Letter 698

To the same person. All who have chosen to live piously eat the bread of knowledge with much pain, and they drink the rational water, being pierced night and day by the spears of temptations, both in soul and in body. Understand what I am saying: "The bones of a sorrowful man are dried up" [Proverbs 17:22]. And: "A perceptive heart is a moth to the bones" [Proverbs 14:30]. And it is also written in Ezekiel: "Son of man, you shall eat your bread with pain, and you shall drink your water with torment and affliction" [Ezekiel 12:18].

Οἱ ζῆν εὐσεβῶς προῃρημένοι, πάντες μετὰ πολλῆς ὀδύνης ἐσθίουσι τὸν τῆς γνώσεως ἄρτον, καὶ πίνουσι τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ λογικόν, καὶ νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας κεντούμενοι ταῖς τῶν πειρασμῶν λόγχαις, καὶ ψυχὴν καὶ τὸ σῶμα. Νόησον ὅπερ λέγω· « Ἀνδρὸς λυπηροῦ ξηραίνεται ὀστέα. » Καί· « Σῆς ὀστέων καρδία αἰσθητική. » Γέγραπται δὲ καὶ ἐν τῷ Ἰεζεκιήλ· « Υἱὲ ἀνθρώπου, τὸν ἄρτον σου μετ’ ὀδύνης φάγεσαι, καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ σου μετὰ βασάνου καὶ θλίψεως πίεσαι. »