Israel Returning From Captivity

Verse 1

Why on the bending willows hung, Israel! still sleeps thy tuneful string? Still mute remains thy sullen tongue, And Zion's song denies to sing?

Verse 2

Awake! thy sweetest raptures raise; Let harp and voice unite their strains: Thy promised King his sceptre sways: Jesus, thine own Messiah, reigns!

Verse 3

No taunting foes the song require; No strangers mock thy captive chain; But friends provoke the silent lyre, And brethren ask the holy strain.

Verse 4

Nor fear thy Salem's hills to wrong, If other lands thy triumphs share: A heavenly city claims thy song; A brighter Salem rises there.

Verse 5

By foreign streams no longer roam; Nor, weeping, think of Jordan's flood: In every clime behold a home, In every temple see thy God.