| Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917. | | | | Bezalel | | By Israel Zangwill |
| | | BEZALEL, filled with wisdom to design | |
| Stones, precious wood, rich-embroidered fabrics, gold, | |
| Fed not the few with cunning manifold | |
| Nor empty loveliness; his art divine | |
| Set up a tabernacle as a sign | 5 |
| Of oneness for a rabble many-souled, | |
| So that each span of desert should behold | |
| A nomad people with a steadfast shrine. | |
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| But we, its sons, who wander in the dark, | |
| Footsore, far-scattered, growing less and less, | 10 |
| What whiteness glooms our brotherhood to mark, | |
| What promised land our journey’s end to bless! | |
| We are, unless we build some shrine or ark, | |
| A dying rabble in a wilderness. | | | | |
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