Version of Paraphrase of the Psalm, A - Psalm 74
1.
O Thou, whose hand has Israel led,
His fold enlarg'd, his pasture spread,
Why hast thou doom'd us thus to bear
A long exclusion from thy care?
2.
Why thus beneath thy anger groan
The Flock whom Thou hast seal'd thine own?
Call to thy thought the sacred Band
Once own'd the purchase of thy hand:
3.
The Heritage by Thee redeem'd,
Fair Sion 's Mount, where copious stream'd.
Th' eternal light, and spoke her Shrine
The Seat of Majesty divine:
4.
Lift to that Seat thy steps again;
See Desolation spread her reign
Around it, and its wide extent
Each mark of hostile rage present.
5.
With clamours fierce a lawless Train
The silence of thy Courts profane,
And bid their standard to the skies
Aloft in haughty triumph rise.
6.
As when the Woodman's stroke invades
The lofty Grove's thick-woven shades,
So through thy Temple's awful bounds,
Now here, now there, the axe resounds;
7.
Down, down in shapeless ruins fall
The sculptures fair that grac'd its wall,
Rich with the forest's noblest spoil,
And wrought by Heav'n-directed toil.
8.
Along the violated Dome
Th' intruding flames licentious roam,
Swift, swift the fiery deluge strays
And wraps thy Fabric in its blaze.
9.
Thy spacious Courts, and Tow'rs sublime,
Whose roofs through long-revolving time
With holy wonder struck each eye,
Now heap'd in dire confusion lie.
10.
" Come, " (thus th' insulting foe has cried,)
" Come, deal the vengeance far and wide;
" And let the flames with equal doom
" Each House of Israel 's God consume. "
11.
They speak: and, instant, all around
The blazing ruins strew the ground.
No more thy wonders to our eyes,
Blest signals of thy presence, rise;
12.
No more the Prophet's lips thy will
In mystic Oracles reveal,
Or to thy People's view disclose
The destin'd period of their woes.
13.
But say, O say, great God, how long
Thus unchastis'd the hostile tongue
Shall mock thy pow'r, thy fear disclaim,
And load with loud reproach thy Name.
14.
While Crimes like these redress demand,
Why in thy bosom sleeps thy hand?
O pluck it forth, and let the foe
Repentant feel th' inflicted blow.
15.
Thee from of old my King I see,
Nor knows my heart a Friend but Thee:
Thine arm alone, in Jacob 's right,
Has turn'd each adverse pow'r to flight.
16.
At thy command, the watry Deeps
Suspended stood, in liquid heaps;
And safe, as o'er the sandy waste,
Th' admiring troops betwixt them past;
17.
The proud Leviathan, his head
Low to thy stroke submitted, bled,
And, 'midst returning waves, his train
Around their mighty King are slain.
18.
While Rapine waits upon the strand,
And calls from far her hungry Band,
That scatter'd range the Desert wide,
The promis'd banquet to divide.
19.
Thy stroke the rock's dark entrails clave;
Forth from its depth the foaming wave
Sprang instant, and with lengthen'd train
Irriguous lav'd the thirsty plain.
20.
Thy Mandate Jordan 's channel dried,
And backward roll'd his wondring tide;
While Israel 's Sons, by Thee, O God,
Conducted, safe the channel trod.
21.
By Thee prepar'd, the Night and Day
Alternate walk th' ethereal way;
Thy Art the Light's thin texture spun,
And with it cloth'd the jocund Sun;
22.
Thy hand the Earth's vast fabric rounds,
Its balance fixes, marks its bounds,
With summer's show'rs its glebe unbinds,
Or warps it with the wintry winds.
23.
Parent of Nature! God supreme!
While Folly's Sons thy acts blaspheme,
O vindicate thy Name from wrong,
And silence the reproachful tongue.
24.
Let not the fangs of cruel pow'r
Thy trembling Turtle's life devour,
Nor dark Oblivion's shade our pain
For ever from thy thought detain.
25.
O give the Flock that bears thy Name,
Thy fed'ral mercy yet to claim:
Behold within each cavern'd cell
Fraud, Violence, and Rapine dwell.
26.
Behold; and let th' afflicted Poor,
From terror and from shame secure,
With grateful heart, and joyous tongue,
Wake to thy praise the hallow'd song.
27.
Rise, mightiest Lord, thy cause defend:
Wide o'er a guilty Race extend
Thy rod, and let the needful blow
Repress the license of the Foe.
28.
O let thy hand correct their sin,
Whose hearts thy mercy fails to win,
Whose mad presumption ev'ry hour
With heighten'd rage insults thy pow'r.
O Thou, whose hand has Israel led,
His fold enlarg'd, his pasture spread,
Why hast thou doom'd us thus to bear
A long exclusion from thy care?
2.
Why thus beneath thy anger groan
The Flock whom Thou hast seal'd thine own?
Call to thy thought the sacred Band
Once own'd the purchase of thy hand:
3.
The Heritage by Thee redeem'd,
Fair Sion 's Mount, where copious stream'd.
Th' eternal light, and spoke her Shrine
The Seat of Majesty divine:
4.
Lift to that Seat thy steps again;
See Desolation spread her reign
Around it, and its wide extent
Each mark of hostile rage present.
5.
With clamours fierce a lawless Train
The silence of thy Courts profane,
And bid their standard to the skies
Aloft in haughty triumph rise.
6.
As when the Woodman's stroke invades
The lofty Grove's thick-woven shades,
So through thy Temple's awful bounds,
Now here, now there, the axe resounds;
7.
Down, down in shapeless ruins fall
The sculptures fair that grac'd its wall,
Rich with the forest's noblest spoil,
And wrought by Heav'n-directed toil.
8.
Along the violated Dome
Th' intruding flames licentious roam,
Swift, swift the fiery deluge strays
And wraps thy Fabric in its blaze.
9.
Thy spacious Courts, and Tow'rs sublime,
Whose roofs through long-revolving time
With holy wonder struck each eye,
Now heap'd in dire confusion lie.
10.
" Come, " (thus th' insulting foe has cried,)
" Come, deal the vengeance far and wide;
" And let the flames with equal doom
" Each House of Israel 's God consume. "
11.
They speak: and, instant, all around
The blazing ruins strew the ground.
No more thy wonders to our eyes,
Blest signals of thy presence, rise;
12.
No more the Prophet's lips thy will
In mystic Oracles reveal,
Or to thy People's view disclose
The destin'd period of their woes.
13.
But say, O say, great God, how long
Thus unchastis'd the hostile tongue
Shall mock thy pow'r, thy fear disclaim,
And load with loud reproach thy Name.
14.
While Crimes like these redress demand,
Why in thy bosom sleeps thy hand?
O pluck it forth, and let the foe
Repentant feel th' inflicted blow.
15.
Thee from of old my King I see,
Nor knows my heart a Friend but Thee:
Thine arm alone, in Jacob 's right,
Has turn'd each adverse pow'r to flight.
16.
At thy command, the watry Deeps
Suspended stood, in liquid heaps;
And safe, as o'er the sandy waste,
Th' admiring troops betwixt them past;
17.
The proud Leviathan, his head
Low to thy stroke submitted, bled,
And, 'midst returning waves, his train
Around their mighty King are slain.
18.
While Rapine waits upon the strand,
And calls from far her hungry Band,
That scatter'd range the Desert wide,
The promis'd banquet to divide.
19.
Thy stroke the rock's dark entrails clave;
Forth from its depth the foaming wave
Sprang instant, and with lengthen'd train
Irriguous lav'd the thirsty plain.
20.
Thy Mandate Jordan 's channel dried,
And backward roll'd his wondring tide;
While Israel 's Sons, by Thee, O God,
Conducted, safe the channel trod.
21.
By Thee prepar'd, the Night and Day
Alternate walk th' ethereal way;
Thy Art the Light's thin texture spun,
And with it cloth'd the jocund Sun;
22.
Thy hand the Earth's vast fabric rounds,
Its balance fixes, marks its bounds,
With summer's show'rs its glebe unbinds,
Or warps it with the wintry winds.
23.
Parent of Nature! God supreme!
While Folly's Sons thy acts blaspheme,
O vindicate thy Name from wrong,
And silence the reproachful tongue.
24.
Let not the fangs of cruel pow'r
Thy trembling Turtle's life devour,
Nor dark Oblivion's shade our pain
For ever from thy thought detain.
25.
O give the Flock that bears thy Name,
Thy fed'ral mercy yet to claim:
Behold within each cavern'd cell
Fraud, Violence, and Rapine dwell.
26.
Behold; and let th' afflicted Poor,
From terror and from shame secure,
With grateful heart, and joyous tongue,
Wake to thy praise the hallow'd song.
27.
Rise, mightiest Lord, thy cause defend:
Wide o'er a guilty Race extend
Thy rod, and let the needful blow
Repress the license of the Foe.
28.
O let thy hand correct their sin,
Whose hearts thy mercy fails to win,
Whose mad presumption ev'ry hour
With heighten'd rage insults thy pow'r.
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