Elijah

It is enough, O Lord, take now my life:
My spirit fails within, my parched heart
Lies panting in the dust; – hear thou my cry,
And take the breath thou gavest once to me;
Regard my state, O Lord, it is enough.

Have not I walked uprightly? and have not
I been most jealous for the Lord of Hosts?
Greatly the Lord hath used me: through my prayer
The earth saw neither rain nor dew; the land
Lay withered by the space of three long years; –
And by my word a measure of ground meal,
Meet for a widow and her son – no more,
Failed not for many days, and strengthened three.
In all I put my hand to, thee alone
I sought after, nor ever turned aside
From walking in thy statutes and thy ways
With meekness and integrity of heart.

Before the hosts of Israel, on thy mount,
I called down fire from heaven, and the world
Confessed that only thou art Lord and God;
The high places of Baal were broken down,
And not one priest escaped my hungry sword; –
Would that my blood were mingled now with theirs.

Alas! how are the righteous turned aside!
All Israel hath forsaken the right paths,
And wisdom, judgment, justice, equity –
Yea! every noble work hath been contemned:
Thy covenant hath Israel rejected,
And broken down thine altars, and hath slain
Thy prophets, so that only I am left.
I, only I, am left, and even me
Doth haughty Jezebel seek to destroy;
I cannot hide forever: though I run,
And weary not, until I reach the end,
The utmost corner of the very earth,
Yet even there the fierceness of her wrath
Will find me and consume me, that I die.
I roam the desert and the barren waste;
My bitter tears are all my sustenance,
And there is none to comfort me, or speak
With tender words unto my troubled heart.
The dancing of the satyrs, and the owls
That wail throughout the nighttime, and the doves
That moan and sigh when day has come are all
The company that I have left to me.
Incline thine ear unto my cry, O Lord,
And in thy gentle mercy take my life:
I cannot live; and it were better far
That I should die by thine own hand, than that
Thine enemy should have her way with me.

O Israel, ye have wandered from the Lord!
All ye have gone astray, not one is left
That understandeth or that seeketh God!
My people, O my people whom I love,
My kindred hearts, my very flesh and blood,
Why seek ye me, thus to destroy my life?
How oft would I have turned your eyes to God,
How many times in prayer have I besought
His mercy, that the hardness of your heart
Would be made soft, that ye might broken turn
In sorrow, to obtain once more his grace!
My flesh is wasted and I am made weak;
My hand is withered; all my strength is gone;
My only hope that I have left to me,
To fade away to nothingness, and sink
Into the paltry dust, and cease to be:
To fail, to faint, to sleep; – it is enough.

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