Hymn V.
1. Cause to be heard in Thy grace, the
tidings of Thy salvation: for an hearing has been made, a path of
passage; our minds have been downtrodden, by messages of terror.
R., Praises to Thy victory! Glory to Thy
Dominion!
2. Comfort Thou with profits,
though
small and scanty, those that have had harvest, of hurt by their
labour: at a time of profit, they have gained
but
loss.
3. It is manifest that He has stood, portioning
wrath upon earth: loss and profit in anger He divided.
There are whom He has cast down of a sudden, and there are whom He has
puffed up of a sudden.
4. To teach
us
that He can, chastise
in all ways; when He saw the persecutors, were terrible before mine
eyes, He laid me out before my children, and they my beloved chastised
me.
5. Lo! He taught me to fear, Himself and not
man: for when there was none to smite us, His wrath gave command
of a sudden, and every man stretched himself out, and chastised
himself.
6. In like manner that Babylonian, who struck down
all kings when he was confident and hoped that there was none to smite
him, God caused that by his own hands, he should strike himself
down.
7. His majesty and his mind, of a sudden became
mad together: he rent and cast off his garments; he went forth
and wandered in the desert; he drove himself out first, and then his
servants drove him out.
8. He showed to all kings, whom he had led captive
and brought down, that not by his own power, could he have
overcome: the power that struck him down, was that which punished
them.
9. I have stood and borne, O my Lord; the
blows of my deliverers. Thou art able in Thy grace, to make me
profit by the smiters: Thou art able in Thy justice to punish me
by
my
helpers.
10. The day when the host was bold, to come up
against Samaria; their plenty and their pleasure, their treasures and
their possessions, they cast away and forsook and fled. He
crowned her by her persecutors.
11. My beloved ones crowned me, and my deliverers
healed me. Through the guilt of my dwellers, my helpers chastised
me, give me drink from Thy vines, of the cup of consolation!
12. The corn and the vine, preserve, O my Lord, by
Thy grace! Be the husbandman cheered, by the vine of the
grape-gatherer; be the vinedresser glad, in the corn of the
husbandman!
13. They are joined each to each, the corn and the
grape. In the field the reapers, wine can make cheerful, in the
vineyard the dressers, bread strengthens in turn.
14. These two things have power, to comfort my
troubles: the Trinity has power, to comfort more exceedingly;
whom I will praise because of a sudden, I was delivered through
grace.
15. But the man whose life, is preserved through
grace, if he goes away to murmur, at the loss of his goods, he is
thankless for the grace, of Him who had pity on him.
16. Of His own will He destroys, one
thing instead of another. He destroys
possession, and spares the possessor: He destroys our plants,
instead of our lives.
17. Let us fear to murmur, lest His own wrath be
roused, and He spare the possessions, and smite the possessor; that we
may learn in the end, His mercy in the beginning.
18. Let us learn against whom, it is meet for us
to murmur. Learn thou to murmur, not against the Chastener, but
against thine own will, that made thee sin and thou wast punished.
19. Let us put away murmuring, and turn unto
prayer: for if the possessor dies, his possessions also cease for
him; but while he survives, he seeks to recover his losses.
20. Let consolations be multiplied, in mercy
to my dwellers: let the remainder and residue, console
us
in the midst of wrath; and cause Thou us to forget in the residue, the
mourning of our devastation!
21. Heal and increase O my Lord, the fruits Thy
wrath has left! They seem to me like sick ones, that have escaped
in pestilence. Make me to forget in these weak ones, the
suffering of the many!
22. While I speak, O my Lord, I call to mind that
this too is the month, when the blossom pined, and dropped off in
blight, may it return to soundness, to be a consolation!
23. For these escaped the pestilence, that carried
off their brethren. The vines though voiceless, wept when before
them, a multitude was cut down and felled, of trees that they
loved.
24. The company of plants, lo! the earth
misses! The roots for the husbandmen, weep and cause them to
weep. Their beauty had spread and gave shade, and it was torn
away in one hour.
25. The axe came nigh and struck; and struck
the husbandman; the blow
was
on the trees, and it caused the
husbandman to suffer; every axe that smote, he bore the pain of
it.