Scene VIII.
SALOMITH, THE CHOIR.
SALOMITH.
What fears my sisters, O what mortal broils!
All powerful God, are these the sacrifices,
The first-fruits and the perfumes we
This day should offer at Thy altars?
One of the daughters of the Choir.
What spectacle unto our timid eyes!
Who could have feared we ever should behold
The murderous sword, the homicidal lance
Flashing within the house of peace?
Another.
Whence comes it that Jerusalem,
Full of indifference to her God,
Is silent in her present danger?
Whence comes it, sisters, that for our protection
Brave Abner, at the least, speaks not aloud?
SALOMITH.
Ah! in a court, in which prevails
No other law than force and violence;
In which its honours and employments are
The price of blind and base obedience,
Who will desire, my sister, to lift up
His voice for sorrowing innocence?
Another.
For whom's that sacred diadem prepared
In this confusion—peril violent?
SALOMITH.
The Lord has deigned to speak;
But who can make us understand
What to his prophet He has now revealed?
Arms He Himself in our defence?
Or does He arm to overwhelm us?
All the choir sing,
O promise! threatening! mysterious gloom!
What evil and what good by turns foretold!
How can we reconcile
So much of wrath and love?
One voice alone.
Sion will be no more; a cruel flame
Will burn up all her excellence.
Another voice.
O God, shield Sion; Thy eternal word
She holds for her foundations.
The first
How all her splendour fades before my eyes.
The second.
I see on every side her glory radiant
The first.
Sion is sunk to a profound abyss.
The second.
Sion, whose brow is in the heavens.
The first
What sorrowful abasement!
The second.
What immortal glory!
The first
What wailings!
The second.
What songs of victory!
A third.
Let us cease from troubling; our God one day
Will reconcile this mystery sublime!
All three.
Let us revere His anger; trust His love.
Another.
God! of a heart that loveth Thee
Who can disturb the peace?
Itself forgetting ever,
It seeks, in all, Thy will supreme.
On earth—in heaven even can there bloom
Another blessing than the tranquil peace
Of a heart that loveth Thee?
END OF THE THIRD ACT.
ACT IV.—Scenes I and II
JOAS, JOSABET, ZACHARIAH, SALOMITH, A LEVITE,
THE CHOIR.
SALOMITH.
With a majestic step, beside my mother,
Near Zachariah, walks Eliacin.
What hide they, sisters, underneath their cloaks?
In short, what is that sword that's borne before them?
JOSABET (to Zachariah).
Place on that table, reverentially,
The book redoubted of our holy law:
And also you, my loved Eliacin,
This diadem place near the book divine.
Levites we must have there, Joad orders it,
The sword of David close beside the crown.
JOAS.
Princess, what then is this strange spectacle?
This sacred book, this diadem, this sword?
I ne'er have seen example of like form,
Since in His temple God accepted me.
JOSABET.
Soon all your doubts, my son, will be dispelled.
JOAS.
Why will you fit this diadem on my brow?
Ah, princess! keep its glory unprofaned!
Respect the memory of the king who wore it.
A wretched child abandoned to the bears—
JOSABET (tries on the diadem).
Allow me, son, I do what I am ordered.
JOAS.
But from your lips I hear your sobs arise!
Princess, you weep, What pity touches you?
To-day presented as burnt offering
Am I, as formerly was Jeptha's daughter,
By my own death to appease the wrath of God?
Alas! a child has nought a father may
Not claim.
JOSABET.
Here's one will tell you of the will of Heaven;
Fear nothing. Let us leave these precincts.
JOAD, JOAS.
( Joas running into the arms of the high-priest.)
JOAD. Well, my son?
JOAS.
What is it, pray, that they prepare?
JOAD.
'Tis right my son
I should inform you, even before all,
Of God's great ends o'er you and o'er His people.
Be armed with new fidelity and zeal!
'Tis time to show this ardour and this faith,
Which to the bottom of your heart my cares
Have cultivated; and to pay to God
The debt you owe Him. Do you feel this noble
And generous aspiration?
JOAS.
I feel prepared, if wished, to give my life.
JOAD.
You've oft heard read the history of our kings:
My son, do you remember what strict law
Must be imposed on him who takes the crown?
JOAS.
Thus God Himself declares that a wise king
Does not rely on riches and on gold;
But fears the Lord his God; and ever hath
Before him His stern judgments, precepts, laws,
And crusheth not his brethren with oppression.
JOAD.
But of our kings, if you must copy one,
Which, from your choice, my son, would you be like?
JOAS.
David, who full of loyal love to God,
Appears the type most perfect of great kings.
JOAD.
Then, in their riot, you'd not imitate
The faithless Joram, godless Ochoziah?
JOAS.
O my father!
JOAD.
Continue, say what you think.
JOAS.
Whoe'er resembles, may he die like them.
(Joad prostrates himself at his feet).
My father, in what state are you before me?
JOAD.
I render you the homage of my king.
JOAS.
Joas! me?
JOAD.
You know the signal grace by which
God, foiling the designs of a bad woman,
Already with her dagger in your breast,
He chose, and saved you from amid the carnage.
You have not yet eluded all her madness:
With the same passion she has ever hungered
To lose in you the last child of her son,
Her cruelty is fixed to reach your death;
Under your name assumed, she hunts you still.
But 'neath your standard I have now arranged
A people prompt to vengeance and obedience.
Come, generous chiefs of sacred families,
By turns be honoured by the holy priest.
