DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 8 ~ 13

DEUTERONOMY 7

1 "When YHWH your God brings you into
The land which you go to possess,
And has cast out nations for you,
The Hittites, Girgashites, the mess
Of Amorites and Canaanites
And Perizzites and the Hivites
And Jebusites, all seven nations
Greater and mightier in their stations
Than you, 2 "and when YHWH your God gives
Them over to you, as He lives,
You'll conquer them and utterly
Destroy them. You shall make no free
Treaty with them nor show mercy.
3 "Nor shall you marry them. You'll not
Give daughter to their son besot,
Nor take their daughter for your son.
4 "For they'll turn your sons once begun
Away from following Me, to serve
Other gods, YHWH's wrath will not swerve
From against you in quick destruction.
5 "But thus you'll deal with their seduction:
You shall destroy their altars, and
Break down their sacred pillars' stand,
And cut down their wood images,
Burn with fire their carved images.

I once took down a cross where I had right
Of jurisdiction in the public sight,
And found it did not help my humble plight,
But raised a storm of protest in the night.
I never had the courage to go in
And slay the living statues for their sin,
And crush their marble bones to score and dust.
I must amend my ways, I truly must.
The problem is You do not make a land
Secure today for those who keep command
To letter and to spirit and in hand
Take up the bludgeon to strike down the great.
And so I must, like Daniel, bow to fate
And answer to a heathen name and state.

6 "For you're a holy folk to YHWH
Your God, YHWH your God's chosen you
To be a people for Himself,
A special treasure on the shelf
Above all the folk on the earth.
7 "YHWH did not set His love for worth
On you nor choose you because you
Were more in number than a few
Of any other people, you
Were least of all folks, 8 "but because
YHWH has loved you, and yet because
He would keep the oath which He swore
To your fathers on every score,
YHWH's brought you out with mighty hand,
And redeemed you from house and land
Of bondage, and from Pharaoh's hand,
The king of Egypt. 9 "Therefore know
That YHWH your God, He's Ælohim,
The faithful El God who will show
That He keeps covenant and stream
Of mercy over generations
In thousands with those who love Him
And keep His statutes to the brim,
10 "And He repays those who hate Him
To their face, to destroy them. He
Will not be slack with him who's free
In hate to Him, He will repay
Him to his face. 11 "Therefore you'll stay
To keep the commandment, the laws,
And the judgements in every clause
Which I command to you today,
To observe them in every way.

Not having been brought out of Egypt's land
I still know that You're God on every hand.
There is no breath of wind but whispers fine
Your name of Huu beyond the golden shrine.
While some may bow before the public tale
Because its sight is great and shining mail,
I bow to the unseen and whispered one
Who is only God when all's said and done.
Because I know that You are God alone,
Supreme Reality harder than stone,
And softer than the voice of hummingbird,
Therefore my heart again once more is stirred
To follow Your commandments to the word,
Even if that makes me to be a drone.

WEEK 46

12 "Then it shall come to pass, because
You listen to these judgements' laws,
And keep and do them, that YHWH your
God will keep with you covenant
And the mercy of which He swore
To your fathers by desert tent.
13 "And He will love you and bless you
And multiply you, He'll be true
Also to bless fruit of your womb
And the fruit of your land and room,
Your grain and your new grape juice and
Your oil, the increase on your land
Of cattle and your flocks' offspring,
In the land to which He did bring
You as to your fathers He swore.
14 "You shall be blessed above and more
Than all peoples, there shall not be
A male or female barrenly
Among you or among your stock.
15 "And YHWH will take away in dock
All your sickness, and will afflict
You with none of the grossly tricked
Diseases of Egypt which you
Have known, but will lay them on all
Those who hate you and wish you'd fall.

The plague most visible for disease on
The land of Egypt, if myself have drawn
The right conclusion, is the dying they
Suffer for what they get when they essay
To swim in the polluted Nile. Bilharzy
Is not confined indeed to feeling darcy
In Egypt, but is found in tropical
Waters around the world. Is this banal
Or Your response to those on whom You lay
The grand diseases of Egypt for pay?
If Israel was separated from
Contaminated waters when they come
From Egypt, was their health not then
The natural effect of being men?

16 "And you shall destroy all the folk
Whom YHWH your Ælohim once spoke
To deliver over to you,
Your eye shall have no pity due
On them, nor shall you serve their gods,
For that's your snare upon the sods.

Beloved, let me not serve the other gods
That ruled the ones You determined were clods.
Let me not pity Baal and just because
The sun evaporating lakes is laws
Both natural and sane for making rain.
Baal's but scientific and not vain.
Still I retain the countrified approach
And say that You, Beloved, though not in coach
Upon the roads of heaven, still bring dew
And rain on earth by what You love and do.
Supreme Reality well fits the bill
Until I see personality will
Not disappear behind the longer words.
Human defining is just for the birds.

17 "If you should say within your heart,
'These nations have a greater part
Than I, how can I put them out?'
18 "You shall not be afraid nor doubt,
You shall remember well what YHWH
Your God did to Pharaoh and to
All Egypt: 19 "The great trials which your
Eyes saw, the signs and wonders' score,
The mighty hand and outstretched arm,
By which YHWH your God without harm
To you brought you out. So shall YHWH
Your God do to all the folk whom
You fear will lead you into doom.
20 "Moreover YHWH your God will send
The hornet among them to tend
Those who are left, who hide from you,
Till they're destroyed. 21 "You shall not be
Afraid of them, for YHWH your God,
The great and awesome El's with you.
22 "And YHWH your God will wonderfully
Drive out those nations with a rod
Before you little at a time,
You'll not be able to destroy
Them at once in a single climb,
Lest the beasts of the field employ
To be too numerous for you.
23 "But YHWH your God will give to you
These peoples, and inflict defeat
Upon them until they retreat.
24 "And He will deliver their kings
Into your hand, and you'll destroy
Their name from under heaven's things,
No one shall be able with ploy
To stand against you until you
Have destroyed them and all their crew.
25 "You shall burn the carved images
Of their gods with fire that rages,
You'll not covet silver or gold
On them, nor take it in your hold,
Lest you be snared by it, for it
Is abomination unfit
To YHWH your God. 26 "Nor shall you bring
Any abomination's thing
Into your house, lest you be doomed
To a destruction as presumed.
You'll wholly detest and abhor
The accursed idol evermore.

Beloved, I call the hornets down in swarm
On every church decked out with idols warm
Or cool to touch, and every synagogue
If such exist where images may clog
The sacred aisles, and every temple where
Stone idols and the nightly rodents share
The food of sacrifice. Beloved I call
The hornets, yes, the hornets to the ball
And banquet of the Lamb. If I lift up
A hand against idolatry my cup
Will surely overflow with prison time.
I can destroy idolatry in rhyme
And go no further. That's why in my lurch
I call down graceful hornets on the church.

DEUTERONOMY 8

1 "Every command which I command
You today you must understand
To be careful to observe it,
That you may live and multiply,
And go in and possess the land
Of which YHWH swore to make a gift
To your fathers come by and by.
2 "And you shall remember that YHWH
Your God led you all the way through
These forty years in wilderness,
To humble you, test you, and bless,
To know what was within your heart,
Whether you would keep for your part
His commandments or not. 3 "So He
Humbled you, let you hungrily
Wander, and fed you with the free
Manna which you did not know nor
Did your fathers know on that score,
That He might make you know that man
Shall not live by mere bread by plan,
But man lives by every word that
Proceeds from YHWH's mouth where He sat.
4 "Your clothing did not wear out, nor
Did your foot hurt forty years' score.
5 "You should know in your heart that as
A man chastens the son he has,
So YHWH your God chastens you too.
6 "Therefore you shall keep as your due
The commandments of your God YHWH,
To walk in His ways and fear Him.
7 "For YHWH your God, who is not grim,
Is bringing you to a good land,
A land of brooks of water spanned,
Of fountains and springs, that flow out
Of valleys and hills with a shout,
8 "A land of wheat, barley, of vines
And fig trees where pomegranate shines,
A land of olive oil and honey,
9 "A land in which you without money
Will eat bread without scarcity,
In which you will lack nothing free,
A land whose stones are iron and out
Of whose hills copper's dug about.

Beloved, though my clothes wear out on my back,
It's true that without money I've no lack,
But as a poor dervish I take my due
In replacements from the flea market's queue.
My passage through the wilderness of fine
And futuristic houses was the wine
To show You whether I would be true to
The commandments that You told me to do.
The glut of manna wasted on the dew
Was sent to show me that Your providence
Was revelation that Your words made sense.
My mouth runs with honey and olive oil
Despite my wandering lack of honest toil.
My hands and feet wrinkle the summer soil.

10 "When you have eaten and are full,
Then you shall bless YHWH your God's pull
For the good land He's given you.
11 "Beware you do not forget YHWH
Your God, not keeping His commands,
His judgements, and His statute bands
Which I command to you today
To tell you how to walk the way,
12 "Lest when you've eaten and are full,
And have built houses beautiful
And live in them, 13 "and when your herds
And your flocks multiply like birds,
And your silver and gold increased,
And all you have grows great from least,
14 "And when your heart is lifted up,
And you forget YHWH your God's cup
Who brought you out of Egypt's land,
From the house of bondage to stand,
15 "Who led you through that great and grand
Terror of wilderness, in which
Were fiery serpents in the ditch
And scorpions and thirsty land
Where there was no water, who brought
Water for you out of the taught
Flint rock, 16 "who fed you in the way
Of the desert with manna spray,
Of which your fathers did not know,
That He might humble you and show
By testing you, to do you good
In the end to do as you should,
17 "Then you say in your heart, 'My power
And my own hand's might in this hour
Have gained me this wealth in a shower.'

Indeed, Beloved, I do not forget eating
Despite the rush of people, time and meeting,
Nor do I fail to pause upon the sill
Of Sabbath if not other times to fill
My heart and tongue and voice with blessing of
Your names found hidden in all that I love.
I say my power and might have done the this
And that in my life filled with pain and bliss,
But there is no myness that is not Yours
Who work Your will in all the sacred doors.
The blessing of Your name and calling Huu
Is never far from my breath and my stew.
I tread the serpents and the dry ground's strength
To find food unknown to my fathers' length.

18 "And you'll remember YHWH your God,
For it is He who on the sod
Gives you the power to get your wealth,
That He may establish in stealth
His covenant which He swore to
Your fathers, as this day with you.
19 "Then it shall be by any means,
If you forget YHWH your God's scenes,
And follow other gods, and serve
Them and worship them on a swerve,
I witness against you this day
That you'll surely perish and pay.
20 "As the nations which YHWH destroys
Before you, so you and your joys
Shall perish, because you would not
Be obedient to the voice taught
Of YHWH your God sought or unsought.

If I remember or if I forget,
Your words are clear that You have surely set
My heart to perform to my sodden tongue
Remembrance of Your names on ladder's rung
And never to forget what You command
To those who live and breathe upon the land.
Remembering, forgetting not the tale
That rises from my graceless, tuneless wail,
Builds You a temple that must sure avail
Against the gods the nations do not fail
To find and serve with public celebration.
Beloved, let me not be one of that nation,
That I might not be destroyed in the void
Of wordlessness, remembrances destroyed.

DEUTERONOMY 9

1 "Hear, O Israel: You are to cross
Over Jordan today, and toss
Yourselves to dispossess the nations
Greater and mightier in their stations
Than you yourself, and cities great
And fortified up to the gate
Of heaven, 2 "a people great and tall,
The sons of Anakim not small,
Whom you know, and of whom you heard
'Who can stand before the son's turd
Of Anak?' 3 "Therefore understand
Today that YHWH your God's at hand,
And He who goes over before
You is consuming fire in store.
He will destroy them and bring them
Down before you, in stratagem
You shall drive them out and destroy
Them quickly, as YHWH has with joy
Said to you. 4 "Do not think in heart,
After YHWH your God's famous part
To cast them out before you, saying
'Because of my righteousness staying
YHWH has brought me in to possess
This land', but it's the wickedness
Of these nations that YHWH is driving
Them out before you in their striving.
5 "It's not because your righteousness
Or uprightness of heart to bless
Is great that you go to possess
Their land, but it's for wickedness
Of these nations that YHWH your God
Drives them out from before your rod,
And that He may fulfil the word
Which YHWH swore to your fathers spurred,
To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6 "Therefore now understand and wake up
That YHWH your God's not giving you
This good land to possess since you
Are righteous, for you are stiff-necked
A people stubborn to neglect.

O my Beloved, I know that You step down
Into the dry bed of the Jordan brown
Before me as a great consuming fire.
Turn once again to me is my desire
And burn away the dross of my own will,
Delusive figments that attend me still,
And purge me of idolatry as I
Set on the land of Canaan eager eye.
If You destroy in Canaan every stone
That's worshipped, even every tinkling bone
That casts a spell and prophecy on night,
Then You may burn the willing and the light
Sacrifice of my rising spark before
The crossing of the Jordan and the gore.

Beloved, if not for righteousness You gave
The land of Canaan to the former slave,
But for the punishment of those who there
Bowed knee to Baal and took a faithful care
To observe that the rain came from the sun
Bearing upon the sea and clouds to run,
Do You relate to me with the same fate?
The lands of love You bring me to are great,
But not taken from those who bow in state,
Nor do they deprive any of the wealth
They have gained honestly or by their stealth.
No one is punished by the table spread
Where You and I together are well fed,
And who knows whether righteousness is bread?

7 "Remember! And do not forget
How you provoked YHWH your God set
To wrath there in the wilderness.
From the day that you left the land
Of Egypt under Moses' hand
Until you came into this place,
You've been rebellious to YHWH's face.
8 "Also in Horeb you provoked
YHWH to wrath, so YHWH nearly croaked
With anger to have destroyed you.
9 "When I went up the mountain to
Receive the tablets of stone due,
The tablets of the covenant
Which YHWH made with you to present,
I stayed on the mount forty days
And forty nights. I did not graze
Nor drink water before sunset.
10 "Then YHWH delivered me to get
Two tablets of stone written by
Ælohim's finger on the sly,
And on them were all the words which
YHWH had spoken to you in pitch
On the mountain and from the fire
In the day of assembly's choir.

Ah my Beloved, like Moses I have fasted
The forty days as long as I too lasted,
And I too climbed a lonely mountain here
While fleeing from both happiness and fear,
And I too heard Your voice in cantillation
Recite the Decalogue to Your own nation,
And I too stretched out willing hands to touch
The sapphire tablets on which written much
Was there to fill my heart with gratitude
That You revealed Your will as well as food.
Forgive, Beloved, that daily in Your sight
I forget my remembering to recite
The shining words. I every day anew
And as the first time bathe myself in You.

Remember! You said to the crowd that day,
And blamed them for the craven, callous way
They had provoked you in the desert land.
Yet these were only children of that band
That stood by Sinai's mount to hear Your voice.
Do You hold children to account for choice?
I think not. And if so, then all are bound
To the remembering of thunder's sound
On Sinai, though not present on the ground.
And all are among those who provoked You.
Ah my Beloved, I must accept my due.
I too forget Your word despite the times
I recite it each day, each week in rhymes.
Forgive my provoking in times past, do.

11 "It came to pass then at the end
Of forty days and nights to spend,
That YHWH gave me the tablets two
Of stone, of covenant to do.
12 "Then YHWH said to me, 'Get up, go
Down quickly from here, behold, lo
Your people whom you brought out of
Egypt corruptly lost their love,
They have quickly turned aside from
The way which I told them to come,
And made themselves image in mould,
A molten idol made of gold.'
13 "Furthermore YHWH spoke to me, saying
'I've seen this people without slaying,
And truly they're a stiff-necked lot.
14 'Let Me alone, that I may plot
Their destruction now, I may blot
Out their name from beneath the sky,
And I'll make of you by and by
A nation mightier and great,
Than they are in their sinful state.'
15 "So I turned and came down the mount,
And the mountain burned like a fount
Of fire, and the two tablets of
The covenant of your God's love
Were in my two hands. 16 "And I looked,
And indeed, you had sinned and cooked
Against YHWH your God, and had made
For yourselves a molten calf strayed!
You had turned aside quickly from
The way which YHWH told you to come.

Because the sun-disk set between the horns
Of bovine in the late Egyptian bourns
Seemed so like worship of You, my Beloved,
The people thought it right to take ungloved
The same symbols again. It was not gold
They worshipped nor the calf of old,
But the god that stood there behind the light,
So like the god of cloud of fire by night.
What's wrong with dancing to a catchy tune
And frolicking in honour of the June?
If You Yourself cannot distinguish twixt
Idolatry and merely symbol fixed,
Who am I then to set up shrine or thought
Beyond the command You Yourself have wrought?

17 "I took the two tablets and threw
Them out of my two hands at you
And broke them there before your eyes.
18 "And I fell down before YHWH's eyes,
As at the first, forty days and
Forty nights, I ate not in hand
Bread nor drank water, because your
Sin which you committed was sore
In doing wickedly in sight
Of YHWH, to provoke Him with right
To anger. 19 "For I was afraid
Of the anger and hot dismayed
Displeasure with which YHWH was made
Angry with you, to destroy you.
But YHWH listened to my prayer's hue
At that time also. 20 "And YHWH was
Very angry with Aaron 's claws
And would have destroyed him, so I
Prayed for Aaron also foreby.

The very elect and priest by Your hand
Was fooled to think the oecumenic stand
Was right, and so accepted golden band
And the rock music of the heathen land
As part and parcel of the worship due
To You alone, Beloved, with pagan cue.
The right and duty of the voice raised high
In intercession is a thing and cry
That You, Beloved, love to hear in my prayer.
And so I plead upon the desert air
For every heathen church and synagogue
As well as mosque and the retiring bog.
Who prays for all prays for his own soul best
And finds the path to You and to Your rest.

21 "Then I took your sin, and the calf
Which you had made too wrong by half,
And burned it with fire and crushed it
And ground it very small and fit,
Until it was as fine as dust,
Into the brook I threw its dust,
The brook that came down from the mount.
22 "Also at Taberah, Massah
And Kibroth which is Hattaavah
You provoked YHWH to wrath. 23 "Likewise,
When YHWH sent you up to arise
From Kadesh Barnea to count,
Saying 'Go up, possess the land
Which I have given you in hand,'
Then you rebelled against command
Of YHWH your God, and you did not
Believe Him nor obey His plot.

If only the rebellious heart could take
The purging that the gold and silver make
By grinding and by casting in the fire.
But human hearts are hardened by desire
And fear, and so despite the vision here
At Sinai, still I hesitate and stand,
And such a stopping before Your command
Is a rebellion on the borderland
Of glory. Even glory at my face
Of Sinai dark and burning in its grace
Is not enough to sink rebellion down.
I lay a hand unthinking on Your crown,
Such are the veils that shadow earth and all.
And then I hear again Your anguished call.

24 "You've been rebellious against YHWH
From the first day that I knew you.
25 "Thus I prostrated before YHWH,
Forty days and forty nights I
Kept prostrating, because YHWH's cry
Had said that He would destroy you.
26 "Therefore I prayed to YHWH, and said
'O Lord YHWH, don't destroy Your led
People and Your inheritance
Whom You have redeemed through the stance
Of Your greatness, whom You have brought
Out of Egypt mightily wrought.
27 'Remember Your slaves, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob for a lamb,
Do not look on the stubbornness
Of this people, or wickedness
Or their sin, 28 'lest the land from which
You brought us should say at the pitch,
"Because YHWH could not bring them out
To the land He'd promised with shout,
And because He hated them, He
Has brought them out to kill them, see,
In the desert." 29 'Yet they're Your folk,
Inheritance, of whom You spoke
To bring them out by mighty power
And by Your outstretched arm an hour.'

Who fast the forty days prostrate in prayer
And intercede for the world everywhere.
That is the task of dervish early, late
To bow in intercession at the gate.
Who fast the forty days remember those
Who early on in hope and faith once chose
Your faith, the faith of Abraham and still
Of Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob and the bill
Of David whose voice called the songbirds down
To sing Your praises in the field and town.
No matter what You do, Beloved, I know
The late and early will have place to go,
And words to replicate against Your show,
Meet it with smiling face or even frown.

DEUTERONOMY 10

1 "At that time YHWH said to me, 'Hew
For yourself two tablets on cue
Of stone like the first, and come up
To Me on the mountain to sup
And make yourself an ark of wood.
2 'And I will write the words I should
On the tablets, the same that were
On the first tablets, which you broke,
And you shall put them not to stir
In the ark.' 3 "So I made in stroke
An ark of acacia wood, hewed
Two tablets of stone like the first,
And went up the mountain imbued
With the two tablets as I durst.

Not only tables of stone that were broken
Had to be replaced but also in token
The ark of acacia wood hewed and laid
With gold below angelic colonnade.
But now the gold is missing, at a stroke
Of divine wrath, gold's set apart like coke.
A simple wooden box replaces what
Could be turned to idolatry by slut.
The breathless, sexless, undevouring flesh
Of divine gold that cannot drink the fresh
Water is shut out from divine grace' store.
Its untarnishing eternity's score
Is meaningless, dumb and sightless and free
Of hearing the twisting cacophony.

4 "And He wrote on the tablets by
The first writing still in the sky,
The ten commandments, which YHWH'd spoken
To you in the mount as a token
From the midst of the fire the day
Of the assembly, and YHWH's way
Was to give them to me. 5 "I turned
And came down from the mountain burned,
And put the tablets in the ark
Which I had made, and there they park,
Just as YHWH had commanded me."
6 Now Israel's folk essayed to flee
From Bene Jaakan's springs to go
To Moserah, where Aaron died,
And where he was buried in show,
And Eleazar his son tried
Ministered as priest in his stead.
7 From there they journeyed on as led
To Gudgodah, and from that place
Went to Jotbathah, land where race
Rivers of water. 8 At that time
YHWH separated from the crime
The tribe of Levi set to bear
The ark of covenant of YHWH,
To stand before YHWH to serve there
And bless in His name as they do
To this day. 9 Therefore Levi's got
No portion nor a country plot
With his brothers, YHWH is his lot,
Just as YHWH your God promised him.
10 "As at the first time on the limb,
I stayed in the mountain forty
Days and forty nights, YHWH heard me
Also at that time, and YHWH chose
Not to destroy you or dispose.
11 "YHWH said to me 'Get up, begin
Your trip before the folk to win,
That they may enter and possess
The land which I swore to address
To their fathers to give to them,
Hills, valleys all from head to hem.'

Some say the second law You wrote again
Upon the tablets for women and men
Was different, a burning law, because
They could not accept of Your gracious laws.
Such is not so. Here it is written fast
The second table was just like the last.
But Levi is set out after their claim
To honour despite golden calf Your name,
To honour still and evermore the same.
The difference is that You trust men less,
And leave them not to hear and read and guess,
But set apart a few to recite more
And more Your blessèd name against the score
Of heathendom in sparkling and chaste dress.

12 "And now, Israel, what does YHWH
Your Ælohim require of you,
But to fear YHWH your God, to walk
In all His ways and love His stock,
Serve YHWH your God with all your heart,
With all your soul, 13 "and for your part
To keep the commandments of YHWH
And His statutes in what you do
Which I commanded you today
For your good and for your mainstay?
14 "Lo heaven and highest heavens belong
To YHWH your God, also the song
Of the earth with all that's in it.
15 "YHWH delighted only in fit,
Your fathers, to love them, and He
Chose their descendants faithfully
After them, you above all folk,
As it is this day, as He spoke.
16 "So circumcise your heart's foreskin,
And be stiff-necked no more in sin.

Beloved, You do require a thing of men,
To fear You and keep Your commandments when
All others say the thing to do is find
A church that's right, or in a greater bind,
A banquet and a eucharist in state
That has the real presence and the fate
Of gods a-dying and arising up
To meet the pagan ritual and cup
In bread and wine. Beloved, You do require
According to Your word humble desire
To meet You, yes, in every drink and meal
That You provide for men and women's weal,
But more and ever that I shall obey
What You command in love and duty's way.

17 "For YHWH your God is God of gods
And Lord of lords, great El whose rods
Are mighty and awesome, who shows
No partiality's foreclose
Nor takes a bribe. 18 "In justice He
Regards the fatherless and the
Widow, and loves the stranger there,
Giving him food and clothes to wear.
19 "Therefore love the stranger, for you
Were strangers in Egypt's land's crew.

True faith is not the sharing of a crust
Or sip of wine in churches of no dust,
But in the sharing of a real must
With fatherless and widow in their need
And foreigner and refugee whose lead
Has put them in a far off and strange land.
True faith is not performing the command
Of rite and ritual but jousting bribe
That benefits the kin or wealthy tribe
Against the right and justice of the poor
Or those who might be strangers, yet are sure
Their case is firm. Beloved, give me the true
Faith in the things that I am called to do.

20 "You shall fear YHWH your God, you'll serve
Him, and from Him you shall not swerve,
But hold fast, take oaths in His name.
21 "He is your praise, and He's your fame,
God, who has done for you these great
And awesome things which your eyes sate.
22 "Your fathers went down to Egypt
Seventy persons in there slipped,
Now YHWH your Ælohim has made
You as stars of the sky's parade.

I doubt not You, Beloved, are praise enough
For likes of me, for I am surely tough.
I doubt not I am called to be Your slave
Of love and hold fast down unto the grave
To serve You and do whatever You say.
But shall I take an oath upon Your name?
Indeed, my calling is one and the same,
To come and recite Your name on the score
Of evenings taught to dhikr at the door.
I take Your name in part upon my lips
And whirl about the dergah, flailing hips,
And know that no oath sworn on heaven or earth
Is of the slightest mercenary worth.
My breath goes forth each moment of the dearth.

DEUTERONOMY 11

1 "Therefore you shall love YHWH your God,
And keep His charge, His statutes' prod,
His judgements, and His commandments
Always and ever for a fence.
2 "And know today that I do not
Speak with your children, who untaught
Have not known and who have not seen
The chastening of YHWH your God's spleen,
His greatness and His mighty hand
And His outstretched arm on the land,
3 "His signs and His acts which He did
In the midst of Egyptian bid,
To Pharaoh king of Egypt, and
To all the people in his land,
4 "What He did to Egypt's army,
To their horses and chariots:
He made waters of the Red Sea
Overflow them as in their plots
They pursued you, and YHWH's destroyed
Them to this day, 5 "what He employed
For you in the desert until
You came to this place by His will,
6 "And what He did to Dathan and
Abiram sons of Eliab,
The son of Reuben by his hand:
How the earth opened its mouth's scab
And swallowed them up, their households,
Their tents, and all their substance moulds
That was in their possession, in
The midst of all Israel for sin
7 "But your eyes have seen every great
Act of YHWH which He did in state.

Indeed, Beloved, as I recite the Book
My eyes see Your acts everywhere I look.
I see the plagues fall on Egyptian horde,
I see the glint of spear, the flash of sword.
Indeed, Beloved, as visions come to view,
My ears hear also of the things You do.
I hear the rumble of the moving earth
That opens to swallow the folk at birth
Of rebellion against Your kingly throne.
Indeed, Beloved, I hear and see Your own.
Though generations separate my soul
From ancient deeds and ancient hand and goal,
My cantillation turns time and place out
To find You everywhere without a shout.

8 "Therefore you shall keep each command
That I set today in your hand,
That you may be strong, and go in
And possess the land without sin
Which you cross over to possess,
9 "And that you may prolong your days
In the land which YHWH did address
To give your fathers to possess,
To them and their descendants, 'land
Flowing with milk and honey planned.'
10 "For the land which you go to gain
Is not like land of Egypt's plain
From which you have come, where you sowed
Your seed, watered by foot, and mowed
As a garden, 11 "but the land which
You cross over to hold in hitch
Is a land of valleys and hills,
Which drinks water come down in rills
From the rain of the skies, 12 "a land
For which YHWH your God cares with hand,
The eyes of YHWH your God always
Are on it, from the year's first days
To the very end of the year.

The fruit of cantillation and my seeing
And hearing is that with my entire being
I obey Your commands and with delight.
That is the result of hearing and sight.
As I move from Egypt, where human hand
And foot bring the fresh water on the land
To a place where Your eye from day to day
Brings on the waters for those who obey,
I trust not in the scientific tale
That rain's due to evaporation's Baal,
But recognize behind the matter's cloak
Your hands divine that all the steamers stoke.
The hills are barren beneath eye of sun
Whose godship is a vain thing on the run.

13 'And it shall be that in your fear
If you earnestly obey My
Commandments, the statutes which I
Command you today, to love YHWH
Your God and serve Him as you do
With all your heart and all your soul,
14 'Then I will give to you the rain
For your land in its season's toll,
The early rain and latter rain,
That you may gather in your grain,
Your new grape juice, also your oil.
15 'And I will send grass on the soil
Upon your fields for your livestock,
That you may eat filled to the dock.'
16 "Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart
Be deceived, and you turn your part
Aside and serve other gods and
Worship them, 17 "lest YHWH's wrath's command
Be roused against you, and He shut
Up the skies so there'll be no glut
Of rain, and the land yield no grain,
And you perish without the rain
Quickly from the good land which YHWH
In His bounty is giving you.

The Arab set in Canaan and to stand
There while the folk of Israel must demand
The right to find Jerusalem awhile,
Awaited the rain with a humble smile,
Believing in Your unity and yet
The desert crouched around his tent to get
Him and his children and his flocks and herds
As dinner for vultures and other birds.
The colonists who made the desert bloom
Did not wait in their faith, but hand on loom
Wove their own fate and hope until the doom.
Does this mean worship's not the only thing
That brings rain on the people and the king,
But also hard work in the field and room?

18 "Therefore you shall lay up these words
Of mine in your heart and your soul,
And in your intention and goal,
And bind them as a sign to birds
On your hand, so that they shall be
As frontlets between where you see.
19 "You'll teach them to your progeny,
Speaking of them when you sit in
Your house, when you walk peregrine,
When you lie down, and when you rise.
20 "And you shall write them in devise
On the doorposts of house and gate,
21 "That your days and your children's rate
Of days may truly multiply
In the land of which YHWH swore by
To your fathers to give their worth,
Like days of heavens above the earth.
22 "For if you carefully keep all
These commandments which I recall
Commanding you to do, to love
YHWH your God, to walk as above
In all His ways, and to hold fast
To Him, 23 "then YHWH will surely cast
Out all these nations before you,
And you will dispossess them too,
Greater and mightier folk than you.
24 "Every place on which your foot's sole
Treads shall be yours: from desert hole
And Lebanon, and from the flood,
The River Euphrates, to stud
The western sea, shall be your land.
25 "No man shall be able to stand
Against you, YHWH your God will put
The dread of you, fear of your foot
Upon all the land where you tread,
Even as to you He has said.

By power of cantillation of Your word,
Remembrance of Your name, all things are stirred.
The wicked and idolatrous are ground
To powder and cast out not to be found.
Commandment contemplated and then kept
Brings joy to the fields where the widow wept.
I humbly wait upon the dergah floor
To hear remembrance singing more and more,
But do not see the dread of me arise
Upon the face of wicked ones and eyes.
Instead my voice goes up in slender song
To tell You of the striving and the wrong
That governs all the world. And yet I see
Behind the veils a hand to set soul free.

WEEK 47

26 "Indeed, today I set before
You blessing and a curse in store:
27 "The blessing for if you obey
YHWH your God's commandments this day
Which I command you, 28 "and the curse,
If you have chosen of the worse,
And do not obey the commands
Of YHWH your God, but turn in bands
Aside from the way I command
You this day, to go after band
Of other gods which you've not known.
29 "Now it shall be, as it was shown,
When YHWH your God has brought you in
To the land which you go to win,
That you shall put the blessing on
Mount Gerizim and the curse on
Mount Ebal. 30 "And are they not on
The other side of the Jordan,
Toward the west, the setting sun,
In the land of the Canaanites
Who live in the plain and in sights
Of Gilgal, by the terebinth
Trees of Moreh in labyrinth?
31 "For you will cross over the flood
Of Jordan and go in like stud
To take the land which YHWH your God
Is giving you with power and rod,
And you will keep it and live there.
32 "And you'll be careful to observe
All the statutes and judgements' curve
Which I set before you today.

When You, Beloved, commanded blessing on
The mountains facing the night and the dawn,
Did You dream then the commandment would be
The scandal to divide a people free?
The Jew and the Samaritan still fight
At least in words to know who has the right,
And which mountain is set for cursing and
Which mount for blessings raining on the land.
A poor dervish I take my whirling round
And raise a hand to heaven, one to the ground,
And let fall blessings everywhere I'm bound,
Both on Ebal and Gerizim until
You come, Beloved, at last to foot the bill.
As I dance I am waiting for that sound.

DEUTERONOMY 12

1 "These are the statutes and judgements
Which you shall be in all events
Careful to observe in the land
Which YHWH God of your fathers' hand
Is giving you to hold and keep,
All the days that you live and sleep
Upon the earth. 2 "You'll utterly
Destroy all the places you see
Where nations which you'll dispossess
Served their gods in their wickedness,
On the high mountains and on hills
And under every green tree's rills.
3 "You shall destroy their altars, break
Their sacred pillars, every stake
Of their wooden images burn
With fire, you shall cut down and spurn
The carved images of their gods
And destroy their names from their clods.
4 "You shall not worship YHWH your God
With such things as image and rod.

Beloved, I lay my microcosmos bare
So that You can see all the idols there,
And pluck them from the green hills where they stand
And destroy every image in my land.
Each pillar, stake and wooden pole that grows
Upon the hills of eyebrows and my nose
Take down and with them all take down the word
And thought idolatrous, each evil bird
Inhabiting the caves and chambers where
I bow my heart and soul in secret prayer.
I shall not worship false gods nor shall I
Disarmingly answer and make reply
That by these images I worship You.
I set aside the many and the few.

5 "But you shall seek the place where YHWH
Your God chooses, out of your few
Tribes, to put His name for His place
Of dwelling, and there you shall pace.
6 "There you shall take your burnt offerings,
Your sacrifices, tithes and things,
The heave offerings within your hand,
Your vowed offerings, your freewill stand
To offer, and the firstborn of
Your herds and flocks, all that you love.
7 "And there shall you eat before YHWH
Your God, and you shall rejoice true
In all to which you've put your hand,
You and your households, every band,
In which YHWH your God has blessed you.

The place You choose, indeed, and I find here
That many places are held dear with fear:
Shiloh, Sion and Gerizim, and more
As far as Rome and Lourdes, the shore
Of the Red Sea to Mecca, and the plain
Of Anatolia, where not in vain
I too have sought the cool repose where rest
Remains of Hajji Bektash with the best.
The place You choose, indeed, though the threshold
Of house built on one storey where the bold
Of sheep and chickens share the cherished nest.
The Kaaba is the stone where You are guest,
No matter what sun rise upon its crest,
No matter where it lies boughten or sold.

8 "You shall not at all do as we
Are doing here today, just see
How every man does what is right
In his own eyes and in his sight,
9 "For as yet you've not come to rest
In the inheritance and nest
Which YHWH your God is giving you.
10 "But when you cross over the dew
Of Jordan and live in the land
Which YHWH your God gives from His hand
To you to inherit and stand,
And He gives you rest from all your
Foes round about like sand on shore,
So that you live in safety, 11 "then
There will be the place where for men
YHWH your God chooses and to make
His name abide there for His sake.
There you shall bring all I command:
Your burnt offerings, sacrifice band,
Your tithes, the heave offerings in hand,
And all your choice offerings to stand
Which you vow to YHWH. 12 "You'll rejoice
Before YHWH your God with your voice,
You and your sons and daughters too,
Your servants and maids, and the crew
Of Levites who're within your gates,
Since they have no part nor estates
With you. 13 "Take heed to yourself that
You do not offer your burnt pat
Offerings in every place you see,
14 "But in the place of YHWH's decree,
In one of your tribes, there you'll offer
Your burnt offerings, and there you'll proffer
All that I command you to do.
15 "However, you may slaughter too
And eat meat within all your gates,
What your heart desires in your plates,
According to the blessing of
YHWH your God which He's given in love,
The unclean and the clean may eat
Of it, of the gazelle for treat
And the deer alike. 16 "Only you
Shall not eat the blood, nor shall you
Pour it on the earth like water.
17 "You may not eat within your gates
The tithe of your grain or to stir
Your new grape juice or your oil grates,
Of the firstborn of your herd or
Your flock, of any of your score
Of offerings which you vow, of your
Freewill offerings, or of the heave
Offering of your hand by My leave.
18 "But you must eat them before YHWH
Your God in the right place which YHWH
Your God chooses, you and your son
And your daughter, your servant won
And your maid, and the Levite who
Is in your gates, and you'll rejoice
Before YHWH your God with your voice
In all to which you put your hands.
19 "Take heed to yourself in your lands
That you do not forsake Levite
As long as you live in your right.

Beloved, there is no now appointed State
Theocracy, and so You relegate
Us back to doing as they once did then,
Without the direct guidance of pure men,
But by the justice of each eye that reads
The revelation and applies to needs.
"As we are doing here today" was spoken
At time when there was even Moses' token
For the authority. What only lacked
Was entrance to the promised land unsacked.
Today there is no land and yet no leader
Upon a throne to be lawful impeder.
That's why I flee again and again to
Your Word, to love of Your sent guides and true.

20 "When YHWH your God enlarges your
Border as He's promised before,
And you say 'Let me eat some meat,'
Because you long to eat meat's treat,
You may eat as much meat as your
Heart desires. 21 "If the place before
Where YHWH your God chooses to put
His name is too far for your foot,
Then you may slaughter from your herd
And from your flock which undeterred
YHWH's given you, just as I've told
You, and you may eat in your bold
Gates as much as your heart desires.
22 "Just as the gazelle and the choirs
Of deer are eaten, so you may
Eat them, the unclean in the way
And the clean alike may eat them.
23 "Only be sure by stratagem
That you do not eat of the blood,
For the blood is the life in bud,
You may not eat the life with meat.
24 "You shall not eat it as a treat,
You shall pour it on earth like water.
25 "You shall not eat it in the slaughter,
That it may go well with you and
Your children after your command,
When you do what is right in sight
Of YHWH. 26 "Only the holy right
Of things which you have, and your vowed
Offerings, you shall take and go bowed
To the place which YHWH chooses it.
27 "And you shall offer your burnt fit
Offerings, and the meat and the blood,
On the altar of YHWH your God,
And then your sacrifices' blood
Shall be poured out upon the sod
Of the altar of YHWH your God,
And you shall eat the meat. 28 "Observe
And obey all these words, don't swerve,
Which I command you, that it may
Go well with you and your mainstay,
Your children after you forever,
When you do what is good and clever
In sight of YHWH your Ælohim.
29 "And then when YHWH your Ælohim
Cuts off from before you the nations
Which you go to take from their rations,
You displace them, live in their land,
30 "Take heed to yourself that your hand
Be not ensnared to follow them,
After they are destroyed from hem
Before you, and that you do not
Inquire after their gods to plot,
Saying 'How did these nations serve
Their gods? I'll also have the nerve
To do the same.' 31 "You shall not bow
In worship to YHWH your God now
In that way, for every foul thing
To YHWH which He hates they take wing
To do to their gods, for they burn
Even their sons and daughters turn
In the fire to their gods to earn.

If Mecca is too far a place to go,
Jerusalem behind the golden glow
Of fortress walls, the ship to Jedda slow,
Then You promise that where the threshold stands
Is place enough for Your presence' commands.
Beloved, I sleep upon the Kaaba floor
All the days of my earthly life and more,
And rest upon the bosom that contains
The universe in all its shining lanes.
There is no minute in which I find not
Your presence in my breath though I forgot
To whisper Your names dear and full of grace.
Though I live far from every sacred place,
I live and move before Your hand and face.

32 "Whatever I may command you,
Be careful to observe and do,
You shall not add to it nor take
Away from it for your own sake.

Beloved, I hear the Hebrew words like stones
Resounding in my ears and heart and bones,
I hear the Gospel melody right true,
And pause to recite the Qur'an anew.
Do not think, my Beloved, my scratchings here
Are more than my soul sighs to find You near.
I do not dream my words translate Your own,
Nor more than in dim reflections atone.
If I add loving sighs to the Book read,
Let it not be to add to counsel fed,
But only to distract me from the flow
Of illusions that always come and go
Before the sights and sounds of heaven and earth
That make Your words by contrast of all worth.

DEUTERONOMY 13

1 "If comes among you prophet or
A dreamer of dreams on that score,
And he gives you a sign or wonder,
2 "And the sign or wonder like thunder
Does come to pass, of which he spoke
To you, saying when he awoke,
'Let us go after other gods'
Which you have not known as man plods
'And let us serve them,' 3 "you shall not
Listen to that prophet's words' plot
Or to that dreamer of dreams sought,
For YHWH your God is testing you
To know whether you will be true
In love to YHWH your God with all
Your heart and soul to hear His call.

Hear, hear, Beloved! This text that's never quoted!
The one men like is the one over-roted,
That says if prophecy made does come true,
It is a sign the prophet's come from You.
But when You say that miracle and sign
When serving men's idolatry just fine
Is not an evidence that they're divine,
The world will turn away from warning word.
If only for a miracle a turd
Is edible to those whose stomach craves
The gods defined in rows to command slaves.
The one and absolute criterion
Is that there is no god at all by sun
But You alone, the undefined, the One.

4 "You shall walk after YHWH your God
And fear Him, and keep every prod
Of His commandments and obey
His voice, and you shall every day
Serve Him and hold fast to His way.
5 "But that prophet or that one that
Dreams dreams shall be put where he sat
To death, because he's spoken for
To turn you away from YHWH's door,
Your God, who brought you from the land
Of Egypt and redeemed your hand
From house of bondage, to entice
You from the way which should suffice
As YHWH your Ælohim told you
To walk. So you shall put away
The evil from the place you stay.

In this place where each man does what is right
In his own eyes, or follows every sprite
That claims honour of king, bishop or pope,
Your commandment relieves me of all hope.
I cannot kill the many who preach on
That You are three or more at night and dawn
And hidden in the idols of all races
And in the faiths astray in public places.
The preaching of idolatry is heard
In every pulpit of great and absurd.
But I can kill the preacher in my heart
By turning from the falsehoods from the start
And cleaving to You alone and Your word
That from its sounds has my heart fired and stirred.

6 "If your brother, son of your mother,
Your son or your daughter, or other,
The wife of your bosom, or friend
Whom your very soul would defend,
Secretly entices you, saying
'Let's go where other gods are playing,'
Which you have not known, neither you
Nor your fathers, 7 "gods of the crew
Of folk which are all around you,
Near to you or far off from you,
From one end of the earth unto
The other end of the world's view,
8 "You'll not consent to him or listen,
Nor shall your eye with pity glisten,
Nor shall you spare him or conceal,
9 "But you shall surely make him feel
The sting of death, your hand shall be
The first against him to agree
To put him to death, afterward
The hand of all the people stirred.
10 "And you shall stone that one with stones
Until he dies and so atones,
Because he sought to entice you
Away from your Ælohim YHWH,
Who brought you out of Egypt's land,
From the house of bondage to stand.
11 "So all Israel shall hear and fear,
And not again do such a smear
Of wickedness as this by you.

Indeed, Beloved, the influence of neighbour
Is strong against faith in You and Your labour.
The love of kith and kin entices all
To follow Baal and Ashtoreth's fond call.
I turn with will and lust from the enticing
Of friendship and love for the care and splicing
Of idols into one, and as one claiming
To be You in spite of their constant blaming
That what You once said is no longer true,
And there's no law from You for what I do.
Beloved, I stone with stones the words that tend
To take me from Sinai to go and wend
My way among the sirens of the street
Where Jew, Christian, and Muslim come to meet.

12 "If you hear in one of your cities,
Which YHWH your God gives your committees
To live in, someone saying 13 'Men
Corrupted have gone out again
From among you to seduce men
Inhabitants of their city,
Saying "Let us now go and see
How to serve other gods"' which you
Have not known, 14 "then you shall renew
Inquiry, search out, and ask well.
And if indeed it's true to tell
And certain that such evil thing
Was done by your poor man or king,
15 "You shall surely strike all the dwellers
Of that city from roofs to cellars,
With the mouth of the sword, wholly
Destroying it, all that's in it
And its livestock, with the sword's mouth.
16 "And you'll gather its plunder fit
Into the middle of the street,
And wholly burn form north to south
With fire the city and complete
With all its plunder, YHWH's your God.
It shall be a heap on the sod
Forever, and not built again.
17 "So none of the accursed of men
Shall remain in your hand again,
That YHWH may turn from His fierce wrath
And show you mercy on your path,
Having compassion on you and
Multiply you like the sea's sand,
Just as He to your fathers swore,
18 "Because you've listened to the score
Of voice of YHWH your Ælohim,
To keep all His commandments' theme
Which I command to you today,
To do what's right in the eyes' way
Of YHWH your Ælohim and Stay.

You command folks to kill the cattle too
Because their master was accustomed to
Bow down to the false gods of Canaan's land.
Such condemnation I can understand
To fall on heathen perpetrators who
Are consenting adults as goes the word.
But what about the cattle and the bird?
Their only sin was being fattened for
The altars of the goddesses in store.
They should not bear the punishment of late
That fell upon their owners in just hate.
I pray for grace upon the bestial tribe
Condemned because it could become a bribe
To get Your folk to commit diatribe.


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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