He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses: and he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field.
| THE SEVENTH PLAGUE OF EGYPT |
I. |
| 'T was morn,--the rising splendor rolled On marble towers and roofs of gold; Hall, court, and gallery, below, Were crowded with a living flow; Egyptian, Arab, Nubian, there,-- The bearers of the bow and spear, The hoary priest, the Chaldee sage, The slave, the gemmed and glittering page,-- Helm, turban, and tiara, shone A dazzling ring round Pharaoh's throne. |
II. |
| There came a man:--the human tide Shrank backward from his stately stride: His cheek with storm and time was tanned; A shepherd's staff was in his hand; A shudder of instinctive fear Told the dark king what step was near; On through the host the stranger came, It parted round his form like flame. |
III. |
| He stooped not at the footstool stone, He clasped not sandal, kissed not throne; Erect he stood amid the ring, His only words, "Be just, a king!" On Pharaoh's cheek the blood flushed high, A fire was in his sullen eye; [{163}] Yet on the chief of Israel No arrow of his thousands fell; All mute and moveless as the grave Stood chilled the satrap and the slave. |
IV. |
| "Thou'rt come," at length the monarch spoke; (Haughty and high the words outbroke;) "Is Israel weary of its lair, The forehead peeled, the shoulder bare? Take back the answer to your band: Go, reap the wind! go, plow the sand! Go, vilest of the living vile, To build the never-ending pile, Till, darkest of the nameless dead, The vulture on their flesh is fed! What better asks the howling slave Than the base life our bounty gave?" |
V. |
| Shouted in pride the turbaned peers, Upclashed to heaven the golden spears.. "King! thou and thine are doomed!--Behold!' The prophet spoke,--the thunder rolled! Along the pathway of the sun Sailed vapory mountains, wild and dun. "Yet there is time," the prophet said: He raised his staff,--the storm was stayed: "King! be the word of freedom given: What art thou, man, to war with Heaven?" |
VI. |
| There came no word.--The thunder broke!-- Like a huge city's final smoke, Thick, lurid, stifling, mixed with flame, Through court and hall the vapors came. Loose as the stubble in the field, [{164}] Wide flew the men of spear and shield; Scattered like foam along the wave, Flew the proud pageant, prince and slave; Or in the chains of terror bound, Lay, corpse-like, on the smouldering ground. "Speak, king!--the wrath is but begun!-- Still dumb?--then, Heaven, thy will be done!" |
VII. |
| Echoed from earth a hollow roar Like ocean on the midnight shore! A sheet of lightning o'er them wheeled, The solid ground beneath them reeled; In dust sank roof and battlement; Like webs the giant walls were rent; Red, broad, before his startled gaze The monarch saw his Egypt blaze. Still swelled the plague,--the flame grew pale, Burst from the clouds the charge of hail: With arrowy keenness, iron weight, Down poured the ministers of fate; Till man and cattle, crushed, congealed, Covered with death the boundless field. |
VIII. |
| Still swelled the plague,--uprose the blast, The avenger, fit to be the last: On ocean, river, forest, vale, Thundered at once the mighty gale. Before the whirlwind flew the tree, Beneath the whirlwind roared the sea; A thousand ships were on the wave-- Where are they?--ask that foaming grave! Down go the hope, the pride of years, Down go the myriad mariners; The riches of earth's richest zone, Gone! like a flash of lightning, gone! [{165}] |
IX. |
| And, lo! that first fierce triumph o'er, Swells ocean on the shrinking shore; Still onward, onward, dark and wide, Engulfs the land the furious tide.. Then bowed thy spirit, stubborn king, Thou serpent, reft of fang and sting; Humbled before the prophet's knee, He groaned, "Be injured Israel free!" |
X. |
| To heaven the sage upraised his hand; Back rolled the deluge from the land; Back to its caverns sank the gale; Fled from the moon the vapors pale; Broad burned again the joyous sun: The hour of wrath and death was done. |
| --Croly. |
7. The Plague Of Hail.
And the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt."
And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning; and the Lord sent hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and lightning mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail. And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Intreat the Lord; for there hath been enough of these mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer."
And Moses said unto him, "As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands to the Lord; the thunders shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know that the earth is the Lord's. But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God."
And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and [{167}] spread abroad his hands unto the Lord: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the children of Israel go; as the Lord had spoken by Moses.
And the Lord said unto Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs in the midst of them: and that thou mayest tell to thy son, and to thy son's son, what things I have wrought upon Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know that I am the Lord."