| |
Esther vii. 1–10; viii. 15.
“NOW say, my queen,” the monarch cries, | |
| “What boon dost thou demand? | |
| Be it the half of my kingdom’s worth, | |
| ’Tis given to thy hand.” | |
| |
| “O king, had all my race been sold | 5 |
| To bondage and to shame, | |
| No murmur from my lip had passed | |
| My sovereign’s deed to blame; | |
| |
| “But sold to slaughter, doomed to death, | |
| I pour my humble prayer; | 10 |
| Oh, let thy royal clemency | |
| My guiltless kindred spare!” | |
| |
| “And who, my queen, hath dared the deed?” | |
| “Behold, our ruthless foe! | |
| ’Tis Haman whets the murd’rous steel | 15 |
| And aims the fatal blow.” | |
| |
| The king is wroth: the traitor shrinks; | |
| The stern command is given: | |
| Bound and condemned they bear him forth | |
| To feed the fowls of heaven. | 20 |
| |
| A gallows, by his impious hand | |
| For Mordecai designed, | |
| Receives the tyrant’s struggling form, | |
| And gives him to the wind. | |
| |
| Haman, thy wife hath well foretold | 25 |
| The dark intent will fail; | |
| Against Jehovah’s chosen fold | |
| Thou never couldst prevail. | |
| |
| Who comes? His costly garments wave | |
| In many a purple fold, | 30 |
| Blest with the purest white; he wears | |
| A crown of burnished gold. | |
| |
| It is the Jew—’tis Mordecai, | |
| Type of his ransomed race; | |
| For shame is double honor given, | 35 |
| And glory for disgrace. | |
| |
| Such, Israel, is thy future lot, | |
| Purged in refining fires; | |
| Queens shall thy nursing mothers be, | |
| And kings thy nursing sires. | 40 |
| |
| And thou, in means and mercies rich, | |
| Loved Albion, happy land, | |
| For Judah bend the suppliant knee, | |
| And work with willing hand. | |
| |
| Oh, help thine elder brother’s need, | 45 |
| Bid him thy blessings share, | |
| Nor let him perish at thy gate | |
| While thou hast bread to spare! | |
| |
