Those who enlighten do not enlighten but blind, — what wilt Thou do with them, O Lord?
They turn Thy children away from Thee, and forbid them to draw near to Thy Wisdom, for they say: The Lord is an old word of your dead grandfathers. It is an old amulet, which your grandfathers carried with them and died. We will teach you how the earth is dug, and the body fattened, and gold forged, which shines brighter than the dead Lord. What wilt Thou do with the seducers of Thy children, O Lord?
Nothing will I do to them, for they have done everything for the curse of their own seed and tribe. Verily, they have prepared a worse fate for themselves and their people than the scribes and Sadducees of Judea. For they had the example of these, and did not learn.
In their old age they will hear the clatter of swords at their threshold, and will die of hunger, bald and ragged, and will not dare peer out through the door to warn their disciples. With what will they warn them, when My name has been cast out of their brigand heart? And why should they warn them, when they themselves prepared them for this, by their bottomless stupidity, which follows everyone whom I do not follow. What will befall them, O Lord?
It will be worse for them than for the Babylonians, when in their power they bowed down to blood and gold, and taught their children to bow down to the same.
First will come famine, such as even Babylon has not remembered. Then war, for the plunder of bread, from which they will return defeated. Then mutual slaughter and the burning of towns and villages. Then diseases, which the physician's hand will not dare to touch. And the teachers will be lashed with whips and driven to be gravediggers of their own disciples, with whom all the highways will stink.
Those who lead the people do not lead but mislead them, — what wilt Thou do with them, O my Lord? They set the people at odds for their own gain, and when the people grow confused and rise in tumult, they slip away from power and in peace eat their gains gotten by lies. They blame their opponents, yet walk in their paths. For their clamor the wise man cannot come to a word.
They flatter the fool and the oppressor only to reach the first seats. Day after day they write books and publish the evil of their kinsmen, to hide their own evil.
They do not teach the people truth, but feed them lies the whole year round.
They are powerless to do justice for the people, so they terrify them, frightening them with the worse injustice of times past.
They plunder for themselves and for their friends, for they know they will not last long.
What wilt Thou do with them, O righteous Lord?
They have done everything, and I have nothing to do but to leave them to themselves. Verily, they will not eat their gain in peace, but will spend it on the funeral feasts of their kin.
They will fall into poverty, and mice will dart through their torn shirts. They will dream of revolts of the cheated and the plundered, and will rise at midnight, terrified and drenched in sweat. Long life will be given them, that their punishment may be longer.
They will live to see their home in ashes, and will flee from their own land, hungry and sick, and will not dare utter their own name before anyone.
They will watch foreigners in their own land, and will beg a piece of bread from them.
It will be worse for their state than for the Roman. For they had Rome for an example, and did not learn.
It will be worse for their people, who gave them birth, than for the Jewish people. For they had the example of the Jewish people, and did not learn.
They will hear the cursing of their name, and will not dare peer out of the window.
They will watch their people being led away bound in columns, and will fear for themselves.
And they will hear, both asleep and awake, the cursing of their name, and they will tremble, — tremble, and will not be able to die.
O Lord Great and Terrible, all Thy ways are mercy and truth. What wilt Thou do with the blinded, the misled, the deceived and the plundered?
If anyone remembers My name, I too will remember him, and I will save him.
I wait for someone to cry out to Me, — and I will answer.
As long as there is crying out on earth, there will be an echo in heaven.
I am He who is nearest to all men and all things. I give Myself to him who desires Me; I withdraw from him who does not know Me. Without Me the world is the dust of ashes. And without Me men are more powerless than the dust.