The Jews
The Lament for Israel
The speaker mourns that the Gentiles have taken the spiritual blessings meant for the Jewish people, leaving them barren and bound by the law.
Poor nation, whose sweet sap and juice our scions have stolen, and left you dry: whose streams we took through the Apostles' sluice, and use in baptism, while you pine and die: who by not keeping once became a debtor; and now by keeping lose the letter:✦12
A Cry for Restoration
The speaker yearns for an angelic trumpet to rouse the Church to such fervent intercession that God would restore Israel's spiritual vitality.
Oh, if only my prayers— Mine, I'm afraid!3 Oh, if only some angel would blow a trumpet; at that sound the Church, falling on her face, would cry so loud that the trumpet itself was drowned out, and by that cry obtain from her dear Lord that your sweet sap might return!✦4
Read the original English
Poore nation, whose sweet sap and juice Our cyens have purloin'd, and left you drie: Whose streams we got by the Apostles sluce, And use in baptisme, while ye pine and die: Who by not keeping once, became a debter; And now by keeping lose the letter:
Oh that my prayers! mine, alas! Oh that some Angel might a trumpet sound; At which the Church falling upon her face Should crie so loud, untill the trump were drown'd, And by that crie of her deare Lord obtain, That your sweet sap might come again!
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rom.11.17-Rom.11.24 — But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and became a partaker of the root and the richness of the olive tree, Rom.11.18 — Do not boast over the branches. But if you do boast, remember: you do not support the root, but the root supports you. Rom.11.19 — Then you will say, 'Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.' Rom.11.20 — Well said: they were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but fear. Rom.11.21 — For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Rom.11.22 — Consider then the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who fell, but God's kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. Rom.11.23 — And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. Rom.11.24 — For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree!
- ↩1Thess.4.16;1Cor.15.52 — For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 1Cor.15.52 — in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet—for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
Notes
- 1 ↩Early modern 'cyens' = scions (grafted shoots). Herbert is working the Romans 11 olive-tree image: Gentile Christians grafted into Israel's stock take the sap and leave the root dry.
- 2 ↩'Letter' means the letter of the Law (cf. 2 Cor 3:6). The closing paradox: by failing to keep, they became debtors; by clinging to the letter now, they lose even that.
- 3 ↩mine picks up prayers from the previous cry: the speaker means his own prayers, and sighs that they are not enough.
- 4 ↩of her deare Lord is read as obtain from her dear Lord (early modern obtain of = obtain from), not as if the cry itself were Christ's.
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