Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou wilt take away the chain out of the midst of thee, and cease to stretch out the finger, and to speak that which profiteth not.10 When thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry, and shalt satisfy the afflicted soul then shall thy light rise up in darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the noonday.11 And the Lord will give thee rest continually, and will fill thy soul with brightness, and deliver thy bones, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a fountain of water whose waters shall not fail.12 And the places that have been desolate for ages shall be built in thee: thou shalt raise up the foundations of generation and generation: and thou shalt be called the repairer of the fences, turning the paths into rest.13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy own will in my holy day, and call the sabbath delightful, and the holy of the Lord glorious, and glorify him, while thou dost not thy own ways, and thy own will is not found: to speak a word:14 Then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
God is always one and the same; but people have come to be afterwards through the Word, when the Father himself willed it; and God is invisible and inaccessible to originated things, especially to people on earth. When then people in infirmity invoke him, when in persecution they ask help, when they pray as they endure injuries, then the Invisible, being a lover of people, shines forth on them with his beneficence, which he exercises through and in his proper Word. And forthwith the divine manifestation is made to every one according to his need, and is made to the sick, and to the persecuted a "refuge" and "house of defense."
A prayer for David himself. Incline thy ear, O Lord, and hear me: for I am needy and poor.2 Preserve my soul, for I am holy: save thy servant, O my God, that trusteth in thee.3 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to thee all the day.4 Give joy to the soul of thy servant, for to thee, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul.5 For thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild: and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon thee.6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer: and attend to the voice of my petition.
Therefore, the Word is our educator who heals the unnatural passions of our soul with his counsel. The art of healing, strictly speaking, is the relief of the ills of the body, an art learned through human wisdom. Yet, the only true divine healer of human sickness, the holy comforter of the soul when it is ill, is the Word of the Father. Scripture says, "Save your servant, O my God, who puts his trust in you. Have mercy on me, O Lord, because I have cried to you the whole day through." In the words of Democritus, "The healer, by his art, cures the body of its diseases, but it is wisdom that rids the spirit of its ills." The good educator of little ones, however, Wisdom, the Word of the Father, who created human beings, concerns himself with the whole creation, and as the physician of the whole person heals both body and soul.
And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom, and he said to him: Follow me.28 And leaving all things, he rose up and followed him.29 And Levi made him a great feast in his own house; and there was a great company of publicans, and of others, that were at table with them.30 But the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying to his disciples: Why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners?31 And Jesus answering, said to them: They that are whole, need not the physician: but they that are sick.32 I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance.†
(Reg. fus. tract. 8.) He not only gave up the profits of the customs, but also despised the dangers which might occur to himself and his family from leaving the accounts of the receipts uncompleted.
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)