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| GOD of the 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 thy sign to slay, | 5 |
| Nor springs the beast of havoc on his prey, | |
| Nor withering Famine walks his blasted way, | |
| Till thou hast marked the guilty land for woe. | |
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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’s 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 temples 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 | |
| In streets where broods 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 eye 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 strangers’ bread with bitter tears we steep, | |
| And when our weary eyes should sink to sleep, | |
| In 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 prattling boy | |
| Yet, ere he die, to Salem’s streets shall come; | |
| And Canaan’s vines for us their fruit shall bear, | 45 |
| And Hermon’s bees their honeyed 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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