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| SHALL I sorrow, oh desolate city, | |
| For thy beauty and glory o’erthrown; | |
| Shall I sing the dread day of destruction, | |
| When thy sins thou didst dearly atone— | |
| When the Lord, from the place He had chosen, | 5 |
| Withdrew the strong shield of His Name, | |
| And its treasures were spoiled by the stranger, | |
| Its holiness given to shame— | |
| When the shrieks of the daughters of Zion | |
| Sad echo’d the shouts of the foe, | 10 |
| And thy streets, ravished City, ran crimson | |
| With the blood of thy sons, lying low— | |
| When the scepter departed from Judah, | |
| From Levi his birthright was riven, | |
| And the people of God were led captive, | 15 |
| Forsaken of earth and of Heaven! | |
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| Or shall I rejoice in the beauty | |
| And glory again to be thine, | |
| When thy youth’s loving Bridegroom shall ransom | |
| His promise of comfort, divine— | 20 |
| In the courts of God’s temple rebuilded, | |
| Thy priests, morn and eve, shall proclaim | |
| “He is One!”—and the sons of the stranger | |
| Shall answer: “And One is His Name!” | |
| With chorus of praise shall thy daughters | 25 |
| Reëcho the Levites’ glad song, | |
| And thy gates night and day shall stand open | |
| For the pilgrims that thitherward throng. | |
| For the scepter returneth to David, | |
| The miter to Aaron’s proud line; | 30 |
| And neighbour shall welcome his neighbour | |
| To the shadow of fig-tree and vine. | |
| |
| Like Akiba, who laughed when the foxes | |
| Ran out from the Holiest place, | |
| Saying: “True were the warnings of evil | 35 |
| And true is the promise of grace,” | |
| My thoughts, on this day of sad memories, | |
| Turn not back to the past in despair, | |
| But forward in hope to the future | |
| Where visions of glory shine fair! | 40 |
| When I read in the book of the prophet | |
| Who voiced fallen Zion’s distress, | |
| I seek not alone words of grieving, | |
| But these rarer, that comfort and bless: | |
| “Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, | 45 |
| In the isles afar off be it told; | |
| Who dispersed, will again gather Israel, | |
| And keep—as a shepherd his fold!” | |
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