NOW ISRAEL

[1]
Now Israel
may say, and that truly,
if that the Lord
had not our cause maintained;
if that the Lord
had not our right sustained,
when cruel men
against us furiously
rose up in wrath,
to make of us their prey;

[2]
then certainly
they had devoured us all,
and swallowed quick,
for ought that we could deem;
such was their rage
as we might well esteem.
And as fierce floods
before them all things drown,
so had they brought
our soul to death quite down.

[3]
The raging streams,
with their proud swelling waves,
had then our soul
o'erwhelmed in the deep.
But blest be God,
who doth us safely keep,
and hath not given
us for a living prey
unto their teeth,
and bloody cruelty.

[4]
Even as a bird
out of the fowler's snare
escapes away,
so is our soul set free:
broke are their nets,
and thus escaped we.
Therefore our help
is in the Lord's great name,
who heaven and earth
by his great power did frame.