DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 20 ~ 25

DEUTERONOMY 20

1 "When you go out to war with foe,
And see horses and chariots go,
And crowds more numerous than you,
Don't be afraid of them and stew,
For YHWH your God is with you, who
Brought you up from Egypt's land too.
2 "So it shall be, when you are on
The brink of battle, let priest draw
Near and speak to the people dear.
3 "And he shall say to them then, 'Hear,
O Israel, today you are
On brink of battle with your star
Enemies. Do not let your heart
Be faint, do not be afraid, and
Do not tremble upon the land
Or be terrified of the band,
4 'For YHWH your God is He who goes
With you, to fight for you your foes,
To save you.' 5 "Then the officers
Shall speak to the people and fers,
Saying 'What man is there who's built
A new house and has not instilt
Its dedication? Let him go
And return to his house and show,
Lest he die in the battle and
Another man take house in hand.
6 'Also what man is there who's planted
A vineyard and has not been granted
To eat of it? Let him go and
Return to his house, lest he stand
To die in battle and another
Man eat of it instead of brother.
7 'And what man is there who's engaged
To a woman and not yet paged
To marry her? Let him go and
Return to his house, lest he stand
To die in battle and another
Man marry her instead of brother.'
8 "The officers shall speak on yet
To the people, and say 'What pet
Is fearful and fainthearted? Let
Him go and return to his house,
Lest the heart of his brother mouse
Faint like his heart.' 9 "So it shall be,
When officers have finished free
Speaking to the people, that they
Shall make captains of hosts to lead
The people as far as they need.

Forbidden is the battle to the one
Who has new house and garden and begun
To court a new wife, or the one that fears.
These laws if kept would avoid many tears.
But think, Beloved, of Hittite named Uriah,
Who seemed to think he was himself messiah
Or that the army could not do without
His mustering to go to battle shout.
He forfeited a wife so that he might
Further his own career as man to fight,
And then was sorry that another took
Her in his place, although he had forsook.
No matter what You say in Your decree,
A man will find a way to sit on scree.

10 "When you go near a city to
Fight against it, then proclaim due
Offer of peace. 11 "And it shall be
If they accept peace offer's plea,
And open to you, all the folk
Found in it shall be placed in stroke
Of tribute to you, and serve you.
12 "Now if they won't make peace with you,
But make war against you, then you
Shall besiege it. 13 "And when YHWH your
Ælohim brings it to your door,
Delivering it into your hands,
You shall strike every male's bands
In it with the mouth of the sword.
14 "But the women, the little horde,
The livestock, and all in the city,
All its spoil, you shall plunder pity
For yourself, and you'll eat the plunder
Of the foe which YHWH your God's thunder
Gives you. 15 "Thus you shall do to all
The cities which are a far call
From you, which are not of the towns
Of these nations. 16 "But of the towns
Of these peoples which YHWH your God
Gives you as an inheritance,
You shall let nothing under rod
That breathes remain alive to prance,
17 "But you shall utterly destroy
Them: the Hittite and the dark ploy
Of Amorite and Canaanite
And Perizzite and the Hivite
And Jebusite, as YHWH your God
Has commanded you, 18 "lest they prod
You to do according to all
Their abominations which call
Them to their gods, and so you sin
Against YHWH your God in the bin.
19 "When you besiege a city for
A long time, while yet making war
Against it to take it, you shall
Not destroy any trees at all
By wielding an ax against them,
If you can eat the fruit of them,
Do not cut them down for the yield
Of the siege, for trees of the field
Are man's food. 20 "Only trees which you
Know are not trees for food may you
Destroy and cut down for to build
Scaffolds against the city filled
With war with you, till it is stilled.

You made a plan of conquest for the folk
To go against the world and at a stroke
Make them their servants to worship You too,
Or else destroy them for their sinful due
And for resistance to the righteous hand.
So You would make them a marauding band.
Beloved, I see the plan repeated over
By those who claim that You are their own drover,
And yet who do not even conform to
The ten commandments, though they are so few.
I might support a plan to force the world
To obey Your divine law once unfurled
On Sinai in ten words of light and life.
But there is no such engine of right strife.

DEUTERONOMY 21

1 "If one is found slain, lying in
The field in the land which to win
YHWH your Ælohim's giving you
To possess, and it's not known who
Killed him, 2 "then your elders and your
Judges shall go out and measure
From the slain man to nearest town.
3 "And it shall be the town's renown
Elders nearest to the slain man
Will take a heifer which in span
Has not been worked and which has not
Pulled with a yoke. 4 "The elders sought
Of that city shall bring the beast
Down to a valley with at least
Flowing water, which is not ploughed
Nor sown, and they shall break the vowed
Heifer's neck there within the vale.
5 "Then the priests, sons of Levi's male,
Shall come near, for YHWH your God's veil
Has chosen them to serve and bless
In the name of YHWH and confess,
By their word every controversy
And every assault shall find mercy.
6 "And all the elders of that town
Nearest to the slain man's renown
Shall wash their hands over the beast
Whose neck was broken by the priest
In the valley. 7 "Then they'll respond
And say 'Our hands did not abscond
With this blood, nor did our eyes see.
8 'Provide atonement, O YHWH, free
For Your people Israel, whom You
Have redeemed, and do not lay to
Your people Israel innocent
Blood.' It shall provide atonement
On their behalf and for the blood.
9 "So you shall put away the flood
Of guilt of innocent shed blood
From among you and when you do
What is right in the sight of YHWH.

I do not see the folk today assume
Responsibility for the slain room.
Instead it makes a tidy note to peek
At in the paper, entertainment week.
The ground is well defiled by generations
Who cared but little for the contemplations
Of death beyond provided titillations.
The innocent heifer’s broken neck seems
But little comfort for the bloody dreams
Of killing, but that gesture must repair
What nothing can where there's no life to spare.
When shall man learn that divine life abounds
In every creature who has I and sounds?
Beloved I flee from self to Self from grounds.

WEEK 49

10 "When you go out to war with foes,
And YHWH your God delivers those
Into your hand as captives taken,
11 "And you see among unmistaken
Captives a beautiful female,
And desire her as a wife's tale,
12 "Then you shall bring her to your house,
And she shall shave her head (for louse?)
And trim her nails. 13 "And she shall put
Her captive clothes from off her foot,
Remain in your house there to mourn
Her father and mother forlorn
A full month, after that you may
Go in to her and be her stay
And husband, and she'll be your wife.
14 "And it shall be, if you have strife
And no delight in her, then you
Shall set her free, but surely you
Shall not sell her for money, you
Shall not treat her with cruelty,
Because you've humbled her for free.

The captive wife is made the first thing to
Observe the Sabbath with her nails that grew
And with her head. A month is all it takes
To make her saint for all her heathen wakes.
Vouchsafed for life among the dead and dying
Who defied You with their rebellious vying,
If she turns out still to be pagan bold,
Then even then the wench cannot be sold,
But must go free for having been the wife
Of hero soldier, one who saved her life.
Your law seems brutish to my clever ways
Who's lived in tranquil quiet all my days.
Beloved, guard humankind from taking this
Word and using it in warfare amiss.

15 "If a man has two wives, one loved
And the other unloved, ungloved,
And they have borne him sons, the two,
Both the loved and the unloved crew,
And if the firstborn son is hers
Who is unloved, 16 "then on the spurs
That he bequeaths his gear and trim
To his sons, that he trust not whim
To bestow firstborn status on
The son of the loved wife when drawn
In preference to the son of
The unloved, the true firstborn love.
17 "But he shall acknowledge the son
Of the unloved wife as the one
Firstborn by giving him a share
Of double portion of his ware,
For he's beginning of his strength,
The right's his of firstborn at length.

The king of Jordan kept Your Book in view
When he made elder son king in his due.
Beloved, bless every man that takes to heart
Your commandments, if only in the part,
And give him health and store to the extent
That he bowed to Your law and where he went.
When Israel slept with other gods in times
Past there were always those who knew no crimes
But quietly spent providence to find
Justice and righteousness come from Your mind.
The world seeks high parade and pompous stand,
But better than these are the lingering band
That without fanfare makes its righteous way
In following Your law and what You say.

18 "If a man has a stubborn son
And rebellious who'll not when done
Obey father's and mother's voice,
And who, when they've chastened for choice,
Will not listen to them, 19 "then his
Father and his mother shall whizz
Him off to the elders of his
City, to his city's gate there.
20 "And they shall tell the elders fair
Of his city, 'This son of ours
Is stubborn and beyond our powers,
Rebellious, he will not obey
Our voice, do anything we say,
But is a glutton and a drunk.'
21 "Then all his city's men with spunk
Shall stone the boy to death with stones,
So you shall put away the groans
Of evil from among your folk,
And all Israel shall hear the stroke
And fear. 22 "If a man has committed
A sin deserving death outwitted,
And he is put to death, and you
Hang him on a tree in the dew,
23 "His body shall not stay the night
Upon the tree, but you'll do right
To bury him that day, so that
You don't defile the land where at
YHWH your Ælohim gives to you
As an inheritance and due,
For he who's hanged upon a tree
Is cursed of Ælohim freely.

The choice is between two, I trow, for those
Who would abide intoxicants they chose.
If liquor is free to be had, then all
Whose genes bring them to alcoholic fall
Must be destroyed from off the face of earth.
Failing that then the best thing and of worth
Is to prohibit the forbidden ware
And let no man at all drink of his share.
But land of drunks is not alternative
To chose, and yet the countries where we live
Allow the drunken maniacal way
To terrorize both night and light of day.
Kill drunkards all, or forbid the dry wine
And let the government teetotal dine.

DEUTERONOMY 22

1 "You shall not see your brother's ox
Or his sheep go astray from flocks,
And hide yourself from them, you shall
Certainly bring the prodigal
Back to your brother. 2 "And if your
Brother is not near you in store,
Or if you do not know him, then
You'll bring it to your own house, when
It shall remain with you until
Your brother seeks it at his will,
Then you shall restore it to him.
3 "You'll do the same with donkey dim,
And so shall you do with his cloak,
With any lost thing of the yoke
Of your brother, which he has lost
And you have found out to your cost,
You shall do likewise, but you must
Not hide yourself. 4 "You shall not lust
Seeing your brother's donkey or
His ox fall down along the shore,
And hide yourself from them, you must
Help him lift them up from the dust.

If Sunnite method of analogy
Is worth the cost, then lifting up donkey
Implies also that when I meet a car
Standing beside the road with a flat tyre,
It's time for me by law to stop and help
The stranded victim and possibly whelp.
Such neighbourly ways of doing things now
Are voluntary shows of thoughtful brow.
One breaks no law today in whizzing past,
If one asks the lawmaker set to last
By the illegal system that elects
The popular instead of just selects.
If justice were called for the legislature
Could just rely on Torah's nomenclature?

5 "A woman shall not wear a thing
Pertaining to a man or king,
Nor shall a man ever be seen
In clothing of woman or queen,
For all are outrage who do so
Before YHWH Ælohim's hello.

It is not Your intent, I guess, to make
A fashion clear for man and woman's sake,
But rather to propose that every dress
Distinguish clearly sexual address.
Indeed, it is a human right, I trow,
To know if the on-comer is a frau
Or man, without the task of peering close
And thus infringing on the intimate.
To sneer at laws of dress gives just a dose
To think one has the right to sit in state
Without limits of person and private.
In Palestine I guess woman and man
Both wore a dress, and yet within the span
Of knowing which was which. I think I can.

6 "If a bird's nest happens to be
Before you in the way or tree
Or on the ground, with young ones or
Eggs, with dam sitting on the score
Of young or on the eggs, you'll not
Take the dam with the young on spot,
7 "You'll surely let the mother go,
And take the young for your own show,
That it may be well with you and
You may lengthen days in the land.

Command is not to take the egg or young,
And leave the mother, but command on tongue
Is not to take both mother and the lot.
The intent is to leave nature a spot
For her continuing to weave her plot.
By reason or analogy the word
Is to preserve the future of the bird
As well as every other creature heard.
The verse of conservation in two lines
Sounds like the sweetness of the finest wines.
Though humankind in hunger and in fear
May take a twig and fruit without a tear,
Still even in his need duty replies
That nature too have place beneath the skies.

8 "When you build a new house, then you
Shall make a parapet for view
About your roof, that you may not
Bring guilt of bloodshed on the lot
Of your household if one should fall.

Beloved, You command me and humankind
To take precaution for safety designed.
It is a duty, not a choice to make
Provision and forethought for safety's sake.
The mystic prayer that rises in Your will
Finds health in reason to resound on hill
And make the action of the human hand
Appropriate to that reality
That plays upon the sea and on the sand
With waverings and rushings on the lea.
To leave a danger for another soul
In building or in taking up the toll
Of life in drinking bout, all these are wrong
That merely focus on the dance and song.

9 "You shall not sow your vineyard wall
With different kinds of seed, lest yield
Of the seed which you've sown in field
And the fruit of your vineyard be
Defiled. 10 "You shall not plough freely
With ox and donkey both together.
11 "You shall not wear a garment whether
Of different sorts, such as both wool
And linen mixed to push and pull.
12 "You shall make tassels on the four
Corners of the cloak that you wore.

Mix not the seed, the beast, the cloth in plot.
Three laws of similarity in thought
Precede the law of tassels on the four
Wings of the cloak instruct in something more.
The four gates rise from these words as they come
And the four tassels make the four gates' sum.
The seed is law, the beast the gate of love,
And warp and woof awareness of above.
Reality is never to be seen,
And must have a reminder on the green,
That illusion's marks always tell the sheen.
Reminder be not only strands of wool,
But everything that makes a good world full.
Beloved, You are the One of my heart's pull.

13 "If a man takes a wife, and goes
In to her, and detests her flows,
14 "And charges her with shameful act,
And brings a bad name on her sacked,
And says 'I took this woman, and
When I came to her for a band
I found she was not a virgin,'
15 "Then the father and mother win
With the young woman when they take
And bring out for the virgin's sake
Evidence of virginity
To the elders of the city
At the gate and for all to see.

Ah my Beloved! It is indeed a shame
To bring a bloody cloth out as a claim
Before the elders of the city set
To titter at the evidence of Bett.
For shame that such a law might need to be.
I'd think faithfulness, not virginity
Would be a man's plausible expectation.
But fair enough, let purity arise
And sit enthroned before the shameful eyes.
I'd merely like a test that shows as well
What the boy's been doing twixt earth and hell,
To keep himself from sickness and the spell.
I have no evidence of chastity
Since You with each breath come to ravish me.

16 "And the young woman's father shall
Say to the elders, 'I gave gal
To this man as wife, and he hates
Her. 17 'Now he's charged her and relates
Shameful behaviour, saying "I
Found your daughter not spotless by,"
And yet these are my daughter's proofs
Of her virginity, his goofs.'
And they shall spread the cloth before
The elders at the city door.
18 "Then the elders of that city
Shall take that man, punish freely,
19 "And they shall fine him one hundred
Of silver and give them full fed
To the father of the young girl,
Because he has been playing churl
To bring a bad name on a girl
Of Israel. And she shall be
His wife, he cannot divorce her
All his days till his death occur.

I'd think the girl would like to be free from
The fetters of such marriage to a bum.
But there's no sense in other people's tastes,
And trying to find such results in wastes
Of time and energy. So let her be
The churl's consort and for eternity.
The hundred of silver I think would lead
The fathers to be careful of the breed,
And watch like hawk preserving scent of deed
In order to cash in on fresh young seed.
What other punishment the young man gets
Seems rather unclear as the wording sets.
Perhaps it is as much as they think due
Who sit in judgement in the city's pew.

20 "But if the thing is true, and sight
Of virgin chastity's not right
For the young woman, 21 "then they'll bring
Out the young woman at the swing
Of the door of her father's home,
And the men who her city roam
Shall stone her to the death with stones,
Because she's sung disgraceful tones
In Israel, to play the harlot
In her father's house like a starlet.
So you shall put away the wrong
From among you and from your song.

I'd think the reputation would get round
Before he ever married her or found
A reason to shame her once vows were made.
Who play the harlot in father's house paid
Become notorious by man and maid.
But if he will to put an end to such
He can marry her and then put the touch
On her before the council of the old,
The ones no doubt who first had her for bold.
But put away the wrong, indeed, I hope
That might be every city's way to grope.
Where I live such is done as each confesses
By whatever each adult party guesses
Is right and feels good as each one undresses.

22 "If a man ever is found lying
With a woman married and sighing
To a husband, then both of them
Shall die, the man that lifted hem
To lie with the woman, as well
As the woman, so you shall spell
Away evil from Israel.

The punishment for the unfaithful wife
Is not just to take away wretched life
From her, but also from the man she spoiled
Or who enticed her in the trap uncoiled.
Not one without the other as I read,
So courts who pass a judgement and with speed
On woman only do not keep Your law.
They only have male vengeance in their awe.
I plead the case of every woman caught
By pregnancy, which is no witness sought,
For by that last expedient the Christ
Himself would be a victim of the spliced,
And blessed virgin Mary killed before
She had a chance to even up the score.

23 "If a young woman who's a virgin
Is betrothed to a husband urging,
And a man finds her in the city
And lies with her and has no pity,
24 "Then you shall bring both of them out
To the gate of that city stout,
And you shall stone them to death there
With stones, the young woman as fair
Because she did not cry aloud
In the city and in the crowd,
And the man because he had ploughed
His neighbour's wife, so you shall put
Away the evil from your foot.

In case of rape the only thing to do
Is cry aloud, yet in perverseness' pew
I ask what shall be case if man have knife
Or broken bottle to threaten the life
And strongly urge her not to make a sound?
Then even in the city there is found
An innocence not crying out or weeping.
Beloved, in faith I follow, not in peeping
Behind the veils of wisdom You are keeping.
My doubting sighs are but the gifts of love
I send You whether beneath or above.
The cobblestones shine with the glint of light
Amphiboles bare to the sun in sight.
The black grains are the brightest of the right.

25 "If a man finds betrothed a lass
In the fields, and the man is crass
To force her and lies with her there,
Then only the man for his share
Who lay with her shall die. 26 "But you
Shall do nothing to the lass true,
There's in the young woman no sin
For death, for as when one begin
To rise against his neighbour and
Kills him, even so's this in hand.

A problem's in this text, a problem great.
First of all it accepts analogy
As valid of proof for a verdict's state,
And as a problem there is secondly,
There is a case when a man meets his fate
For the adulterous act and the girl's free,
A case that hardly anyone might see
Among the courts of shariat. With this
One text injustice attributes in bliss
To both the Sunnite and Shi'ite who kiss.
I flee to You, Beloved, from every sect
That runs to injustice of the elect,
And know that one soul stands before Your word
Clear-eyed without the clergy and absurd.

27 "For he found her there in the field,
And the betrothed lass would not yield
But cried out, and there was no one
To save her. 28 "If a man undone
Finds a young woman who is still
A virgin, who's not engaged rill,
And he seizes and lies with her,
And they are found out in the stir,
29 "Then the man who lay with her shall
Give to the lass's pa's corral
Fifty of silver, and she'll be
His wife because he's cravenly
Humbled her, and he shall not be
Permitted to divorce her all
His days upon the city wall.

Note well, Beloved, how Your law's greater mercy
Surpasses that of Puritanly cursey.
The only punishment that You lay down
On sex premarital is marriage crown
With no right to divorce. The clergyman
Of churchly traditions hands down that ban
On every marriage that he sanctifies,
And right to divorces staunchly denies,
Unless it's divorce for unfaithfulness.
But that requires no divorce I would guess,
Since for that death's the sentence You confess.
The only valid divorce is the one
In which unfaithfulness was never done!
Beloved, I flee from verdicts that have won.

30 "A man shall not take father's wife,
Nor enter father's bed for strife.

Mother and step-mother are out of bounds
To every father's son upon the grounds.
The Reubenitic sin I must confess
Requires perversion beyond my address.
But what about the case of young widow
Who has no closer kith to make the show
Than the stepson of father without brother
To raise up for her husband one or other
Of children to his name? The levirate
Of nearest relative has limitations.
Yet it is kept with sacred indications,
I wonder it's not made a universal
Despite the fall of the folk and dispersal.
I stop beside the gate to contemplate
The veiling of the human face and where
It leads in lust beneath the golden stair.

DEUTERONOMY 23

1 "He who has lost his testicles
By crushing or by mutilation
Shall not enter conventicles
Of YHWH. 2 "One of illegal station
In birth shall not enter the crowd
Of YHWH, not even is allowed
To the tenth generation none
To enter the assembly done
To YHWH. 3 "An Ammonite or one
Moabite shall not enter YHWH's
Assembly, even though they choose
To the tenth generation none
Of his descendants shall come in
The assembly of YHWH for sin
Forever, 4 "because they did not
Meet you with bread and water sought
On the road when you came up from
Egypt, and because they were gum
To hire against you Beor's son
Balaam from Pethor where the sun
Rises on Mesopotamia,
To curse you and lead from the law.

A serious thing it is to lead away
From worship of You the only to sway
The universe, the round of night and day,
Creator of the great and small, the clay
Of sparrows, the crow and the twit of finch,
The green of moss spreading out inch by inch,
The mountain ash from white to green to red,
The polliwogs that swarm in pools unfed
By any stream at corner of my house,
The nibbling practices of the field mouse.
Beloved, a serious thing it is to see
The divine graces and yet fail to be
In awe of You alone beneath the throne,
Upon the summer grasses newly mown.

5 "Nevertheless YHWH your God would
Not listen to Balaam for good,
But YHWH your God turned the curse to
A blessing for you, because YHWH
Your Ælohim truly loves you.
6 "You shall not seek their peace nor their
Prosperity all your days fair
Forever. 7 "You shall not abhor
An Edomite, for he is your
Brother. And you shall not abhor
An Egyptian, because you were
An alien in his land for bur.
8 "The children of third generation
Born to them may come with elation
Into the assembly of YHWH,
Who brings you here with promise true.

Enslavement was a sin worth punishment
Of generations three and be content,
While the sin of Peor required vengeance
Not only of young Phineas's lance,
But of ten generations at a glance
Even when they engaged in repentance.
Beloved, keep me from Peor's sin and all
Idolatry of Balaam's fateful call
To consider the God that made the ball
The same as Baal and Ashtoreth's cow stall.
Let rather the three-generations' fear
Of the gods of Oxford Street plant my bier,
Than the die of the trinities I see
Revered in chapel and the grand abbey.

9 "When the army goes out to fight
Your enemies, then keep your right
From every wicked thing in sight.
10 "If there is any man among
You who becomes unclean by dung
Occurring in the night, then he
Shall go outside the camp a wee,
He shall not come inside the camp.
11 "But it shall be, when evening damp
Comes, that he'll wash with water, and
When the sun sets, he may take stand
To come into the camp. 12 "Also
You shall have a place where to go
Outside the camp, 13 "and you shall keep
An implement among your things,
And when you sit outside, dig deep
And cover your filthy droppings.
14 "For YHWH your God walks in your camp,
To save you and give like a stamp
Your enemies over to you,
So keep your camp holy and new,
That He may see no unclean thing
Among you and turn from your swing.

Beloved, I understand Your feet of flame
Are sullied if they touch the stinking shame
Of excrement, but now the practice is
To flush the stuff away with whirl and fizz.
Do You require still implement to hoe
Away a pit for excrements to go?
Or can a follower of Yours now toe
The line to water-closet and feel fine?
Such questions may seem beneath Your consent,
But men are supercilious in event.
At least I leave no thing uncovered where
Your foot might slip and find unsoughten share,
But let You in my chamber sweet and bare
And keep You, my Beloved, encloistered there.

15 "You shall not give back to his master
The slave who's escaped and run faster
Than his master to you in flight.
16 "He may live with you in your sight,
In the place which he chooses states
And there within one of your gates,
Where it seems best to him, you'll not
Oppress him. 17 "There shall be no sot
Ritual harlot on the spot
Among Israel's daughters, or one
Perverted of Israelite son.

In days gone past my forebears on plantation
Hid in the sugar cellar's trepidation
The fugitive that fled to Canada
Escaping the new fugitive slave law.
It seems that law despite the pulpit wrath
That maintained it was a Hamitic path
To serve the brook of Japheth in his tents
Without remuneration of ten cents,
Was that if slave escaped one should not send
Him back to master but keep as a friend.
How did Your preachers explain this text then
To satisfaction of women and men?
They had to know it, since the one to come
About dogs was well known to every bum.

18 "You shall not bring such harlot's wages
Or fee of sacred temple pages
That hump like dogs to the house of
YHWH your God in pretended love
For any vowed offering, for both
Of these are an atrocious wroth
To YHWH your Ælohim above.

The Southern Baptists I know still recoil
At harlot's wages and refuse to soil
Their hands by taking payment for a dog
To be sold from their litter apologue.
The sense is misconstrued, I say right well.
The harlot and the dog in Israel
Were functionaries on the temple mounts
Of Baal and Ashtoreth for their accounts.
The sexy priests and priestesses today
Who are their counterparts in their own way
Are those who sing and shout with hips that sway
Inviting crowds to drink the blood and eat
The body of the dying god for feat
To resurrect at Easter as is meet.

19 "You'll not charge interest to your brother,
Interest on money, food or other
That's lent out at interest to him.
20 "To a stranger you may charge dim
Interest, but to your brother you
Shall not charge interest, so that YHWH
Your God may bless you in all to
Which you set your hand and to do
In the land which you're coming to
To enter and possess accrue.
It's clear that charging interest in the end
Results in war, no other ways amend.
The one who worships You alone as God
Has right to charge polytheist a clod
If he knows that the thing will end in war,
And is ready to fight the further shore,
And swell Your kingdom by the further stand
Of taking cities to tribute for land.
But without such theocracy to sell,
No usury has right to thrive and dwell.
I flee to You, Beloved, from usury
And from the strife that comes from banker's fee.
Let every hand find his own property
And eat the produce of his hand for free.

21 "But when you make a vow to YHWH
Your God, you shall not delay to
Pay it, for YHWH your Ælohim
Will surely require to redeem
It of you, and it would be sin
To you. 22 "But if you abstain in
Vowing, it shall not be a sin
To you. 23 "That which has gone from lip
You shall keep and perform the trip,
For you of free will vowed to YHWH
Your Ælohim what promise due
You have made with your mouth to do.

Beloved, keep me from every vow of lip
And give me grace to mind my tongue and skip
The promises unneeded by my ship.
What promises are there but that would hold
Another from his own by choice and bold?
Who promises but to escape the cold
Of neighbour for profit come in to scold?
I vow to my own self, Beloved, that I
Shall not vow anything beneath the sky
But that You are precious to my blind eye
That cannot penetrate the veil and sash.
Let every other promising be clash.
I stay myself aloof and keep my cash.
On You and You alone I can rely.

24 "When you come to vineyard of neighbour,
You may eat your fill at your labour
Of grapes, but you shall not put any
Into container for a penny.
25 "When you come in your neighbour's corn,
Standing grain, you may pluck ears shorn
With your hand, but you'll not use sickle
On your neighbour's standing corn fickle.

The right of every man is to stretch hand
Upon the fruit of field and take a stand
To mouth and stomach while he's on the land.
It's only berry basket that's condemned
In the white vineyard behind a wall hemmed.
When I was but a child the oranges grew
Along the wayside where we would drive through,
And all who wished could stop to taste the fresh
Fruit from the tree if none were brought in mesh
Away to taste another time and day.
Such is not found, I think, now on that way,
Because some took advantage of the spill.
That's how the government foots every bill.
For one wrong deprive all of rights to fill.

DEUTERONOMY 24

1 "When a man takes a wife and marries,
And it happens that that wife carries
No favour in his eyes because
He's found in her some unclean flaws,
And he writes her bill of divorce,
And puts it in her hand perforce,
And sends her out of his house void,
2 "When she's departed unemployed
From his house, and goes to become
Another man's wife, 3 "if the bum,
The latter husband hates her too
And writes her a bill of divorce,
Puts it in her hand when he's through,
And sends her out of house and home,
Or if the latter husband's course
Is to die, who took under dome
As his wife, 4 "then her former man
Who divorced her must not make plan
To take her back to be his wife
After she's been defiled for strife,
For that's atrocious before YHWH,
And you shall not bring sin on you
And upon the country which YHWH
Your God inheritance gives you.

Here is the basic law and the law just
That says a woman must not go for lust
Back to a husband that's divorced for trust
After she's been married to other men.
Islamic law once stated's quite reversed,
And says a woman must remarry first
Before she can go back to the first man.
A misapplying of the first words can
Result in contradictions in the way.
Divorce not my heart from Your own and do
Not send my spirit from outside Your view.
But keep my soul and self bared to Your sight
Though I am blinded by the shimmering night,
Groping forever in the dim starlight.

5 "When a man's taken a new wife,
He shall not go out to the strife
Or be charged with any affair,
He shall be free at home one year,
And bring gladness to his wife's share
Whom he has taken without tear.
6 "No man shall take the lower or
The upper millstone in pledge, for
He takes one's living in pledge score.
7 "If a man is found kidnapping
Any of his brothers in string
Of Israel's children, and mistreating
Him or sells him, then that defeating
Kidnapper shall die, and you'll put
Away the evil from your foot.
8 "Then take heed in any outbreak
Of leprosy but for your sake
You carefully observe and do
According to all that is due,
That priests, the Levites, shall teach you,
Just as I commanded, so you
Shall be careful to do. 9 "Recall
What YHWH your God did at the fall
Of Miriam on the way when you
Came out of Egypt. 10 "When you lend
Your brother anything to spend,
You shall not go into his home
To get his pledge from loom or loam.

The ATF men who rush in I guess
Have not read this verse where You do confess
The sacredness of house and home and bless
The privacy to keep one's door closed still
Even when valid comers come for bill.
Justice is always served best when men will
Remember Your word and obey it till
All faces gather before Your one face
And judgement is met at the mercy place.
I flee to You, Beloved, from every ill
And from every attempting to fulfil
Justice upon the basis of the part
A man sees natural within veiled heart.
Perennially the pagan good must start.

11 "You shall stand outside, and the man
To whom you lend shall bring as can
The pledge out to you. 12 "If the man
Is poor, you shall not keep his pledge
Overnight. 13 "You in any edge
Shall return the pledge to him when
The sun goes down, that he again
May sleep in his own garment and
Bless you, and it shall be command
Of righteousness to you before
YHWH your God now and evermore.

The perfect man is one indeed who may
Work early for his bread from day to day,
And take that single share his own for pay
And then lie down to rest upon the cloak
He wore throughout the day by field and oak.
Such poverty is not a virtue, but
It often resides where the world has shut
The honest and the just to live a part.
Such poverty when honest to the heart
Is greater than the one who lends the cart
And keeps the pledge till evening in his hand.
This verse opens a great and glorious land
Beyond the veils to see what sparkling gem
Is sewn on human being at his hem.

14 "You'll not oppress a hired servant
Who is poor and needy and scant,
Whether one of your brothers or
One of the strangers who's in store
In your land and within your gates.
15 "Each day you shall give him his rates,
And not let sun go down on it,
For he's poor and sets heart on it,
Lest he cry against you to YHWH,
And it shall be a sin to you.

How many cry in this world now I know
Not, nor do I know what the pompous show
Of faith in the establishment bestow
To make the poor content to plough the row.
I know that every cry that rises up
To You to beg that You might fill the cup
Seems vain because the drought goes on and on
And generations meet it with the spawn.
Yet I believe Your words and so resign
My soul to Your justice at the recline,
And pray that every morsel that's ill spent
Burn on the tongue of those who'll not relent.
I look, Beloved, from here beneath my vine
And sip the inextinguishable wine.

16 "Fathers shall not be put to death
For their children, nor shall the breath
Of children be taken for father,
A person shall be punished rather
For his own sin. 17 "You'll not pervert
Justice due the stranger or hurt
The fatherless, nor take garment
Of a widow as a pledge sent.
18 "But you shall remember that you
Were a slave in Egypt, and YHWH
Your God redeemed you all from there,
Therefore I command you this share.
19 "When you reap your harvest in field,
And forget a sheaf in the field,
You shall not go back to get it,
It shall be for the stranger's kit,
The fatherless, and widow, that
YHWH your Ælohim may bless you
In all your hands' work where you sat.
20 "When you beat your olive trees, you
Shall not go over boughs again,
It shall be for the stranger due,
The fatherless, and widow then.
21 "When you gather your vineyard's grapes,
You'll not glean after it with scrapes,
It shall be for the stranger, and
Fatherless, widow in the land.
22 "And you shall remember that you
Were a slave in Egypt's land too,
Therefore this thing I command you.

I live upon the gleanings of the rich
That I find cast up on the heath and ditch.
And so I must share the thanks I give You
With the oppressors of the faint and crew.
I take the leavings and my heart swells high
In praise to You whose hand created nigh
The refuse dump and flee market to be
The source of every nourishment to me,
Despite the revenue upon the dearth.
The symbiotic dance of dog and flea,
The web of life that glorifies the earth,
I find full of Your praises and Your worth,
And turn the bitter herb and fitly bread
To banquets, my Beloved, where we are fed.

DEUTERONOMY 25

1 "If there's a dispute between men,
And they come to the court again,
That the judges may judge them, and
They justify the righteous and
Condemn the wicked by command,
2 "Then it shall be, if wicked man
Deserves to be beaten, by plan
The judge will cause him to lie down
And be beaten before his frown,
According to his guilt, with such
A number of blows. Not too much,
3 "Forty lashes he may give him
And no more, lest he should pass brim
And beat him many blows above these,
And your brother, and not to love these,
Diminish in your sight. 4 "You'll not
Muzzle an ox treading what's sought.

Three punishments recur, Beloved, in Your
Law, first that of restoring to the store
What has been stolen, second death it seems
For sundry offences from lusty dreams
To homicide, and lastly for some things
A caning before all the court for kings
And commoners alike. The limitation
On lashes is so no one in the nation
Will be despised. Beloved, Your way of looking
At things is more far out than German cooking.
The pagan way to justice is take fines
To support state and lobbyist oil mines,
Or to incarcerate the convict years.
The victim we leave to his fate and fears.

5 "If brothers live together, and
One of them dies and on the land
Has no son, widow of the dead
Man shall not marry in his stead
A stranger outside family,
Her husband's brother shall go free
In to her, take her as his wife,
And perform the duty of life
Of a husband's brother to her.
6 "And it shall be that at the stir
The firstborn son which she bears will
Succeed to the name of his still
Dead brother, that his name may not
Be blotted out of Israel's spot.

The levirate is known to Israel's fame
In ancient times and to some early claim
Of primitives down to the century
Of world wars. Does that make the bishop see
That feathered, painted flocks sometimes compare
To Your law better than the great and fair
In dainty gatherings to eat pork pie?
I doubt that porkers have yet learned to fly.
Are You concerned about transmission of
A family name more than a match of love?
In some societies the name goes down
By woman rather than by man and crown.
In such case should a woman's sister take
The living husband for the dead girl's sake?

7 "But if the man does not want to
Take his brother's wife, what she'll do,
His brother's wife will go up to
The gate to the elders, and say
'My husband's brother will not stay
To raise up a name to his brother
In Israel, he'll not for another
Perform my husband's brother's duty.'
8 "Then his city's elders in beauty
Shall call him and speak to him. But
He stands firm and says his word shut,
'I do not want to take her,' 9 "then
His brother's wife before the men,
Shall come to him in elders' sight,
Remove his sandal from his right
Foot, spit in his face, say responding,
'So shall it be to man desponding
Who will not build his brother's home.'
10 "And his name shall be called for gnome
In Israel, 'The house of him
Who had his sandal removed grim.'

What of the case, Beloved, when woman hates
The very shadow of her husband's brother's
Awakening to put on roller skates?
I guess such women ought to take another
Look at the brother before saying yes
To marriage proposal, oh yes, I guess.
Don't marry man unless you're satisfied
To marry all the brothers and abide.
There's no levirate in this time and place
Which may explain why families of that race
Are now extinct. The honoured world gets by
Without the noble genealogy
That harks back without intermission to
Adam the first and give or take a few.

11 "If two men fight together, and
The wife of one draws near her hand
To rescue husband from the hand
Of the one attacking him, and
Puts out her hand and seizes him
By genitals, 12 "then you shall trim
Off her hand, your eye shall not pity,
For what she did just was not witty.

Zounds! A punishment, fourth to beat the track!
And one to compare with the glorious back
Of eye for eye and tooth for tooth in slack.
At least the woman that lays hold upon
And twists a man's balls is not kept till dawn
To fret about her fate, how many years
She'll be behind bars and to feed her tears
With fines. The same is given by
The holy Qur'an for the cunning sly
One who steals aught from market property.
A tooth for chewing and an eye to see,
Such restitution sets the convict free
To sin perhaps or else act righteously.
Beloved, I cantillate Your word and try.

13 "You shall not have within your bag
Differing weights, heavy to sag
And a light. 14 "You shall not have in
Your house differing measures' bin,
A large and a small. 15 "You'll have right
And just weight, and a right and just
Measure, that your days may be light
And long in the land on the dust
Which YHWH your Ælohim gives you.
16 "For all who do such things, all who
Behave unrighteously with lust,
Are atrocious to YHWH your God.

There's not a man who breathes but understands
That just measure and weight upon the sands
Makes for just and peaceful society.
And just as much there's hardly one to be
So just in all he does and faithfully.
Who does not have a friend to whom he spills
A cheaper rate than writ on others' bills?
The benefit to friends also makes ills
And constitutes a difference in weights
And measures and a juggling of the scales.
I wonder if society of whales
Might not be more to suit Your words and law,
And whether the souls that must screech and caw
Are not more in line with the heavenly tales.

17 "Recall what Amalek with prod
Did to you on the way as you
Were coming out of Egypt too,
18 "How he met you upon the way
And attacked your rear ranks and stay,
All the stragglers at your rear, when
You were both tired and weary men,
And he did not fear Ælohim.
19 "Therefore it shall be, as in dream,
When YHWH your God has given you rest
From your enemies east and west,
In the land which YHWH your God's giving
You to possess as place to live in,
That you'll blot out remembrance of
Amalek from under heaven's love.
You'll not forget Amelek's sin.

The retribution paid on the grandsons
Of those who under evil, bloody suns
Lashed out upon the straggling ewes and lambs,
And struck the feeble in their cogs and cams,
Lacks sweetness of revenge, not done in hate,
But at the instigation of Your State.
You command killing all the progeny
Of those who damaged hand and head and knee
And thus fulfilled commanding to the letter
Of visiting on generations better,
On third and fourth for what grandfathers did.
Would not Israel have fought with fuller lust
If You had forbidden the sacred trust?
No wonder, Beloved, that You went and hid.

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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