Is it to see our cities sacked and pillaged, Our people slain, or sold as slaves, or fleeing At night-time by the blaze of burning towns;Jerusalem laid waste; the Holy Temple Polluted with strange gods? Are these things peace?
NICANOR.
These are the dire necessities that wait On war, whose loud and bloody enginery I seek to stay.Let there be peace between Antiochus and thee.
JUDAS.
Antiochus?
What is Antiochus, that he should prate Of peace to me, who am a fugitive?
To-day he shall be lifted up; to-morrow Shall not be found, because he is returned Unto his dust; his thought has come to nothing.
There is no peace between us, nor can be, Until this banner floats upon the walls Of our Jerusalem.
NICANOR.
Between that city And thee there lies a waving wall of tents, Held by a host of forty thousand foot, And horsemen seven thousand.What hast thou To bring against all these?
JUDAS.
The power of God, Whose breath shall scatter your white tents abroad, As flakes of snow.
NICANOR.
Your Mighty One in heaven Will not do battle on the Seventh Day;It is his day of rest.
JUDAS.
Silence, blasphemer.
Go to thy tents.
NICANOR.
Shall it be war or peace?
JUDAS.
War, war, and only war.Go to thy tents That shall be scattered, as by you were scattered The torn and trampled pages of the Law, Blown through the windy streets.
NICANOR.
Farewell, brave foe!
JUDAS.
Ho, there, my captains! Have safe-conduct given Unto Nicanor's herald through the camp, And come yourselves to me.--Farewell, Nicanor!
SCENE IV.-- JUDAS MACCABAEUS; CAPTAINS AND SOLDIERS.
JUDAS.
The hour is come.Gather the host together For battle.Lo, with trumpets and with songs The army of Nicanor comes against us.
Go forth to meet them, praying in your hearts, And fighting with your hands.
CAPTAINS.
Look forth and see!
The morning sun is shining on their shields Of gold and brass; the mountains glisten with them, And shine like lamps.And we who are so few And poorly armed, and ready to faint with fasting, How shall we fight against this multitude?
JUDAS.
The victory of a battle standeth not In multitudes, but in the strength that cometh From heaven above.The Lord forbid that IShould do this thing, and flee away from them.
Nay, if our hour be come, then let us die;Let us not stain our honor.
CAPTAINS.
'T is the Sabbath.
Wilt thou fight on the Sabbath, Maccabaeus?
JUDAS.
Ay; when I fight the battles of the Lord, I fight them on his day, as on all others.
Have ye forgotten certain fugitives That fled once to these hills, and hid themselves In caves? How their pursuers camped against them Upon the Seventh Day, and challenged them?
And how they answered not, nor cast a stone, Nor stopped the places where they lay concealed, But meekly perished with their wives and children, Even to the number of a thousand souls?
We who are fighting for our laws and lives Will not so perish.
CAPTAINS.
Lead us to the battle!
JUDAS.
And let our watchword be, "The Help of God!"Last night I dreamed a dream; and in my vision Beheld Onias, our High-Priest of old, Who holding up his hands prayed for the Jews.
This done, in the like manner there appeared An old man, and exceeding glorious, With hoary hair, and of a wonderful And excellent majesty.And Onias said:
"This is a lover of the Jews, who prayeth Much for the people and the Holy City,--God's prophet Jeremias." And the prophet Held forth his right hand and gave unto me A sword of gold; and giving it he said:
"Take thou this holy sword, a gift from God, And with it thou shalt wound thine adversaries."CAPTAINS.
The Lord is with us!
JUDAS.
Hark! I hear the trumpets Sound from Beth-horon; from the battle-field Of Joshua, where he smote the Amorites, Smote the Five Kings of Eglon and of Jarmuth, Of Hebron, Lachish, and Jerusalem, As we to-day will smite Nicanor's hosts And leave a memory of great deeds behind us.
CAPTAINS and SOLDIERS.
The Help of God!
JUDAS.
Be Elohim Yehovah!
Lord, thou didst send thine Angel in the time Of Esekias, King of Israel, And in the armies of Sennacherib Didst slay a hundred fourscore and five thousand.
Wherefore, O Lord of heaven, now also send Before us a good angel for a fear, And through the might of thy right arm let those Be stricken with terror that have come this day Against thy holy people to blaspheme!
ACT IV.
The outer Courts of the Temple at Jerusalem.
SCENE I.-- JUDAS MACCABAEUS; CAPTAINS; JEWS.
JUDAS.
Behold, our enemies are discomfited.
Jerusalem is fallen; and our banners Float from her battlements, and o'er her gates Nicanor's severed head, a sign of terror, Blackens in wind and sun.
CAPTAINS.
O Maccabaeus, The citadel of Antiochus, wherein The Mother with her Seven Sons was murdered, Is still defiant.
JUDAS.
Wait.
CAPTAINS.
Its hateful aspect Insults us with the bitter memories Of other days.
JUDAS.
Wait; it shall disappear And vanish as a cloud.First let us cleanse The Sanctuary.See, it is become Waste like a wilderness.Its golden gates Wrenched from their hinges and consumed by fire;Shrubs growing in its courts as in a forest;Upon its altars hideous and strange idols;And strewn about its pavement at my feet Its Sacred Books, half burned and painted o'er With images of heathen gods.
JEWS.
Woe! woe!
Our beauty and our glory are laid waste!
The Gentiles have profaned our holy p]aces!
(Lamentation and alarm of trumpets.)
JUDAS.
This sound of trumpets, and this lamentation, The heart-cry of a people toward the heavens, Stir me to wrath and vengeance.Go, my captains;I hold you back no longer.Batter down The citadel of Antiochus, while here We sweep away his altars and his gods.
SCENE II.-- JUDAS MACCABAEUS; JASON; JEWS, JEWS.
Lurking among the ruins of the Temple, Deep in its inner courts, we found this man, Clad as High-Priest.
JUDAS.
I ask not who thou art.
I know thy face, writ over with deceit As are these tattered volumes of the Law With heathen images.A priest of God Wast thou in other days, but thou art now A priest of Satan.Traitor, thou art Jason.
JASON.