XLIV

OF THE PRAYERS OF THE JEWS

THERE ARE but few prayers of ancient people remaining. We have but two or three formularies of the mysteries, and the ancient prayer to Isis related in Apuleius. The Jews have preserved theirs.

If the character of a nation may be conjectured from the prayers which they offer up to God, we shall easily perceive that the Jews were a carnal and sanguinary people. They rather seem in their psalms to wish the death of the sinner than his conversion; and in the Eastern style, they require of God all terrestrial blessings.

“Thou shalt water the mountains, the earth shall be glutted with fruits.

“He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man, that he may bring forth food out of the earth: and wine, that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine.

“Judah is a kettle full of meat, the mount of the Lord is a congealed mount, a fat mountain: Why do you look upon the congealed mountains?”

But it must be acknowledged that the Jews cursed their enemies in a style no less figurative.

“Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance—and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.

“Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors: give them after the work of their hands, render to them their desert.

“Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.

“Take hold of the shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help. Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me—Let them be confounded and put to shame—Let them be as chaff before the wind—Let his net that he hath hid catch himself.

“Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell.

“Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord.

“Let them return, and let them make a noise like a dog —Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.

“Through God shall we do valiantly: for it is he that shall tread down our enemies.

“Rebuke the company of spearmen, the multitude of bulls, with the calves of the people; that thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same.

“Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them—Let their habitation be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents.

“Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee.

“Do unto them as unto the Midianites—O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind, as the fire burneth the wood.

“Set thou a wicked man to rule over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand; when he stall be judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow—Let his children be continually vagabonds, and let them beg. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath.

“The Lord is righteous, he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked—Let them be as grass on the house tops.

“Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.”

We see that if God had granted all the prayers of his people, there had remained nothing but Jews upon earth; for they detested all nations, and they were detested by them; and by incessantly requiring God to exterminate all those whom they hated, they seemed to ask the destruction of the whole earth. But we should always remember, that the Jews were not only the cherished people of God, but the instruments of his vengeance. It was by them that he punished the sins of other nations, as he punished his people by these. It is no longer allowed to offer up the same prayers now, and request of him to let us rip up the bellies of mothers and those of children still sucking at the breast, and that they be dashed to pieces against the stones of the earth. God being acknowledged for the common father of all men, no one people make these imprecations against their neighbors. We have sometimes been as cruel as the Jews; but in singing their psalms, we do not turn the sense of them against the people who are at war with us. This is one of the great advantages of the law of forgiveness over the law of rigor; and would it had pleased God that under a holy law, and with divine prayers, we had not shed our brother’s blood, and ravaged the earth in the name of a God of mercy!