1442 JOEL I-THE PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS 4 That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. 5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. 6 For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. 7 He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. 8¶Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. 9 The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn. 10 The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. 11 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. 12 The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. 13 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. 14 ¶ Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD, 15 Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. 16 Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17 The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. 18 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. 19 O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. 20 The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness. The Contest of the Three Guardsmen AFTER A DRAWING BY ARTHUR B. HOUGHTON, AN ENGLISH ARTIST, DIED 1875. + "And he said unto them, Declare unto us your mind concerning the writings."-I. Esdras, 3, 17. Ο NE interesting story which appears for the first time in the apocryphal Book of Esdras is that of the contest among the three young guardsmen at the Persian court. This introduces Zerubbabel the Jewish prince of the house of David, who led his compatriots back to Jerusalem. It is a peculiarly oriental tale. Three youths, traditionally three Jews, were guarding King Darius while he slept. They agreed to write each a wise saying on the subject of "strength," and then to ask the king to decide which had written best. Naturally each of the contestants had an eye to the tastes of their selected judge. The first, knowing Darius as a reckless carouser, wrote, "Wine is the strongest." This text he upheld before king and court. The second wrote, "The king is strongest." But the third, who was Zerubbabel, wrote, "Women are strongest: But above all things truth beareth away the victory." In his argument, he pictured even the mighty Darius as yielding to his women's coaxing. Then in a noble apostrophe, he described truth as conquering women, wine and king. "And with that he held his peace. And all the people then shouted and said, Great is truth, and mighty above all things." |