t the priests,
Warned them with wisdom; thus it spake in words:--
'Accursed are ye and wretched in your thoughts,
Deceived with tricks, or else with clouded mind
No better do ye know. Ye call God's Son
Eternal but a man--Him who marked out
With His own hands the sea and solid ground,
Both heaven and earth, the stormy ocean-waves,
The salt sea-streams, and the high firmament. 750
He is that self-same God all-powerful
Whom in the early days your fathers knew;
To Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob
He gave His grace, and honored them with wealth;
To Abraham He first declared in words
The covenant of his race, that of his seed
The God of glory should be born; this fate
Is now fulfilled among you, manifest;
And lo! your eyes can now behold the God
Of victory, who rules the heavens on high.' 760

After these words the crowd stood listening;
All silent were they through the spacious hall.
The elders then began again to say,
Those sinful men--the truth they did not know!--
That it was magic art and sorcery
That made the shining stone to talk to men.
Evil was blossoming in their hearts, and hate
Welled hot as fire within their wicked breasts,
A serpent, foe to joy, a poison dire; 770
And by their words of mocking were revealed
Their doubting hearts and thoughts of wickedness,
With murder girt about. Then did the Lord
Command the stone, that mighty work, to go
Along the way, from out the open place,
To tread the paths of earth, the meadows green,
To bear God's message into Canaan land,
And in God's name command that Abraham
And his descendants twain should rise again
From out their sepulchre, and leave their place 780
Of rest beneath the earth, take up their limbs,
Receive a soul again and youth's estate;
That those wise patriarchs should come once more
Among mankind, to tell the folk what God
It was that they had known by His own might.

It went and journeyed on the border-paths
As mighty God, Creator of mankind,
Commanded it, until it came to Mamre
All dazzling bright, as God had bidden it.
There had the bodies of those patriarchs 790
Long time lain hid. It bade them straight arise
From out the earth, those princes, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, leaving their deep sleep
To meet their God; it bade them to prepare
To come before the presence of the Lord;
For