Why hast Thou brought us to the wilderness to die?
But not with lack of faith, dear Lord, would we speak thus,
But rather at our last extreme for help would cry,
Who know not why Thou shouldst Thine own with grief oppress.
Why hast Thou brought us to the wilderness to die?
–
Were there no graves in Egypt? No oppression there?
That rather we must fall at our own people’s hand,
At panic at the death at which we do despair
We slay our own loved children at our own command.
Were there no graves in Egypt? No oppression there?
–
O why, O Lord, didst Thou us bring away to starve?
The firstfruits of Thy Land stand years and miles away,
Thou dost the manna take by which Thou didst preserve,
That we in weakness are become each demon’s prey.
O why, O Lord, didst Thou us bring away to starve?
–
Why dost Thou let us die in agony of thirst?
Eternal rock! Who gavest Thy very self for drink,
And let’st us perish whom Thine awful death hath nursed,
Wherefore shouldst Thou from our now loving touch thus shrink?
Why dost Thou let us die in agony of thirst?
–
Thou art yet faithful, God, though we know not Thy plan,
O turn, remember: e’en the dead Thy power hast freed,
We die by grief because to trust Thee we began,
And still to Thee and not the grass-fed calf would plead.
Thou art yet faithful, God, though we know not Thy plan.
Cherry Foster
Handmaid's Distaff 