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Repentance of Nineveh
St Ephrem the Syrian, tr. Burgess, 1853
8. Part the Eighth
The city heard this, and with one voice
Ascribed glory to God,
Who had pleaded their cause,
And contended on their behalf.
He made the prophet to become an intercessor,
And he who had been their opponent in the cause
Now became the opponent of the court,
Although unwillingly he justified them.
God had made his words of no effect,
That the citizens might be saved;
There was a change of mind in Jonah,
That God might not be untrue.
Righteous men ought not to be grieved;
At the repentance of the unjust;
Neither should the penitence of sinners,
Be displeasing to Jonah.
There was, further, a reason with Jonah,
Why the city should hear of its salvation.
To have concealed this from them, negligently,
Would have been offensive in him;
For the penitent did not know
How matters stood with them;
And why justice was angry,
And why penitence had saved them.
Jonah had preached, that he might shew
How indignant justice was;
The dying gourd had declared
How merciful was goodness.
The people who had come to Jonah
Uttered praise aloud,
For what they had heard with their ears,
And for all their eyes had looked upon.
With their ears they heard that severe one,
With their eyes they saw the gourd;
In the gourd which sprang up suddenly,
They beheld a sign which was not natural;
In its being cut down they thoroughly learned,
That grace abounds above all.
The Ninevites seized with affection
The preacher of Hebrew race;
He was exalted in their hands,
And entered the city in kingly state.
They seated him on a throne and bowed before him;
Great multitudes who had repented,
Brought to him their offerings,
And presented to him their tithes;
They brought and gave to him the vows,
Which they had vowed in their afflictions.
Children offered their zones,
And young men their chains;
They gave him their breast ornaments,
Their girdles with their clasps.
The King opened his great treasury,
And presented him with abundance of good things.
God, as the Merciful One,
Was praised by all mouths;
And by all mouths likewise
Jonah was blessed as the preacher.
A carriage then came and took up
The offerings and tithes;
Men then advanced,
Who should conduct him with honour
To the land from whence he came.
Jonah was raised on high, and entered the chariot;
Like a king or one of royal blood,
The son of Mathai was exalted!
A fish bore him through the sea,
But a chariot on the dry land;
He was humbled beneath the earth,
But now he was raised high above it;
Fishes went before him
When he journeyed in the midst of the deep;
But horsemen on the dry land.
The sea was cleft asunder when he descended,
But the land when he went up;
The fishes of the sea there recognized him,
But the children of men on the earth.
There was a storm in the abysses of the waters,
But a great tumult in the city.
By a watery pathway he went down,
But ascended by a dry one.
The terrible monsters of the sea
Trembled on account of him;
But powerful cities made way for him
When he went up.
The fish that swallowed him up was strong,
The King who received him was mighty;
The fish then made a path for him,
But the King made his road straight;
Fishes accompanied that great one,
But now horsemen the chariot.
The King of Nineveh hastened,
And sent couriers before him;
Who should prepare for the prophet,
Stations in which he might be entertained.
God pointed out to the fish,
The path in which he should go;
But the King shewed to the prophet,
The way in which he should travel.
With honour and presents
He went up, being renowned,
And all men went forth to meet him,
And reverently bowed before him.
Kings trembled in his presence,
Because he was the mighty preacher;
They met him with great honour,
From fear at his preaching.
Each city which saw him grew pale,
Lest he should enter and overturn it.
Thus he was honoured in the cities.
Nineveh became an example;
She was a mirror to the world,
In which justice might be viewed.