land of Merathaim,[118] longs for thee? Thou art a bundle of myrrh held in the hands and sought betwixt the breasts; thy fame tells concerning thee and likewise about thy thoughts. The mixtures of thy perfumes proclaim before thee: ‘Bow the knee’; and thy books reveal thy secrets. Thy name gave[119] forth thy taste and thy pleasant dainties; the wonderful sage, the exalted crown; yea, thy name is greater than all; our master and teacher, Nathan the scholar, the crown of scholars, the son of the glory of our master and teacher Samuel the scholar, the righteous, of blessed memory. From one who is a portion of thy lights and a tributary of thy rivers, Judah the Levite, thy disciple, the gleaning of thy harvest, and the fallen fruit of thy vintage; who sends his heart ahead of his writings; who is fearful and faint-hearted to consider his affairs. Shall I prosper when I come forth with my ploughshare and coulter to meet the Cherethite and Pelethite, a mighty nation that arranges battle-lines like Benaiah and Ethan? Who am I, what is my life, and what is my desire and wish? Worthless dust, crushed and ill; fearful on account of my iniquity and the sins of my youth and old age. Yet I ventured to stand upon thy thresholds with my supplications, though I am but a wayfarer that turns aside to tarry for a night, a Levite who sojourns there. Wherewith shall I draw nigh, and how shall I vie with the ruler and potentate? I summoned counsels from afar, took up my weapons, came in, and went out; but I found nothing better than silence. I was humiliated, and put to shame, and despaired of an answer; I lost heart to come out to meet thee; I groped for the wall in the dark, and felt my way like the blind, and sought hiding-places, until I met taskmasters, who were urgent, persistent, and pressing; they came from the wonderful sage, the lord, the exalted nobleman, our master and teacher Halfon the Levite, who speaks in thy name, and endeavors to take hold of thee, O my lord and my pride, may he be exalted and lifted up, and may he be very high. He stands between us to join our hearts with the exchange of our writings and the purity of our love. He importuned me, pressed me, urged me, aroused me, and brought me out hastily from the dungeon of slothfulness. He coaxed me, without restraining himself, saying: ‘Come now, I will prove thee; finish thy work, and give the best thereof which is full of understanding; perform at thy old age the deeds of youth. Know before whom thou art about to render the account, near whom thou writest, and near whom thou signest.’ Thy enchanters hurried, and thy magicians did great things, until they annulled my vows, and made my bonds void. Then my bands dropped off, my youth was renewed, my songs thronged tumultuously, my lyres were sounded, and forgotten were my fears and the years of the life of my sojournings. I remembered not that the day declined toward evening, that the eternal lodging-place was