By trump angelic vanquished before
Th’ indocile People be deservedly
130 By their own fault left desolate behind,
And Gentiles, flourishing in faith, received
In praise.
Yea, Deborah, a woman far
Above all fame, appears; who, having braced
Herself for warlike toil, for country’s sake,
135 Beneath the palm-tree sang how victory
Had crowned her People; thanks to whom it was
That the foes, vanquisht, turned at once their backs,
And Sisera their leader fled; whose flight
No man, nor any band, arrested: him,
140 Suddenly renegade, a woman’s hand—
Jael’s—with wooden weapon vanquished quite,
For token of Christ’s victory.
With firm faith
Jephthah appears, who a deep-wounding vow
Dared make—to promise God a grand reward
145 Of war: him then, because he senselessly
Had promised what the Lord not wills, first meets
The pledge dear to his heart; who suddenly
Fell by a lot unhoped by any. He,
To keep his promise, broke the sacred laws
150 Of parenthood: the shade of mighty fear
Did in his violent mind cover his vow
Of sin: as solace of his widowed life
For wickedness, renown, and, for crime, praise,
He won.
Nor Samson’s strength, all corporal might
155 Passing, must we forget; the Spirit’s gift
Was this; the power was granted to his head.
Alone he for his People, daggerless,
Armless, an ass-jaw grasping, prostrated
A thousand corpses; and no bonds could keep
160 The hero bound: but after his shorn pride
Forsook him thralled, he fell, and, by his death,—
Though vanquisht,—bought his foes back ’neath his power.
Marvellous Samuel, who first received
The precept to anoint kings, to give chrism
165 And show men-Christs, so acted laudably
In life’s space as, e’en after his repose,
To keep prophetic rights.
Psalmographist
David, great king and prophet, with a voice