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to say, "I am weak, I am not a stone" is not of one showing that he is chastised unworthily, but that though he is justly so, he is not able to bear it. And for this reason he thinks himself worthy to receive forgiveness. 6,11a For what is my strength, he says, that I should endure? 11b Or what is my time, that my soul is patient? 6,12a Is my strength the strength of stones? 79 What is: What is my time? "I am short-lived," he says, "for do I have the great recompense that comes from time? For is it possible to hope to live for a long time?" For what is my strength, that I should endure? Therefore he endures not from strength, but from reverence and fear of God. For if he had wished, he would not have endured, but would have done away with himself, so that, if from no other source, from this learn the reverence of the man, who being a man endures things greater than stones because of the fear of God, and entrusts the matter to prayer, and not to his own audacity. 6,12b Or is my flesh, he says, of bronze, 6,13a Or did I not trust in him? 13b But help is gone from me, 6,14a and mercy has renounced me, 14b and the oversight of the Lord has overlooked me. Or did I not, he says, trust in him? Since this one was advising this, that you call upon the Lord Almighty, he says, "Or did I not trust in him?" But you should understand that these things are not said in the beginnings of the misfortune, but after a long time has passed, near the very end of the struggles. 6,15a My nearest, he says, have not regarded me. like a failing torrent 15b or like a wave they have passed me by. 6,16a Those who revered me have now fallen upon me. And this is the work of God's abandonment, that even his own people overlook him when he is suffering such things. For whenever he himself turns away 80 and one is stripped of his help, all things are hostile and inimical. "No one acknowledged me," he says, "in my misfortune, but this is not yet a great thing; those who revered me have now fallen upon me. This is much harder, to trample on one who is down." It seems to me he is alluding to these. 6,16a Like snow 16b or ice, he says, which is frozen; 6,17 just as when it melts as it becomes warm it is no longer recognized that it was, 6,18a so I have been forsaken by all. 18b I have perished and become an exile. That is: "Not even a memorial is left, nor a remnant of my former prosperity." These things are harder than the misfortune. If only someone would lift up my pains together in a balance. And he attempts to recount them: "For I see my food, he says, as filth. I pray to die and I do not die; being a man I suffer these things, not a stone, a short-lived man. I do not enjoy the favor from above. Some of my own people run past me, and others even trample on me. No remnant of my former prosperity is left." 6,19a See the ways of the Temanites 19b and the paths of the Sabeans, you who are discerning, 6,20a be ashamed with shame, you who see. They will owe a debt, 20b those who trust in cities and wealth. "Look," he says, "and see." That is: "Remember your own affairs. The future is uncertain and we are all similarly subject. These things 81 you too should consider concerning yourselves and restrain your pride." 6,21a But indeed you too have come upon me without mercy. "Without sympathy," he says, "reproachfully, accusatorily." 6,21b So that seeing my wound you were afraid. "Be afraid, lest you be required to pay the penalty for your savagery. If even nothing else," he says, "neither friendship nor the former kindness nor anything else made you more gentle, the very sight of my wounds ought to have filled you with much gentleness." 6,22a For what? Did I ask anything of you 22b or do I need strength from you, 6,23a so as to save me from the hand of evil ones 23b or to deliver me from the hand of a mighty one? That is: "Neither before did I have need of you, nor now, but you came of your own accord as if to comfort; why then do you do the works of enemies?" 6,24a Teach me, and I will be silent. 24b If I have been deceived in anything, tell me. "But nevertheless not even so do I refuse to learn, only if you are able to say something useful, but I will be silent, if you say something necessary." For they did not have clear accusations to bring forward, but simply from conjecture. And that he was of a virtuous life, is clear

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λέγειν, ὅτι «ἀσθενής εἰμι, οὐκ εἰμὶ λίθος οὐχὶ δεικνύντος ἐστίν, ὅτι ἀναξίως παιδεύεται, ἀλλ' ὅτι δικαίως μέν, οὐ δύναται δὲ ἐνεγκεῖν. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο συγγνώμης ἀξιοῖ τυχεῖν. 6,11a τίς γάρ μού ἐστιν ἡ ἰσχύς, φησίν, ὅτι ὑπομένω; 11b ἢ τίς μου ὁ χρόνος, ὅτι ἀνέχεταί μου ἡ ψυχή; 6,12a μὴ ἰσχὺς λίθων ἡ ἰσχύς μου; 79 τί ἐστιν· τίς μου ὁ χρόνος; «ὀλιγοχρόνιός εἰμι», φησίν, «μὴ γὰρ ἔχω μεγάλην τὴν ἐκ τοῦ χρόνου ἀντίδοσιν; μὴ γὰρ ἔστιν ἐλπίσαι μακρὸν ζήσεσθαι χρόνον;» τίς γάρ μού ἐστιν ἡ ἰσχύς, ὅτι ὑπομένω; οὐκοῦν οὐκ ἀπὸ ἰσχύος ὑπομένει, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ εὐλαβείας καὶ φόβου θεοῦ. εἰ γὰρ ἐβούλετο, οὐκ ἂν ὑπέμεινεν, ἀλλ' ἑαυτὸν ἂν διεχρήσατο, ὥστε, εἰ καὶ μηδαμόθεν ἑτέρωθεν, ἐντεῦθεν κατάμαθε τοῦ ἀνδρὸς τὴν εὐλάβειαν, ὃς ἄνθρωπος ὢν τὰ μείζονα τῶν λίθων ὑπομένει διὰ τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ φόβον, καὶ εὐχῇ τὸ πρᾶγμα ἐπιτρέπει, καὶ οὐχὶ τῇ ἑαυτοῦ τόλμῃ. 6,12b ἢ αἱ σάρκες, φησίν, χαλκαῖ, 6,13a ἢ οὐκ ἐπ' αὐτῷ ἐπεποίθειν; 13b βοήθεια δὲ ἀπ' ἐμοῦ ἄπεστιν, 6,14a ἀπείπατο δέ με ἔλεος, 14b καὶ ἐπισκοπὴ κυρίου ὑπερεῖδέ με. ἢ οὐκ ἐπ' αὐτῷ, φησίν, ἐπεποίθειν; ἐπειδὴ τοῦτο παρῄνει οὗτος, ὅτι κύριον τὸν παντοκράτορα ἐπικάλεσαι, φησίν, ὅτι ἢ οὐκ ἐπ' αὐτῷ ἐπεποίθειν; σὺ δὲ ἐννόησον, ὅτι οὐκ ἐν προοιμίοις τῆς συμφορᾶς ταῦτα λέγεται, ἀλλὰ χρόνου πολλοῦ προβεβηκότος, πρὸς αὐτῷ τῷ τέλει τῶν ἀγώνων. 6,15a οὐ προσεῖδόν με, φησίν, οἱ ἐγγύτατοί μου. ὥσπερ χειμάρρους ἐκλείπων 15b ἢ ὥσπερ κῦμα παρῆλθόν με. 6,16a οἵτινές με ηὐλαβοῦντο, νυνὶ ἐπιπεπτώκασί μοι. καὶ τοῦτο τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ἐγκαταλείψεως ἔργον τὸ καὶ τοὺς οἰκείους αὐτὸν ὑπερορᾶν τοιαῦτα πάσχοντα. ὅταν γὰρ αὐτὸς ἀποστῇ 80 καὶ γυμνωθῇ τῆς παρ' αὐτοῦ βοηθείας, πάντα ἐχθρὰ καὶ πολέμια. «οὐδεὶς ἐπέγνω με», φησίν, «ἐν τῇ συμφορᾷ, ἀλλὰ τοῦτο οὔπω μέγα· οἵτινές με ηὐλαβοῦντο, νυνὶ δὲ ἐπιπεπτώκασί μοι. τοῦτο πολλῷ χαλεπώτερον τὸ καὶ ἐπεμβαίνειν κειμένῳ.» ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ τούτους αἰνίττεσθαι. 6,16a ὥσπερ χιὼν 16b ἢ κρύσταλλος, φησίν, πεπηγώς· 6,17 καθὼς τακεῖσα θέρμης γενομένης οὐκέτι ἐπεγνώσθη, ὅτι ἦν, 6,18a οὕτως ἐγὼ κατελείφθην ὑπὸ πάντων. 18b ἀπωλόμην τε καὶ ἔξοικος ἐγενόμην. τουτέστιν· «οὐδὲ μνημόσυνον ὑπολέλειπται οὐδὲ λείψανον τῆς προτέρας εὐπραγίας.» ταῦτα τῆς συμφορᾶς χαλεπώτερά ἐστιν. εἴ τις ἄραι μου τὰς ὀδύνας ὁμοθυμαδὸν ἐν ζυγῷ. καὶ πειρᾶται αὐτὰς διηγεῖσθαι· «βρῶμον γὰρ ὁρῶ, φησίν, τὰ σῖτά μου. εὔχομαι ἀποθανεῖν καὶ οὐκ ἀποθνῄσκω· ἄνθρωπος ὢν ταῦτα πάσχω, οὐ λίθος, ἄνθρωπος ὀλιγοχρόνιος. οὐκ ἀπολαύω τῆς ἄνωθεν ῥοπῆς. οἱ μὲν παρατρέχουσί με τῶν οἰκείων, οἱ δὲ καὶ ἐπεμβαίνουσιν. οὐδὲν λείψανον τῆς προτέρας ὑπολέλειπται εὐπραγίας.» 6,19a ἴδετε ὁδοὺς Θαιμανῶν 19b καὶ ἀτραποὺς Σαβῶν, οἱ διορῶντες, 6,20a αἰσχύνθητε αἰσχύνην, οἱ ὁρῶντες. ὀφειλήσουσιν 20b οἱ ἐπὶ πόλεσι καὶ χρήμασι πεποιθότες. «ἐπιβλέψατε», φησίν, «καὶ ἴδετε.» τουτέστιν· «τὰ οἰκεῖα ἀναμνήσθητε. τὸ μέλλον ἄδηλον καὶ πάντες ὁμοίως ὑποκείμεθα. ταῦ81 τα καὶ ὑμεῖς λογίζεσθε περὶ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν καὶ τοῦ φρονήματος ἑαυτοὺς καταστέλλετε.» 6,21a ἀτὰρ δὴ καὶ ὑμεῖς ἐπέβητέ μοι ἀνελεημόνως. «ἀσυμπαθῶς», φησίν, «ἐλεγκτικῶς, κατηγορικῶς.» 6,21b ὥστε ἰδόντες τὸ ἐμὸν τραῦμα φοβήθητε. «φοβήθητε, μὴ δίκας ἐξαιτηθῆτε τῆς ἀγριότητος. εἰ καὶ μηδὲν ἕτερον», φησίν, «μήτε φιλία μήτε ἡ τὸ πρότερον εὐεργεσία μήτε ἄλλο μηδὲν ὑμᾶς ἐπιεικεστέρους ἐποίει, αὐτὴ τῶν ἐμῶν τραυμάτων ἡ θεωρία πολλῆς ὑμᾶς ὤφειλεν ἐμπλῆσαι τῆς ἐπιεικείας.» 6,22a τί γάρ; μή τι ὑμᾶς ᾔτησα 22b ἢ τῆς παρ' ὑμῶν ἰσχύος ἐπιδέομαι, 6,23a ὥστε με σῶσαι ἐκ χειρὸς κακῶν 23b ἢ ῥύσασθαί με ἐκ χειρὸς δυνάστου; τουτέστιν· «οὔτε πρότερον ὑμῶν ἐδεήθην οὔτε νῦν, ἀλλ' αὐτόματοι παρεγένεσθε ὡς δὴ παρακαλέσοντες· τί οὖν τὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν διαπράττεσθε;» 6,24a διδάξατέ με, ἐγὼ δὲ κωφεύσω. 24b εἴ τι πεπλάνημαι, φράσατέ μοι. «ἀλλ' ὅμως οὐδὲ οὕτως ἀρνοῦμαι μανθάνειν, μόνον εἴ τι χρήσιμον δυνήσεσθε εἰπεῖν, ἀλλὰ σιγήσομαι, ἄν τι εἴπητε τῶν δεόντων.» οὐ γὰρ δὴ εἶχον ἐκεῖνοι φανερὰ ἐγκλήματα προβάλλεσθαι, ἀλλ' ἁπλῶς ἀπὸ στοχασμοῦ. καὶ ὅτι μὲν βίου ἐναρέτου ἦν, φανερὸν