Weep, Children Of Israel

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Title:     Weep, Children Of Israel
Author: Thomas Moore [More Titles by Moore]

(AIR.--STEVENSON.)

Weep, weep for him, the Man of God--[1]
In yonder vale he sunk to rest;
But none of earth can point the sod[2]
That flowers above his sacred breast.
Weep, children of Israel, weep!

His doctrine fell like Heaven's rain.[3]
His words refreshed like Heaven's dew--
Oh, ne'er shall Israel see again
A Chief, to GOD and her so true.
Weep, children of Israel, weep!

Remember ye his parting gaze,
His farewell song by Jordan's tide,
When, full of glory and of days,
He saw the promised land--and died.[4]
Weep, children of Israel, weep!

Yet died he not as men who sink,
Before our eyes, to soulless clay;
But, changed to spirit, like a wink
Of summer lightning, past away.[5]
Weep, children of Israel, weep!

NOTES:
[1] "And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab."-- _Deut_. xxxiv, 8.

[2] "And, he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab...but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day."--_Ibid_. ver. 6.

[3] "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew."--_Moses' Song_.

[4] "I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither."--_Deut_. xxxiv. 4.

[5] "As he was going to embrace Eleazer and Joshua, and was still discoursing with them, a cloud stood over him on the sudden, and he disappeared in a certain valley, although he wrote in the Holy Books that he died, which was done out of fear, lest they should venture to say that, because of his extraordinary virtue, he went to GOD."--_Josephus_, book iv. chap. viii.

[The end]
Thomas Moore's poem: Weep, Children Of Israel

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