And why does this argument enter? Heaven forbid that anyone should engage in a dispute in the holy Zohar, may it be praised. What benefit or advantage do I gain from this sin? Is this not a book that tells the story of a great man, who neither oppressed me, nor consumed me, nor took anything away from me?
On the contrary, it is the light of my eyes in the fear of the Lord, and in it, all my wellsprings are found. If not for the insults that your slanderers, O Lord, have heaped upon me, my bones have been shattered by my own murder. My tormentors have reproached me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?" The jealousy of the Lord has done this and similar things.
If, God forbid, the great Zohar is imprisoned within my bones, I cannot eat, in a place where no man is, and I see that there is no savior, and I am astonished that there is no one to come to my aid. I will speak, and it will be a breath of air for me, even if my pain does not diminish thereby. My judges, who were my soul's plunderers, will be enough for me. In all the troubles that befall me, which I have inflicted upon the house of my beloved, under the pursuit of goodness and love for my Lord in Heaven with all my heart, I have not put flesh on my arm.
The One who tends to me, I will not lack His kindness. I have cast off the flesh of my arm to follow a covenant, and the remnant of Jacob and so forth, who does not hope for man or rely on mortals. I look to the Lord and know that my hope will not be in vain. In the God of truth, I have placed my trust, and truth is my desire, faithfulness is my betrothed.
We are consoled by our mother's womb, and yesterday she had compassion on me, and I will not abandon her, oppressed until she delivers the oppressed one. Although I knew that the Lord is a righteous judge, who has set ambushes against me and many enemies in my old age, I did not render judgment without justice. I am not a person who denies, like a deer easy to catch, whose forehead has responded to it.
Even if he brings a wall of fire, I do not despair of my pains. But enough for me is that I am not rebellious or deceitful, I have not denied the Most High. In Him, I will trust, He will strengthen His redemption, and so on. I have found a denial, for the righteous one in the place of the wicked, and under the upright, a deceitful one shall fall.
He digs a pit like mud, unless this has already been a long time ago. I would be like ashes and dust. Therefore, my heart will not be reviled from my days, even if now, after the Lord has relieved me from all my enemies around me, He saves me from the mouth of the lion, from the horns of the wild oxen, from the multitude of the strong who rise against me, and from the great and mighty ones who are much stronger than me, who were like nothing and zero, my men of war.
They were men of bloodshed and deceit, and so on. They were trampled like thorns in the name of the Lord, for I have consumed them. They were all like straw.