JOB CHAPTER 17 - 24

JOB 17

1 My breath’s corrupt, my days extinct,
The graves for me already winked.
2 Truly mockers surround me and
My eye must see them acting grand.
3 Be the gauge of my surety,
Who’ll strike hands in a pact with me?
4 For You’ve shut wisdom from their heart,
And so You’ll not lift up their part.
5 He calls his friends to share the spoil,
But his own children’s eyes see toil.
6 He’s set me as a mocking word
Among the people that has stirred,
I’ve become the one in whose eye
They come to spit and then pass by.
7 My eye is darkened in my grief,
My members like shadow’s relief.

My God, I always thought the Psalms were made
To comfort human hearts among the strayed,
But nothing so expresses what I’ve seen
In my long life upon this earthly green
As these words filtered down from Job’s ascent.
I’ve touched this land till I know what he meant.
I’ve felt in my own flesh the nasty cut
That he declares here before Your door shut.
This very day and week I’ve felt the spit
Fly in my face, seen the hand raised to hit.
It’s always those who claim to live for You,
The ones whose pious words spoken as true,
Who do the evil deed and smirk to find
Their arrows hit the mark though they’re well wined.

8 Upright men shall be amazed when
The innocent shall stir again
Against the hypocritic men.
9 The righteous shall hold to his way,
The one with clean hands without pay
Shall be strengthened from day to day.
10 But as for all of you, go back,
Return when I find without lack
Just one wise man within your stack.
11 My days are past, my goal is gone,
The thoughts of my heart fail the dawn.
12 They change the night into the day,
The light is brief in darkness’ sway.
13 If I wait, I shall only meet
The grave to live in for my seat,
I’ve made my bed in darkness neat.
14 I’ve said to corruption, “My father,
To the worm, be my mother rather,
And be my sister or don’t bother.
15 “And where is my hope now, my hope,
Who shall see it and give the dope?
16 “They shall go down into the pit,
We shall together in dust sit.”

How many times have I been brunt and sore
Before the false accusing at the door!
I hesitate to speak my righteousness,
For it is just a broken thread’s confess,
And I’m amazed that any feels the need
To trample me down before such weak seed.
And yet the promise is that strength shall come
To beat the proudly sounding of the drum.
Beloved, I cling to You with patient dread
To see the instance on enemy’s head.
We all go down to dust and feel the claw,
And yet the rightness of the right in awe
Rains light upon the kinship of the grave.
I raise a head before them. I am brave.

JOB 18

1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite,
And said 2 How long till end’s in sight
Of words? Come to your senses and
Then we will speak truth by command.
3 Why are we considered as beasts,
Called vile in your sight as though priests?
4 He tears himself in wrath. Shall earth
Be barren for your sake with dearth?
Shall rocks be moved from place of worth?
5 The light of the wicked shall be
Extinguished and the sparks fly free
From his fire not to shine a wee.
6 The light shall be dark in his tent,
His candle fail as he too went.
8 His strong steps shall find narrow path,
His own advice cast him in wrath.
8 For he’s thrown in a net to catch
His own feet, and he walks a patch
To find a snare without a match.
9 The gin shall take him by the heel,
The robber win against his weal.
10 The snare’s set for him on the ground,
A trap for him in his way found.
11 Terrors frighten him every way
To drive him to his feet to stray.
12 His strength shall turn in famine’s ride,
Destruction ready at his side.
13 It shall consume strength of his skin,
The firstborn of death is his kin.
14 He’s cast out from his tent’s safety
To come before fear’s king to be.
15 Strangers shall inhabit his tent,
Sulphur shall be strewn where he went.
16 His roots shall be dried up beneath,
Above his branch cut off in wreath.
17 His memory shall perish from earth,
Name never mentioned as of worth
In the street. 18 He’ll be driven from
The light to darkness and then some
Will chase him from the world to come.
19 He’ll have neither a son to stay
With nephew in the folk’s array,
None staying in his dwellings’ way.
20 Those who come after are amazed
At his day, as those who were crazed
Before with fright to see unpraised.
21 Such is the wicked’s dwelling place,
Who does not know Allah for grace.

There is no rhyme but treason in the word
That Bildad lets fall from his mouth like turd.
He merely swears and curses while he’s stirred,
But does not yield a reason since he’s blurred.
Job must fail and be brought to nothing since
He does not know You like the party quince
Here on a roll. When two or three together
Repeat their nonsense any kind of weather,
The repetition only is enough
To convince human anti-mind for fluff.
Beloved, I leave the foolish speech alone,
Except to note that rhetoric in bone
Can be used so effectively that stone
Will stoop to agree with the tough and scruff.

JOB 19

1 Then Job answered and said 2 How long
Will you vex my soul, and lift strong
Words to shatter me with a song?
3 These ten times you have outraged me
Without shame for cupidity.
4 If really I have sinned in full,
I only am responsible.
5 If you desire to attack me,
Then bring proof of iniquity.
6 Know now that Allah’s thrown me down,
And caught me in His net and frown.
7 See how I cry against the blast
Without reply to me outcast.
I cry for help, no justice comes,
No matter how I count my sums.

Job points out the lack in the argument
That his friends keep saying without relent,
That suffering is the evidence in due
That sin has been committed in the pew.
Job says the evidence must be in state
Of witness of particular in fate,
The act of sin transgressing divine law,
And not deductions made and based on straw.
The arguments seen so conclusive to
The minds of biased men come into view.
The same men would have found reason to say
The Virgin Mary too had gone astray,
Since pregnancy is proof of semen passed
Into the womb of woman. I’m aghast.

8 He’s blocked me here on every side,
There’s no place where I may abide,
He’s spread out darkness where I ride.
9 He’s stripped me of my glory’s crown,
I see it from my head fall down.
10 He’s destroyed me on every hand,
And I am gone, and my hope’s stand
He’s removed like a tree from land.
11 He’s kindled His wrath against me,
And He counts me an enemy.
12 His troops regroup and rise in way
Against my tent to take their prey.
13 He’s put my brothers far from me,
And mine acquaintance verily,
All these have been estranged from me.
14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my friends
Long known forget me for their ends.
15 The folk of my house, even maids,
Call me a stranger, renegades.
16 I called my servant, and he gave
Me no answer, though I begged brave.
17 My breath is strange to my wife, though
I appealed to my children’s show.
18 Even young children despised me;
I got up, they called mockingly.
19 My closest friends all abhorred me,
The ones I loved turned against me.

Job’s argument is simply that his state
Of suffering is not proof in the stalemate,
But rather opportunity and duty
For friend and relative to enter beauty
By coming to his comfort now instead
Of coming to hammer him on the head.
He feels acutely all the pain in store
Brought on by wicked men darkening door
With accusations instead of the word
Of love to which they all should have been stirred.
Beloved, I lay aside theology
And come to You to bind Your heart to me
In grace before the golden throne above
That stands in glory, grace, eternal love.

20 My bones stick to my skin and flesh,
I’ve only skin of teeth in mesh.
21 Have pity on me, pity please,
O you my friends; upon my knees
Before Allah who gives no ease.
22 Why do you persecute me like
El, unsatisfied with the strike?
23 I wish my words were written down
And printed in books of renown!
24 I wish them graven with a pen
Of iron and lead in rock and glen.
25 For I know my redeemer lives
To stand at last upon what gives
The earth for judgement come again.
26 After my skin is peeled away,
Still in my flesh shall come the day
When I see Allah in His way,
27 Whom I shall see for myself, and
My eyes shall gaze upon the grand
And on no other, though my gut
Melt in me and my life be shut.
28 But you should say, Why should we go
Against him, as if his roots show?
29 Be fearful of the sword, for wrath
Brings the sword’s punishments in path,
Till you know judgement’s aftermath.

The suffering of the man before the wind
Of his catastrophe when others sinned
Leads to a vision glorious to see,
One that opens doors on eternity.
The judgement coming and hereafter glows
In these words of faith that righteous Job shows.
He bears prophetic word in his own teeth,
In broken skin and aching bone beneath
The shattered hopes of human comfort gone.
And so he only sees the coming dawn.
Beloved, I join the vision of the man
Who sees You stand in judgement and I can
Look forward to the day when every face
Will come before You beyond time and place.

I hastily looked all about for You,
Beloved, Creator of the Universe,
Behind iconostasis, in the view
Of altar spread with golden cups diverse
And jewelled spoons. I searched the standing crowd,
Eyes passing over necklaces and ring,
Ears at the ready to hear You speak loud,
I searched the church in vain where angels sing.
At last I find You, my Beloved, behind
The furs and caps of vested and well-dined,
Sat stretching nervous hands from eyes to stare
Beneath the matted, stringy, greying hair,
Above the patched dress, ruined, gaping shoes,
Only divinely burning eyes give clues.

JOB 20

1 Then answered Zophar Naamathite,
And said 2 That’s why I’ve come in sight
So quickly to answer the wight.
3 I’ve had to listen to reproach,
My mind fights back against encroach.
4 Do you not know this ancient thing
Since man was set upon earth’s ring,
5 The wicked’s triumphing is short,
The hypocrite’s joy moment’s sport?
6 Though he might climb to heaven above,
And his head reach the clouds thereof,
7 Still he shall perish like his dung,
Those who saw him know where he’s flung.
8 He’ll fly away just like a dream
And not be found, as it may seem
A vision in the night to fade.
9 The seeing eye on the parade
Shall see no longer where he stayed.
10 The poor shall overtake his young,
Recover what he took and stung.
11 The strength of youth filled up his bones,
Yet they lie with him among stones.

Zophar at least has reason on his side
When he answers Job from his hurt and pride.
He says Job’s view that all men come at last
To the same end, the dust and death when passed,
Is partial view. The great reality
Is that the joy of the wicked to see
Is fleeting and a greater sampling’s fee
Would show despite impressions of their glee
That in fact everything on earth comes round
And justice at last rises on the ground.
Beloved, the argument may well be strong
In the sum, yet it does not come along
As proof that Job is sinful because he
Is suffering. Justice in its time’s no gauge
That innocence in grief comes not on stage.

12 Though wickedness be sweet in mouth,
Hidden under his tongue in south,
13 And he save it and not forsake,
But keep it in his mouth for stake,
14 Still it turns the meat in his paunch
Like gall of asps in him to launch.
15 He’s swallowed wealth, and he’ll return
To vomit what he did not earn,
El shall cast them out and to burn.
16 He shall suck the poison of asps,
The viper’s tongue shall slay with gasps.
17 He shall not see the rivers, floods,
The brooks of honey, butter’s buds.
18 What he laboured for he’ll restore,
And shall not swallow it down more,
According to his wealth shall be
The restitution of his fee,
And he’ll not joy in it’s degree.
19 Because he’s oppressed and forsaken
The poor, he’s violently taken
Away the house he builded not,
20 He shall not feel the quiet taut
In his belly, he shall not save
What he desired down to the grave.
21 There shall none of his meat be left;
No man shall find his goods bereft.
22 In his abundance he’s distressed,
All wicked hands shall rob his nest.
23 When he’s about to fill his bod,
The wrath shall fall on him from God
And rain upon him eating pod.
24 He’ll flee from iron weapons too,
The bow of steel shall strike him through.
25 It’s drawn, and comes out from the back,
The glittering sword without the lack
Of gall comes out, and terrors fall.
26 All darkness shall be hid in pall
Of his secret places: a fire
Not blown shall consume him in ire;
It shall go ill with him that’s left
In his tabernacle bereft.
27 The sky shall make appear his sin,
The earth shall rise up with a din.
28 The increase of his house shall fail,
And dissipate before wrath’s veil.
29 This is the lot of wicked men
From Ælohim, portion again
Appointed him by El for yen.

Zophar’s concept of justice in the round
Of robbing robbers’ children is not sound.
It’s only to admit the jungle law
Is sacred and esteemed for tooth and claw.
That may or may not be reality,
But if it is, I stand against its fee.
Like Job I demand that the right be left
To live in peace and never come to theft,
And that the children suffer nothing of
The robbing fathers’ lack of faith and love.
Beloved, if every token of the hand
That shows rebellion against Your command
Is justice come to play with toy and sand,
Then I set down my spade and pail and take
Myself back to my mother’s house and stake
And leave You and Your congregation’s wake.

JOB 21

1 But Job answered and said 2 Hear now
With care my speech, and give somehow
Me this comfort upon my brow.
3 Let me speak and after I’ve spoken
Continue with your mocking token.
4 For me, is my complaint to man?
Why should I not in anguish scan?
5 Mark me, and be astonished, and
Lay your hand on your mouth as banned,
6 Even when I remember I
Am afraid, and trembling and sigh
Take hold on my flesh as I die.

Job remarks on the fact his friends deny
A man the right to rattle and to die.
The sounds made in approaching death are not
A moral issue in the cosmic plot,
But results of the way that flesh is wrought.
The one who casts disparagement on such
Anguish of heart and body with a touch
Of his superiority since he
Is still alive and well upon the tee
Shows gross unconsciousness that all men must
Once come to die and in that thing may trust.
The implication is that righteous men
Are all immortal in Auschwitz and glen
Of Buchenwald. The argument is dust.

7 Why do the wicked live, become
Old, and mighty in power, and bold?
8 Their seed is established in sum,
They see their offspring dear as gold.
9 Their houses are safe from all fear,
Neither does Allah touch their gear.
10 Their bull ruts and it does not fail,
Their cow brings forth calves sound and hale.
11 They send out their sons like a flock,
Their children dance around and rock.
12 They take the timbrel and the harp,
Rejoicing at flute’s voice and carp.
13 They spend their days in wealth, and in
A moment go to the grave’s bin.
14 Therefore they say to El, “Depart
From us; for we don’t want to start
In knowledge of Your ways and art.
15 “What is Shaddai, that we should serve?
What do we gain to pray with verve?”

Job disagrees with Zophar in his sampling,
And thinks his science lacks in method ampling.
The fact is that the life of wicked men
Is not a brief joy and destruction’s den,
But often is a full life in their view
And is cut short only by death’s last pew.
Their days in wealth carry the prideful heart
From cradle to the brave rebellion’s part:
Empirically they know they need no God
To carry them above or under sod.
Job may be right, I daresay that he is,
When speaking of those of his time and bizz,
But I’ve an inkling that today all men
Live lives of inner anguish in their glen.

16 See, their good is not in their band:
The wicked counsel’s not at hand.
17 How often is the wicked light
Snuffed out, and on them comes the night
Of their destruction! God hands out
In wrath their sorrows as they pout.
18 They are as stubble before wind,
And as the chaff that is unbinned
Before the storm. 19 God keeps in mind
His sins for his children in bind,
He passes judgement he shall know.
20 His eyes shall see destruction glow,
And he’ll drink of the dregs of wrath
In the Almighty Shaddai’s path.
21 For what joy has he in his house
After him when his months like mouse
Are cut off with both sons and spouse?

The measure of Your punishment does not
Attain the conscience of the wicked lot,
And so, according to Job’s righteous thought,
It plays no role at all in penitence
Among the wicked men in their safe tents.
Job’s daring in his view that evil now
Is not Your call to righteousness somehow
As most of those who convert to the church
Give testimony from their wayward perch.
It’s their reward indeed come to their end,
But is no argument for life to fend.
The righteous too may live a life with friend,
In wealth and happiness at last snuffed out
In death before he knows what he’s about.

22 Shall any teach El what to know,
Since He judges the high for show?
23 One dies in his full strength, in ease
And quiet, 24 his flocks produce cheese
And milk, and their bones moist with marrow.
25 Another dies in bitter, narrow
Soul and never eats well to please.
26 They shall lie down alike in dust,
And worms shall cover them like rust.

Job sees his friend teach God the level of
Righteousness of each man seen from above,
Expressed in how much wealth he’s given here.
Righteousness is gauged out in health and gear.
Job finds the thing irrational for fear,
Implying that the action of each man
Is the only way one can judge in span
Who is the rogue and who is not by plan.
Beloved, I see Job’s friends around me still,
In every judgement based on dress and frill,
And how that judgement then extents to claim
Goodness for some who act in evil flame,
And demonize some others, who though poor,
Act unrelentingly by Your law sure.

27 See, I know your thought and devices
You wrongfully think up in crisis.
28 For you say “Where’s the prince’s house,
And where lives wicked man with spouse?
29 Have you not asked them in the street?
Do you not know of their defeat,
30 The wicked is reserved to meet
His punishment upon the day
Of his destruction? They shall be
Brought out the day of wrath’s decree.
31 Who shall declare his way in face?
And who come to repay his race?
32 Yet shall he be brought to the grave,
And shall remain as the tomb’s slave.
33 Clods of the valley shall be sweet
To him, and every man in feat
Shall follow after him, as tread
Innumerable before his dread.
34 How then do you comfort in vain,
Since your replies falsely remain?

The concept of Job’s friends is that the dire
On earth that every man feels of the fire
Is evidence of wickedness and pain
Of punishment meted out not in vain.
Job answers that all men on earth receive
Both good and evil alike sans reprieve
And on the final day of judgement wake
To rewards and to pains for their acts’ sake.
Beloved, I see around me for excuse
Both pains brought on by humans in abuse
And also the catastrophes of earth
That cannot be seen of a direct birth
In evil men have done. I hold with Job,
Who hopes the future will explain the robe.

JOB 22

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite
Answered and said with all his might,
2 Can a man be profit to El,
As wisdom profits man a spell?
3 Is it pleasure unto Shaddai
That you are righteous as a guy?
Does He gain anything when you
Make your ways perfect or then true?
4 Does He strike you for fear of you?
Will He bargain in judgement’s view?
5 Is not your wickedness great too,
Your sin an infinite in due?
6 You must have taken from your brother
A pledge without reason or other,
And stripped the poor of everything
They had to cover up their wing.
7 You’ve failed to give water to drink
To the weary upon the brink,
And you have kept back bread to eat
The hungry needed for a treat.

Eliphaz is a theologian bare
Who postulates a God who is not there,
A God so high and spiritual the flame
Of right and wrong and justice has no claim.
To balance off the realm of spirit high
He describes a man lower under sky
And also infinite in power of worth,
So evil he can change the cosmic earth.
These logical conclusions based on how
The human mind is structured on the bough
To reason in extremes and in abstractions
Is what divides the human race in factions.
And yet for all philosophy he falls
Back on the empty accusations’ walls.

8 But as for the mighty man, he
Had earth where the honoured for free
Came to live and dwell faithfully.
9 You’ve sent out widows empty and
Broken the orphans’ arms to stand.
10 Therefore snares are round about you,
And sudden fear troubles your view.
11 Or darkness, that you cannot see,
Many waters cover your lee.
12 Is not Allah in height of heaven?
And see how high the stars have striven?
13 And you say “How can El know what
I do behind the darkness shut?”
14 Thick clouds are just a cloak for Him,
They do not stop His eye, make dim,
He goes His rounds on heaven’s rim.

Eliphaz tries to put words in Job’s mouth
As he revolves from east and west and south.
He claims Job’s just trying to hide his sin,
And thinks that You, Beloved, see not within.
He makes Job out to be a secret villain,
Pretending to be cool and right and willing,
But in fact resting on secret sins chilling.
The affirmation without facts appals
But guilty till proved innocent in halls
Is the outcome of statistical view,
And probable in cause now takes the pew
Over the justice of law and of order.
Beloved, I’m like to become just a hoarder,
A hermit in my temple and recorder.

15 Have you noticed the wicked way,
16 Which were cut down out of time’s sway,
Whose foundation was overflowed
With a flood killing fleshly load?
17 Such said to El, “Depart from us,
What can Shaddai do for our fuss?”
18 Yet He filled their houses with good,
But wicked counsel leaves my wood.
19 The righteous see it, and are glad:
The innocent laugh at their bad.
20 Since our substance is not cut down,
But what is left of them in town
The fire consumes to black and brown.

Eliphaz meets Job’s argument for peace
Until the Day of Judgement come release
With reference to history of the flood
That punished all the wicked world with mud.
The argument might be good as it goes,
But Eliphaz takes it beyond its toes
To say that since he himself thrives and grows,
That shows that he himself’s not one of those
Who suffer for their sins, so he is good,
Whereas Job is in station and in wood
Of the men that failed to go in the ark
And left their bleaching bones about the park.
All men start out with premises of truth,
But fail in bending their sorts without ruth.

21 Acquaint yourself with him, and be
At peace, and good will come to thee.
22 Receive, I beg, law from His lips,
Treasure His word in heart and ships.
23 If you’ll return to the Shaddai,
You’ll prosper here under the sky,
And if you put away your sin
Out of your household and your bin.
24 Then you’ll lay up gold like the dust,
From Ophir like pebbles and rust.
25 Shaddai shall come to your defence,
And you’ll have silver in your tents.
26 For then shall you have your delight
In the Shaddai both day and night,
Lift up your face to El aright.
27 You shall make your prayer to Him then,
And He will hear you in your den,
And you shall pay your vows like men.
28 You shall also decree a thing
And it will have establishing,
And light shine on your ways and wing.
29 When men are cast down, then you’ll say
“There’s lifting up!” So in your way
You’ll save the humble from the fray.
30 He’ll save the innocent in land,
It’s saved by pureness of your hand.

Eliphaz begs Job to repent and see
How repentance will raise him in degree
And make him rich and loved eternally,
Or at least by poor neighbours in their glee.
Eliphaz would seduce the righteous man
With gold and silver and in wicked plan
Reduce the right to might and recognize
Only the wealth and power beneath the skies.
Beloved, I here reject theology
Of power and of success beneath the tree
Of knowledge. I would better come to Thee
In all my wealth of worldly poverty
And covet only Your heart in the spree,
Your hope and faith, and Your community.

JOB 23

1 Then Job answered and said to him,
2 Today also’s my complaint grim,
3 If I only knew where to find Him,
I’d come where he sat to remind Him.
4 I’d set my case out before Him,
Fill my mouth with arguments trim.
5 I’d know how He would answer me
And understand what He said free.
6 Will He accuse me with great power?
No, he’d stand me up in an hour.
7 There the righteous might argue case,
I’d be saved from my judges’ face.

Job’s down to earth and simple in his view
That You are just in Your judgement and true,
So that the one who’s simply lived to do
By Your commandments would be declared right
And innocent, if he stood in Your sight.
The fact that You cannot be seen among
The crowd does not mean that the poor are hung,
But that the elders in the gate may make
A false verdict for all their righteous sake.
Beloved, I too search out the nook where You
May be found by the accused in the pew,
And trust that what I’ve done of right be known
To You, and what not You’ll find to atone
As I stand here by invisible throne.

8 See, I go forward, but He’s not,
I turn behind, but see not plot.
9 On the left where He performs action
I cannot see Him in a fraction,
He hides Himself upon the right,
And I cannot get Him in sight.
10 But He knows the way that I take:
When he has tried me, for His sake
I shall come forth as gold in wake.
11 My foot has held His steps, His way
I’ve kept to and not gone astray.
12 Neither have I abandoned yet
The commandment from His lips met,
I’ve held the words of His mouth’s ease
Greater than my necessities.

Job turns to front and back, to right and left
And whirls about the plain and mountain cleft,
But cannot see You as he whirls away.
So too am I come out to work and play.
I turn to find you on the mountain top,
I look for You as dizzying I drop
Into the depths of darkness and of pain.
I search You out in sunlight and in rain.
But everywhere I turn, I find no trace
At all of You, Your hand, Your foot, Your face.
Beloved, I find myself to be alone
Before the great invisible in throne
Where You’re unseen because too near in grace,
Under my skin, in marrow of my bone.

13 But He’s in One, and who can change
What His soul desires in His range?
14 For he performs what is appointed
For me, many things He’s anointed.
15 That’s why I’m troubled before Him,
When I ponder, then I fear Him.
16 El breaks my courage, and Shaddai
Puts me in terror by and by.
17 Since I did not fall in the dark,
It was not darkness struck my mark.

Job’s argument is valid for the man
Who’s seen the desert and the darkened span
Of sky beneath the hood and knows the night
Is of no greater danger than the light.
But what about the child? Each little boy
Knows that the darkness is feared in both joy
And cunning. What about the child for right?
I grasp Job’s great theology to spare
Relation to Your being and be ware:
The argument is that You, Beloved, care
And are One and not three or four to share,
And proof of that is that the terror of
The darkness is illusion of a glove.
The argument is scintillating, bare.

JOB 24

1 Why has Shaddai not set the times
Of judgement, and those in His rhymes
Not seen His days come in their climes?
2 Some take away the landmarks; they
Steal flocks and herds as well as hay.
3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey,
And confiscate widow’s ox wonkey.
4 They turn the needy from the way:
The poor of the earth hide away.
5 See them like wild donkeys that stray
The desert, go out on their way,
And getting up to find their prey,
The desert gives their food and hay,
For them and for their offspring’s lay.
6 They reap every one his field’s grain,
Glean grapes of wicked not in vain.
7 They cause the naked to remain
All night without clothes in the rain,
Without a covering in the cold,
8 Wet with the mountain showers untold,
Pressed against the damp rock wall cold.

Job wonders that You have not set the time
For all to see and hear the prose and rhyme
Against those who with cunning come to steal
The portion of the poor and turn his wheel.
How many more have wondered at the fate
And been amazed to see judgement so late!
No doubt the reason’s only that You wait
Not at all in eternity’ estate.
Beloved, You do not know how long time seems
To us, because You live and breathe in dreams
Of Your divinity without constraint
Of days and years that make a human faint.
You have not shivered there against the wet
Stone wall without a covering to get.

9 They tear the fatherless from breast,
And confiscate the poor man’s rest.
10 They cause him to go naked and
They snatch the hungry sheaf in band.
11 They press oil within secret walls,
Tread winepresses, while thirst enthrals.
From out the city comes the sound
Of groaning of men on the ground,
Cries out the wounded soul, and yet
God does not lay folly to get.
13 They’re those that rebel against light;
They do not know the ways of right,
Nor stay in its paths and its sight.
14 The murderer gets up in time
To kill the poor and needy grime,
And in the night as a thief’s mime.
15 Adulterous eye waits for the eve,
Saying “No one sees to believe,”
And so makes his face to deceive.
16 In dark they dig through houses’ walls,
Which they’d marked in daytime for falls,
They do not know the light that calls.
17 Morning’s to them shadow of death,
If someone knows them, bated breath
They are in terror such that galls.

How many fatherless are torn from breast
Today as slaves return from east and west
To do their tasks and send a pittance round
Back to debt-ridden houses on the ground!
There are more slaves today in this world bound
Than ever earlier lived to the sound
Of cracking whip, more children die today
From overwork, malnutrition for pay
Than in the times of Rome and Grecian ray,
Or in the times the Sultans came to prey
On Circassian girls and Slav men to row
Their ships across the Caspian to glow.
Beloved, the height of progress and the show
Of civilized is in the slaves to tow.

18 He is swift as the waters; their
Lot is cursed in the earthly share:
He goes no more by vineyards bare.
19 Drought and the heat consume the snow
Waters: so does the grave make show
Of those who’ve have sinned and on the go.
20 The womb shall forget him; the worm
Shall feed sweetly on him in term;
He shall no more come into mind,
Wickedness broken like tree vined.
20 He steals from the barren in turn,
And does not let the widows earn.
22 He draws the mighty with his power:
He rises up, none knows his hour.
23 Though he is set in safety’s rest
His eyes are on their ways for best.
24 They’re lifted for a little while,
But then thrown down upon the pile,
They’re taken from the way like all,
And cut off like grain ears for the stall.
25 And if it’s not so now, who will
Belie me and call my speech nil?

Poor Job, he thinks the ear is tuned to hear,
He does not know that speeches up to gear
Are only pauses for opponent’s breath
And for a chance to think on pain of death
How he will answer reason spoken well.
It’s easier to make a reply’s spell
If one ignores the content and the meaning
Of what is said, and only take the screening
That best supports one’s own view in the net.
The comforters are hardly listening yet.
Beloved, what of the wicked in their gain,
Shall they not enter into final pain?
Is there a chance for righteous men at last
To enter rest after the slaver’s blast?

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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