The Jewish Captive’s Song

ONE is thine hour of might,

Zion, and fallen art thou;

Thy temple’s sacred height

Is desecrated now.

That I should live to see

The ruins of that dome,

And Judah’s children be,

Bondsmen, and slaves to Rome.

When I saw heaven’s wrath descending,

Why ’scap’d I from the grave,

While thousands died defending

The shrine they could not save;

But bless’d are those who sleep

In their quiet resting place,

That they did not live to weep

O’er the scattering of their race.