Hymn 7
7.1
O blessed Fast of ours, we long to meet it.
It is a vertitable storehouse open to those of discernment
It is a joy of heart to those who are knowledgable
It is a nourishment of mind amid the wise
Through the fast the discerning soul is most victorious
As well as the wise spirit, for they gaze upon the ancients
It is the fast that equips them
With that weapon of Moses and Elijah
Res:
Blessed are you who has triumphed in your fasts
7.2
Examine the flesh of a Bird
For if it consumes a lot of heavy things
It will weary and burden its wings
It won't be able to fly as it had
The Eagle which ascends to the highest of heights, if it becomes ravenous
It can no longer soar as it once had.
For the light one becomes heavy through (food)
just as the heavy one who eats becomes heavy.
7.3
Daniel and his friends grew fat and lovely,
For they ate grains in Babylon.
But their counterparts, the young ones, indulged themselves
With the dainties of that mortal king.
The head of the left-party desired to weigh down
The heart and mind of those on the Right with wine.
But, by the fast, the young ones deprived their mouthes
Of the royal table.
7.4
Those lads who were nourished with (rich) food
Their hearts became heavy with (false) teaching
When they rose to be examined
They could not ascend with the fasters
because the (rich) food had made them heavy, they lost the contest.
For the young fasters quickly overtook them,
Fasting and Beans overcome,
dainties and delicacies of the royal (table).
7.5
Daniel and his friends abstained from wine
That which troubles those who are clear in thier stillness.
Great is the understanding in those who don't choose it
Reason/taste abates among theose who become accustomed to it
The cedars of Zion drank water and flourished Ezek 17:21
In their shade the people sat in Babylon
The Holy Spirit came and dwelt in their brances
Like the Dove on the olive tree.
7.6
Even that Vine from Egypt,
Cast its tendrils over kings and priests,
Whom scripture compared with the cedars which supported them.
But the vine which went forth from Egypt
Babel suffucated with the shade of its paganism .
Yet the friends of Daniel, were the cedars there,
In the midst of Babel they bore (Israel),
Just as Moses and Aaron had done in Egypt
7.7
Babel envied those cedars
Which bore the vine that had fallen.
It cast them into the fire for combustion,
They flourished and spread in the midst of the flames,
Because they had abstained from strong drink there, so they overcame the fire there.
They choose the fast there, and they acquired strength there.
Dew dripped upon the fasters in the oven,
Who had abstained from wine.
7.8
The fire drew near and smelled:
That pure flesh of the fasters.
The strong scent of the fasters smote it.
Greed was kept for from their bodies
It *fasted* in respect to fasters, it joyfully (devoured) the gluttons
Those who ate, it ate, those who fasted it spared
The wild animals fasted with Daniel
Who (normally) are nourished by Greed.
7.9
The blessed young ones abstained and rejected
The kings table and its delicacies.
Fire did not come near to them,
For they did not approach his feasts.
They rejected food time and again, they ate beans.
Just as their natures were changed so did the nature of fire
Change its nature:
Instead of those within, it consumed those without.
7.10
Three fell into the fire,
They multiplied and became 4 in its womb. (see 7.7 ms. J)
The very fire had consumed many,
The few became numerous in its Greed.
The oppressive and robbing fire
which had never completely returned its entrusted sum,
Now that its Greed was overcome,
It restored its entrusted sum.
7.11
The flame was similar in type to the arable land
Which is worked and made ready for seed.
For the flames were heated seven times,
It was ploughed and re-ploughed as though for seed.
In its midst, those who ate beans
Were sown. Those who fasted with beans,
Became more numerous just like seeds.
In the fire where the many (normally) become few.
7.12
That fire Elijah brought down
It shattered many on the mountain top.
The faster brought it down by command,
It consumed the eaters and the gluttons.
The fire avenged the shame of the faster,
For by its descent he slew the Greedy prophets.
Who were hired by their stomachs,
In order to divert the simple from the truth.
7.13
The prophets became hirelings for food,
The liars were bribed by Greed.
They covered themselves with true names,
They sold truth for a day's ration of bread.
Who takes a mouthful, preaches (for) a mouthful,
Blessed be the faster who is not bribed by a mouthful.
Take fear, my brothers of the stomach,
That its lordship not rule over you.
7.14
If Daniel had fallen
Along with his three friends into the oven
The fourth who was seen in the fire
Would have been he. The tyrant would have thought
That the brightness was that of his God. For the name of his idol he had given
In a deceitful manner to Daniel. Because he (Daniel) did not wish
To shame his God,
He gave an opportunity to truth that it be praised.
7.15
Error which was bested by one side
God did not allow him another side to overcome
For if Error had believed that this brilliance
Of the idol which had delivered Daniel
Then Error, which was defeated, could have overcome!
For he who was shamed by a statue and would have overcome by an oven.
Truth mocked Error
And cut it off from all excuses.
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