Ver.
GIMEL.
3 Sea-monsters, ev'n by nature taught,
To fuckle their own brood,
Draw out the breast to give a draught,
And cherish them with food;
Bot, ah! my people's daughter faint
Seems savage now, no less
Than cruel ostriches that haunt
The howling wilderness.
DALETH.
4 LO! to the fuckling's palate dry,
Fast cleaves his wither'd tongue;
Breasts empty can't his thirit fupply,
So dies the tender young:
The infant wean'd no better speed
Can make, from door to door
He fainting begs a crumb of bread,
But none have fo much o'er.
H.
5
Ev'n these inur’a to dainty meats,
Who sumptuousiy bad far'd,
Now wand'ring needy through the streets,
The defolation Mhar'd:
The rank brought up asiong the best,
In scarlet beds and dress,
Were glad, in search of food and rest,
The dunghills to embrace.
VAU.
6 Strokes, for her fins, more heavy lay
On Zion's daughter's back,
Than did on Sodom, once-a-day
Involu'd in fudden wrack:
Wrath did them in a trice consume,
Nor were they daily flain,
By human hands; but Zion's doom
Is found a ling'ring bane.
ZAIN.
> Her Nazarites and select ones
Were fplendid once and gay,
Like high-born separated Tons,
In pompous rich array:
Ver. More pure than snow they were each one,
Mure white than milk to fight ;
In face the ruby red out-Thone,
In dress the fapphire bright.
Cheru.
8 But now their beauteous visage fo
With blackness is o'ergrown,
More than a coal; when forth they go
They're in the fireets unknown.
Su close their dry aed parched fkin,
Unto their bones doth cleave;
To wither'd sticks they claim a kin,
And scarce are said to live.
T.TH.
9 Those beiter are by sword who die,
Their life they quickly yield,
Than these whom killing straits deny
The increase of the field :
For whom fierce famine stricken hath,
In torment ev'ry day,
Within the jaws of ling’ring death,
They waiting pine away.
Jod.
10 Fond mothers wonted to caress,
And on their young to dote,
Were furc'd, with their own hands; to dress
The infant for their pot :
The famine's hot devouring flame
So rag'd in every street,
The prattling babes, alas! became
Their gasping mother's meat.
CAPII.
11 The Lord his threaten'd fury great,
Now thus accomplish'd hath,
And pour'd out, at a fearful rate,
The fiercenefs of his wrath.
In Zion's midst he rais'd a flame,
That o'er the rafters tour'd,
Then the foundation's total frame
The burning fire devour'd.
Ver.
LAMED.
12 Kings of the earth, and all that plant
The spacious world around,
Could ne'er have thought this truth to grant,
Which now too true is fjund:
That ever could an adverse fue,
Who Salem's pow'r envy'd,
Her gates invade, and then o’erthrow,
As now iş verify'd.
MEM.
13 But in the ruin justice shines ;
Whence did it chiefly flow?
Ev'n from her priests and prophets fins,
Which rip'ned her for woe:
Through them in midst of her was shed,
The blood of prophets juft,
And saints, at whom in her they bred
An hatred and disgust.
Nun.
14 With darkness blind, with gore defild,
They round the streets did roam,
Stain'd with the blood of man and child,
They odious were become :
A cruel heart, tongue, hand, or eye,
Each tender spirit lothes;
Such theirs, as fober men were shy
To touch their bloody clothes.
SAMECH.
15 Their piety fo feign'd had been,
In fcorn the people cry,
“ Depart, depart; touch not thi’unclean;"
When off they walk and fly.
The very heathen them upbraid,
And packing them away,
“ From Salem, be they gone,” they said,
“ For there they shall not stay.”
Pe.
16 This carries on, said they, our game ;
The Lord hath giv'n them o'er:
His anger hath divided them ;
He'll not regard them more.
Ver. Just Heav'n thus doom'd their disregard
Of ev'ry faithful priest;
True prophets they nor elders spard,
Nor favour'd in the least.
Ain.
17 Now, as for us, amidst our strait,
Fail'd have as yet our eyes,
While we for help and fuccour wait
From faithless weak allies :
Our vain and fruitless hopes have fled,
And justly us misgave;
We watched for a nation's aid,
Unable us to save.
TZADE.
18 High batt'ries rais'd above our walls,
The fieging foe completes.;
Their arrows fury on us falls,
And hunts us off our sireets :
Our facred and our civil state,
Is thus to ruin come ;
Our prosperous days are out of date ;
How near's our dismal doom !
Корн.
19 There's no escaping when we fly,
Pursuers such are they,
Far swifter than the eagle's high,
When flying on their prey :
If to the mountains high we fled,
There they pursu'd us straight ;
If to the defart hafte we made,
There they for us laid wait.
Rest 20 The Lord's anointed, who, we thought,
Our life and breath would guard,
The royal prey, our prince was caught,
And in their pits infrar'd:
Beneath his shade we theaght to creep,
And safe 'tong heatnen live:
But flighting Cirit, the antitype,
Vain hopes did us milgive.
Ver.
SHIN.
21 O Edomite! rejoice, exult
O'er Zion's wrack, but know
The cup of wrath, for this insult,
Its round to thee fliall go :
Thou shalt be drunk, infatuate,
Mad in thy projects all,
Expose thyself to shame and hate,
And stagg'ring headlong fall.
Tau.
22 The punishment Heav'n did intend,
o Zion! for thy sin;
Ev’n thy captivity shall end,
When Edom's woes begin,
He'll now, O Edom ! punish thee,
For all thy wicked deeds,
Laid ope, to thew how juftly he
Gainst thee in wrath proceeds.
'
CH A P. V.
Zion's pitiful Complaint to God in prayer. In wbicb
joe remonstrates ber present calamitous Slate in ber
Captivity, and protesis ber Concern for God's
San&tuary; with a bumble Supplication to, and
Expoftulation with God for ibe Returns of Mercy.
REMEMBER, Lord, what's come on us,
How haughty foes encroach;
Behold our case fo infamous,
Confider our reproach,
2 Our heritage and houses cease
Now to be call'd our own;
Strangers and aliens have our lease
Of property o'erthrown.
3 As helpless orphans we're bereavid,
And fatherless we mourn;,
Our mothers are as widows griev'd,
Lamențing o'er the urn.
4 Water that's free to every frog,
For money we have drunk;
Pay'd dear for ev'ry wooden log,
So far our rights are sunk.
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