Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/105

 Valley of Baca. 21

��May II, 1657.

T HAD a fore ficknes, and weaknes took hold of me, which hath by fitts lafted all this Spring till this 1 1 Ma}^, yet hath nw God given me many a refpite, and fome ability to perform the Dutyes I owe to him, and the work of my famely.

Many a refrefliment haue I fovnd in this my weary Pilgrimage, and in this valley of Baca "^'" many pools of w^ater. That which now I cheifly labour for is a con- tented, thankfuU heart vnder m}' affli6lion and weak- nes, feing it is the will of God it Ihould bee thus. Who am I that I fliould repine at his pleafure, efpe-

ways of them. Who., passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools." — Psalm Ixxxiv. 5, 6.
 * " Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee ; in whose heart arc the

"Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are thy ways. Who, going through the vale of misery, use it for a well; and the pools are filled with water." — Psalter.

" E<f TTiv iiOi7.u6a rov Kkavdjiuvo^." — Septuagint. " In valle lacryinariim." — Vulgate.

The old Genevan Bible (London, 1599) has the following translation and note : —

" They going through the vale of® Baca, make welles therein : the rain alfo couereth the pooles."

— " ^ That is, of mulbery trees, which was a barren place : lb that they which pafled through muft dig pits for water," &c. , &c.

The old " Bay Pfalm Book," which she must often have read and sung from, thus quaintly renders the verse : —

" Who as they palTe through Baca's Vale, doe make it a fountaine : alio the pooles that are theri/i are filled full of raine."

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