The despoiled and dispersed You will gather to Zion,
Restoring the slaves who were sold without fee,
Returning the service of those in white linen,
While the progeny of ruling families will once more be free,
To sing and praise His Name Most High,
You will arise to have mercy on Zion.
To the nations of the lands You will hasten to raise a banner,
You will strengthen and gird up the loins that we trust,
And the suppliants whom Your dispersal did chasten,
You will raise as of yore from captivity’s dust,
The breastplate of righteousness clothing the just.
My enemy seeks my life-faith to sever,
To my face he enquires how much longer will you wait,
But I am afflicted, not cast off forever,
For my God is the help of the low in estate,
Protecting the poor as He humbles the great.
The exiled will return to their territorial inheritance,
And a strong hand the sick and the punished replace,
The abased and abandoned, by every fang riven,
Will be freshly renewed by the three patriarchs’ faith
And foreigners will be subdued by Zion’s sword.
Translated from the original Hebrew, adapted from: Selected Religious Poems of Solomon ibn Gabirol, translated by Israel Zangwill, published by Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia (1923)
