He sent down hard rains, savage storms,
Burning hail, hot from the heavens.
That fire was God’s fierce retribution
On the land of Egypt. Then their vineyards 85
And fig trees perished, barren and leafless.
They could never flower or produce fruit.
He spoke and the grasshoppers ravaged the land,
Along with the savagely gnawing beetles
In numbers beyond man’s capacity to count. 90
They devoured all the fruits of the earth,
Chewing the plants right down to the ground.
Then God struck down all the first-born children
Begotten and born anywhere in Egypt,
And likewise the lords of their great lineage. 95
Then he honored his people with gold and silver,
Leading his beloved ones away from that land.
And no one was ill or ailing in his tribes,
Either young or old. The Egyptians were glad
To see the Israelites go, for a terrible fear 100
Had come upon them. God gave his people
A covering cloud to shield them from harm
And a pillar of fire to lead them on
Through each dark night. They asked for flesh
To feed themselves, and birds flew down, 105
Gannets and gulls from the great sea,
And he satisfied their hunger with manna from above,
The holy bread from the heights of heaven.
God split a rock and commanded streams
To flow from the stone, water from a spring— 110
Those waters did not wet their feet when later
They marched together into the river Jordan,
For the high and holy guardian of heaven
Remembered the words he had spoken to Abraham,
The covenant he had kept with his chosen one. 115
So he led his people, his beloved host,
To a land of rejoicing, a place of promise,
Where he gave them power over the foreign peoples,
And they took possession of their land and labors.
There they followed their faith, always observing 120
The sacred laws of their holy Lord,
His just words and fair judgments,
With eager trust, always and forever.
105
I acknowledge and praise the eternal Lord,
For I know he is a good and gracious God,
Who has revealed his compassion to all mankind.
The Lord is forever wise in this world.
Who can ever fully know or describe 5
The powers of the Lord or listen to his praise
From all the people and understand the wonder
Of hearing such exalted words in this world?
Blessed are those who bring together
True justice and righteous judgments 10
In their words and deeds at all times.
Remember us, Lord, in your heart and mind,
Recall your people each day in your thinking,
And search for us here with your salvation.
Look on us in a fair and fitting manner, 15
Include us always in the company of the chosen
As long as we live, so that we may rejoice
Everywhere with your people and praise your inheritance.
We have sinned in the past as our forefathers did,
Acting unjustly, committing iniquity. 20
Our ancestors did not truly understand
The wonders you worked in ancient Egypt—
Those were no small miracles, my Lord.
They did not remember your many mercies,
The wonders you performed among those people. 25
They mocked your miracles as they bore their shields
To the wide waters of the Red Sea,
Yet you saved them there, Lord of life,
And rescued them for your name’s sake,
When you revealed the bounty of your great power. 30
You rebuked the sea and swept back the waves,
So the sea-road dried up and you delivered them,
Leading them between great walls of water
As if they were walking on a dry desert.
So the Life-lord saved them from the hostile hands 35
Of their hateful enemies, their fierce foes.
Then the flood savagely drowned the fiends
So that not even a single witness survived.
Afterwards they firmly believed in his words
And pleased him, singing praise-songs to him, 40
But soon they forgot his wondrous works
And failed to observe and obey his counsel.
In the desert they discovered greed and desire,
A wanton craving for passion and power,
And they hotly tested and tempted their God— 45
But he answered their request and brought them food,
Meals for their mouths in great abundance.
In the camps they began to bitterly mock
And provoke great Moses and also holy Aaron.
Then the earth opened up, swallowing Dathan 50
And also Abiram and their faithless followers.
And a fire was kindled in that wicked company,
Consuming all of those guilty sinners.
Then they made an icon, a golden calf
In Horeb and worshipped that heathen idol, 55
Turning their glory into the graven image
Of a calf that chews on a clump of hay.
They forgot the Lord who had boldly saved them
From the hostile hands and loathing hearts
Of their fierce enemies, and who worked wonders 60
In the land of Egypt and also Canaan,
Making stunning miracles at the Red Sea.
Then the Lord of glory would have destroyed them
When the might of Moses could not save them
With a great miracle. But Moses protected his people 65
From the hostile power of their hateful enemies
By averting God’s anger so that he refrained
From driving all his people into destruction.
Still they persisted—they could not see the value
Of that precious land, the best there was, 70
Or believe in his words, but grumbled and groaned,
Complaining about their hard, cruel lives,
Refusing to listen to the Lord’s words.
So he raised his hand, desiring immediately
To expel them all into the endless desert, 75
To scatter their seed and so drive away
Their beloved offspring into the vast wilderness.
Then they prayed to Baalpeor for aid and favor
And devoured sacrifices made to the dead,
Offerings to alien gods. That was not right. 80
They boldly, brazenly mocked their Lord
In full force in their unholy meetings—
All they accomplished was their own ruin.
Then Phinehas stopped that sacrificial feasting
When he destroyed the alien, evil idols. 85
For that he won salvation and obtained support
From each of the tribes in every generation.
But the people shamefully mocked God again
With scorn and insults at the waters of contradiction,
Where Moses was much troubled and afflicted, 90
As he often was for the sake of their sins.
His spirit was fierce. He was unable to teach them
With the words of his lips God’s wise will.
They refused to destroy the hostile peoples,
As their Lord and judge had commanded them. 95
They mingled and intermarried with the sinful heathens,
Learning their lore, worshipping their idols,
Performing acts loathsome to the
Lord.
That was a source of great shame and infamy,
No small stumbling block for them. 100
They began to sacrifice their sons and daughters
To the fiends and demons, offering innocent blood
To the god of Canaan whom they vilely chose.
Then the earth was defiled with evil deeds,
Stained with sin, polluted with blood. 105
The faithless forsook the great works of God,
So the eternal Lord grew angry with them
In his righteous wrath and despised his inheritance.
He judged them harshly and handed them over
To the powerful unbelievers in the heathen nations 110
Who had always dominated and persecuted them.
Those fiends were not known for their friendship.
Familiar enemies oppressed and abused them.
They suffered humiliation at their hostile hands.
Often the Lord of life had to deliver them. 115
Still they provoked him in their dark counsels
And were often debased in their own iniquities.
When he saw their suffering at the hands of their enemies,
He heard their passion and heeded their prayers.
He remembered his promise according to his mercy 120
And regretted their suffering, their pain and oppression.
He took pity on them, offering them compassion
In the sight of their captors who had persecuted them.
Save us now, holy Lord, and make us whole,
Redeem us, O God, Father of goodness. 125
Gather us up from the distant regions
Where we all endure misfortune and misery,
So we might confess and praise your name,
The most holy one here on earth,
And we might be praised and gather glory, 130
Greatly extolled over peoples everywhere.
Blessed be the God of the Israelites,
The sovereign Lord forever and ever,
And may all the people say with certainty,
“So be it, so be it,” for all eternity. 135
106
I acknowledge and praise the eternal Lord,
For I know him to be a wise God,
Gracious and good. His mercy is forever.
Now I will say that this same God,
The guardian of life, has rescued and redeemed 5
A great many people from hostile hands
And gathered them together from far lands.
These desperate ones wandered in the wilderness
From the rising of the sun in the dawn’s light
To its disappearing in the dusk of the western sky. 10
From the sea and the north, they twisted and turned,
Drifting through the desert, unable to discover
A familiar landmark, a known road
To a city where they might live and thrive.
They were harrowed by hunger, hounded by thirst, 15
A people in peril, their souls under siege.
They suffered endlessly, and in their trials,
They cried out to the Lord, and he rescued them
From their tribulations, delivering them from distress.
The Lord of life directed them to the right road 20
Where they could travel freely and finally come
To a habitable city, a place to call home.
So they acknowledge the mercy of the mighty Lord
And acclaim his miracles to the children of men,
For he satisfies fully the empty soul 25
And satiates the hunger of those who suffer,
Filling them all with nourishing good.
The Lord listens to those bound in darkness,
Those who are living in the shadow of death,
Fettered by the chains of iniquity and evil, 30
The malice of oppression, the misery of want.
For they mocked the Lord’s wise words
And made them worthless with a cunning craft.
They treated the counsel of the highest King
With scorn and contempt. Their hearts were hopeless, 35
Their spirits weak, their lives wretched.
They could find not help anywhere on earth.
They cried out in torment to their lost Lord,
Who rescued them and saved them from suffering.
He delivered them from darkness and the shadow of death 40
And broke their bitter chains of captivity.
Let them acknowledge the mercy of the mighty Lord
And acclaim his miracles to the children of men.
He can easily shatter the iron bars
And the brass doors of any prison. 45
He will wisely lead his people away
From the path of evil, the road of ruin,
Where they wander in iniquity, bent with shame.
In their sinful stupor, they rejected all meat,
Refused all food, then found themselves 50
Famished and feeble, close to death,
Approaching the doors of their own undoing.
They cried out to God in their deep distress,
And he delivered them again from all their anguish,
A misery of their own making. He sent his wise words 55
Which healed them and made them whole again.
Finally they were rescued from their grim fate.
Let them offer praise to their eternal Lord
And thank him for being merciful to mankind.
His works are wondrous among the children of men. 60
They should offer him praise and prepare a sacrifice
And everywhere proclaim the wonder of his works.
Those who seek the sea in their sailing ships,
Conducting their business over the wide waters,
Understand God’s glories, his hidden powers, 65
In the wonder of the waves, the secrets of the deep.
When the Lord speaks, storm-spirits raise up
Dangerous waves surging toward the skies.
The men in their ships rise up toward heaven,
Then crash down suddenly into the deep abyss, 70
Swollen with evil, wasted with dread.
They are deeply troubled, tossed about
On a reeling road like staggering drunks.
What wisdom they had is swallowed up
By some terrible evil in the depths of destruction. 75
Once again they cried out to God in torment,
And again he delivered them from dire straits.
He can still the storm-wind, calm the waves,
Soften a gale into a gentle breeze.
So the wind and waves grew calm again— 80
The forces of peace had stilled the sea.
Then the Lord led them into a safe haven.
He knew their longing and saved them from peril.
Let them praise the Lord for all of the mercy,
The care and compassion, he showed to mankind. 85
Glorious are his wonders over the children of men.
Let everyone praise him in the exalted church
Of the Christian community. Let them all sing
Praise-songs to God and his eternal well-being
In the seats of the righteous now and forever. 90
He has set running rivers down in the desert,
Streams of joy to delight wretched people
Oppressed by sorrow, obsessed with thirst.
He turned that fruitful land into a salt marsh
For the sinful deeds of those who dwelled there. 95
He turned a wasteland into a wide water,
And a dry desert into deep springs.
He established a homeland for those who hungered
And gave them a city where they might survive.
They planted vineyards, sowed seeds, 100
Cultivated crops, nurtured b
looms,
Bringing home a harvest of fruit and grain.
And God blessed them all with great abundance,
Full fields, a multitude of children,
And herds of cattle, not one of them harmed. 105
Few in number, they were often afflicted,
Harassed by their enemies, tormented by the trials
Of evil and iniquity. Afterwards they were seized
By suffering and sorrow, cruel companions.
Sometime later they scorned sacred doctrine, 110
And their leaders were all sorely led astray.
Often they swore and blasphemed on the road,
And deceiving themselves, sometimes wandered away.
But God took pity on the wretched and needy
And rescued them from the peril of poverty, 115
Guiding them home like a shepherd with his sheep.
When the righteous see that, they will all rejoice,
Remembering God’s promise that he will silence
All evil, the words and ways of the wicked,
Invoking only the truth of his mouth. 120
Who is so wise in his mind and knowing in his heart
That he can fathom the mercy of the almighty Lord?
107
My heart is ready, O holy Lord,
My heart is ready to sing out psalms,
Ready to please and praise God.
Rise up, my glory, so that I may rejoice
And sing with my psaltery, hymn with my harp, 5
Offering you, Lord, my early morning music.
I acknowledge you, Lord, and sing your praises
Among all peoples with my pleasing words,
Offering thanks to you among the nations.
Let me sing out my psalms—I am grateful to you. 10
Your mercy extends to the heights of heaven,
Your righteousness reaches beyond the clouds,
Your compassion extends over the children of men.
You are gathered in glory, holy Lord,
Exalted high above heaven and earth. 15
May your chosen ones be cleanly delivered,
Blameless and beloved. Keep me safe
With your right hand, redeem me,
Heal my heart and make me whole.
Hear me now, my Lord and Savior, 20
You who say to the holy ones on earth:
“Now I will rejoice and divide the tribes,
Their tents and tabernacles, those that now stand
In such great splendor in Shechem and Metibor.
Gilead is mine as well as Manasseh. 25
Ephraim, his brother, is equally my stronghold,
My protecting helmet here in this land.
I proclaim Judah now as my king.
The Moabites are likewise my trusted kinsmen.
Into Edom I will stretch out my fierce foot— 30
Let them feel my shoe. All the foreigners
The Complete Old English Poems Page 90
