:
The Lion who tore enough for his whelps,
And strangled for his lionesses.
And he filled his pits with prey,
And his dens with rapine.
Lo, I am at thee,
I will put up thy lair in flames,
The sword shall devour thy young lions;
I will cut off the earth from thy rapine,
And the noise of thine envoys shall no more be heard.

Woe to the City of Blood,
All of her guile, robbery full, ceaseless rapine!

Hark the whip,
And the rumbling of the wheel,
And horses galloping,
And the rattling dance of the chariot!
Cavalry at the charge, and flash of sabres,
And lightning of lances,
Mass of slain and weight of corpses,
They stumble on their dead!

All thy fortresses are fig trees with figs early ripe:
Be they shaken they fall on the mouth of the eater.
Lo, thy folk are but women in thy midst:
To thy foes the gates of thy land fly open;
Fire has devoured thy bars.

{389}{390}

[Illustration]
"THE PROPHETS"

From the frieze of "The Prophets," by Sargent, in the Boston Public
Library.

The prophets here represented are Amos, Nahum, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
[End illustration]

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Draw water for the siege, strengthen thy forts!
Get thee down to the mud, and tramp in the clay!
Grip fast the brick mould!
There fire consumes thee, the sword cuts thee off!

Asleep are thy shepherds, O king of Assyria,
Thy nobles do slumber;
Thy people are strewn on the mountains,
Without any to gather.
There is no healing of thy wreck,
Fatal thy wound.
All who hear of thy fall shall clap their hands at thee,
For upon whom hath not thy cruelty passed without ceasing?

[Footnote: This translation is, in part, that of George Adam Smith.]

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HABAKKUK

(The little book of Habakkuk was written just before the fall of
Jerusalem. This prophet is dealing with a problem new to Israel. It
was, Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper? It came from
the rapid rise of the great, cruel empire of Babylon. Assyria had
fallen, but instead of Israel being free as the people had expected
they would be when Assyria was out of the way, it found itself under
the power of the New Babylonian government. Why did God allow this?
the people asked, in sad despair at the hopeless political situation.
The prophet Habakkuk attempted to answer the question. He called
himself a watchman, set to see if God would not answer this question.
And the answer comes.