With tokens manifest it taught the priests,
Warned them with wisdom; thus it spake in words:--
'Accursed are ye and wretched in your thoughts,
Deceived with tricks, or else with clouded mind
No better do ye know. Ye call God's Son
Eternal but a man--Him who marked out
With His own hands the sea and solid ground,
Both heaven and earth, the stormy ocean-waves,
The salt sea-streams, and the high firmament. 750
He is that self-same God all-powerful
Whom in the early days your fathers knew;
To Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob
He gave His grace, and honored them with wealth;
To Abraham He first declared in words
The covenant of his race, that of his seed
The God of glory should be born; this fate
Is now fulfilled among you, manifest;
And lo! your eyes can now behold the God
Of victory, who rules the heavens on high.' 760

After these words the crowd stood listening;
All silent were they through the spacious hall.
The elders then began again to say,
Those sinful men--the truth they did not know!--
That it was magic art and sorcery
That made the shining stone to talk to men.
Evil was blossoming in their hearts, and hate
Welled hot as fire within their wicked breasts,
A serpent, foe to joy, a poison dire; 770
And by their words of mocking were revealed