The Judgement of the Flood :: :: University of Virginia Library

Thou art Jehovah: terrible art thou
In mercy. On thy horses thou didst ride,
Thy chariots of salvation bore thee on.
From midst the myriads of the hosts of heaven,
The Holy One with glory clad the sky,
And fire consumed the mountain where he trod.

Perfect in beauty, and in wisdom full,
Anointed Cherub: who, in Paradise,
Garden of God, his new-created Man
Didst cover with unshamèd innocence,
Within the Holy Mountain; till, profane,
Thou wert cast out from 'mong the Thrones of Light.
Thine heart was for thy beauty lifted up,
Thy wisdom was corrupted, verily,
By reason of thy brightness. Thou art now
Brought to the dust, O thou who hast defiled
Thy sanctuaries with iniquities.
Therefore will God bring forth, from thee amidst,
A fire that shall devour thee. Thou shalt be
A terrour, and shalt perish utterly.

Jehovah is in judgment terrible.
When him I heard, my bowels shook, . . my lips
Quivered, and rottenness was in my bones;
They trembled under me, and for the day
Of tribulation groaned my inmost soul.

O terrible in judgements; thou in wrath
Rememberest mercy. Wherefore waxst thou hot
'Gainst Man seduced? Ah—wherefore should the Foe
Say, that for mischief thou revealedst him?
Jehovah: thou art God, and thou wilt be
Gracious to whom thou wilt, to whom thou wilt
Be merciful. Jehovah, God of gods,
Gracious, and merciful—long-suffering—
Bounteous of truth, and goodness, laying up
Mercy for thousands, and forgiving all

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Iniquity, transgression, sin; and thou
Wilt not excuse the sinner, visiting
The sire's iniquity upon the child,
Unto the generation third, and fourth.

I ever in Jehovah will rejoice,
In God, my Saviour, ever will exult—
Jehovah, the Almighty, is my strength,
And I will trust in him for evermore.
For of his Bounty he created man.

And Enoch left a Widow, and her name
Was Edna, and she dwelt in Armon with
Seth's household. Calm was Edna in her grief,
If grief it were that, in the certitude
Of Enoch's immortality, rejoiced.
Nor was she lonely. With her Son was she,
Methuselah; and many Sons, and Daughters
Beside surrounded her, a numerous tribe—
Ay, and beneath her heart she bare a Babe
Unborn, and when her days of travail closed,
The Mother in her Infant's face beheld
The shadow of her smile. Then on her heart
She pressed the Child, and named her from herself—
She called her Edna. And the Daughter grew,
As like to her in nature as in name,
In every feature like, in stature like,
Gesture, and act, and attitude of grace.
And so her heart was cheered for Enoch gone,
By this the living Pledge he left behind,
His Testament to her, as was his Book
Unto the Race of Men . . . a Word, not dead
As that is unto many, but with life
Still breathing, glowing, beautiful and fair.
And Seth did build two Pillars by the tomb
Of Adam—by that altar-tomb he built them,

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And them inscribed with old tradition true.

Stern Cain spake to his Mother, while she wept;
‘Sin was of thy conception, Death of mine.’
For Cain had smitten Abel as they worshipped;
Since God accepted Abel's sacrifice,
And Cain's rejected. Firstlings of the flock
Meek Abel offered, first-fruits of the ground
Cain. For Cain said: ‘The Lord of life was Lord
Of earth—one God breathed spirit into man,
And brooded o'er the void of formless earth.
Sent he not cold, and heat, and stubborn soil
Of culture difficult, and pain of toil,
Sickness, and sorrow, and infirmity
Of flesh, whence evil, and remorse, and fear?’
—So to appease vindictive Deity,
He offered of his works, that he might heal
In them what needed labour, and caused grief.
But Abel's prayer was to the God of Love,
Who chastened thus the creature, that the soul
Might be made perfect, and the will renewed;
Which else would die of ire, by God consumed
In mercy, lest worse evil all destroy.
Willing, life offered he to him who gave,
Submitting to the Chastener, even to death,
So he might be redeemed, and manhood saved.
Such the discourse they held; but Cain was wroth,
And rose against his brother, smote, and slew.

Then spake to Cain Jehovah—‘Where is Abel,
Thy brother?’ And he answered, ‘I know not:
Am I my brother's keeper?’—Then God said:
‘What hast thou done? Voice of thy brother's blood
Cries from the ground to me. Accursed of earth:
Whose mouth has opened to receive his blood . .
Thy brother's blood from thy unrighteous hand;
Now when the ground thou tillest, it henceforth

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Shall not yield of her strength to thee; become
A fugitive, and wanderer in the earth.’
Then Cain Jehovah answered: ‘Punishment
Like this is mightier far than I can bear;
Exiled from face of human earth, and thine,
A fugitive, and wanderer, whoso
Shall find will slay me.’ But Jehovah said:
‘Vengeance seven-fold on him that slayeth Cain.’
And of his will in this straightway a sign
Miraculous appointed. From the wild
The savage Steed he called, and on its mane
Laid his almighty hand, and it was tamed;
Then on its shoulders placed the fugitive:
In fear he crouched upon the horse's neck;
But the Compassionate raised then his head,
And, touching thus his brow, left there a trace
Of wonderous power, the fingers of a God.
So, from the presence of the Cherubim,
Went forth sad Cain, and in the land of Naid
Dwelt, east of Eden; father of a race.

And Adam knew again his Wife, who bare
A Son, and called him Seth; for God to her
Another had appointed in the stead
Of Abel, whom Cain slew. And this is he
On whom the Book of Enoch was bestowed,
Who built these Pillars, and these Words inscribed.