3. Lines 31–49: What story does Douglass refer to in these lines? Why does he allude to that story?

Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me
to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me
warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose
crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the
Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable[4] ruin! I can to-day take
up the plaintive[5] lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people.
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when
we remembered Zi

Question

3.	Lines 31–49: What story does Douglass refer to in these lines? Why does he allude to that story?


 Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me 
to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me 
warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose 
crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the 
Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable[4] ruin! I can to-day take 
up the plaintive[5] lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people.
       “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when 
we remembered Zi