GENESIS CHAPTER 31 ~ 35

GENESIS 31

1 He heard the words of Laban's sons,
Who said "Jacob has taken tons
Of wealth that was our father's and
From what was his enriched his hand."
2 And Jacob saw the countenance
Of Laban was no longer glance
Of favour as it was before.

If blood is thicker far than water is,
A penny is much thicker than the both.
So when it came to an issue of his
Rights to the well, then Laban made an oath
Of kinship. Now that flocks and herds and wealth
Come in between, kinship steps out in stealth.
With what magical, superstitious ways
Did Jacob seek to breed the sheep and glaze
His fortune! My Beloved, keep me from going
In human ways so bluntly far from knowing,
And where I do follow a human rhyme,
Treat me like Jacob and bless for the time.
Deliver me from both my foolish claims
And also from those who have means and aims.

3 Then YHWH said this on Jacob's score,
"Return to the land and the place
Where your ancestors walked in grace
And to your family, and I
Will be with you." 4 So Jacob aye
Sent and called Rachel and her sister
Leah to the field, to his flock,
5 And said to them, "I see a blister
Here from your father's face, a rock
Not toward me as before, but still
My father's God's been with me till
This day. 6 "And you know that with all
My strength I've served your father's call.
7 "Yet your father has deceived me
And changed my wages ten times, but
Ælohim let no hurt touch me.
8 "If he said thus: 'The speckled shall
Be your wages,' then every belle
Of all the herds and flocks bore speckled.
And if he said thus: 'Let the freckled
And the streaked be your wages,' then
All the flocks bore streaked for the men.
9 "So Ælohim took stock away
From your father and gave me sway.

If Jacob thought his machinations with
The speckled whithes and stakes were not a myth,
But that his clever doings brought him wealth
In sheep and goat as well as in good health,
Is it not vain hypocrisy to thank
You, my Beloved, for what he had in bank?
Perhaps not. Rather every act of man
And woman is, if good and goodness can,
Your own act. All things good and true aspire
To come from You and in Your name's desire
Are fashioned by the shadows we call men.
There's nothing done by humankind for good
But is Your own, and if not then is hood
Of nothingness. I flee to You again.

10 "It happened, at the time when flocks
Conceived, I lifted up my eye
And saw a dream, not of an ox,
But leaping rams that jumped up high
Upon the flocks were streaked, and speckled,
And grey-spotted, not to be heckled.
11 "Then the Angel of Ælohim
Spoke to me once more in a dream,
Saying 'Jacob.' And I said 'Here
I am.' 12 "And He said 'Do not fear,
Lift your eyes now and behold all
The rams which leap and those that fall
Upon the flocks with streak and speckle,
And grey-spotted, worth goodly shekel,
For I have seen all Laban's doing
To you. 13 'I am the God that's cuing
You from Bethel, where you anointed
The pillar, made a vow appointed
To Me. Now get up, and get out
Of this land, and return, no doubt,
To the land of your own family.'"
14 Then Rachel and Leah replied
And said to him, "Is there beside
Still any portion or heirloom
Found for us in our father's room?
15 "Are we not strangers before him?
He's sold us, and what is more dim,
Consumed our money every bit,
Till nothing at all's left of it.
16 "For all these riches that were taken
By Ælohim from him forsaken,
From our father, are really ours,
And our children's and children's flowers.
Now then, what Ælohim has said
Do so, and by your God be led."

Naive, perhaps, to see in every dream
Of mine of jumping goat and ram and stream
A witness from You, My Beloved, to say
That what I want to do is the right way:
I think it would be clearer and more certain
A matter of Your will without a curtain
Or veil of vain desire if You revealed
That what I want to do has been repealed.
I'm surest that the act I do is free
If it is not a thing I'd wantonly
Choose for myself, and yet I choose the doing.
The free to follow passion is construing
A thralldom as an empty liberty.
My will is Yours, Beloved, and then I'm free.

17 Then Jacob rose and set his sons
And wives on camels, they're the ones
18 That carried away all his goods
And livestock through both fields and woods,
What he had gained, his herds and sheep
Gained in Padan Aram to keep,
To go to his father Isaac
In Canaan's land. 19 Now Laban's track
Led him to shear his sheep, the while
Rachel had stolen one big pile
Of household idols of her father.
20 And Jacob stole away, no bother
To tell Laban the Syrian,
Of his intention when he ran.
21 So he fled with all that he had.
He rose and crossed, like Galahad,
The river towards mounts Gilead.

If Jacob thought that he was doing right,
Why did he not go openly in light?
Did he think Laban might restrain him after
All he had done in service, tears and laughter?
Perhaps, and with good reason for the doubt.
Then too, one need not act with din and shout.
The household gods reveal how near the well
Of heathen worship good men love to dwell.
Times do not change, and neither do their men.
I've hidden idols still I'm loath again
To leave behind to seek a promised land.
Like Jacob, I too love to flee at night
And give no reason for my show of right.
Give me, Beloved, the emptiness to stand.

22 And Laban was told on the third
Day Jacob fled without a word.
23 Then he took his brothers with him
And pursued him for seven days,
He overtook him in his vim
In the mountains of Gilead.
24 But Ælohim had His own ways,
Came to Laban the Syrian
In a dream in the night he had,
And said to him, "Be careful, man,
To speak to Jacob good nor bad."

I flee from confrontation, too, Beloved,
And often fail the hawk for being doved,
And like shy Jacob turn my frantic flight
Toward Bethel, yet stumble in the night.
If your speaking to me is just illusion,
I pray prostrated here in life's confusion
That Your night warnings to the ones who seize
My footprints to do me the wrong might freeze
Their burning hearts and turn their passioned hate
To good-will for this doubtful deviate.
Do this, Beloved, and I too shall repent
That I had stolen their gods when I went.
Warn not the righteous of the foul intention,
But break the onslaught and the crowd's invention.

25 Laban caught up to Jacob, who
Had pitched his tent along the hills,
And Laban with his brothers too
Pitched in the hills of Gilead.
26 And Laban asked Jacob, "What ills
Have you done to me, and what bad
Thing that you steal away unknown
To me, and carried off alone
My daughters like captives with sword?
27 "Why did you flee, a thing deplored,
So secretly, and steal away
From me, without a word to say,
And not tell me, I might have sent
You out with joy and songs well spent,
With timbrel and with harp? 28 "And you
Did not let me kiss them adieu,
My sons and daughters. Now you do
Foolishly in this thing. 29 "It's in
My hand's god to do you harm's sin,
But God of your father told me
Last night, and spoke and said to be
Careful to speak to Jacob nor
Good nor bad. 30 "You have found the door
Surely because you greatly long
For father's house, and not for wrong,
But what did you steal my gods for?"

The predator is always injured by
The insult of the prey's escape. Defy
Not predator or he will weep. His heart
Is softer than I think, Beloved. Your art
Made lamb and lion in the raw or in
The flesh and blood inside the human skin.
The stalking predator has his own grin
To mask the wrong. He always has his sights
On something else, until he takes his rights
In one quick pouncing and surprise. Indeed,
His claws are hidden by the harp, they feed
On certain prey alone, but in their need
They are as soft as stone. Beloved, let me
Scape that claw to be your gratuity.

31 Then Jacob answered and said to
Laban, "Because I was afraid,
And told myself that perhaps you
Would take your daughters as your due
From me by force.' 32 "With whomsoever
You find your gods, then you may sever
His life. In presence of our brothers,
Show what I have of yours or others
And take it with you." For Jacob
Did not know that, and there's the rub,
Rachel stole them. 33 And Laban went
Into Jacob's then Leah's tent,
And into the two maids' tents too,
But did not find. Then he went out
Of Leah's tent and went into
The tent of Rachel for a rout.
34 Now Rachel had taken the gods,
The household idols made of clods,
And put them in the camel's saddle,
And sat on them. And Laban's paddle
About the tent turned up no clue.
35 And she said to her father, "Do
Not be displeased that I cannot
Rise up before my lord, as ought,
Since manner of women's on me."
He searched about diligently
But did not find the household idols.

Beloved and Father, search my fleshly tent,
Leave hiding place revealed, and all veils rent,
But find the last of clay and household gods
And crush them under foot and iron rods.
Whirl round the bleeding saddle where I sit,
Helpless as I remain in exquisite
Denial of my fault, and in that turning
Leave every false god in my heart there burning.
The fire of love and wrath are one to me,
But let its flames arising set me free
From every self and every vain desire,
Seven times purified in gates of fire.
I rise to whirl and leave my scorner's chair
To find that only You are everywhere.

36 Then angry Jacob took the bridles,
Rebuked Laban, Jacob replied,
And said to Laban "Be my guide
And say what's my trespass and sin,
That you so hotly, in such din
Pursued me. 37 "Although you have searched
All my things, my name's unbesmirched.
Now what things of yours have you found?
Set it here before yours and mine,
Between these brothers on the ground,
That they may judge who pays the fine!
38 "These twenty years I've been with you,
Your ewes and female goats, not few,
Have not miscarried their young, I
Have not eaten the rams set by
From your flock. 39 "That which was torn I
Did not bring to you, I bore loss.
You took from me, I had to toss
In from my own to make it up,
By morning crust or evening sup.
40 "There I was! In the day the drought
Consumed me, and by night was caught
In frost, and my sleep left my eyes.
41 "Thus I have been without reprise
In your house twenty years, I served
You fourteen years and never swerved,
For your two daughters, and six years
For your flock, and for what appears
You have changed my wages ten times.
42 "Unless the God of my grandfather,
The God of Abraham sometimes,
And the Fear of Isaac, had rather
Been with me, surely now you would
Have sent me empty in the wood.
Ælohim saw my troubled labour
And last night rebuked you the neighbour."

Who knows what hidden plots lie under all
The calls to justice, who is short and tall
Before the judgement eye that You lay on
The midnight treachery and on the dawn.
Fault lies in human actions that seek gain
And in their seeking lay a mask in vain
On every face. Jacob was brave to say
What hurts had festered twenty years to day,
Because he thought he was more innocent
Than he was really in his wife's back tent.
Make me, Beloved, more humble in my cry
Against oppressor, less inclined to try
My innocence against other illusion.
All human things begin and end confusion.

43 And Laban answered Jacob, saying
"These daughters are my daughters, and
These children are my children staying,
And these flocks are my flocks that stand,
All that you see is mine. But what
Can I do this day to begot
Of me or to whom they have borne?
44 "Now therefore, come, let us be sworn
In covenant, both you and I,
Witness between us under sky."

Illusion of wrongness in Laban makes
Him gentle for his daughters' children's sakes.
The ploy is always useful, whether as
Intended or unplanned as this one was.
The victim's always wrong, the hero stands
With spoils in cart and unwashed, bloody hands.
I turn from right and wrong in all their veils
And seek Your face alone where justice pales
Before reality. I lift a song
Made of Your name alone that knows no wrong.
Let market and the battle field both swear
To be comrades in action everywhere.
I eat and drink and bathe me once a week,
And leave the grasping to the ones who seek.

45 So Jacob took a stone and set
It up a pillar. 46 Then he told
His brothers, Jacob did, to get
More stones. And all of them took hold
Of stones to bring and make a pile,
On top of which they ate a while.
47 And Laban had a name to give
The place, Jegar Sahadutha,
Jacob, less imaginitive,
Called it Galeed. 48 And Laban saw
And said "This heap is witness here
Between you and me this day clear."
Therefore its name was called Galeed,
49 Also Mizpah, since he decreed
"May YHWH watch between you and me
When we are absent mutually.

The stones and standing pillars set with names
Are all that humans have to make their claims.
With signatures and promises men prove
That utterance alone can never move
The human heart to loyalty and truth.
My prowess is expressed in beads and stays
And contracts lest I be caught up in ruth.
The witnesses on witness steel my days.
Beloved, I turn to You with only breath,
A single word to council before death,
And rise to find above the pillars song
And that the day as well as night is long.
Our whisperings are mutual when said.
You speak and I become and take the bread.

50 "If you afflict my daughters, or
If you take other wives before
My daughters, although no man is
With us, see, Ælohim has His
Witness between the both of us
To see if we're contrarious!"
51 Then Laban said to Jacob, "Here
Is this heap which I am sincere,
And pillar, in placing between
The both of us, which may be seen
52 "This witness heap and pillar that
Is a witness, from where I'm at
I will not pass beyond this heap
Nor shall you, while we wake or sleep,
To do the other harm. 53 "The God
Of Abraham, of Nahor, God
Of their father judge between us."
And Jacob swore, commodious,
And by his father Isaac's Dread.
54 Then Jacob offered up instead
A sacrifice on the mountain,
And called his brothers to eat bread.
And they ate bread and stayed therein
All night long upon the mountain.
55 And early in the morning rose
Up Laban, kissed his sons and chose
To kiss his daughters, blessed them all.
Then Laban left, went home withal.

The contract that is basic in men's lives
Is not the one that rises in beehives.
Suffice to man another will not harm
His life and wife and child and cattle farm.
Belovèd, You are just the Dread that keeps
The equal in invading strength from sweeps
Into full warfare. There's no shadow more
Of You in human thoughts from aft to fore.
The only dread that rises when the power
Is unequal is that invasion's hour
Is not postponed, but dread of attack comes
To release the impoverished of their sums.
I rise up early to kiss You and go.
Belovèd, do not let my weakness show.

GENESIS 32

1 So Jacob went on his way, and
The angels of Ælohim stand
To meet him. 2 When Jacob saw them,
He said "God's camp and diadem."
And he called that place Mahanaim.

This tiny story of the angel bands
That met Jacob along the blowing sands
South of Gilead rarely is bespoken.
A crowd of angels also is the token
Of my day's walk, and yet I rarely see
Their iridescent wings and symmetry.
Perhaps the mere remarkable is reason
Enough to mention this scented bright season,
Event cut off from the mundane and yet
Wedged firmly in between the struggles set
In old survivals. And Jacob's brief hymn
"The camp of the exalted ones" is dim
Reverberation on my soul as I
Walk through the foothill paths beneath a sky.

3 Then Jacob sent messengers to
Esau his brother to accrue
Peace in his sight into the land
Of Seir, the country of Edom.

WEEK 8

4 He spoke and this was his command,
"Speak thus to my lord Esau, 'Come,
Thus your servant Jacob says "I
Have lived with Laban and stayed by
Him there till now. 5 "I have great herds
Of oxen, donkeys, flocks, and birds,
Male and female servants, and I
Have sent to tell my lord, that I
May find favour beneath your eye."'"

There's nothing mollifies the festered grief
Like wealth put on display before the thief.
All friendship is the boughten kind except
The rarest parts almost in secret kept.
The brother with age and steel seems to find
A fragile moment in which to be kind.
So Jacob and Esau meet for embrace
And touch the moment before turning face.
Rare are the friends that, born of enemies,
Despite all odds and all the kingly pleas,
Make all things fragile in comparison.
But such friends were David and Jonathan.
Beloved, You are the Friend beyond the pale
That makes all friendships pause to strike the nail.

6 The messengers returned and said
To Jacob, "We were finally led
To your brother Esau, and he
Also is coming to meet you,
With a four-hundred-man army."
7 Jacob did not know what to do,
Greatly afraid and more distressed,
And he divided in two groups
People, flocks, herds and all the rest,
And camels too, to meet the troops.
8 And he said "If Esau comes to
The one group and attacks it, then
The other group can flee the men."

A four-hundred-man army sets against
Jacob, led by brother not reverenced.
Some hold philosophy divide and conquer,
But Jacob is not that kind of a honker.
In desperation he tries to divide
To save half of his people on one side.
I too fear blood and kin as well as stranger
For meeting half a century of danger.
I do not trust myself much less the other,
And Esau's enough example of brother.
In peace or conflict let me trust in You
No matter what I myself try to do.

9 Then Jacob said "O God whom knew
My grandfather Abraham and
My father Isaac, YHWH who planned
And said to me, 'Return to your
Country and to your family, for
I will deal well with you': 10 "I am
Not worthy of the least of all
The mercies and truth without sham
Which You have shown in Your clear call
To Your servant, for I once crossed
Over this Jordan with my staff,
And have become two groups, though lost,
11 "Save me, I pray, from the riff-raff
My brother Esau brings against
Me, for I fear him, he's incensed,
Come to attack not only me,
Mother and child abusively.
12 "For You said 'I will surely treat
You well, and make your children's fleet
Like sea-sand in their multitude.'"

Nostalgia for the time when only staff
Was his companion and his wealth, a quaff
Of water without wine, a stone neath head,
A stone, and in the morning mom's dried bread,
Now blesses Jacob's heart weighed with abundance.
He realizes everything's redundance.
Beloved, be my wealth and my poverty,
Be my companion in prayer's ecstasy,
Drink with me in Your tavern, Tavern-keeper,
From sip to sip and breath to breath and deeper.
Save me from church and mosque and synagogue,
Where I find You, Beloved, with unwashed dog
To spoil my fond ablutions with wet touches.
I rush to You and throw away my crutches.

13 So he lodged there that very night,
And took what came to hand in sight
As a present for Esau his
Brother. 14 The list of presents is:
Two hundred female goats and twenty
Male goats, two hundred ewes a-plenty
And twenty rams, 15 and thirty milk
Camels with their colts soft as silk,
And forty cows and ten bulls, and
Then twenty female donkeys and
Ten foals. 16 Then he delivered them
To his servants, not to condemn,
Each drove by itself, and told them
"Pass over now before me, and
Put distance between every band."
17 And he commanded the first one,
And said "When Esau on the run,
My brother, meets you and asks you,
And says, 'To whom do you belong,
Where are you going with this crew
And whose are these in front of you,
To auction, butcher, sale for song?'
18 "Then you shall say, 'They are your servant
Jacob's. It is a present fervent
Sent to my lord Esau, indeed,
He also comes behind full speed.'"
19 So he commanded second, third,
And all who followed the same word
And said "This is how you shall speak
To Esau, who is out to seek
My life, when you find him. 20 "And say
'Your servant Jacob's on his way.'"
For he said "I will appease him
With presents and with gear and trim
That go before me, afterward
I'll see his face, perhaps deterred
From harm, and he will accept me
At least I'll try and we shall see."
21 So the present went on over
Before him, but he stayed to stir
Himself that night within the camp.
22 And he arose in dark and damp
And took his two wives, and his two
Maids with eleven sons, and crossed
Over Jabbok's ford and withdrew.
23 He took them, sent them not for lost
Over the brook, and all he had,
Kit and caboodle, not too bad.

At last I find the use of wealth and gain!
My humble diet and house would make vain
It seems, the race for the abundant life.
You, my Beloved, suffice and without strife.
But now I know the purpose of gain got
To the superfluous, as Jacob taught.
Give me, Beloved, the wealth I need to buy
Peace from the violent in stealth and sly.
But let me not experience as he
Return to pillow stone and staff and tree,
And see four wives and twelve sons walk the gate
Towards their slaughter on the path of hate,
Oh yes, and Dinah too, and all the sheep.
Leave me, Beloved, some comfort and some sleep.

24 Then Jacob was left there alone,
And a man wrestled him unknown
Until the breaking of the day.
25 Now when he saw he could not win
He touched the socket of his hip,
Jacob's hip socket then gave way,
Was out of joint to his chagrin
As he wrestled with him to slip.
26 And he said "Let Me go, day breaks."
But he said "I will not, earthquakes
Will not indeed make me let go,
Unless you stop to bless me!" 27 So
He said to him, "What is your name?"
He said "Jacob." 28 With that acclaim
He said "Your name shall be no longer
Jacob, but Israel, you were stronger,
Prevailed with Ælohim and men."

What angel did You send, Beloved, who could
Not break a man one full night in the wood?
Shall I believe the patriarch was stronger
Than Your sent angel who could not fight longer?
Truly such hero tales are great to hear
On dark and snowy evenings end of year.
He wrestled with an angel, broke a hip,
Then held the angel tightly lest he trip,
And made the angel beg to be released,
Till he at last was blessed, then only ceased.
I do not struggle with You or Your sent,
But take what You give, satisfied or spent.
Hold me in trust then any name You will,
I have enough already to my fill.

29 Then Jacob asked, and said again,
"Tell me your name, I pray." And He
Said "Why is it you ask my name?"
And he blessed him there just the same.
30 And Jacob called the place Peniel:
"For I've seen, and there's no denial,
Ælohim face to face, and yet
My life is still preserved and set."
31 Just as he crossed over Penuel
The sun rose on him, from the duel
He still limped on his hip. 32 Therefore
To this day Israelites do not
Eat the muscle that shrank, as taught,
Which is on the hip socket where
He touched Jacob's hip's socket there,
The muscle shrank from that affair.

I who have not prevailed with God or men,
Continue limp as though I had again.
I ask no name of angel in the dark
Nor in the morning light. I just remark
The story's like a tale set to explain
A practice that would otherwise seem vain,
Avoiding muscle of the meat that shrank.
But at the same time this story's to thank
That in the divine Word appears a scene
That raises questions now that contravene
The principle that You cannot be seen.
I call this place where I wake up Peniel
To see if I shall find room for denial.
Still I see no divine face at the trial.

GENESIS 33

1 Now Jacob lifted up his eyes
And looked, and there he could apprise
Esau coming, and with him were
Four hundred men. No waverer
He divided the children twixt
Leah, Rachel, the two maids, 2 fixed
The maids and their children in front,
Leah and her children behind,
Last Rachel and Joseph to find
Best haven and not bear the brunt.

I realize, Beloved, that self-defence
And defence of the weak dependent on
Me is incumbent, and in consequence
The better part of my obedience
Is to make that provision for the dawn
Of any kind of danger. Jacob sent
The handmaids and their lesser children first
Into the line of fire. They were the worst
In his heart's love, while Rachel was the best,
Who had the safest place in caravan.
Beloved, obedience in the heart of man
Reveals a skeleton that is well dressed.
Would it be wiser to put the best loved
In greatest danger just to prove I'm gloved?

3 Then he crossed over before them
And bowed himself by stratagem
To the ground seven times, until
He stopped before his brother still.
4 But Esau ran to meet him, and
Embraced him, did not stay to stand,
But fell on his neck and kissed him,
And there they wept the interim.

For more than twenty years no meeting came
Between two brothers known for Jacob's shame.
He bowed himself to the ground as if in
An evening sacrifice for all his sin,
In seven deep prostrations to the ground.
A more repentant brother's never found.
I too run out to meet my enemy
And find him long lost brother still to me.
Beloved, your face is seen not anywhere
Except reflected in the other's heir.
While I kiss all my enemies and fall
On every neck, remind me of the gall.
All men in truth are brothers, but the blind
Of veils lies between mind and covered mind.

5 And he lifted his eyes and saw
The women and children in awe,
And said "Who are these come with you?"
So he said "These children are few
Whom Ælohim has graciously
Given to your servant's husbandry."
6 Then the maidservants came near, they
And their children, and bowed that way.
7 And Leah also came near and
She with her children to the sand
Bowed down. And afterward Joseph
And Rachel came near in their feoff,
And they bowed down. 8 Then Esau said
"What do you mean by all this spread
I met?" And he said "These are to
Find favour in your sight anew."
9 But Esau said "I have enough,
My brother, keep your herds and stuff."
10 And Jacob said "No, please, if I
Have now found favour in your eye,
Then receive my gift from my hand,
Since I've seen your face, understand,
As though I'd seen Ælohim's face,
And you were pleased with me in grace.
11 "Please, take my blessing that is brought
To you, because Ælohim's wrought
Graciously with me, and because
I have enough." And without pause
He urged him, and he filled his claws.

The only one I know refused a gift
That was three times pressed on him, was not miffed
To see the door behind departing guest
Shut with the money safe tucked in the vest
Of the would-be donor, was certain monk
In the Egyptian desert. Self was sunk
In the security of monastery,
Where food was free of all the monetary.
So Esau took what tempted him of goats
And added to the greedy anecdotes.
I thank You no one ever offered me
So much that I could not get myself free
From the temptation to take on the wealth
Belonging to a brother's hearth and health.

12 Then Esau said "Let us take our
Journey, let us go on the hour,
And I shall go before you." 13 But
Jacob told him, "My lord knows that
The children are weak, and the flocks
And nursing herds can bear no shocks.
And if the men should drive them hard
One day, then all the flock will die.
14 "Please let my lord go on, no guard
Is needed by his servant. I
Shall lead on slowly at a pace
Which the livestock before my face
And the children, are able to
Endure, until I come to you
My lord in Seir." 15 And Esau said
"Now let me leave with you some folk
Who are with me." But then he spoke,
"What need is there? Just let me find
Favour before my lord inclined."

With half-hearted confession wrenched by fear
I send my wealth in offering and draw near
To You, Beloved, expecting a reward
For all the small betrayals of my Lord.
How often I betray You by my grasping
Of veils on veils, pretending that the clasping
Of gold and silver on the cover's greater
Than the illumined page. The formulator
Of petty rules, I nullify Your state
Of divine oneness with my fork ingrate.
Teach me, Beloved, how to discriminate
Between the action of the veiled and sense
Of divine oneness in the veilings' rents.
Beloved, make loves of all my love and hate.

16 So Esau returned that day on
His way to Seir. 17 And Jacob's gone
To Succoth, built himself a house,
And made booths for his livestock's chouse.
That's why the place is called Succoth.
18 Then Jacob came safe in the cloth
To the city of Shechem, which
Is in Canaan's land where he'd pitch
His tent before the city when
He came from Padan Aram's den.
19 And he bought the parcel of land,
Where he had pitched his tent to stand,
From the children of Hamor who
Was Shechem's father, at price due
Of one hundred kesitas worth.
20 He made an altar on the earth
Called El Elohe Israel,
God, God of Israel, goes the spell.

Peace that endures is peace that makes a line
Of distance between brothers that is fine
As far as Seir from Succoth where to build
A house for defence and lest milk is spilled
Booths for the livestock lest somebody cheat
And take what's left of a depleted fleet
Since Esau got rich on Jacob's confession.
The distance makes good for the good possession.
That's something Abraham taught Lot to know
And sent him off to Sodom and the snow
Of fire and brimstone on his salt and bread.
Ah, my Belovèd, give me peace that takes
Up all the slack that Succoth-Seir makes.
Then I shall wear peace on my hands and head.

GENESIS 34

1 Now Leah's daughter Dinah whom
She'd borne to Jacob to their doom,
Went out to see the daughters of
The land. 2 And when Shechem, her love,
The son of Hamor the Hivite,
Prince of the country, saw her right,
He took her and lay with her, and
He violated her and flanned.
3 His soul was strongly attracted
To Dinah, Jacob's daughter bred.
And he loved the young woman and
Spoke kindly to her what he planned.

My soul returns to You, Beloved, though I
Am often blinded by the veils to spy
On every other kind of false attachment.
The market-place abounds in bright dispatchment
For this and that position and right friend.
But all of these require the buy and lend
Of every man's integrity. Set free
Of vain hopes and despairs I often see
The rest alive in You, Beloved, to be
None other but Your loved and complement.
My will made Yours is always cheaply spent.
I spread aside the silken curtains and
Come naked before Your light sword and stand,
Awaiting the stroke of the divine hand.

4 So Shechem spoke to Hamor his
Father and said "Please get me this
Young woman as a wife." 5 And so
Jacob found out the gigolo
Had spoiled his daughter Dinah. Now
His sons were with his herds, somehow
Jacob held his peace till they came.
6 Then Hamor Shechem's father came
Out to Jacob to speak with him.
7 And the sons of Jacob were grim
When they came from the field and heard,
And the men were grieved and angry,
Because he had done and incurred
Disgraceful things that should not be
In Israel lying with the daughter
Of Jacob when he loved and caught her.

According to Mosaic law, the plan
Of Shechem was the right thing that a man
Who had lain with a virgin ought to do.
Disgraceful it may be, but then he drew
The right conclusions of what's good and fair.
He promised to make Dinah's child his heir.
The punishment for fornication is
Not death but only repenting of his
Mistake, and sacrifice and proper dowry,
And having so, he should not miss the houri.
But Jacob held his peace. It was his sons
That were so angry they could have laid tons
Of bombs on Shechem's city. I too hold
My peace, Beloved, but need a son who's bold.

8 But Hamor spoke with them, and said
"The soul of my son Shechem's fed
On longing for your daughter. Wed
Her please to him as wife and bed.
9 "And make marriages with us, give
Your daughters to us, and let live
Our daughters as your wives. 10 "So you
Shall live with us, the land in view
Shall be for you to live and trade
In it, acquiring goods well-made."
11 Then Shechem told her father and
Her brothers, "Please now let me stand
In favour in your eyes, and what
You say, I'll give of what I've got.
12 "Ask me ever so much dowry
And gift, I'll give accordingly
To what you say to me, but give
Me the young woman wife to live."

Beloved, my soul is filled with longing for
Your presence. I unlock the seven locks
And then trembling unbolt the inner door.
I enter in the temple carved in rocks,
Not in belovèd Cush, but in my heart.
I penetrate the silken veils and part
The hangings all embroidered in fine gold
For thread, pass by the lamps seven all told
And made of beaten and spun gold, pass by
The table and the bread, the censor's tie
With cherubim wings spread, come to the ark
And see the burning light, walls damp and stark.
Beloved, I call and call. The echoing room
Is empty, is this now the day of doom?

13 But Jacob's sons answered Shechem
And Hamor his father pro tem,
Deceitfully, because he had
Defiled their sister Dinah bad.
14 And they said to them, "We cannot
Do this thing, and give on the spot
Our sister to uncircumcised,
Reproach to us and thing despised.
15 "We shall consent on this condition,
If you'll correct this one omission,
And every male of yours become
As we are, circumcised, in sum,
16 "Then we will give our daughters to
You, and we'll take your daughters to
Us, and we will stay on with you,
And we will be one people, too.
17 "But if you will not heed us and
Be circumcised, we'll leave the land
And take our daughter and be gone."

Tell me, Beloved, is there in all the land
A righteous and a diminishing band
Of twelve or more, whose proclamation of
Your truth and law is tempered with Your love?
Or do all preachers of Your name and fame
Conceal their filthy devisings of shame,
Yet shamelessly fulfil their plans' deceit?
I hear the noble words repeat, repeat,
And see the smiling greetings, yet I've been
Once circumcised and circumcised for sin
Again and once again till naught remains
To cut from my flesh but skin and chilblains.
I offer You alone, Beloved, the pity
That's left after Mecca and Athens city.

18 And their words pleased Hamor anon
And Shechem, Hamor's son. 19 So he
Did not delay to do the thing,
Since he delighted like a king
In Jacob's daughter. He was more
Honourable than all those before
In his father's household. 20 Hamor
And Shechem his son came before
The gate of their city, and spoke
With their city's men and they broke
Their mind thus saying 21 "These men are
At peace with us, come from afar.
Therefore let them live in the land
And trade in it. Indeed the land
Is large enough for them. Let us
Take their daughters to us as wives,
And let's give them our daughters thus.
22 "This one condition just contrives
To make us one people and they
Will thus consent to come our way,
If all our males are circumcised
As they are too, so they've advised.
23 "Will not their livestock, property,
And all their herds be ours for free?
Let us only consent to them,
And they will live with us." 24 Both stem
And stern all who went out the gate
Of his city heeded Hamor
And Shechem his son, what is more,
And every male who could not wait
Was circumcised, there at the gate
Of his city, and walked no more.

Hamor had sense enough to speak of wealth
To all the men, who cared not for their health,
But let greed take them. It is always greed
Or sex or honour that blinds those in need
Who search out the ways to a heavenly home.
These three turn from Jerusalem to Rome
The weary traveller. Purify my soul,
Beloved, from these three in a common goal,
And I shall find Your presence easily.
Set me from greed, lust and ambition free,
And I shall find the palaces of gold,
The heavenly thrones, rivers of wine and bold
Houri in what I knew before. Reward
Me not with future gifts, but the restored.

25 Now it happened on the third day,
When all the city men were sore,
(Try circumcision then for gore)
Two sons of Jacob came that way,
Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers,
Each took his sword, came on the others
Boldly upon the city and
Killed all the males found in the land.
26 And they killed Hamor and his son
Shechem with their sword one for one,
And took Dinah from Shechem's house,
And went out quiet as a mouse.
27 The sons of Jacob came upon
The slain, and plundered every john
In the city, because their sister
Had been defiled before they missed her.
28 They took their sheep, their oxen, and
Their donkeys, what was in the land
And city, what was in the field,
29 And all their wealth, and all concealed,
Their little ones and their wives too
They took all captive, not a few,
And they plundered even all that was
In all the houses. 30 Father-in-laws
Do not act so, then Jacob said
To Simeon and Levi instead,
"You've troubled me to make me stink
Before this land's inhabitants.
The Canaanites will sure not wink,
Nor will the Perizzites come dance,
Since I am few in number, they
Will gather themselves in the way
Against me and kill me. I'll be
Destroyed, my household, bond and free."
31 But they said "Should he treat our sister
Like a harlot? He more than kissed her."

Beloved, this Jacob is most sorry that
A hundred men or more that nobly sat
At city gate for judgement have been slain.
Such sympathy for lost life would be sane,
Except he worries not a hair for those
Who've lost husband and father and rich clothes,
Their livelihoods and cattle, all their wealth,
Since two sons acted violence and stealth,
And all the rest came to the plunder fast.
He says not one word of the rue and blast.
He only worries that some angry man
Might take revenge on son and partisan.
Beloved, may I repent the evil act,
Because it's evil, not because I'm sacked.

GENESIS 35

1 Said Ælohim to Jacob, "Now
Get up, go up to Bethel and
Live there, and make an altar how
To worship there by My command,
El, El God, who appeared to you
When you fled without friend or crew
From the wrath and the angry face
Of brother Esau to this place."

When it is to the purpose of my profit
Or my safety, I find no way to scoff at
The claim that You, Beloved, give me advice
To do whatever I myself think nice.
When Jacob thought the people's vengeance came
Too close, he had a vision to his shame
That drove him out and helped him save his face.
"Oh no, it's not for fear I leave this place
Nor shame my sons are murderers by band.
I got a vision from the dear Lord God,
And that's the only reason I take rod
In hand and head toward the Río Grande."
Beloved, when I obey let there be no
Advantage in my going when I go.

2 And Jacob said to his household
And to all with him, "Now, be bold,
Put away the foreign gods that
Are with you, enter dyeing vat
And purify yourselves, and change
Your garments, that is nothing strange.
3 "Then let us get up and go up
To Bethel, and I shall lift cup
Of sacrifice and I shall make
An altar there to El God El,
Who answered me, and for my sake,
In the day of my heavenly spell,
And my distress and He has been
With me on the way that I'm in."

It was not just Rachel his wife that had
Those foreign gods. Jacob was not that bad.
It was the passel of Shechemite herd
Of womenfolk and children, in a word,
The widowed and the orphaned by the hand
Of Jacob's sons, who followed the command
Of foreign gods, fat, breasted terra cotta
Baked figurines to help the crops or ought to.
If Jacob's sons are bloody men, the man
Himself turns all to missions when he can.
He set the pattern for the world to come,
Since blood and theft are missionaries' sum.
Beloved, speak to each human heart direct,
Make missions a redundance to reject.

4 So they gave Jacob all the gods
The foreign gods of sods and clods
In their hands, and the earrings which
Were in their ears, and Jacob hid
Them under a tree without hitch,
The terebinth by Shechem's mid.
5 And they journeyed, and they went on,
Ælohim's terror was upon
The cities that were all around,
Not to run Jacob's in the ground.

Why earrings too? The Torah makes such rings
As put in ear with awl shot through the things
To show eternal servantship and true.
That's why the celibates do what they do.
It seems these earrings with their weight in gold
Convinced their wearers that the gods of old,
Whose bodies and flesh made of gold repair
To modern wearers, come in state and fair
To perch below the ears in those things made
Of divine bodies pounded, plied and stayed.
Who seek the gold seek idols under trees
That are of no worth other than to please.
Give me, Beloved, such pleasure in the fading
Of flowers more gold than those in ears parading.

6 So Jacob came to Luz (that is,
Bethel), in Canaan's land, and his
People with him and all they'd found.
7 He built an altar there and called
The place El Bethel, there installed,
Because there Ælohim appeared
To him when he fled and he feared
Before his brother, and appalled.
8 Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse,
Died, and was buried for the worse
Below Bethel beneath a tree,
The terebinth. So came to be
Its name Allon Bachuth, which see,
Means oak of weeping, such a curse.

Now Deborah, Beloved, is hardly known,
Except by her great namesake who was shown
To be among the greatest women prophets.
Poor Deborah was not one with great profits,
A wet-nurse, she had her own family
That trailed to Luz behind her hopefully,
A son perhaps or daughter and their own
Offspring, the nameless servants there to groan
And weep at loss of mother and grandmother.
Of all the women in Jacob's life she
Was probably better than any other.
She no doubt took loved Joseph from the womb,
And cared for him and loved him in the bloom
Of her own grandsons. Blessed may Deborah be!

9 Then Ælohim appeared again
To our dear Jacob, when he came
From Padan Aram with his men,
And blessed him for what he became.
10 And Ælohim said to him, "Your
Name is Jacob, your name no more
Shall be called Jacob for your fame,
But Israel shall be your name." So
He called his name Israel. 11 Also
Ælohim said to him, "I am
El El God Almighty, no sham.
Be fruitful, multiply, a nation
And company of nations shall
Proceed from you, and your location,
And kings from you perpetual.
12 "The land which I gave Abraham
And Isaac I give you, I am
Giving to your descendants too
This very land come after you."
13 Then Ælohim went up from him
In the place where He talked with him.
14 So Jacob set up there a pillar
In the place where He talked with him,
A pillar of stone as instiller
Of memory, and he poured drink
Offering on it, and oil to sink.
15 And Jacob called the name of it
Bethel, where Ælohim spoke fit.

Just here is where you made, Beloved, mistake.
You set aside this land for Abram's sake.
And now You seem to give it all to one,
To Jacob, who is not the only son.
No doubt it's Your intention to affirm
His right after his absence from the firm.
But just see what an impasse came between
Ishmael's children and Jacob's. Intervene!
To Abraham You give the broadest stretch
From Nile to Euphrates, both corn and vetch.
To Jacob You give lesser room below,
A pillar and a stone, but more to show,
A ladder reaching up to heaven above,
An offering and its oil, a gift of love.

16 Then they journeyed from Bethel down
To not far from Ephrath, the town,
And Rachel laboured in childbirth,
And had hard labour on the earth.
17 Now it happened, when she was in
Hard labour and harsh discipline,
The midwife said to her, "Don't fear,
Your second son too shall appear."
18 And so it was, with soul departing
(For she died from the birth-sting smarting),
That she called his name Ben-Oni,
But father called him Benjamin.
19 So Rachel died and was buried
On the way to Ephrath (but read
Bethlehem). 20 And Jacob set up
A pillar on her grave no tup
Might overturn, and to this day
Rachel's grave's pillar's in the way.

Son of my sorrow ought to be the name
Since that was the last wish, his mother's claim.
But Jacob wanted to be positive
And this was his chance to have his own way
As well as superciliously to give
A name for one he would be proud to say
On any Canaanitish market day.
Son of my sorrow would remember blame
As well as call to mind the shoddy game
That Jacob always played, and to his shame,
With kith and kin. Despite his machinations,
Beloved, You blessed him in all his relations
And in his tackle and his gear. Bless me,
Beloved, as him and for eternity.

21 Then Israel journeyed, pitched his tent
Beyond Eder's tower. 22 As it went,
When Israel lived in that land, that
Reuben lay with Bilhah, the rat,
She was his father's concubine,
And Israel heard the libertine.

The Hebrew text, at least applied by note
And music mark the Massoretics wrote,
Cannot be read, at least not cantillated,
To understand. The text is separated
Into three halves, which does not lend support
To mathematically accurate report.
Three halves are one too many, to be sure,
And that may be the meaning in the pure.
Reuben was one too many in the bed,
Which was true and a hard thing to be said.
And so the cantillating tongue is tripped
On triple halves confounding one verse sipped.
Beloved, let there be no halves, no, nor thirds,
But only One, You only and Your words.

Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.
23 Their names were, we can dig and delve:
The sons of Leah were Reuben,
Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon,
Levi, Judah, Issachar, and
Zebulon. 24 The sons of Rachel
Were Joseph and last Benjamin.
25 The sons of Bilhah, on command
To Rachel, were Dan and as well
Naphtali. 26 And then Zilpah's sons,
Leah's maidservant, were the ones
Named Gad and Asher. These were all
The sons of Jacob great and small
Born to him in Padan Aram,
All descendants of Abraham.

The names of the twelve sons are so arranged
To represent the twelve steps never changed
In entering the palace and the city,
The temple of the holy and the witty.
The names of Ishmael's twelve had set the pace,
And here the twelve of Jacob join the race.
Each slot in human searching for divine
Is captured in one word each for the sign.
Behold a son begins the traveller's toil
Until he reach the blessedness and soil
Of Asher in the gate of earth and see
That all the gates return eternally
Upon the bright slopes of reality.
Beloved, anoint all twelve names with Your oil.

27 Then Jacob came to his father
Isaac at Mamre, or rather
Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron),
Where Abraham had lived with son
Isaac. 28 Now Isaac's lifespan was
One hundred eighty years, 29 because
Isaac breathed his last and he died,
Was gathered to his people's side,
Well aged. His sons like seraphim,
Esau and Jacob, buried him.


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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