1And when Satan saw that he could not put me to despair, he went and asked my body of the Lord in order to inflict plague on me, for the Evil one could not bear my patience.
2Then the Lord delivered me into his hands to use my body as he wanted, but he gave him no power over my soul.
3And he came to me as I was sitting on my throne still mourning over my children.
4And he resembled a great hurricane and turned over my throne and threw me upon the ground.
5And I continued lying on the floor for three hours, and he smote me with a hard plague from the top of my head to the toes of my feet.
6And I left the city in great terror and woe and sat down upon a dunghill my body being worm-eaten.
7And I wet the earth with the moistness of my sore body, for matter flowed off my body, and many worms covered it.
8And when a single worm crept off my body, I put it back saying: "Remain on the spot where thou hast been placed until He who hath sent thee will order thee elsewhere."
9Thus I endured for seven years, sitting on a dung-hill outside of the city while being plague-stricken.
10And I saw with mine own eyes my longed-for children [carried by angels to heaven].
11And my humbled wife who had been brought to her bridal chamber in such great luxuriousness and with spearmen as body-guards, I saw her do a water-carrier's work like a slave in the house of a common man in order to win some bread and bring it to me.
12And in my sore affliction I said: "Oh that these braggart city rulers whom I would not have thought to be equal with my shepherd dogs should now employ my wife as servant!"
13And after this I took courage again.
14Yet afterwards they withheld even the bread that it should only have her own nourishment.
15But she took it and divided it between herself and me, saying woefully: "Woe to me! Forthwith he may no longer feed on bread, and he cannot go to the market to ask bread of the bread-sellers in order to bring it to me that he may eat."
16And when Satan learned this, he took the guise of a bread-seller, and it was as if by chance that my wife met him and asked him for bread thinking that it was that sort of man.
17But Satan said to her: "Give me the value, and then take what thou wishest."
18Whereupon she answered saying: Where shall I get money? Dost thou not know what misfortune happened to me. If thou hast pity, show it to me; if not, thou shalt see."
19And he replied saying: "If you did not deserve this misfortune, you would not have suffered all this.
20Now, if there is no silver piece in thine hand, give me the hair of thine head and take three loaves of bread for it, so that ye may live on there for three days."
21Then she said to herself: "What is the hair of my head in comparison with my starving husband?"
22And so after having pondered over the matter, she said to him: "Rise and cut off my hair."
23Then he took a pair of scissors and took off the hair of her head in the presence of all, and gave her three loaves of bread.
24Then she took them and brought them to me. And Satan went behind her on the road, hiding himself as he walked and troubling her heart greatly.