom turned its course to blood from its wanderings. Lightnings that kindled the fire of the heat of wrath, they kindled conflagrations, and thunders that roared with the voice of blasphemies, they cried out an addition. The earth that trembled from the weight of iniquity, heavy upon its shoulders, and like a furnace, it cried out its groanings by means of its travail. Summer that burned the fruits with its heat, it stripped them of their abundance, and winter that froze with its coldness, it extended its chill. The pains that multiplied in wickedness, the inclination bore them, and terrible death hastened to lead its own soul. A people that drew near against a people, it hastened to its own destruction, and a king that humbled and fell in battle, his sins condemned him. Then the true order of headship was disturbed, and the high rank of the name of priesthood was diminished. Because of the corruptions upon the corrupt, it deliberated in the land, and behold, priests and kings are arrayed one against another. Openly and secretly, each one offers against his companion, and there is no end to their tumults, neither by night nor by day. With a harsh measure of inequality, all the classes are cast down, and from all sides, hidden snares are set before the wayfarers. With fear and trembling, thought has been loosed from thought, and there is none who believes, nor is the bond of truth firm in the end. With heart and heart, each one speaks with his neighbor, and the heart that is like blood, its words do not agree with the heart.

He made his tongue smooth and his speech bitter, and his voice was bright and his heart twisted, and his voice was angry and his face dark. He rejoiced and was glad at the encounter of faces against the gods, and he was mournful and gloomy, his nature within as over a corpse. He pressed mouth to mouth, his gift of love, and he deepened the pit, digging snares like a sorceress. It is a great calamity to be angry at the appointed time of the end of life, that like a garment it covers sorrows in the sea of the soul. Who can endure to travel the path of the high kingdom, thoughts hidden and concealed like soldiers? Fairly he measured his evil calling for the sacrifice of my youth, which is evil and shining and full of calamity for those who descend into it. Fairly he gave woe to my standing at the beginning of my words, that perished and destroyed, turning life into the hours of my life. In the days of the completion of that which is written of the departure of the righteous one, and there is no one in creation who can place a soul within his thought. I said a saying, I also, and it was not to be accomplished, and I cut myself off from the good things, good from my companions. The burden of sins filled my thoughts like my faults, and there is no fruit in my thought that I can offer to the lord of the vineyard. I mounted words like a guilty one before the judge, that the blood of mercy might be stirred in the judgment toward my guilt. On account of words I ascended to bring an end to the day, that the fire might be equal to the small reward of punishment.

The voice of the daughter of the voice of the sound of the hired workers, and her desire to sharpen her tongue in the service of words. The sign that commanded to give the reward of the judge of the judge, he said to me, "Rise, the worker of the lowly is bound." The love of her wages for the service of the sides to the service of truth, they also added me to the reward of the judge of the living.