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The Holy Mountain and Eternal Peace
The Lord
So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall flow with waters; and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the Valley of Acacias. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. And I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.
THE HURT OF THE DAUGHTER OF MY
PEOPLE
A Rhapsodic Discourse of Jeremiah
Thus saith the Lord: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? shall one turn away, and not return? Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repenteth him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turneth to his course, as a horse that rusheth headlong in the battle. Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the ordinance of the Lord. How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes hath wrought falsely. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what manner of wisdom is in them? Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall possess them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. And they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. I will utterly consume them, saith the Lord: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.
The People
Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord. We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold dismay! The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembleth; for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those that dwell therein.
The Lord
For, behold, I will send serpents, basilisks, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.
The Prophet
Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint within me. Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off—
The People
Is not the Lord in Zion? is not her King in her?
The Lord
Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?
The People
The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!
The Prophet
For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And they bend their tongue as it were their bow for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth.
The Lord
For they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord. Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will go about with slanders. And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity. Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how else should I do, because of the daughter of my people? Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait for him. Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
THE LORD'S CONTROVERSY BEFORE THE
MOUNTAINS
A Dramatic Morceau of Micah
The Lord
Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. Hear, O ye mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye enduring foundations of the earth: for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.
O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him; remember from Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the righteous acts of the Lord.
The People
Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
The Mountains
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
A CRY OF COMFORT FOR JERUSALEM
Prelude to the Rhapsody of 'Zion Redeemed'
Jehovah
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; that she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
[Voices carry on the tidings across the desert to Jerusalem
A Voice of one crying
Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord,
Make straight in the desert a high way for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted,
And every mountain and hill shall be made low:
And the crooked shall be made straight,
And the rough places plain:
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it together:
For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
A Second Voice (in the distance)
Cry!
A Despairing Voice
What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass,
And all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
The grass withereth,
The flower fadeth,
Because the breath of the Lord bloweth upon it:
Surely the people is grass!
The Second Voice
The grass withereth,
The flower fadeth:
But the word of our God shall stand for ever.
Fourth Voice (still more distant)
O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion,
Get thee up into the high mountain;
O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem,
Lift up thy voice with strength;
Lift it up, be not afraid;
Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
Fifth Voice
Behold, the Lord God will come as a mighty one,
And his arm shall rule for him:
Behold, his reward is with him,
And his recompence before him.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd,
He shall gather the lambs in his arm,
And carry them in his bosom,
And shall gently lead those that give suck.
(Being Vision III of the Rhapsody of 'Zion Redeemed')
Appeals to Zion
Jehovah
Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye were digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many.
For the Lord hath comforted Zion: he hath comforted all her waste places, and hath made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
(No response)
Jehovah
Attend unto me, O my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation; for a law shall go forth from me, and I will make my judgement to rest for a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the peoples; the isles shall wait for me, and on mine arm shall they trust.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
(No response)
Jehovah
Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye dismayed at their revilings.
For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation unto all generations.
(No response)
The Celestial Hosts
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord;
Awake, as in the days of old,
The generations of ancient times!
Art thou not it that cut Rahab in pieces,
That pierced the dragon?
Art thou not it which dried up the sea,
The waters of the great deep;
That made the depths of the sea
A way for the redeemed to pass over?
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come with singing unto Zion;
And everlasting joy shall be upon their heads:
They shall obtain gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Jehovah
I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou art afraid of man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and hast forgotten the Lord thy Maker, that stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and fearest continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he maketh ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile shall speedily be loosed; and he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail.
For I am the Lord thy God, which stilleth the sea, when the waves thereof roar: the Lord of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.
(No response)
The Celestial Hosts
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem,
Which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury;
Thou hast drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.
There is none to guide her
Among all the sons whom she hath brought forth;
Neither is there any that taketh her by the hand
Of all the sons that she hath brought up.
These two things are befallen thee;
Who shall bemoan thee?
Desolation and destruction,
And the famine, and the sword,
How shall I comfort thee?
Thy sons have fainted,
They lie at the top of all the streets,
As an antelope in a net;
They are full of the fury of the Lord,
The rebuke of thy God.
Jehovah
Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people: Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: and I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy back as the ground, and as the street, to them that go over.
(No response)
The Celestial Hosts
Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion;
Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city:
For henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
Shake thyself from the dust;
Arise, sit thee down, O Jerusalem:
Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
Jehovah
For thus saith the Lord, Ye were sold for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money. For thus saith the Lord God, My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there: and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now therefore, what do I here, saith the Lord, seeing that my people is taken away for nought? They that rule over them do howl, saith the Lord, and my name continually all the day is blasphemed. Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: Behold it is I!