P ART I.

Lord , sit not still, as deaf unto our cries,
For lo! our enemies in tumults rise.
Ev'n those who Thy omnipotence deny,
And hate Thy Name, advance their crests on high;
Dark counsels take, and secretly contrive
Their slaughter, whom Thy mercy keeps alive.
Come, say they, let us with incessant strokes
Hew down this nation like a grove of oaks,
Till they no longer be, and Israel die
Both in his race and ruin'd memory.
They all in one confed'racy have made
A solemn league, supplied with foreign aid;
Fierce Idumaeans, who in nomads stray,
And shaggy Ishmaelites that live by prey;
Th' incestuous race that border on the lake
Of salt Asphaltis; savage thieves, who take
Their name from servile Hagar; they who dwell
In Gebal; Ammonites who peace expell;
Stern Palestines, and wild Amalekites;
False Tyrians; Ashur with Lot's sons unites.

P ART II.

Let them like Midian fall by mutual wounds;
Like Sisera; fall like Jabin on the bounds
Of Endor, where swift Kison takes his birth;
Who lay like dung upon the fatten'd earth.
Like Zeb and Oreb's princes, made a prey
For wolves; like Zeba and proud Zalmuna;
Who said, Let us these Israelites destroy,
And all the cities of their God enjoy.
O let them like a wheel be hurried round,
Like chaff which whirlwinds ravish from the ground;
As woods grown dry with age embrac'd with fire,
Whose flames above the singed hills aspire.
So in the tempest of Thy wrath pursue,
And with Thy storms Thy trembling foes subdue.
O fill their hearts with grief, their looks with shame,
Till they invoke Thy late blasphemed Name.
Confound them with eternal infamy,
That they through anguish of their souls may die.
That men Jehovah's wonders may rehearse,
The Great Commander of this universe.