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And instantly the startling prodigy
Was quenched, extinguished, as it were a lamp
In a poor widow's hands who vigil keeps.
And dost thou think, ill-omened sycophant,
That thou art greater than those mighty kings,
The planets of the oriental world?
Canst thou swoop down, as doth the soaring eagle,
Upon Damascus or Samaria,
Or Charcamis, or Calanus? Hast thou,
Destroyed, e'en as the sand-storm the bazaar,
Succoth-Benoth or Tiglath-Pileser?
Or have thy horses and thy chariots,
A noisy horde, disturbed the solitude
Of ancient Libanus?—Not so.—Thine arm,
Master of sovereigns, has overturned
The boundaries of states; the multitude
Recoils before thy frown and huddles close;
Thou hast a whole world fast within thy claws;
And that is all.—In thy great battles and
Thine onward march, the Lord doth thee sustain
From Heaven above, the people from below.
Thyself thou'rt nought. An instrument of wrath,
Thou'rt but the flail that threshes out the grain.—
Where are the gods of Hamath? Where the gods
Of Ivah? What can Sepharvaïm do
When by Jehovah smitten? On a time
Those idols reigned; like them thou 'lt pass away,
E'en as the bell hung from the camel's neck.
Soon in their cloaks the saints will make a fold,
Gad, Azur, Zebulon, and Benjamin,
And Naphthali on Mount Ebal will stand,
To curse thee. Women and young children all
Will follow thee with jeers and mockery;
And to thy feet and eyes (which hell will blind)
The heavens will be of bronze, the earth of iron.