Nilus of Ancyra→Onesimus|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted
To Onesimus, a Leading Citizen.
The things you insatiably heap together, and have reckoned to possess, are not yours; for they will pass over to other persons. The toil is yours, but the enjoyment belongs to another. Why, then, do you lay claim to what belongs to others as though it were your own, fashioning for yourself burdensome heaps of material wealth, and drawing down upon yourself the woe of the prophet? For "Woe," he says, "to him who gathers what is not his own, and weighs down his collar [yoke] heavily" [Habakkuk 2:6] -- the man who is destined to lose his substance, and who, by his insatiable disposition, procures for himself eternal punishment.
The things you insatiably heap together, and have reckoned to possess, are not yours; for they will pass over to other persons. The toil is yours, but the enjoyment belongs to another. Why, then, do you lay claim to what belongs to others as though it were your own, fashioning for yourself burdensome heaps of material wealth, and drawing down upon yourself the woe of the prophet? For "Woe," he says, "to him who gathers what is not his own, and weighs down his collar [yoke] heavily" [Habakkuk 2:6] -- the man who is destined to lose his substance, and who, by his insatiable disposition, procures for himself eternal punishment.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.