Ah, Lord, how _all things become confounded!_ of
young and old and of men and women there _remains neither branch nor
root;_ thy nation, and thy people, and thy wealth, _are leveled down
and destroyed_.
"O our Lord, protector of all, most valiant and most kind, _what is
this?_
"Thine anger and thine indignation, does it glory or delight in
_hurling the stone, and arrow, and spear? The FIRE of the pestilence,
made exceeding hot, is upon thy nation_, as a fire in a hut, _burning
and smoking, leaving nothing upright or sound_. The grinders of thy
teeth," (the falling stones), "are employed, and thy bitter whips
upon the miserable of thy people, who have become lean, and of little
substance, even as a hollow green cane.
Yea, _what doest thou now_, O Lord, most strong, compassionate,
invisible, and impalpable, whose will all things obey, upon whose
disposal depends the rule of the world, to whom all are
subject,--what in thy divine breast
{p. 188}
hast thou decreed? Peradventure, hast thou altogether forsaken thy
nation and thy people? Hast thou verily determined that it _utterly
perish_, and that there be no more memory of it in the world, _that
the peopled place become a wooded hill, and_ A WILDERNESS OF STONES?
Peradventure, wilt thou permit that the temples, and the places of
prayer, and the altars, built for thy service, _be razed_ and
destroyed, and no memory of them left?
"Is it, indeed, possible that thy wrath and punishment and vexed
indignation are altogether implacable, and will go on to the end to
our destruction? Is it already fixed in thy divine counsel that there
is to be no mercy nor pity for us, _until the arrows of thy fury are
spent to our utter perdition and destruction?_ Is it possible that
this lash and chastisement is not given for our correction and
amendment, but only for _our total destruction and obliteration;_
that THE SUN SHALL NEVER MORE SHINE UPON US, _but that we must remain
in_ PERPETUAL DARKNESS and silence; that never more wilt thou look
upon us with eyes of mercy, neither little nor much?
"Wilt thou after this fashion destroy the wretched sick that can not
find rest, nor turn from side to side, whose mouth and teeth _are
filled with earth and scurf?_ It is a sore thing to tell how we are
all in darkness, having none understanding nor sense to watch for or
aid one another.
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