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| GOD of thunder! from whose cloudy seat | |
| The fiery winds of desolation flow; | |
| Father of vengeance! that with purple feet, | |
| Like a full wine-press, tread’st the world below; | |
| The embattled armies wait the sign to slay, | 5 |
| Nor springs the beast of havock on his prey, | |
| Nor withering Famine walks his blasted way, | |
| Till thou the guilty land hast sealed for wo. | |
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| God of the rainbow! at whose gracious sign | |
| The billows of the proud their rage suppress; | 10 |
| Father of mercies! at one word of thine | |
| An Eden blooms in the waste wilderness! | |
| And fountains sparkle in the arid sands, | |
| And timbrels ring in maidens’ glancing hands, | |
| And marble cities crown the laughing lands, | 15 |
| And pillared temples rise thy name to bless. | |
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| O’er Judah’s land thy thunders broke, O Lord! | |
| The chariots rattled o’er her sunken gate, | |
| Her sons were wasted by the Assyrian sword, | |
| Even her foes wept to see her fallen state; | 20 |
| And heaps her ivory palaces became, | |
| Her princes wore the captive’s garb of shame, | |
| Her temple sank amid the smouldering flame, | |
| For thou didst ride the tempest-cloud of fate. | |
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| O’er Judah’s land thy rainbow, Lord, shall beam, | 25 |
| And the sad city lift her crownless head; | |
| And songs shall wake, and dancing footsteps gleam, | |
| Where broods o’er fallen streets the silence of the dead. | |
| The sun shall shine on Salem’s gilded towers, | |
| On Carmel’s side our maidens cull the flowers, | 30 |
| To deck, at blushing eve, their bridal bowers, | |
| And angel-feet the glittering Sion tread. | |
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| Thy vengeance gave us to the stranger’s hand, | |
| And Abraham’s children were led forth for slaves; | |
| With fettered steps we left our pleasant land, | 35 |
| Envying our fathers in their peaceful graves. | |
| The stranger’s bread with bitter tears we steep, | |
| And when our weary eyes should sink to sleep, | |
| ’Neath the mute midnight we steal forth to weep, | |
| Where the pale willows shade Euphrates’ waves. | 40 |
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| The born in sorrow shall bring forth in joy; | |
| Thy mercy, Lord, shall lead thy children home; | |
| He that went forth a tender yearling boy, | |
| Yet, ere he die, to Salem’s streets shall come. | |
| And Canaan’s vines for us their fruits shall bear, | 45 |
| And Hermon’s bees their honied stores prepare: | |
| And we shall kneel again in thankful prayer, | |
| Where o’er the cherub seated God, full blazed the irradiate dome. | |
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