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| HOW great, O Israel, have thy sufferings been | |
| Since doomed in every land and clime to roam, | |
| An exile and a wanderer on the earth, | |
| Without a country and without a home! | |
| |
| Throughout the world men scorned the Hebrew’s faith— | 5 |
| That holy creed of origin divine; | |
| They stamped as crime his sacred, pure belief, | |
| And mocked his worship at Jehovah’s shrine. | |
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| And Israel, once a nation proud and great, | |
| From whom sprang sages, kings and prophets grand, | 10 |
| Earth’s mightiest race, the chosen of the Lord, | |
| Was mocked and scorned and jeered in every land! | |
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| In sunny Spain, the Inquisition dread | |
| Cast him in dungeons terrible and dire, | |
| And with a thousand tortures racked his form, | 15 |
| Then led him forth unto the death of fire. | |
| |
| Where’er the Hebrew roamed, on land or sea, | |
| Did persecution follow in his path, | |
| And furious mobs deemed it a noble act | |
| To vent on him their hatred and their wrath. | 20 |
| |
| Ten thousand martyrs died for Israel’s cause, | |
| With fortitude sublime, ’mid smoke and flame; | |
| And while their cruel foes stood mocking ’round, | |
| They called on God and blessed His sacred name! | |
| |
| Through all the horrors of that fearful time, | 25 |
| Through gloom and death, the Hebrew saw afar, | |
| With faith’s unfailing and undying eye, | |
| Beyond the clouds, hope’s bright and glorious star. | |
| |
| He knew that God would rise ’gainst Israel’s foes | |
| As, long ago, upon the Red Sea coast, | 30 |
| With miracles He saved His chosen race, | |
| And in the sea ’whelmed Pharaoh’s mighty host. | |
| |
| And gloriously was that bright trust fulfilled, | |
| For Israel triumphed over every foe, | |
| And marching on with undiminished zeal, | 35 |
| Emerged in triumph from the night of woe. | |
| |
| Yes, Judah proudly stands, ’midst all mankind, | |
| Once more as beautiful, sublime, and grand | |
| As when, in blessèd days of old, she stood | |
| A mighty nation in the Holy Land. | 40 |
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| Weep not, O Israel, for thy martyred ones, | |
| For though no monuments rise o’er their tombs, | |
| Yet fame upon the sacred spot shall shed | |
| Her fairest garlands and her brightest blooms. | |
| |
| Their names are grav’n on honor’s deathless page, | 45 |
| And on the scroll of glory written high: | |
| And though earth’s proudest monuments decay, | |
| Their deeds sublime will never, never die! | |
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| Mourn not, O Israel, for the glorious past; | |
| The future holds a destiny more grand; | 50 |
| For ’tis thy mission great to teach God’s laws | |
| To the inhabitants of every land, | |
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| And cause the nations of the world to know | |
| That unto Him alone shall prayers ascend, | |
| And that before His great majestic throne | 55 |
| All men in reverent suppliance shall bend. | |
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| Ah! may the time soon come when o’er the earth | |
| In thunder tones the glad acclaim will ring, | |
| And nations, taking up the shout, shall cry, | |
| “The God of Judah is our Lord and King!” | 60 |
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