Hymn LXIV.
1. O feeble ones, why weep ye, over your dead: who in death are at rest from sorrows and sins?—2.
R., Glory to Him Who endured all, for the sake of all men: yea
tasted death for the sake of all, to bring all to life
—3. I
reveal unto you, that even Satan, though much content: at your
weeping, yet laughs much, at your mourning.—4. In mockery he
winks at me and nods to me, as a jester: “Come let us laugh
at sinners, for lo! they are mad.”—5. Truly they have given
up remembrance of that fire, which I have hidden for them: and
lo! the fools are drunken with weeping, for their departed.—6.
Instead of weeping as though, without provision: I had plundered
and sent forth their dead, lo! they are mad.—7. The souls of the
evil are to be afflicted, till the judgment day: and these weep
over the graves, like to madmen.—8. They care not for their own
sins, that haply to-morrow: they must go in shame of face, to
join their dead.—9. And thus shall all be put to shame alike,
family by family: in Sheol the wretches shall repent without
avail.—10. Leave the drunken and the madman, until that
day: wherein
each
shall shake off his wine wherewith he
was maddened.—11. I will go to gather them, like children:
that they may play the wanton and the madman, until they
perish.—12. Lo! I have revealed to you the mystery, the secret of
my comrade: go forth therefore, depart, amend, in
repentance.—13. Leave me, I too will depart, I will see to my
affairs: that with open face I may give my account to my
Lord.—14. I know that the wind as it blew, has borne away my
words: for ye are the same whom I, ofttimes have
proved.—15. I remember Jeremiah how he, compared boldness:
to the Indian who changes not
his skin
, though it is of
freedom.—16. For this too belongs to it, even to freedom:
that it binds itself by the will, as though by nature.—17. For so
powerful is the will, in them that are free: that it may be
likened to nature, through its workings.
354
354
I.e.
though
boldness is matter of free will, it becomes a second nature.