LEVITICUS CHAPTER 23 ~ 27

LEVITICUS 23

1 And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying
2 "Tell the folk of Israel a thing,
And say to them, 'The feasts of YHWH,
Which you shall proclaim holy due
In convocations, are these feasts
Of mine. 3 'Six days do work like beasts,
But seventh day's a Sabbath of
Solemn rest, holy gathered love.
You shall do no work on it's score,
It is YHWH's Sabbath in your door.

The Sabbath, weekly Sabbath, You set down
Within the Decalogue and for a crown
On Sinai, for a crown, at least its gate
Let to Your sovereignty and ruling state.
Rule me from the throne where You sit in fire,
The throne of Sabbath over all desire.
And in that rule let my pounding soul rest
Who's found in You its nourishment and test.
For six days I shall work like beast of labour
And satisfy both wife and child and neighbour,
But on the seventh day I lay down sabre.
And so my soul transcends both space and time
While toiling at the mill and for a dime,
The Sabbath is the rung on which I climb.

Six days shall work be done, and yet
I have no work at all to do.
None need my labours nor my sweat,
My talents held as small and few.
Exempt from the dear Lord's command,
I need not lend my hand to plough,
But like blind Milton merely stand,
Let others have the what and how.
Dear God, look on the unemployed
As well as on the convocation.
Give us too Sabbath, who enjoyed
Throughout the week unpaid vacation.
Redeem the mosque and synagogue,
And churches filled with active men,
The factories, towns and trucks that clog
The roads both there and back again.
Bless them their worship and their work,
Bless them their well-earned right to rest,
But bless who have no task to shirk
And yet love Sabbath and its quest.
With neither work nor worship I
Must meet Your coming here below.
Alone, my solitary eye
Awaits at home the Sabbath glow.

4 'And these are the feasts of YHWH set,
Holy convocations which yet
You shall proclaim appointed times.
5 'On the fourteenth day of the first
Month between evenings as rehearsed
Is YHWH's Passover. 6 'And upon
The fifteenth day at the next dawn
Of the same month arrives the feast
To YHWH of bread baked without yeast,
Seven days you must eat your bread
Without yeast in it, not a shred.
7 'On the first day you'll have a holy
Convocation, you'll do no lowly
Work on it. 8 'But you'll offer an
Offering made by fire by YHWH's plan
For seven days, the seventh day's
A gathering of holy praise,
You'll do no tasks.'" 9 And YHWH spoke to
Moses, saying 10 "Speak now unto
The children of Israel, and say
To them, 'When you come in the way
Of the land which I give to you,
And reap its harvest, so then you
Shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits
Of your harvest to the priest's boots.
11 'He shall wave the sheaf before YHWH,
To be accepted what you do,
The day after the Sabbath's passed
The priest shall wave it there at last.
12 'And you shall offer on that day,
When you wave the sheaf the right way,
A male lamb of the first year, and
Without a blemish, by command
As a burnt offering to YHWH.
13 'And its grain offering shall be two
Tenths of an ephah of fine flour
And mixed with oil, an offering hour
Made by fire to YHWH, for sweet scent,
And its drink offering shall be meant
Of grape juice, one-fourth of a hin.
14 'You shall eat neither bread nor kin
Of parched grain nor fresh grain until
The same day that you shall fulfil
An offering to your God, it shall
Be a statute and eternal
Throughout your generations in
All the places which you dwell in.

The Passover and days without yeast bread
Are clearly dated at the times You said.
The day for the wave sheaf I must allow
Has no date given in the year for now.
It is attached to Sabbath and the yield
Of every green and planted barley field,
Or what grain is firstfruits. This is the point
Where all faiths come apart and out of joint.
We all know that we eat the sprouting seed,
But few know when it comes to time of need
To fast from parched grain and to fast from fresh
Until the wave-sheaf meets its human flesh.
Beloved, I flee to You in sacrifice
For all the days and all virtue and vice.

15 'And you shall count for yourselves from
The day after the Sabbath, from
The day that you brought the sheaf of
The wave offering as told above,
Seven Sabbaths shall be completed.
16 'Count fifty days to the day meted
After the seventh Sabbath, then
You shall offer a new corn offering
To YHWH. 17 'You'll bring from your house proffering
Two wave measures two-tenths of ephah.
They shall be of fine flour, and briefer,
They shall be baked with yeast. They are
The firstfruits to YHWH in a jar.
18 'And you shall offer with the bread
Seven lambs of the first year fed,
Without blemish, and one young bull,
And two rams, they shall be the full
Burnt offering to YHWH, with their corn
Offering and their drink offerings borne,
An offering made by fire for sweet
Aroma to YHWH for a treat.
19 'Then you shall sacrifice one kid
Of the goats as sin offering's bid,
And two male lambs of the first year
As a peace offering to appear.

The day of Khidr, the occulted man,
Is marked by counting in the spring by plan,
And bringing offerings to beat the band.
May Enoch and Elijah come to stand
Beside the painted tomb of Saat Kuresh
To view the people sacrificing fresh
Meat of the little goats in boiling pots.
Before You, my Beloved, all stand in lots.
They celebrate their weddings, drink their brew
And lie down in their dreaming love for You,
Met from the early morning and the dew,
Plunged in the slighting river for a pew.
I taste the day anew and hear the strings
Of baghlama plucked under angel wings.

20 'The priest shall wave them with the bread
Of the firstfruits as wave sheaf led
Before YHWH, with the two lambs, they
Shall be holy to YHWH that day
For the priest. 21 'And you shall proclaim
On the same day that it's the same,
Your holy convocation, you
Shall do no work, a statute true
Forever in all your dwellings
Throughout your generations' rings.
22 'When you shall reap your land's harvest,
You shall not wholly reap the best
Corners of your field when you reap,
Nor shall you gather in to keep
The gleaning from your harvest, you
Shall leave them for the poor and few,
The stranger: I your God am YHWH.'"

The awkward questioner stands to make clear
When the fifty days ought to start the year,
And further whether fifty adds thereto
To make a hundred days and not a few.
And so the wrangling for the almanac
Distracts us from giving the poor a snack,
Which was the culmination of this law
Before which we stand with and without awe.
Beloved, give me the harvest in its time
And keep me from the common mill and crime
Of eating all my store and coming late
To hand a crust to humble and to great.
And I shall count the weeks of earthly climb
Into the splendour of divine estate.

23 Then YHWH spoke to Moses, saying
24 "Speak to Israel's folk, and saying
'In the seventh month, on the first
Day of the month, you'll have immersed
A Sabbath, a memorial of
Blowing of trumpets, gathering of
Sacredness. 25 'You shall do no work,
And you shall offer and not shirk
An offering made by fire to YHWH.'"
26 And YHWH spoke to Moses his due,
Saying 27 "Also the tenth day of
This seventh month shall be day of
Atonement, it shall be a holy
Convocation for you, you'll lowly
Afflict your souls, and offer an
Offering made in fire by YHWH's plan.
28 "And you shall do no work that day,
For it is the atonement day,
To make atonement for you there
Before YHWH your Ælohim's care.
29 "For any person who is not
Afflicted on that same day taught
Shall be cut off from his people.
30 "And any person to annul
It by work on that day, that one
I will destroy from his folk done.
31 "You shall do no manner of work,
Eternal statute through your lurk
Of generations where you live.
32 "It's Sabbath for you and to give
A rest, and you'll afflict your souls,
On the ninth of the month as tolls
The evening, from evening till eve,
You'll celebrate Sabbath's reprieve."

Although the year move back ten days or so,
And some count years by fall or spring so slow,
And heathens watch the winter take a step
And mark that for the first of every prep,
I flee to You to know the roundelay
Of seasons from year down to Sabbath's way.
The evening marks the start of the new day.
There's no word to confound and mix the true,
Although some start their days at night when few
Are still awake to give the welcome to
The blessing from Your hand to eat and do.
And some start days at morning dawn and light,
But I, Beloved, begin my days with night
Of prayer and rest after the waning fight.

33 Then YHWH spoke to Moses, and said
34 "Speak to Israel's folk, go ahead,
'The fifteenth day of this seventh
Month shall be also like the tenth
A feast of booths for seven days
To YHWH. 35 'On the first day a holy
Convocation, you'll do no lowly
Work. 36 'Upon seven days you'll offer
An offering made by fire and proffer
To YHWH, on the eighth day you'll make
A holy convocation wake,
And you shall offer offering made
By fire to YHWH, a sacred stayed
Assembly, and you'll do no work.
37 'These are the feasts of YHWH to clerk
Which you shall proclaim to be holy
Convocations, to offer wholly
An offering made by fire to YHWH,
A burnt offering and corn to chew,
A sacrifice and drink offerings,
Everything in its day that brings
38 'Besides the sabbaths of YHWH, and
Besides your gifts, and all your vows,
Besides all your free will allows
Of offerings which you give to YHWH.
39 'Also on the fifteenth day and
Of the seventh month, by command,
When you have gathered in the fruit
Of the land, you shall keep to boot
The feast of YHWH for seven days,
On the first day a sabbath stays,
And on the eighth day sabbath rest.
40 'And you'll take for yourselves the best
On the first day the fruit of good (Citrus medica)
Trees, and the branches of palms stood,
The boughs of leafy trees, and willows
Of the brook, and like armadillos
You shall rejoice before YHWH your
Ælohim for seven days more.
41 'You shall keep it a feast to YHWH
For seven days in the year too.
It shall be a statute forever
In your generations and clever.
In seventh month you'll celebrate
It 42 'and you'll live in booths in state
For seven days, all native-born
Israelites shall live in booths’ thorn,
43 'That your generations may know
That I made Israel's folk below
To live in booths when I brought them
Out of the land of Egypt's hem:
I am YHWH and your Ælohim.'"
44 So Moses declared, it would seem,
To Israel's folk what they should do
On all the yearly feasts of YHWH.

The weekly Sabbath starts this law and makes
The week the time unit that the year takes
To describe in its round of season and
Month feastly days and times of Your command
To recognize that You control the land
And bring from it the bread that all may eat.
Beloved, I take your monthly, yearly treat
With thanks that You have shown at last your feet.
I sit with You in brush booth and partake
Of sacrificial kid and chicken steak,
And fatten up my bones on date and pear
And all the tasty herbs that fill their ware.
With You, Beloved, I take my pleasant meal
And drink the rich wines in Your hand to heal.

LEVITICUS 24

1 Then YHWH spoke to Moses, and said
2 "Command Israel's people to tread
Bringing to you pure oil of pressed
Olives for the light, to make dressed
The lamps to burn continually.
3 "Outside veil of testimony,
In the tabernacle of meeting,
Aaron shall be in charge of seating
It from evening until morning
Before YHWH and continuing,
A statute for all generations.
4 "He'll be in charge of regulations
Of lamps on the pure gold lampstand
Before YHWH by eternal hand.
5 "And you shall take fine flour and bake
Twelve cakes with it, two-tenths each cake.
6 "You shall set them out in two rows,
Six in a row, on the pure gold
Table before YHWH where it shows.
7 "And you shall put pure and unfold
Frankincense on each row, that it
May be on the bread to remit
Memorial, an offering made
By fire to YHWH for where it stayed.
8 "Every Sabbath he'll set it out
In order before YHWH about
Continually from Israel's folk
By everlasting pact invoke.
9 "And it shall be for Aaron and
His sons, to eat it by command
In holy place, for it's most holy
To him from the offerings not lowly
Of YHWH and always made by fire,
By a perpetual statute spire."

It may be every shepherd dreams of eating
From tables, not from lunch spread on the ground.
So David was not missed from King Saul's seating
Whenever first of the month would come round.
Now tables are the thing, and made of gold
If may be to please populace and king,
And decked with frankincense and bread twelvefold
To smell and taste as good as anything.
While day to day it may seem life grows stale
And turns from perfume toward the crumbling crust,
Behind its ordinary, shimmering veil,
Beneath its weekly gathering of dust,
Each Sabbath day the board again is spread.
Each Sabbath day's the smell of fresh-baked bread.

Throughout the week the priest awaits
The dawn of Sabbath day
When angels standing at the gates
Shall turn their guard away.
And as the hosts toward heaven climb
They meet descending there
The changing guard who take their time
Upon the golden stair.
And as the angels linger on
Exchanging news of earth
For word of heaven's eternal dawn,
Exchanging truth for mirth,
The old shewbread unguarded lies,
The new comes into view.
And so the priest eats what his eyes
Throughout the week pursue.
For even manna cannot vie,
Nor with which kings are fed,
For taste and savour satisfy,
Like week-old Sabbath bread.
Let me, O Lord, remember then
The Sabbath portion now,
And taste its blessing once again,
And so renew my vow.
Let faith and truth throughout the week
On my heart's altar stay,
That I may ever daily seek
The taste of Sabbath day.

10 An Israelitish woman's son
Whose father was an Egyptian,
Went out among the children of
Israel, and this Israelite son
And a man of Israel above
In camp with one another strove.
11 And the Israelite woman's son
Blasphemed the Name and cursed when done,
And they brought him to Moses' seat.
His mother's name was Shelomith
The daughter of Dibri, and tribe
Of Dan. 12 They put him in proscribe,
That the mind of YHWH might be shown
To them. 13 YHWH told Moses alone,
Saying 14 "Take him outside the camp
For cursing, then let every scamp
Who heard lay their hands on his head,
And let all the assembly dread
Stone him. 15 "Then you shall speak to folk
Of Israel, saying 'Who invoke
In curses his Ælohim shall
Bear his sin. 16 'And who prodigal
Blasphemes the name of YHWH shall surely
Be put to death, all the folk early
Shall certainly stone him, the stranger
As well as him born as a ranger
In the land, who blasphemes the Name
He shall be put to death for shame.
17 'Whoever kills any man shall
Surely be put in death's canal.
18 'Whoever kills an animal
Shall make it good, a beast for beast.
19 'If a man causes damage done
Upon his neighbour, as he's done,
So shall it be done unto him,
20 'Fracture for fracture, eye for dim
Eye, tooth for tooth, as he has caused
Damage to man, so shall it paused
Be done to him. 21 'Whoever kills
A beast shall restore it, who kills
A man shall be put to death though.
22 'You shall have the same law to go
For stranger and for one from your
Own country, for I am YHWH your
Ælohim'" 23 Then Moses spoke to
The children of Israel to do,
And they took him outside the camp
For cursing, and they stoned the scamp.
So the children of Israel did
As YHWH commanded Moses' bid.

This comment on the Decalogue's command
To reverence Your name gets out of hand.
That is the way of justice everywhere:
A bully baits the foreigner to share
A cup and then flashes the sign of hate
Or merely patronizing his estate,
And that son of Egyptian, or of late
Gypsy or what you will with dark skin or
With light, rises to hit back at the score.
It's hitting back that is defined by law
As outside right behaviour with a claw.
Was not Your name profaned when full-blood man
Cast his despising on the half-cast clan?
You should have said to Moses what You saw.

WEEK 32 LEVITICUS 25

1 And YHWH spoke to Moses upon
Mount Sinai, saying 2 "To the drawn
Children of Israel, speak and say
To them, 'When you come in the way
To the land which I give to you,
The land shall keep Sabbath to YHWH.
3 'For six years you shall sow your field,
And six years you shall prune the yield
Of your vineyard, and gather fruit,
4 'But in the seventh year compute
There shall be a Sabbath of rest
For the land, a Sabbath invest
To YHWH. You shall neither sow field
Nor prune your vineyard of its yield.
5 'What grows of its own accord of
Your harvest you shall not reap dove,
Nor gather the grapes of your vine,
Untended vine, for it's a shrine,
A year of rest for the land's mine.
6 'And the land's Sabbath produce shall
Be food for you not prodigal:
For you, your male and female slave,
Your hired man, and the stranger grave
Who dwells with you, 7 'for your livestock
And the beasts in your land and flock
All its produce shall be for crock.

My field produces neither grape nor corn
Despite six years successively at rest.
I've neither ploughed nor planted, both hawthorn
And plum are unpruned. I have done my best.
Now I shall keep commandment to the letter
And harvest nothing that the seventh year
May of its own accord produce that's better
Than what I haven't touched of seed and ear.
Too long, too eagerly I've kept the Sabbath
Both of life's weeks and of its harvest seasons.
Too rich, each day and year its blessings grabbeth
And turns them all to Sabbaths without reasons.
My fallow fields, while I write rhymed epistles,
Produce each year a crop of purple thistles.

8 'Seven Sabbaths of years you'll count,
Seven times seven years' amount,
And the time of seven Sabbaths' years
Shall be to you forty-nine years.
9 'Then you shall cause the trumpet of
The Jubilee to sound above
On the seventh month's second week
On the tenth day, day when they seek
Atonement, you shall make the trumpet
To sound through all your land like strumpet.
10 'And you'll consecrate the next year,
The fiftieth year, and proclaim
Liberty throughout all the frame
Of the land to all its dwellers,
It shall be Jubilee for fers,
And each of you'll return to his
Possession, and each of you is
To return to his own family.
11 'So that fiftieth year shall be
A Jubilee to you, in it
You'll neither sow nor reap a bit
Of what grows of its own accord,
Nor gather the grapes of your horde
Untended vine. 12 'It's Jubilee,
And to you it shall be holy,
You shall eat its yield from the field.
13 'In this year of Jubilee's shield,
Each of you shall return to his
Possession. 14 'And if you sell whiz
Of anything to your neighbour
Or buy from your neighbour's labour,
You'll not oppress the other's peer.
15 'According to number of year
After the Jubilee you'll buy
The land from your neighbour, and by
The number of years of crops he
Shall sell to you. 16 'Accordingly
By number of years you'll increase
Its price, and by the years' decrease
You shall diminish from its price,
For he sells to you by the number
Of crops you'll get and by the lumber.

Your pasture is well-watered and it wears
A necklace by the gate of blackberry vines.
The house looks like it's built for millionaires.
Your mountain has good stocks of oaks and pines.
In summer I'd be wary of the cows
While I was picking berries by the way.
In fall I'd keep an eye out where deer browse
While gathering walnuts. Now, what do you say?
At any other time I couldn't buy
A place like this no more than I could own
The silver sea, the air, the sun or sky.
But now is the last day of lend and loan.
Tomorrow starts the year of Jubilee.
For two cents will you sell this field to me?

17 'Therefore you shall not oppress one
Another, but you'll fear the one
Who is your God, for I am YHWH
Your Ælohim. 18 'And as for you,
You shall observe My statutes and
Keep My judgements, and by them stand
And you'll live safely in the land.
19 'And then the land will yield its fruit,
And you'll eat filled and safe to boot.

This time I don't complain of violence
Done in the street for lust or greed despite
The law. Now I deplore the fraudulence
Of institutions which should serve the right.
The promise is that those who keep Your word
And follow what You say that people should,
Instead of plodding in the bleating herd,
Will live in safety and enjoy the good.
But now we find a country where the law
Encourages its citizens to strike
The children of the few who stand in awe
Of Your commandments and the law alike.
Curse, Lord, this land and those who dwell therein
And let them fry in hell for all their sin.

20 'And if you say "What shall we eat
In seventh year, since we'll retreat
From sowing and gathering the yield?"
21 'Then I'll command blessing on field
For you in the sixth year, and it
Will bring forth produce requisite
For three years. 22 'And you shall sow in
The eighth year, and eat old yield in
It till the ninth year, and until
Its harvest comes, you'll eat your fill
Of the old harvest without sin.

Command indeed, Beloved, a blessing on
My field to grow corn, grapes and thistledawn.
Command the sun to share the colours of
The leaf in bud and then the leaf in love.
Command the noon on harvest from the share
Of snapdragons and foxgloves on the row
That covers up the drain line with its grow,
And on the lilacs spreading by the well,
And on the roses trailing fruit and spell
About the feet of useless apple trees.
Command three years in one and one to please
Both cherry and the pippin on the breeze.
Command indeed, Beloved, my quiet heart
To find You always harvesting my part.

23 'The land shall not be sold for good,
For the land's Mine, for you have stood
As strangers on it, guests with Me.
24 'And in all the land of your fee
You'll grant redemption of the land.
25 'If one of your brothers in hand
Becomes poor, and has sold his loom,
And his redeeming kin in room
Comes to redeem it, then he may
Redeem what his brother gave way.
26 'Or if the man has no one to
Redeem, but he himself in due
Time becomes able to redeem,
27 'Then let him count the years in stream
Since its sale, and restore the rest
To the man to whom he thought best
To sell it, that he may return
To his possession. 28 'But in turn
If he's not able to have it
Restored to himself, the outfit
That was sold shall remain in hand
Of him who bought it by command
Until the year of Jubilee,
And in the Jubilee let be
Released, and he shall return to
His own possession. 29 'If in lieu
A man sells a house in a walled
City, then he may have recalled
It within a whole year after
It is sold, within a full year
He may redeem it. 30 'But if it
Is not redeemed within permit
Of the space of a full year, then
The house in the walled city's ken
Shall permanently be his own
Who bought it, generations flown,
It shall not be released when comes
The Jubilee. 31 'Aside from slums
The houses of villages which
Have no wall around them or ditch
Shall be counted as country fields,
They may be redeemed with their yields,
And be released in Jubilee.
32 'But the cities of the Levites,
And houses in their cities' rights,
The Levites may redeem in time.
33 'And if a man purchase a prime
House from the Levites, then the flat
That was sold in the city at
His possession shall be released
In Jubilee, for the houses
In Levite cities, they are his
Possession among Israel.
34 'But the field of the common well
Of their cities may not be sold,
For it is their perpetual hold.
35 'If one of your brothers becomes
Poor, and falls into straightened sums
Among you, then you shall help him,
Like a stranger or guest with vim,
That he may live with you. 36 'Take no
Usury or interest from him,
But fear your God, that your brother
May live with you and not suffer.
37 'You shall not lend him your money
For usury, nor grocery
Lend at a profit. 38 'I am YHWH
Your Ælohim, and who brought you
Out of the land of Egypt, to
Give to you Canaan's land to plod
And I alone to be your God.

You make the human bird alive to be
As territorial as well as free.
This new and redolent society
Gives up the clanly land for freedom to
Work everywhere the world shall lead him through.
To bind another in such service is
It seems the best thing one can find for his,
And to be bound to such is promise of
Career in specialty with hand in glove.
To stay and dibble on ancestral land
Is the last thing we want who would be grand.
Two generations since the will was there,
But even that was dispossessing share.
I flee to digging on the ditch's strand.

39 'And if one of your brothers by
You becomes poor, and not to die
Sells himself to you, you shall not
Compel him to serve in slave's lot.
40 'As a hired servant and a guest
He shall be with you, and serve best
Until the year of Jubilee.
41 'And then he shall depart and free
From you, he and his children too,
And go back to his own family.
He'll return to his fathers' lot.
42 'For they are My servants I've brought
Out of the land of Egypt, they
Shall not be sold as slaves a day.
43 'You'll not rule over him with rigour,
But you shall fear your God with vigour.
44 'And as for your male and female
Slaves whom you may have from the sale
Of nations that are around you,
From them you may buy slaves for you
Male and female. 45 'Moreover you
May buy the children of the strangers
Who live among you out of dangers,
And their families who are with you,
Which they beget in your land too,
And they shall be your property.
46 'And you may take them as in fee
For your children after you, to
Inherit them as a possession,
They'll be your permanent accession.
But regarding your brothers, folk
Of Israel, you shall put no yoke
To rule with vigour over them.
47 'Now if a sojourner pro tem
Or stranger close to you gets rich,
And your brother near him in switch
Gets poor, and sells himself to him,
A stranger or guest interim
And close to you, or to a member
Of stranger's family remember,
48 'After he's sold he may again
Be redeemed by one of the men
Of his brothers to redeem him,
49 'Or his uncle or uncle's limb
May redeem him, or anyone
Who's near of kin to him begun
In his family may redeem
Him, or if he has able scheme
He may redeem himself. 50 'Thus he
Shall reckon with him who paid fee,
The price of his release shall be
According to number of years,
From the year he was sold arrears
To him till year of Jubilee,
It shall be according to time
Of a hired servant for his climb.
51 'If there are still many years left,
According to them he enfeoffed
Shall repay his redemption price
From the money by the advice
With which he was bought. 52 'And if there
Remain but a few years in share
Until the year of Jubilee,
Then he shall reckon with his fee,
And according to his years he
Shall repay him redemption price.
53 'He shall be with him as a yearly
And hired servant, and not nearly
With rigour shall he rule by right
Over him only in your sight.
54 'And if in these years he is not
Redeemed, then he'll return to lot
In the year of the Jubilee,
He and his children with him free.
55 'For the children of Israel are
Servants to Me, they are My star
Servants whom I brought out of sod
Of Egypt: I am YHWH your God.

Instead of redemption to freedom at
The end of fifty years from where we sat,
We now get charities at sixty-five,
And still remain a servant of the hive.
Ah, my Beloved, come back with Jubilee,
I thirst for Jubilees to be set free
From all the taxes that go into war
To find more oil before we run ashore.
I have no brother who can give the price
Of my redemption from the strangle vice
Of good and evil on a foreign strand.
And neither do I have ancestral land
When I can be free under my fig tree.
Ah yes, I too long for the Jubilee.

LEVITICUS 26

1 'You shall not make idols for your
Selves, neither a carved image nor
A sacred pillar shall you rear
Up for yourselves, nor shall you fear
An engraved stone set by your land,
To bow down to it in the land,
For I am YHWH your Ælohim.
2 You shall keep My Sabbaths and deem
My sanctuary holy for
I'm YHWH your God for evermore.

The graven image and the church of stone
Make boundaries for God in time and space.
For that they are forbidden, not alone
For form and beauty, artifice and grace.
The painted basalt face for all its charm
Is but a mask to hide me from Your gaze.
Cathedral walls may do me little harm
But cut me off from heaven's seventh days.
There is no roof nor creed however humble
But shuts out light of sky and wonderment
And leaves my feet in confidence to stumble
Which might in faith have made the grand ascent.
Each Sabbath prayer in poverty of mime
Unites in vast democracies of time.

WEEK 33

3 'If you walk in My statutes and
Keep My commandments, and put hand
To perform them, 4 then I will give
You rain in its season to live,
The land shall yield its produce, trees
Of the field shall yield fruit to please.

They usually say please don't walk on the grass,
And that's because some people like to think
In negatives, and they are those alas
Who are the scientists, or like to drink,
Or victims of some other mental illness.
By contrast You say if you please then walk,
Which is, for heart disease, a step on stillness,
And doing is much better than the talk.
Your statute is a ten-step ring-around-
The-rosie, good enough to take the place
Of May Day and St. John's Day out of bound
Where men stomp and the women drop their lace.
But primitives were right in their mischance
That rain depends on how well people dance.

5 Your threshing shall last till the time
Of vintage, and the vintage clime
Shall last till the time of sowing,
You'll eat your bread and everything
To the full, and live in your land
In safety and on every hand.

If there's so much to harvest that the canning
Takes all my days until it's time to plant,
My lazy streak rebels against Your planning
And feels Your blessings are extravagant.
And if the vintage lasts until we sow,
It seems that most of it will turn to wine,
And in that case the blessing's overflow
Is worthy more of drunken Philistine.
I'm temperate and lazy, it is true,
But bread and safety meet with my approval,
Although with bread alone one may not do,
And safety sometimes means someone's removal.
The pity is that safety and fresh bread
Are the religion of the overfed.

6 I'll give peace in the land, and you
Shall lie down, and none will make you
Afraid, I will rid the land of
Evil beasts, and the sword above
Will not go through your land. 7 You will
Chase enemies, all yours of ill
And they shall fall down by the sword
Before you. 8 Five of you as lord
Shall chase a hundred, and of you
A hundred shall put all in queue
Ten thousand to flight, as they do
Your enemies without a clue
Shall fall by the sword before you.

Some people think that peace is when the world
Goes on a May Day celebration, drinks,
Enjoys parades of flashing thighs and twirled
Batons, toots horns, and lays a curse and jinx
On those who rarely scatter flowers and those
Who make war and not love. No need to think
About preserving freedom since one pose
Now fits the soul of everyone like pink,
And freedom, outside marketing, is quaint
And cunning aberration with no rights.
There used to be pretence of no complaint
Of dying for one's freedom in the fights,
And peace meant thrilling to a rebel yell
And five men chasing hundreds into hell.

9 'For I will look on you with favour
And make you fruitful, though not slaver,
And multiply you and confirm
My promise with you to discern.
10 You shall eat the old harvest, and
Clear out the old from the new stand.
11 I'll set My tabernacle by
You, and My soul shall not decry
You. 12 I will walk among you and
Be your Ælohim in the land,
And you shall be My folk in hand.

Raccoon or porcupine tracks by the tent
Or tabernacle, word the Good Book uses,
Suffice to set my inborn mystic bent
A-shudder and a-tingle with the Muses.
For that experience people travel miles
And even carry packs on portages.
My signs of wildness do not come in piles
And magic sights appear in shortages.
The unseen walking round the place arouses
Excitement, awe and sometimes even fear.
It banishes the mundane from our houses,
Turns water into wine when the coast's clear.
It's unexpected, at least heretofore,
To find at morning Your tracks by the door.

13 I am YHWH your God, who brought you
Out of Egypt's land, and that you
Should not be their slaves, I have broken
The bands of your yoke, as I've spoken,
Made walk upright in what you do.
14 'But if you do not obey Me,
And don't observe all faithfully
Doing these commandments, 15 and if
You despise My statutes as stiff,
Or if your soul abhors the way
Of My judgements, so that you stay
Your hand from doing what I say,
But break My covenant one day,
16 I also will do this to you:
I'll even appoint terror to
Be over you, wasting disease
And fever which shall take what sees
The eye and cause sorrow of heart.
And you shall sow your seed apart
In vain, for your foes shall eat it.
17 I'll set My face, against you pit,
And you shall be defeated by
Your enemies, those who defy
You shall reign over you, and you
Shall flee when no one pursues you.
18 'And after all this, if you do
Not obey Me, I'll punish you
Seven times more for all your sins.
19 I'll break the pride of all your wins,
I'll make your skies like iron, your earth
Like bronze. 20 And your strength shall be worth
A vain thing, for your land shall not
Yield its produce, nor shall the hot
Trees of the land yield up their fruit.
21 'Then, if you will act wrong to boot
Against Me, and not willing to
Obey Me, I will bring on you
Seven times more plagues, for your sins.
22 I'll also send wild beasts in skins
Among you, which shall rob you of
Your children, livestock, that you love,
And make you few in number, and
Your highways desolate in land.
23 'And if by these things you are not
Reformed by Me, but walk untaught
By Me, 24 then I also will walk
Contrary to you, and I'll mock
And punish you yet seven times
For your sins and for all your crimes.
25 And I'll bring a sword against you
That will execute vengeance due
And of the covenant, when you
Are gathered within your cities
I'll send pestilences like fleas
Among you, and you'll be given to
The hand of your enemy true.
26 When I have cut off your supply
Of bread, ten women shall bake pie
In one oven, and they shall bring
Back your bread by weight and by ring,
And you shall eat unsatisfied.
27 'And after all this, if you do
Not obey Me, but walk untrue
To Me, 28 then I also will walk
Against you in fury and frock,
And I, even I, will chastise
You seven times for your sins' wise.
29 You'll eat the flesh of your own sons,
Your daughters' flesh you'll eat with buns.
30 And I will destroy your high places,
Cut down your incense altars' traces,
And cast your carcasses upon
The dead forms of your idols' spawn,
And My soul shall abhor you too.
31 I'll lay your cities waste that grew
And bring your sanctuaries to
Desolation, and I will not
Smell the scent of the sweets you brought.
32 I'll bring the land to desolation,
And your foes who live in the nation
Shall be astonished at it. 33 I
Will scatter you among the cry
Of nations and draw out a sword
After you, your land shall be scored
With desolate and cities' waste.
34 Then the land shall enjoy its rest
As long as it lies desolate
And you are in your foes' estate,
The land shall lie enjoying rest.
35 As long as it lies desolate
It shall rest, for the time it did
Not rest on your Sabbaths, but hid,
When you lived in it and not late.

Do tell that plagues and wars and desolations
Result from negligence of fallow land
And failure to perform good crop rotations.
Insightful theory of a master-hand
Suggests that worn-out land at last rebels
And punishes its occupants for greed.
No human quite believes the judgement bells,
And yet exchanges quality for speed.
The way to wealth is paved with leisure hours
Strewn ordered and precise through years of toil,
And pauses to appreciate spring flowers,
And prayers in honour of respectful soil.
Land Sabbath's a first warning of our fate.
Stand off a day, and penance comes too late.

36 'And as for those of you who are
Left, I will send faintness to jar
Their hearts in the lands of their foes,
The sound when a shaken leaf goes
Shall cause them to flee, they shall flee
As though fleeing from sword's army,
And they shall fall when none pursues.
37 They shall stumble over their dues,
As it were before a sword, when
No one pursues, and you shall gain
No strength to stand before the main
Of your foes. 38 You shall perish there
Among the nations without care,
And the land of your enemies
Shall eat you up as when they please.

The direst threat is not that we are eaten
By earth. That's but the fate of everyone,
Save that one sect that still cannot be beaten,
Whose dead are set in towers beneath the sun,
A banquet for the vultures. No, the threat
Lies in the fact the land at last to eat us
Is not our own, though pricked with violet
And fern, but theirs who have come to defeat us.
They lie in peace who fertilize the field
From which their children's children take their food.
But souls lie anguished, fretful and unhealed
Who lie beneath the roots of devils' brood.
Lord, give me Sabbath rest beneath a plot
Where live the grateful for the thread they've got.

39 And those of you who may be left
Shall waste away in sins bereft
In the land of your enemies,
In their fathers' iniquities,
Which are with them, they'll waste and freeze.
40 'But if they confess their sins and
The sins done at their fathers' hand,
With their unfaithfulness in which
They were unfaithful to My pitch,
And that they also have walked in
Ways contrary to Me in sin,
41 And I also have walked contrary
To them and have brought them to bury
In the land of their enemies,
If their uncircumcised hearts please
To be humbled, accept their guilt,
42 Then I will remember My built
Covenant with Jacob, and My
Covenant with Isaac and My
Covenant with Abraham I
Will remember, I'll remember
The land and every cursèd fer.
43 The land also shall be left empty
By them, with nothing there to tempt you,
And will enjoy its Sabbaths while
It lies desolate without smile,
They will accept their guilt, because
They despised My judgements and laws,
Because their soul abhorred My laws.
44 Yet for all that, when they are in
Their enemies' land for their sin,
I shall not cast them out, away,
Nor shall I abhor them that day,
Utterly to destroy their way,
And break My covenant with them,
For I am YHWH their God and gem.
45 But for their sake I will remember
Their fathers' covenant like ember,
Whom I brought out of Egypt's land
In sight of the nations, that I
Might be their God: for it is I
Who am YHWH.'" 46 These are the statutes
And judgements and laws' attributes
Which YHWH made between Himself and
The folk of Israel on the sand
Of Mount Sinai by Moses' hand.

I'm mostly European in my stock,
Though redskin does play havoc with the block,
And half the time that uncouth barbary
Shows in my speech or at least thought set free
To ramble through the dark syllabary
Of Indian words. I have no pedigree
To Jacob or to Ishmael or their sons.
Yet I remain to seek the benisons
Of those who walk Your statutes to home-runs.
Remember then, not fathers and their gains,
But that I too seek You in forest lanes
And in the by-ways furthest from the strife,
And find you in the greyest autumn rains
And after winter in eternal life.

LEVITICUS 27

1 Now YHWH spoke to Moses, and said
2 "Speak to Israel's folk overspread,
And say to them, 'When a man sets
Apart by consecration debts,
Persons to YHWH, according to
Your valuation, 3 'if your due
Is of a male from twenty years
Old up to sixty years, no sneers,
Your valuation shall be fifty
Shekels of silver, by the gifty
Of sanctuary. 4 'If female,
Then your valuation like sale
Shall be thirty shekels, 5 'and if
From five years old up to a stiff
Twenty years old, then your value
For a male shall be twenty due,
And for a female ten shekels,
6 'And if from a month old it tells
Up to five years old, your value
For a male shall be five shekels
Of silver, and for a female
Your valuation then must trail
To three shekels of silver, 7 'and
If it's from sixty years old and
Above, if it is a male, then
Your valuation shall for men
Be fifteen shekels, for female
Ten shekels. 8 'But if his regale
Is too poor to pay your value,
Then he'll appear before the priest,
And the priest shall set value due
For him, according to decreased
Ability of him who vowed,
The priest shall value him allowed.
9 'If it's an animal that men
May bring as offering to YHWH, then
All that one gives to YHWH shall be
Holy. 10 'He shall not exchange fee
In substitution good for bad
Or bad for good, if he's the lad
To exchange animal at all
For another beast by the call,
Then both it and the one exchanged
For it shall be holy arranged.
11 'If it's an unclean beast which they
Don't offer as a sacrifice
To YHWH, then he shall bring away
The beast before the priest suffice,
12 'And the priest shall set its value,
Whether it's good or bad, as you,
The priest, value it, so let be.
13 'But if he will at all be free
To redeem it, then he must add
One-fifth to the value you had.

Even in matriarchies woman's weight
In payment for the crime of slaughter hate
Is only half the price valued for men.
It's only in the civilized and fine
West where the wealthy pay to wine and dine
And then bed young girls of a specimen,
That price of woman reaches to the prime.
Equality for women is a crime,
Or must be so construed before it's met
In the society we have to get.
Perhaps You don’t believe we’ve got so far
As to see figures in each model star.
Beloved, I add one-fifth in value to
The sacrifice of myself now to You.

14 'When a man consecrates his house
Holy to YHWH, then priest not mouse
Shall set a value for it, if
It's good or bad, as in a jiff
The priest evaluates, so be.
15 'If he who consecrates to be
Holy redeems his house, then he
Must add one-fifth of the money
Of your set value, and it is
His own.16 'If a man part of his
Inherited field dedicates
To YHWH, then your set value rates
According to its seed, a homer
Of barley seed to the aroma
Of fifty silver shekels. 17 'If
He consecrates his field or cliff
From the year of the Jubilee,
By the set value that you see
It shall stand full price. 18 'And if he
Consecrates after Jubilee,
Then the priest shall reckon to him
The money due his field with vim
According to the years remaining
Till year of Jubilee, and it
Shall be deducted as befit
From your evaluation kit.
19 'If he who dedicates the field
Wishes to redeem the field's yield,
Then he must add one-fifth the money
Of your evaluation's sunny,
And it shall be his own again.
20 'But if he does not want the glen,
To redeem the field, or if he
Has sold another man the field,
Redeemed it shall not surely be,
21 'But as for the said field and yield,
When it's released in Jubilee,
Shall be holy to YHWH, as field
Devoted to the priest's possession.
22 'And if a man in his confession
Consecrates to YHWH a field which
He's bought, which is not his possession,
23 'Then the priest shall reckon the field
To him in worth of valuation,
Up to the year and to the station
Of Jubilee, and he shall give
Your valuation on that day
Holy to YHWH, and so shall live.
24 'In year of Jubilee that way
The field shall return to him from
Whom it was bought, and so in sum
To the one whose land was possession.
25 'And all your valuations' session
Shall be by sanctuary shekel
And twenty gerahs to the shekel.

The cycles of economy are squared
To suit territorial demands bared.
Each year the droppings dote upon the load
A little less, and so the greedy goad
Loses its bite and we are forced to share.
The only problem with the law You dare
To list here is that no one will improve
Upon its doing for fear of the groove.
One said if You preserve the fowl of air
And lily of the field within Your care,
Then surely You will bless the homely state
Of him who goes on pilgrimage with mate,
And finds along the way a root or grove
Laid up with fruit and berry in its trove.

26 'But the firstborn of every beast,
Which is YHWH's firstborn and increased,
No man shall consecrate, be ox
Or sheep, for it is YHWH's own flocks.
27 'And if it is an unclean beast,
Then he'll redeem it by your priest
Evaluation, and shall add
One-fifth to it, or if it's had
Not for redemption, it shall be
Sold at your set value and fee.
28 'Nevertheless no consecrated
Thing that a man devotes elated
To YHWH of all that he has, man
Or beast, or field owned by his clan,
Shall be sold or redeemed, each one
Devoted's most holy to YHWH.
29 'No person under ban undone,
Who may come under sentence to
Destruction among men, shall be
Redeemed, but he shall surely be
Put to death. 30 'And all the tithe of
The land, whether of the seed of
The land or of the fruit of tree,
Is YHWH's, to YHWH it is holy.
31 'If a man will at all redeem
Any of his tithes, he shall scheme
To add one-fifth to it, the cream.
32 'And concerning the tithe of herd
Or flock, of whatever goes stirred
Under the rod, the tenth one shall
Be holy to YHWH eternal.
33 'He shall not inquire whether it
Is good or bad, nor exchange fit,
And if he exchange it at all,
Then both it and residual
Exchanged for it shall be holy,
Redeemed it surely shall not be.'"
34 These are the commandments which YHWH
Commanded Moses for the cue
Of Israel's folk on Mount Sinai,
A straight rule for to measure by.

I'm the firstborn, Beloved, and yet the last,
So do not break my neck or take the mast
Of money from my bank to redeem soul.
Though I'm an ass, I do not take a toll.
As firstborn I am holy, so be true
I tell myself to self, also to You.
I am the firstborn and the last and so
In my own self I fill the prophet's low
And strange word that the first shall come to be
The last and the last on the trumpet tree
Shall be the first, and so it is with me.
I'm the firstborn, and yet the last to know
The shadow of Your spirit's come and go:
I step out in the quiet from the show.


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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