Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917.
By John Stuart BlackieMoses
I
By the Nile’s sweet-watered stream,
In the land of strange taskmasters,
Brooding o’er the patriot theme.
Of his dear-loved Hebrew home,
Whence the eager pinch of Famine
Forced the Patriarch to roam.
Lifting vengeful arm to smite,
When he saw the harsh Egyptian
Stint the Hebrew of his right.
Where on holy ground unshod,
He beheld the bush that burned
With consuming flame from God.
With his outstretched prophet-rod,
To stir plagues upon the Pharoah,
Scorner of the most high God.
From the strange taskmaster free,
And merged the Memphians, horse and rider,
In the deep throat of the sea.
Harp and timbrel, song and dance,
And with firm set will the hero
Led the perilous advance.
As a shepherd leads his flock,
Breaking spears with cursed Amalek,
Striking water from the rock.
High-embattled rock; and there,
’Mid thick clouds of smoke and thunder,
Like trumpet clave the air.
And with reverent awe unshod,
As a man with men discourseth,
So he there communed with God.
Not in visions of the night,
Not in flashes of quick fancy,
Darkness sown with gleams of light.
As a builder knows his plan,
Face to face he knew Jehovah
And His wondrous ways with man.
Ways of vengeance strong to smite,
Ways of large unchartered giving,
Ever tending to the right.
What no mortal sees he saw,
And from hand that no man touches
Brings the tables of the Law.
Lest untutored wit might stray,
Each man where his private fancy
Led him in a wanton way.
Of loose Arabs wandering wild,
And to fruitful acres brought them
Where ancestral virtue toiled.
With a creed divinely true,
Which the subtle Greek and lordly Roman
Stooped to borrow from the Jew.