The Dawn of Hope

SEE how the people of Israel come trooping,

Waving like victors their banners on high;

Joy has uplifted the hearts that were drooping,

Promise enkindled the light in the eye.

Waking at length from the slumbers of ages,

Eager they turn to welcome the light,

Making the dreams of their poets and sages

Gloriously true with their zeal and their might.

Straight grow the backs that with stooping were doubled,

Noble and straight as the cedar and pine;

Cleared are the brows which affliction sore troubled,

Glad as the viners, who taste the new wine.

Hope has welled up in their hearts like a fountain,

Bursting with power its way to the sun;

Freedom has come like bright dawn on the mountain,

Flushed with the glow of its triumphs begun.

David, behold, to thy stronghold on Zion,

Speed they like runners who make for their goal,

Bearing the flag of the Judean lion,

Bearing a spirit as bold in the soul.

As to thy temple, O Israel, returning,

Leave they the shores which as aliens they trod,

Ecstasy thrills them, all eager, all burning,

Filled with the love of their land and their God.

Give to thy people the shield of salvation,

Favor, O Lord, thy anointed of old;

Bring them together once more as a nation,

Gather again in thy sheltering fold.