Poem by John Milton

Psalm 114 (When the blest seed of Terah's faithful Son)

    A Paraphrase

When the blest seed of Terah's faithful Son,
After long toil their liberty had won,
And past from Pharian2 fields to Canaan Land,
Led by the strength of the Almighty's hand,
Jehovah's wonders were in Israel shown,
His praise and glory was in Israel known.
That saw the troubl'd Sea, and shivering fled,
And sought to hide his froth-becurled head
Low in the earth, Jordan's clear streams recoil,
As a faint host that hath receiv'd the foil.
The high, huge-bellied Mountains skip like Rams
Amongst their Ewes, the little Hills like Lambs.
Why fled the Ocean? And why skip'd the Mountains?
Why turned Jordan toward his Crystal Fountains?
Shake earth, and at the presence be aghast
Of him that ever was, and ay shall last,
That glassy floods from rugged rocks can crush,
And make soft rills from the fiery flint-stones gush.

1. To Sir Henry Vane the Younger
2. Paradise Lost : Book 12
3. Paradise Lost : Book 11
4. To the Lord Generall Cromwell, May 1652
5. Paradise Lost : Book 10

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