Nilus of Ancyra→Isidore|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted
To Isidore the Excubitor [a member of the imperial guard].
"Before I was humbled, I," he says, "transgressed." For since I was luxuriant with the fruits of my many right deeds, I spoke too arrogantly toward God: "You have tried me by fire, and no injustice was found in me"; and: "I said in my prosperity, I shall not be shaken forever." [These are the words of David, drawn from the Psalms.] I was forsaken by you, and I fell into a terrible adultery and a most abominable murder [David's sin with Bathsheba and the killing of Uriah]; and afterward I am troubled and shaken, stripped of the divine help, and I am afraid, and I flee from the face of my son Absalom, and, being humbled, I go forth from the city barefoot, having covered my head, and put to shame before all, and indeed reproached and pelted with stones along the road by the foolish and wretched Shimei [who cursed David as he fled Absalom]. So I cry out to the righteous Judge: "I have known, O Lord, that your judgments are righteousness and truth. You humbled me, who beforehand had transgressed." And there is no transgression greater than self-conceit and trusting in oneself. Therefore I will no longer speak the utterances of self-conceit, but I will both be humble in mind and humble in speech. "But I am a worm, and not a man." "Our soul has been humbled into the dust. Our belly has cleaved to the earth, and I was humbled exceedingly. Give me life according to your word." And the like.
To Isidore the Excubitor [a member of the imperial guard].
"Before I was humbled, I," he says, "transgressed." For since I was luxuriant with the fruits of my many right deeds, I spoke too arrogantly toward God: "You have tried me by fire, and no injustice was found in me"; and: "I said in my prosperity, I shall not be shaken forever." [These are the words of David, drawn from the Psalms.] I was forsaken by you, and I fell into a terrible adultery and a most abominable murder [David's sin with Bathsheba and the killing of Uriah]; and afterward I am troubled and shaken, stripped of the divine help, and I am afraid, and I flee from the face of my son Absalom, and, being humbled, I go forth from the city barefoot, having covered my head, and put to shame before all, and indeed reproached and pelted with stones along the road by the foolish and wretched Shimei [who cursed David as he fled Absalom]. So I cry out to the righteous Judge: "I have known, O Lord, that your judgments are righteousness and truth. You humbled me, who beforehand had transgressed." And there is no transgression greater than self-conceit and trusting in oneself. Therefore I will no longer speak the utterances of self-conceit, but I will both be humble in mind and humble in speech. "But I am a worm, and not a man." "Our soul has been humbled into the dust. Our belly has cleaved to the earth, and I was humbled exceedingly. Give me life according to your word." And the like.
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.