Whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.
—See if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,
With which the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his anger.”[anger.”]
“Admirable!” exclaimed Myron, unable to resist the beauty of this Lamentation.
Elisama continued: “It is the finest of all the songs of our prophets, and its echo still lives in the hearts of the children of Israel. This melancholy tone never ceases to predominate in their minds, no, not even in the days of Hyrcanus. What must the prophet have felt when he wrote,
All that pass by clap their hands at thee,
They hiss and shake the head at the daughter of Jerusalem;
Is this the city which men call the Perfection of Beauty, the joy of the whole earth?
“He had foreseen it all—he had taught them how the calamity might be avoided, but they would not listen to his voice; they had persecuted him, and despised the prophetic word. Now he had to endure the sight of that which he had endeavoured to avert.
I am the man that hath seen affliction