THE COVENANT REJECTED.

salvation."

He shall call Me, "My father,
Thou art my God, the rock of
my
I also will make him My first-born,
Most high of the kings of earth.
I keep My love toward him forever ;
My covenant standeth sure for him;
His seed I will make fast for aye;
His throne is like the days of heaven

If his sons forsake My law,
And walk not in My judgments;
If My statutes they profane,

And keep not My commandments;
Their trespass will I punish with a rod,
Their guilt with stripes;

My love to him I will not annul,
Nor belie My faithfulness.

My covenant I profane not,

Nor alter the utterance of My lips.
Once I sware by My holiness:
I will not be false unto David.
His seed shall last forever,

His throne like the sun before Me;
Like the moon it is established ever
(A faithful witness in the sky).

II. (The Covenant Rejected.)

But Thou hast cast off and rejected,
Art wroth with Thine anointed;
Hast abhorred Thy servant's covenant,
Profaned to the earth his crown.
Thou hast broken all his hedges,

5

Hast brought his strongholds to ruin.

All that pass by spoil him;

He is become a reproach to his neighbors.

Thou hast exalted the right hand of his foes,
Hast made glad all his enemies.

Yea, Thou turnest the edge of his sword,
Neither makest him stand in battle.
Thou hast quenched his brightness,
And cast his throne to the ground;
Hast shortened the days of his youth,
And hast clothed him with shame.

How long hidest Thou, Jehovah ? forever?
Shall Thy wrath burn like fire?
Remember, O Lord, how brief it is,
For what vanity Thou createdst man.

What man liveth that seeth not death?
That saveth himself from the hand of hell?
Where are Thy former mercies, O Lord?
In Thy truth Thou swarest to David.

Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants-
I bear in my bosom the reproach of many peoples-
Wherewith Thine enemies reproach, Jehovah,

Wherewith they reproach the steps of Thine anointed.

CHAPTER II.

PSALMS, lxxxviii., xciv., cxxxvii. LAMENTATIONS, i., ii., v.

THE CAPTIVITY.-I.

RAGE AND DESPAIR.

THE BITTERNESS of Wrath-By the Rivers of Babylon-Vengeance on Edom-Edom in League with Babylon-Cruelty of EdomEzekiel Curses Edom-An Alphabetic Acrostic-The Lament of Jerusalem-Jerusalem shall be Avenged-A Psalm of Vengeance -Jehovah shall Requite-WRATH Yields to DespaIR-Part of an Acrostic-False Prophets-Mocking Foes-Jehovah against Zion -The Crying of Zion-A Psalm of Despair-The Nation DeadNo Hope-Miseries of the Captives-Sins of the Fathers Visited on the Children-God has Rejected Judah.

By the rivers of Babylon,

There we sat ;

Yea, we wept,

When we remembered Zion.

On the poplars therein hung we our harps.

For there they asked us,

Our captors, for words of song,

Our plunderers, for mirth:

"Sing us a song of Zion."

How can we sing Jehovah's song in a strange land?

If I forget thee, Jerusalem,

May my right hand forget

My tongue cleave to my mouth,

If I remember thee not,

If I set not Jerusalem at the head of my joys.

Remember, Jehovah, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem,

When they said: "Rase, rase to the foundation thereof."

(And concerning Edom spake Ezekiel son of Buzi, the prophet, saying:) The word of Jehovah came unto me̱ saying, Son of man, set thy face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, and say to it, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah Behold, I am against thee, Mount Seir, and will stretch out Mine hand against thee, and make thee desert and desolate. I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, that thou mayest know that I am Jehovah. Because thou hadst perpetual enmity, and gavest over the children of Israel to the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the final woe; therefore, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I will make thee blood, and blood shall pursue thee; since thou hast not hated blood, blood shall pursue thee. And I will make Mount Seir desert and desolate, cutting off therefrom the very passers through. And I will fill his mountains with his slain; thy hills and thy valleys and all thy water-courses -those slain with the sword shall fall therein. Perpetual desolation will I make thee, and thy cities uninhabited; that ye may know that I am Jehovah. Because thou saidst, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess them, whereas Jehovah was there; therefore, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I will do according to thine anger and thine envy, as thou of thy hatred didst toward them; and I will make Myself

VENGEANCE ON EDOM.

9

known among them, according as I judge thee. And thou shalt know that I, Jehovah, have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, Desolate are they, given us to devour. When ye boasted against Me, and multiplied your words against Me; I heard it. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah When all the earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. As thou didst rejoice over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do to thee. Thou shalt be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, utterly; that they may know that I am Jehovah.

(And in those days wrote they the words of this lamentation :)

A. Alas! solitary lieth the city full of people!

She hath become a widow that was great among the nations;

The queen of provinces is become a vassal.

B. By night she weepeth sore, her tears are on her cheeks,

She hath no comforter of all her lovers;

All her friends betrayed her, they became her foes.

C. Captive is Judah, in affliction and much bondage;
She dwelleth with the nations, finding no rest;
All her pursuers overtook her in her strait.

D. Deserted are the roads to Zion, none coming to the feasts;

All her gates are desolate, her priests sighing,
Her virgins afflicted; and she is in bitterness.