TO worship the Eternal, yea, I come
Into his temple, come to celebrate,
According to our ancient, solemn use,
In company with you, the hallowed day
On which upon Mount Sinai unto us
The law was given. How changed are the times!
No sooner did the sacred trumpet sound
That day's return, than holy people thronged
In multitudes the temple's porticos;
And all in order 'fore the altar placed,
Bearing the fields' new produce in their hands,
Those first-fruits offered up to the One God:
The sacrifices overtaxed the priests!
Stopping that concourse, an audacious woman
Has changed those glorious days to days of gloom.
Scarce a small number of true worshippers
Dare give faint semblance of the ancient times;
The rest have shewn a fatal thoughtlessness
Towards their God, or worse, have even rushed
To Baal's altars to initiate
Themselves into his shameful mysteries;
And curse the name their fathers have invoked.
To speak right openly, I am in dread
That Athaliah from the altar will
Tear you, yourself; and casting off, at length,
The remnants of her forced respect, complete
On you her deadly vengeance.

{JOAD.}

Whence comes to-day this dark presentiment?

{ABNER.}

Think you that with impunity you can
Be just and pure? since, for so long a time
The queen has hated that rare constancy
Which adds, in Joad, new splendour to his office;
Since, for so long, your ardour for your faith
Has been construed sedition and revolt.
The jealous-minded queen hates, above all,
The dazzling worth of Josabet, your wife.
Though Joad is the successor of the priest--
The high priest, Aaron--Josabet is still
The last king's sister. Mathan, besides, Mathan--
Apostate priest--more vile than Athaliah,
Is importuning her at every hour;
Mathan, the base deserter from our altars,
And persecutor of all righteous zeal.
'Tis not enough his brow's encircled with
A foreign mitre; e'en his ministry
This Levite lends to Baal: this temple frets him,
And his impiety doth wish to crush
The God he has abjured. To ruin you
No snare he can devise will be unwrought.
Sometimes he pities you, and frequently
He even praises, and affects for you
A treacherous gentleness; and by this means