_All the choir sing,_

O promise! threatening! mysterious gloom!
What evil and what good by turns foretold!
How can we reconcile
So much of wrath and love?

_One voice alone._

Sion will be no more; a cruel flame
Will burn up all her excellence.

_Another voice._

O God, shield Sion; Thy eternal word
She holds for her foundations.

_The first_

How all her splendour fades before my eyes.

_The second._

I see on every side her glory radiant

_The first._

Sion is sunk to a profound abyss.

_The second._

Sion, whose brow is in the heavens.

_The first_

What sorrowful abasement!

_The second._

What immortal glory!

_The first_

What wailings!

_The second._

What songs of victory!

_A third._

Let us cease from troubling; our God one day
Will reconcile this mystery sublime!

_All three._

Let us revere His anger; trust His love.

_Another._

God! of a heart that loveth Thee
Who can disturb the peace?
Itself forgetting ever,
It seeks, in all, Thy will supreme.
On earth--in heaven even can there bloom
Another blessing than the tranquil peace
Of a heart that loveth Thee?

{END OF THE THIRD ACT.}

_ACT IV.--Scenes I and II_

{JOAS, JOSABET, ZACHARIAH, SALOMITH, A LEVITE,
THE CHOIR.}

{SALOMITH.}

With a majestic step, beside my mother,
Near Zachariah, walks Eliacin.
What hide they, sisters, underneath their cloaks?
In short, what is that sword that's borne before them?

{JOSABET (_to Zachariah_).}

Place on that table, reverentially,
The book redoubted of our holy law:
And also you, my loved Eliacin,
This diadem place near the book divine.
Levites we must have there, Joad orders it,
The sword of David close beside the crown.

{JOAS.}

Princess, what then is this strange spectacle?
This sacred book, this diadem, this sword?
I ne'er have seen example of like form,
Since in His temple God accepted me.

{JOSABET.}

Soon all your doubts, my son, will be dispelled.

{JOAS.}

Why will you fit this diadem on my brow?
Ah, princess! keep its glory unprofaned!
Respect the memory of the king who wore it.
A wretched child abandon