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| WHEN you tell of Israel’s heroes, those who lived in days of old, | |
| Sing aloud the well-earned praises of the Maccabees so bold; | |
| Men who never shrank from danger, fought right nobly for their God, | |
| Though a handful ’gainst a myriad, though their life-blood stained the sod. | |
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| Though so great the odds against them, never feared they mortal foe, | 5 |
| Fiercely fighting and subduing those who worked their brethren woe; | |
| Inspired with holy zeal were they, nought could quell their spirits brave, | |
| No mercy e’er their foemen knew and no quarter Judas gave. | |
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| Mayhap their war-cry—“Mi Kamocha Baelim Adonay”— | |
| Excited all to courage great, animated them with joy; | 10 |
| “Who is like unto Thee, O Lord,” they sang with reverent love, | |
| With their lips attuned to praises for the God who dwells above. | |
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| Oh, heart-inspiring shibboleth, that nerved to deeds of glory | |
| The tender youth, maturer men, as well as sages hoary! | |
| No wonder heathen, senseless gods Israel’s worship could not gain, | 15 |
| While they sang in joyful harmony that glorious refrain! | |
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| Not for love of savage-warfare fought brave Judas and his band— | |
| But religion true and holy, those they loved, their homes, their land, | |
| With that liberty of conscience man should ever yield to man— | |
| These the Maccabees desired—these that placed them under ban. | 20 |
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| Surely, hist’ry ne’er recorded, nor has poet ever sung, | |
| More gallant deeds, I trow, than these, that have down the ages rung; | |
| Not for self they fought so bravely, not for pelf or sordid gold, | |
| But for love of God Almighty, was their banner e’er unrolled. | |
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| Of their battles and their vict’ries, it were bootless to relate— | 25 |
| All have heard their wondrous triumphs, of their great and glorious fate; | |
| How they vanquished foes tyrannic, how they won their cause at length, | |
| How they kept their war-cry ever as their watchword and their strength. | |
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| To that noble band all honor for their gallant acts of yore, | |
| For their high-born, peerless courage, for the woes they bravely bore! | 30 |
| When you tell of Israel’s heroes, those who lived in days of old, | |
| Sing aloud the well-earned praises of the Maccabees so bold. | |
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