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II: When Israel out of Egypt Came

When Israel out of Egypt came
  Safe in the sea they trod;
By day in cloud, by night in flame,
  Went on before them God.

He brought them with a stretched out hand
  Dry-footed through the foam,
Past sword and famine, rock and sand,
  Lust and rebellion, home.

I never over Horeb heard
  The blast of advent blow;
No fire-faced prophet brought me word
  Which way behoved me go.

Ascended is the cloudy flame,
  The mount of thunder dumb;
The tokens that to Israel came,
  To me they have not come.

I see the country far away
  Where I shall never stand;
The heart goes where no footstep may
  Into the promised land.

The realm I look upon and die
  Another man will own;
He shall attain the heaven that I
  Perish and have not known.

But I will go where they are hid
  That never were begot,
To my inheritance amid
  The nation that is not.

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