Hymn VI.
1. I will run in my affections, to Him who
heals freely. He who healed my sorrows, the first and the second,
He
who cured the third, He will heal the fourth.
R.,
Heal me, Thou Son the First Born!
2. My sons, O my Lord, drank and were drunken, of
the tidings which wrath had mixed; and they rushed on my adornments,
and spoiled and cast away my ornaments; they rent and spared not, my
garments and my crowns.
3. They uncovered me and I was made bare.
Because I was shamed a little, by means of that stripping, the first
and the second, because I was shamed a third time, lo! they have
stripped me a fourth time.
4. For they have seized and taken away my
garments, my ornaments and my gardens. On the sackcloth that
girds my altar, look Thou, O my Lord, and have pity on me! Let
the sackcloth be to me, O my Lord, the breastplate of salvation!
5. Lo! it is not by the hand of the chaste, that
Thou hast chastised me, O my Master! For lo! his shame is before
him, and behind him his disgrace; for as to his marriage, adultery is
better than it.
6. Lo! his daughter is his wife, and his
sister his consort; and his mother whence he came forth, he turns again
and takes her
to wife
! The heavens are astonished that
thus, he provokes
Thee
, and lo! he prospers.
7. And though, O my Lord, my crimes are
many, are my offences so heavy, that Thou shouldst make over a chaste
woman, mother of chaste
daughters
, to foul Assyria, mother of
defiled
daughters
?
8. Restrain him that he come not, and wag at me
his head, and stamp on me his heel, and rejoice that the voice of his
fame, thus troubles the world; and be uplifted yet a little!
9. My sons, O my Lord, have seen my nakedness, yea
have uncovered me and wept. Uncover Thou me before my children,
who are pained by my pain, and let
not those mock at me, the accursed that
have
no pity!
10. My lands had brought forth fruits and pleasant
things; good things in the vineyard, abundance in the fields. But
as I rested secure, of a sudden wrath overtook me.
11. The husbandmen
were
plundered,
the spoilers heaped
the grain
; what thou had borrowed and sown
these destroyed. With one’s debt his hunger, haply will
also remain unsatisfied, for his bread
is
snatched from
him.
12. The husbandman, O my Lord,
is
plundered, for he lent to the earth; she has received the deposit, and
given it to a stranger; she has borrowed it of the husbandman; and paid
it to the spoiler.
13. Be jealous over me who am Thine, and to
Thee, O my Lord: am I betrothed! The Apostle who betrothed
me to Thee, told me that Thou art jealous. For as a wall to
chaste
wives
is the jealousy of their husbands.
14. Samson stirred up seas, because he was
mightily jealous over his wife, though she was greatly defiled, and was
divided against him. Keep Thy Church, for no other, has she
beside Thee!
15. Whoso is not jealous, over his spouse despises
her. Jealousy it is that can make known, the love that is
within. Thou art called jealous, that thou mayest show me Thy
love.
16. The nature of woman is this; it is weak and
rash: it is jealousy keeps it, under fear every hour. Thou hast
been named among the jealous, that Thou mightest make known Thy
solicitude.
17. Every man has been master, of something
that
was
not his own; every man has gone forth gathering,
something that he scattered not. The day of confusion, I have
prepared for myself by my crimes.
18. How shall they bear the suffering, the
labourers and tillers? In the face of the vinedresser, they have
cut down the vines and driven away the flocks of the husbandman; his
sowing they have reaped and carried off.
19. They had yoked cattle sown and harrowed,
they had ploughed, planted, nurtured. They stood afar and wept;
and they went away bereft of all. The labour
was
for the
toilers, the increase for the spoilers.
20. The rulers, O my Lord, maintained not,
order in the midst of
Thy
wrath. If they had willed
it
they might have kept order, but our iniquity suffered it
not. Though wrath had greatly abated, wrath compelled
them
to spoil.
21. To whom on any side, shall I look for comfort,
for my plantations that are laid low, and my possessions that are laid
waste? Let the message of the voice of peace, drive away my
sadness from me!
22. Give me not over; lest it be thought that
Thou, hast given me a writing of divorce, and sent me away and driven
me out! Let them not call me, O my Lord, the forsaken and the
disgraced!
23. I have not anything, to call to mind before
Thine eyes, for I am wholly despised. Call Thou to mind for me, O
my God, this only that none other, have I set before me beside
Thee!
24. Who would not weep for me, with voice
and wailing? for before the days of full
moon
I was chaste and
crowned; and after the days of full moon, I was uncovered and made
bare.
25. My chaste daughters of the chambers, wander in
the fields; for the wrath that makes all drunken, has caused my
honourable women to be despised. Let Thy mercy which gives peace
to all, restore these beloved ones to honour!
26. My elder
daughters
and my
younger, lo! they cry before Thee; the damsels with their voices, they
that are aged with their tears; my virgins with their fasts, my chaste
ones with their sackcloth!
27. Mine eyes to all the streets, I lift up and
lo! they are deserted. There are left of a hundred ten, and a
thousand of ten thousand. Give Thou peace and fill my streets,
with the tumult of my dwellers!
28. Bring back
them that are without, and make them glad that are within! Mighty
is Thy grace, that Thou extendest it within and without. Let the
wings of Thy grace gather my chickens together!
29. Let the prayer of my just men, save my
fugitives! The unbelievers have plundered me, and the believers
have sustained me. In them that believe put Thou to shame them
that believe not!
30. There came together on one day, two festivals
as one: the Feast of Thine Ascension, and the Feast of Thy
Champions; the feast that wove Thy Crown, and the memorial of the
crowning of Thy servants.
31. Have thou mercy because there were
doubled for us,
these
feasts on one day; and there were doubled
for us instead of them,
even
the two feasts in one, suffering
from the voice of
ill
tidings, and mourning from
desolation!
32. Give peace to my festivals! for both my
feasts have ceased; and instead of rejoicing,
of
my remnants in
festivals, tremblings and desolations meet me in every
place.
33. Bring home mine that are far off, make glad
mine that are nigh; and in the midst of our land shall be preached,
good tidings of joy; and I shall render in return for peace, praise
from every mouth!