1. I heard the voice of the Physician, like that of an exorcist coming to me: “Awake, bright soul, from the drunken sleep wherein you have fallen!

2. O man in whose hands there is wealth, why are you slumbering in this sleep? Why will you not rise early before the beast has come forth?

3. The higher angels are spread over the whole land so that they may answer any call – for all those who call in sincerity and in truth shall be heard.

4. Lift up your eyes to the Land of Light; you shall see the Messengers of Righteousness standing beyond this world, you shall see Jehovih the Great of Glories from whom every soul has come forth in the beginning, and they shall also return to the Light and ascend to it in the end.”

5. The Great Physician says: “O Soul, where are you from? You are from on high, you are a stranger to the world, a sojourner for people on the earth; on high you have your houses, your tents of joy!

6. You are an alien here, housed in a defiled body of the earth! The days of your life flee away from you; why do you vainly waste your eagerness on earthly things and put behind you all those of heaven?

7. You have spent your life sunk in the anxieties and cares of the world, wearing yourself out only by means of pain and grief!

8. For how many days, then, do you ignore what you do in ignorance, while you toil all your time to nourish your bodies – yet you have not worried, O poor one, in what way you may be saved!

9. You weep and shed tears for a son or a friend when he dies, yet the thought of your own departure does not enter your heart! You have made the world a harp for yourself, continually making music!”

10. The Physician says: “O Soul, you are the sheep that has wandered in the desert; your Father seeks you, your Shepherd looks for you; O despised noble, your King searches after you! Where are your angel garments, your robes that do not age?

11. Where are your bright garlands, your crowns that do not fall? Who has changed for you your fair beauty, the fashion of your kinsmen, the seal of your Fathers?

12. Move yourself, O soul watching in the enduring chains, and remember the ascent into the joyful Air for a fatal lure is the sweetness of this flesh, the body full of unrighteousness! Drink of the water of memory, throw away the forgetfulness!

13. The wounded one who desires to be healed, let him come to the Physician! O soul, do not forget your true origin, nor faint!

14. See, the ships of light are anchored for you, the ferries are in the harbour; take your cargo aboard and sail away to your homes!”