O mighty Rock
of my salvation, to praise You is a delight.
Restore my House of Prayer (1) and there we shall bring a thanksgiving
offering.
When you will have prepared the slaughter for the blaspheming foe,
Then I shall complete with a song of hymn the dedication of the Altar.
Trouble sated
my soul, when with grief my strength was consumed.
They had embittered my life with hardship, with the calf-like kingdom’s (2) bondage.
But with His great power He brought forth the treasured ones,
Pharaoh’s army and all his offspring went down like a stone into the deep.
To the abode
of His holiness He brought me, But there, too, I had no rest
And an oppressor came and exiled me. (3) For I had served aliens,
And had drunk benumbing wine. (4) Scarcely had I departed [my land]
When at Babylon’s demise Zerubabel (5) came — At the end of seventy years I was saved.
To sever the
towering cypress (6) sought the Aggagite, son of Hammedatha, (7)
But it became a snare and a stumbling block to him (8) and his arrogance was stilled.
The head of the Benjaminite You lifted (9) and the enemy, his name You blotted out
His numerous progeny — his possessions — on the gallows You hanged.
Krot komat
berosh Bikesh Agagi ben Hamdata
V’nihyta lo l’fach u’lemokesh v’gaavato nishbata
Rosh yemini neseita v’oyev shmo machita
Rov banav v’kinyanav Al ha’eitz talita
Yevanim
Greeks gathered
upon me then in Hasmonean days.
They breached the walls of my towers and they defiled all the oils;
And from the one remnant of the flasks a miracle was wrought for the ‘Roses.’ (10)
Men of insight — eight days established for song and jubilation
Bare You holy
arm and hasten the End for salvation —
Avenge the vengeance of Your servant’s blood from the wicked nation.
For the triumph is too long delayed for us, and there is no end to days of evil,
Repel the Red One (11) in the nethermost shadow (12) and establish for us the seven shepherds. (13)
Chasof
zeroa kodshecha V’karev ketz hayeshua
Nekom nikmat dam avadecha Me’uma haresha’ah
Ki archa lanu hayeshu’ah V’ein ketz l’ymei hara’ah
Decheh Admon b’tzeil tzalmon Hakem lanu ro’im shivah
1. The Holy Temple.
2. In Yirmiyahu / Jeremiah (46:20), Egypt is likened to a young, beautiful heifer.
3. The king of Babylon exiled us to Babylon.
4. The Jews were dazed and intoxicated with the wine of the pagans, which was poison for them.
5. Zerubavel was at the head of the returned exiles. Encouraged by the prophets Chaggai and Zechariah, he completed the rebuilding of the second Temple.
6. Mordechai.
7. This is a reference to Haman's plan to destroy Mordechai by hanging.
8. Haman was ultimately hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordechai.
9. Mordechai was of the tribe of Benjamin.
10. The term shoshanim, roses, is used in Scripture in reference to the Jewish People.
11. Esav. Esav is referred to as "the red one" in Bereishit / Genesis 25:25.
12. We ask Hashem to destroy Esav, the arch-enemy of the Jewish People.
13. See Micah 5:4.