The Bible in Its Traditions

Isaiah 3:0; 25:1–4:6; 4:1

M G V S

1  And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying: 'We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name; take thou away our reproach.'

Reception

Visual Arts

12:3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

Jan Luyken (1649-1712), The fountain: clear and pure (wood engraving, 1708), h. 17 cm, illustration

in Beschouwing der Wereld : bestaande in hondert konstige figuuren, met godlyke spreuken en stichtelyke verzen, p.2, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Pitts Theology Library→, © Public Domain

Description : Two persons quench their thirst from a fountain with six high spouting streams of water. A third person rests under a tree.   The attendant scriptures are Prv 14:27 and Is 12:3.

Motto: Fountain of all things, / May everyone go to thee!

Poem: The drops are worth more, / Than the fountain that bore them, / In the esteem of the human race, / That values these and those trifles, / Of the earthly things that streamed out, / More than their origin. / But he, who hopes to find better, / And knows to restrain his desire, / Prefers to pass thirsty, / A gutter, mixed with the dirt of the earth, / So that he would save his quenching, / Until the pure fountain would be there; / The rich source of all streams, / Where everyone who is thirsty may come, / And freely drink the holy liquid; / That living Water-vein, / That springs up eternally, from the Father, / And is very lovingly called Jesus. / So we are willing to pass the time, / And are consoled to suffer some thirst, / Even though the temporal Sun stings, / We shall speedily run to the end, / Then shall the thirst be eternally quenched, / From God, that pure / Fountain of Life.