St Ephrem’s prayer for enemies

A short prayer from a homily credited to St Ephrem the Syrian. It asks God not to punish your enemies, but in His mercy to grant that they do His will.

Picture: Alfred Rethel, The Reconciliation of Otto the Great with His Brother Henry, 1840

Plain English

Have mercy on me, for I am a sinner and weak.O God, have pity on my weakness,and give me the strength to praya prayer that pleases You:

Do not punish my enemies,and take no revenge on those who hate me,but in Your mercy grantthat they may do Your will.

Traditional wording, 1898

Have mercy on me, I am a sinner and weak;be gracious, O God, to my weakness,and grant strength to me to pray a prayerthat shall be pleasing to Thy Will.

“Punish Thou not mine enemies,take not vengeance on them that hate me;but grant them in Thy gracethat they may become doers of Thy Will.”

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from Thomas Lamy’s 1882 Latin translation of the Syriac, with A. Edward Johnston’s 1898 English beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: A. Edward Johnston, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 13, 1898.

Johnston has “in Thy grace” where Lamy’s Latin, which the plain English follows, has “in Your mercy”.

When it is said

The homily it comes from gives these words to the reader to cry in their soul whenever they stand to pray.

It is not part of any church service.

Where it comes from

Author by tradition

From a homily credited to St Ephrem

St Ephrem the Syrian served as a deacon in Nisibis and later in Edessa. He died in AD 373. Syriac manuscripts credit him with the verse homily On Admonition and Repentance, where this prayer is found. The scholar Thomas Lamy printed it in 1882 from a copy made at Edessa in AD 873-74. Writers later put hundreds of works under Ephrem’s name, so not every homily credited to him is his own.

Thomas Lamy, Sancti Ephraem Syri Hymni et Sermones, vol. I (Mechlin, 1882), archive.org; Ephrem the Syrian, Wikipedia

Let go of anger, then pray

The homily warns that it is blasphemy to pray to God while you are angry. It sets Christ, Who prayed on the cross for the men who were killing Him (Luke 23:34), beside the angry person, who is only dust. Its advice is short: “Leave off rage and then pray.” Later the homily gives these words for the prayer itself.

On Admonition and Repentance, tr. A. Edward Johnston, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 13 (1898)

The Scripture in it

But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’

Luke 18:13 Echoed The tax collector’s “God, have mercy on me, a sinner”.

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you …

Matthew 5:44 Echoed Christ’s command to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

Close to this

All prayers

Suggest a correction