THE LAST AGE

OF THE

LITERATURE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

FROM THE CLOSE OF PERSIAN RULE

TO THE RECOVERY OF INDEPENDENCE THROUGH
THE REVOLT OF THE MACCABEES

POEMS ON JUDEA'S RAPID CHANGES OF FORTUNE

THE WORDS OF KOHELETH

THE SEVENTH BOOKLET OF THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH THE PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH II

A BOOKLET OF LAMENTATIONS

THE BOOK OF DANIEL

THE THIRD COLLECTION OF PSALMS

THE FIRST BOOK OF THE MACCABEES

PROPHECIES OF THE MESSIAH

A.

THE FLUCTUATING FORTUNES OF JUDÆA

(359-332 B.C.)

AN APPEAL TO YAHWEH

AGAINST THE PERSECUTIONS OF ARTAXERXES III (Ochus)1 The mercies of Yahweh will I sing; I will praise His deeds According to all that Yahweh hath bestowed upon us, And His great goodness toward the House of Israel; According to His compassion and His manifold loving-kindness. He said: Surely they are My people, sons that will not be false. Saviour;

So He was their

In all their afflictions, In His love and in His pity, He took them up and carried them

But they rebelled,

Therefore, He changed

He was afflicted;
He redeemed them,
all the days of old.

and grieved His holy spirit;
and became their enemy;

He Himself fought against them.

Then did Israel remember the days of old, the days of Moses, saying: Where is He that brought them up out of the sea,

With the shepherds of His flock?

Where is He that put His holy spirit in their midst? That caused His glorious arm to be at the right hand of Moses? Who cleft the waters before them to win Him a glorious name? Where is He that led them through the deep, like cattle in the valley, stumbling?

Like a horse in the meadows,

And without

The spirit of Yahweh led them and caused them to rest.
So didst Thou lead Thy people, to make Thyself a glorious Name!

Look down from Heaven and behold,

Even from Thy holy and glorious dwelling-place!

Where is Thy zeal?

The yearning of Thy heart,

Now withheld from

For Thou art our Father;

and where Thy mighty acts?
and Thy compassion,
us?

Abraham knoweth us not,

our Redeemer from of old;

And Israel doth not acknowledge us;
Thou, O Yahweh, art our Father,
That is Thy
O Yahweh, why causest Thou us
And hardenest our hearts

Return for the sake of Thy people,
Thy people are well-nigh destroyed;
We are become like those over

Like those who have never

the tribes of Thy inheritance! our foes defile Thy sanctuary! whom Thou didst never rule; been called by Thy name!

1 Ochus, son of Artaxerxes II, who took his father's throne-name, was the last great king of Persia; after his death the kinghom lasted but eight years. He showed none of the clemency and constructive ability of his predecessors; his only claim to greatness was his success in war. The Jews were treated with extreme rigor, as if especially obnoxious to him.

O, that Thou wouldest rend the Heavens and come down!
That before Thee the mountains would quake!

fire might fall from heaven that nations might tremble

presence!

That as brushwood blazes with fire,
To proclaim Thy name to thy foes,
At Thy
When Thou didst terrible things
And whereof from of old
Yea, the ear hath not heard,
A God like unto
Who worketh for him

O that Thou wouldest meet those
Those that remember Thee
Behold, Thou wast wroth,
Wroth at our breach of faith,
We thought that, like those whom

We should be

that we looked not for,
no man had heard;
nor hath the eye seen
Thee,

that waiteth for Him.

who work righteousness,
and Thy ways!

and we sinned,

and we became guilty;
Thou lovedst of old,
saved.

But we are all become as one unclean;

All our righteousness is but as a polluted garment.

We are all withered like leaves,

and our iniquities like wind Carry us away.

There is no one that calleth on Thy name
Or rouseth himself to lay hold on Thee!
For Thou hast hid Thy face from us,

And hast delivered us to the results of our guilt.

But, O Yahweh! Thou art our father!
We are the clay,

and Thou art the potter!
And we are all the work of Thine own hand!
Be not very sore displeased, O Yahweh!

Remember not our iniquity forever!

Behold, look, we beseech Thee! We are all Thy people!
Thy holy cities are become a wilderness;

Zion is become a wilderness;

Jerusalem is a desolation; Our holy and beautiful House, where our fathers praised Thee, Is burned with fire,

And all our pleasant places are become a ruin.

Seeing all these things, O Yahweh, wilt Thou restrain Thyself? Wilt Thou hold Thy peace, and afflict us more?

B.

(Is. lxiii, 7-19; lxiv, 1-12.)

THE CONDITION OF JERUSALEM AT THE ADVENT OF
ALEXANDER OF MACEDON

hath He smitten it as He smote the smiter?
was it slain
as its slayers were slain?

Seeing that this is its state, may Jacob's guilt now be purged?
For this is all that could be done
When he hath made the altar-stones
And Asherahs and pillars of the

For the fenced city is solitary,
Its inmates have been scattered,
There calves shall feed

And consume the

to expiate his sin, like chalk broken in pieces, sun rise up no more.

the habitation is forsaken, it is left like a wilderness. and there they shall lie down, branches thereof.

When the boughs thereof are withered, they are broken off;

Women shall gather them
For it is not a

Therefore He that made it
And He that formed it

and set them ablaze,

discerning people.

shall have no compassion on it, shall show it no favor.

(Is. xxvii, 7-11.)

Behold, Yahweh maketh the earth empty and layeth it waste. He turneth it upside down and scattereth the inhabitants thereof. It shall be with the people as with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the debtor, so with the creditor. The earth shall be utterly desert and utterly despoiled; for Yahweh hath spoken His word.

The earth fainteth,

The world faileth,

it fadeth away;

it fadeth away,

The lofty people of the earth languish.

The earth is polluted under the inhabitants thereof,

Because they have transgressed the law, violated the statutes,
Broken the everlasting covenant.

Therefore a curse devoureth the earth; all mankind is found guilty;
Earth's inhabitants cease to be;

The new wine faileth;

All the merry-hearted do sigh;
The uproar of the jubilant ends,
They drink not wine with a song;
To those who

Broken down is the City of Chaos.
So that none

In the streets men cry aloud
All gladness hath passed away,
In the city is left desolation,

few men are left.

the vine withereth;

the joy of timbrels ceaseth; the sound of the lute ceaseth. the strong drink is bitter drink it.

Every house is shut close may enter.

because of the failure of wine.
joy is banished from the earth.
the gate is battered to ruin.

Yea, thus will it be throughout the earth
In the midst of the peoples;

As at the beating of olive-trees, as at the gleaning of grapes
When the vintage is done.

The peoples afar-off send forth resounding cries;

Because of the majesty of Yahweh
Therefore, in the regions of light,

they shout from [over] the sea; glorify ye Yahweh,

Even the name of Yahweh, Israel's God, in the Isles of the Sea!
From the confines of the earth we have heard songs of praise;

Glory is come for the righteous.1

But I [can only] say: I waste away! I waste away! Alas for me! The robbers rob; yea, the robbers make a thorough robbery. Terror, the pit and the snare are upon you, every man in the land! Whoso flees from the noise of the terror will fall into the pit;

Whoso escapeth from the pit,

For the windows of heaven are open,
The earth is broken, is broken!
The earth doth totter and quake;

will be taken in the snare;
and earth's foundations quake.
the earth is crumbled!
it reeleth like a drunkard;

It rocketh to and fro like a hammock!
Its rebellion lieth heavy upon it;

It falleth and shall not rise again.

It will come to pass in that day that Yahweh will punish
The host of the high heavens on high,

And the kings of the

They will be swept together

They shall be cast into prison,

earth on the earth;

as prisoners into a pit;
and, after many days, be punished.

The poet is

1 This strophe is no insertion by another hand, as some have thought. racked by the thought of the freedom and prosperity of those Jews who are settled in western lands, as compared with the terrible sufferings of those in Jerusalem, their holy land.