Sol 5.6

  1. O Bringer of harm, benefit is withheld from whom You will

    to afflict; and the removal of harm is the dominion of Godhead.

  2. You bring harm, and no agent of change can prevail over You;

    nor can the afflicted shield himself from You with any defense.

  3. You bring harm as recompense and as trial, just as You will;

    and that is justice, preordained in the decree.

  4. For a servant to question his Lord’s doing is

    absurd; but the word of God has come to pass.

  5. Nor does harm’s existence through us arise from a power

    inherent in the essence, independent of an antecedent Power.

  6. I renounce all means, might, and strength

    apart from God, whether to benefit or cause any harm.

  7. Through You comes harm, from You comes benefit; and wisdom has required

    that events occur through causal powers.

  8. Yet the powers of causes have no action of themselves;

    they are but effects of an act and a power.

  9. My God, I have submitted contentedly to the judgment—

    to Your decree—taking refuge in the stronghold of Your will.

  10. Through You I removed the harm that touched me, by what

    I knew with certainty: God is the reliever of my distress.

  11. And seize, with grievous harm, a soul grown audacious

    against God—in the space of a blink, with the mightiest seizure.

Sol 5.6