JUBILEES CHAPTER 13 ~ 17

WEEK 21 JUBILEES 13

1 And Abram journeyed from Haran,
He took Sarai, his wife, and man
Lot, his brother Haran’s son, to
The land of Canaan, and with few
He came into Asshur, and then
Proceeded to Shechem, again
Lived near a lofty oak. 2 And he
Saw, and, indeed, the land to see
Was very pleasant from the way
That goes by Hamath to the oak
Of revelation. 3 And YHWH spoke
To him, “To you and to your seed
Will I give all this land indeed.”
4 And he built an altar there, and
He offered thereon as was planned
A burnt sacrifice to YHWH, who
Had appeared to him in the dew.

Beloved, the holiness of oaks is known
In every place where holy oaks are grown
From Palestine or Canaan to the throne
Of Celtic isles. Beneath the root the bone
Of priest and priestess lie, no longer groan.
And yet beyond the parched and pagan myth
I seek Your revelation true to pith.
I am not satisfied with goddess and
The gods that whisper to the meadowland.
I am not satisfied with vision grand
That with ideas comes shining into mind.
I recognize the poaching of the blind.
Beyond the oak of revelation I
Flee to You in Your own reality.

5 And he went out from there into
The mountain . . . Bethel on the west
And Ai on the east to rest,
And pitched his tent there. 6 And he saw
And indeed, the land was for awe
Very wide and good, everything
Grew on it: vines and figs to sing
And pomegranates, and oaks and
Ilexes, and terebinths and stand
Of olive trees, and cedars and
Cypresses and date palms, and all
The trees of the field, and there was
Water on the mountains to pause.

The ten trees of new Canaan’s land repose
Before the eyes of Abram not to close
Before the first sight of the promised land.
The gift was given but not yet in hand,
And at the gems of wood before his eyes
He paused to stare and wonder in surprise.
I too look at the stout and fruitful ten
That You once spoke in hearing of all men.
I see the green leaf and the fragrant fruit,
I taste and swoon and taste again the root.
Beloved, I kiss the jewelled trees in tow
And in that kiss from doubt turn out to know.
Beloved, Beloved, spread always out before
Me Your trees from the sky up to my door.

7 And he blessed YHWH who had led him
Out of Ur of the Chaldees grim,
And had brought him up to this land.
8 And it happened in first year’s hand,
In the seventh week, on the first
Day of the first month, 1954 A.M.] that not worst
He built an altar on this mount,
And called on name of YHWH to count,
“You, the eternal Ælohim,
Are my God and are not a dream.”
9 And he offered on the altar
A burnt sacrifice unto YHWH
That He should be with him as far
As he might go and not forsake
Him all the days of his life true.
10 And he removed from there to make
His way towards the south, and he
Came to Hebron, Hebron’s degree
Was built at that time, and he dwelt
There two years, and he left that belt
To go into the southland, to
Bealoth, and there a famine blew
In the land. 11 And Abram went to
Egypt in third year of the week,
And he lived in Egypt and meek
Five years before his wife was torn
Away from him and left forlorn.
12 Now Tanais in Egypt was built
At that time, seven years unspilt
After Hebron. 13 And it took place
When Pharaoh seized Sarai for grace,
The wife of Abram that YHWH laid
Plagues on Pharaoh and his house stayed
Because of Sarai, Abram’s wife
That he had stolen in the strife.

From seventy-six to nineteen-sixty-one
Makes Abram eighty-five and just for fun
If I give Sarai ten years less it seems
That at her age Pharaoh was seeing dreams
To think she might add early bloom and flower
To kingly harem at that day and hour.
There’s no accounting taste in women so
I let that improbability go.
It happened once again and some years later
Abimelech was tempted too to mate her.
Incredible it seems that men of old
And kings in prime should give their hard-earned gold
To snatch a glance of ancient, well-turned heel.
One never knows how another may feel.

14 And Abram was very wealthy
By reason of possessions free
In sheep, and cattle, asses, and
Horses, and camels, and in hand
Menservants, and maidservants, and
Silver and gold exceedingly.

Beloved, I have in hand but little wealth,
Although it more than feeds my bod in stealth.
I have no sheep nor cattle, no, nor donkeys
To say nothing of horse and camel wonkeys.
My silver and my gold held in a spoon
Would not pay for a boughten meal at noon.
And yet I do not covet Abram’s quid,
Nor look with longing heart on what he hid.
Beloved, I covet Abram’s faith in You,
I covet all the visions come in view,
Not for their promises of land in due,
But merely for the guidance of Your hand,
The still small voice above the rich and grand,
The loving heart that is my sole command.

And Lot also his brother’s son,
Was wealthy from ounce, pound and tonne.
15 And Pharaoh gave back Sarai, wife
Of Abram, and he without strife
Sent him back out of Egypt’s land,
He journeyed to where he would stand
His tent as at the start, and to
The place of the altar, with crew
Of Ai on the east, and on
The west Bethel, and thereupon
He blessed the Lord his God who’d brought
Him back in peace and saved from plot.

Abram gained wealth in the metropolis
By prostituting wife to Pharoah’s kiss.
Although the thing was done by violence
And not by Abram’s plan at her expense,
The end result is just the same. We see
Abram walk off with profit and money
And Sarai returned from the harem’s spree.
I too have been a while in the big city
And seen how things are done there without pity.
I too have cut my losses from the church
That left me high and wet and in the lurch.
And I too build an altar in the east
And bow to You alone, Beloved, and feast.

16 It took place in the forty-first
Jubilee in the third immersed
Year of the first week, [1963 A.M.] that he came
Back to this place and offered flame
Of sacrifice, called on the name
Of YHWH, and said “You, the most high
El El God, are my God for aye.”

Beloved, I come with self as sacrifice
To Your Self here above the snow and ice.
The burning cold reminds my glowing skin
To be the slaying flaying and the kin
Of Abram’s ram offered with kindled flame
To You, Beloved, who meet in hidden fame
The one who comes to You where sacred place
Reveals the secret of Your hidden face.
The forty-first Jubilee leaves behind
The generations of a humankind
Looking for wealth and knowledge of the rind.
I turn forward in hope that I shall find
A new seeking and searching for Your own.
Such is my turning, if I turn alone.

17 And in the fourth year of this week [1964 A.M.]
Lot parted from him, and with cheek
Lot lived in Sodom, and the men
Of Sodom were sinners again.
18 And it grieved him at heart that his
Brother’s son had parted from his
Place, for he had no spawn. 19 In that
Year when Lot was taken like sprat,
YHWH said to Abram, after that
Lot had parted from him, in year
Number four of this week, “Don’t fear,
Lift up your eyes from the place where
You are living, northward and fair
To southward, and westward and east.
20 “For all land on which Your eyes feast
I will give to you and your seed
For ever, and I’ll make your seed
As sand of the sea: though a man
May count the dust of earth by plan,
Yet your seed shall not be numbered.
21 “Get up, walk through the land and stirred
Throughout its length and breadth, and see
It all, for to your seed in fee
Will I give it.” And Abram went
To Hebron, and lived there in tent.

I live in log cabin for tent far from
Hebron, and dream the warming sun has come.
The morning is no light at all, I see
The snow and ice on every stone and tree.
If You, Beloved, had spoken once to me,
I think You would have mentioned not the sand
Upon the desert floor on every hand,
But snowflakes. Count the snowflakes on the strand.
A million settled yesterday upon
My step, and now they’re frozen in the dawn,
The dark dawn of the north that sees no sun,
But waves the northern lights good-bye for fun.
I live in a log house for tent and dream
Of Hebron far away from soul and seam.

22 And in this year Chedorlaomer,
King of Elam, came out unfair
And Amraphel, king of Shinar,
And Arioch of Sellasar,
And Tergal, king of nations, and
Slew the king of Gomorrah, and
The king of Sodom fled away,
And many fell through wounds that day
In vale of Siddim, by Salt Sea.

You once said to mankind Thou shalt not kill,
And since that time earth’s kings have had their fill,
And still go out against each other clad
In armour. Does it not make You both mad
And sad to see how few obey Your word?
Who do not kill themselves, are rather stirred
To praise the actions of the kings that do.
I take refuge, Belovèd One, in You.
The armies that protect the lurid view
Of Sodom and Gomorrah from the fate
That kings beyond the Jordan would instate
Are no more righteous today than of yore.
They all in common glory in the gore
Or in the grand hypocrisy in store.

23 And they took captive Sodom free
And Adam and Zeboim, and
They took captive Lot also manned,
The son of Abram’s brother, and
All his possessions, and they went
To Dan. 24 And one who’d escaped sent
And told Abram his brother’s son
Had been taken captive and won,
And Abram armed his household men . . .

Today there is no Abram in his tent
With army of three hundred men that meant
With thirteen more to scatter where they went
The armies of those seeking wealth and store.
Today Your appointed is gone
Into the hidden pastures and the lawn
To fight a battle secret from the dawn
With hand not unknown from the gore.
The human heart would fight or flee the wrong
That piles up with a gyration and song
And stays for days and nights and makes them long.
But flight and fight are not my place to take
As long as the great master of the wake
Remains hidden and ruling for Your sake.

25 For Abram, and his seed again,
A tenth of the first fruits to YHWH,
And YHWH ordained it as a true
Ordinance for ever that they
Should give it to the priests in pay
Who served before Him, and that they
Should possess it for ever too.

Today there is no priest before Your cord
Of temple, temple too is unadored.
Today there is no hand to take the rest,
The tenth of firstfruits and the chicken breast.
Hands many there be that would take the store
And add to it another tenth and score,
But robber hands shall meet the threshing floor
And add their blood to innocence in gore.
I flee to You, Beloved, and give my all,
Myself in sacrifice, fat calf in stall,
And every firstfruit to be blessed withal
As You whirl through the ruby cloud at dawn
To fill the green and silver-dewy lawn
With Your appearance in a flash and gone.

26 And to this law there is no band
In limit of days, for His hand
Has ordained it for generations
For ever and to all the nations
That they should give to YHWH of all
The tenth, of the seed and the ball
Of the grape juice and of the oil
And of the cattle and the coil
Of the sheep. 27 And He gave to His
Priests to eat and to drink the fizz
With joy before Him. 28 And the king
Of Sodom came out on the wing
To him and bowed down before him,
And said “Our Lord Abram, give us
The souls which You have rescued thus,
But let the booty be your own.”
29 And Abram said to him for throne,
“I lift up my hands to the Most
High El, that from a thread to boast
To a shoe-latchet I shall not
Take anything that you have got
Lest you should say, I’ve made Abram
Rich in both sheep and ox and ram,
But only what the young men ate,
And the portion of the men great
Who went with me, Aner, Eschol,
And Mamre, let these have their toll.”

I cut losses and have no truck or trade
With Sodom’s king who went out at tirade
To hide among the lilies and the grapes
Confusing the invaders with their shapes.
I cut losses and avoid all the crew
Of Baal worshippers, let them have their due.
Let sun worship and bloody sacrifice
Of human forms and all that they think nice
Be put out from my heart and hand and home.
I’d rather, poor or wealthy, stand to roam
Like Abraham, than set my teeth on edge
With Luther’s real presence in the sedge.
Beloved, I take not string nor latchet prop,
Nor share with Sodom’s king morsel or sop.

JUBILEES 14

1 After these things, in the fourth year
Of this week, on the first day’s steer
Of the third month, the word of YHWH
Came to Abram in a dream true,
Saying “Fear not, Abram, I am
Your defender, and your reward
Will be very great.” 2 He said “Lord,
Lord, what will You give me for ham,
Seeing I go childless, and this
Son of Maseq, the son of this
Handmaid of mine, is Dammasek
Eliezer: and he will trek
To be my heir, and to me You
Have given no spawn as my due.”

There is a way lined out in the parade
Of human thought and culture that has made
Solutions to all problems men may face.
It is a common feature of the race.
If there’s no son, the nearest one to hand
Is best fitted to the succession planned.
Even a prophet cannot see beyond
The glade in which he sits with fern and frond.
Like Moses before Enoch’s troubled test
He has his own blind way to foil the best.
From that humankind sinks into the lust
Of democratic doing in the dust.
Of course it is the best we have in bog
If we forget Your word in Decalogue.

3 And He said to him, “This one will
Not be your heir, but one that will
Come out of your own loins, he will
Be your heir.” 4 And He brought him still
Abroad, and said to him, “Look toward
Heaven and count the stars’ accord
If You can number them.” 5 And he
Looked toward the sky, and saw the stars.
And He said to him, “So shall be
Your family in all its cars.”

Beloved, You speak and man looks up to see
The stars arrayed into eternity,
The thunder on the mountain and the smoke
That rushes on the heavens where You spoke.
Beloved, You give command and man obeys
And counts the lights above the gracious ways
That stream out from the marvels of the nights
And shine into the day with all its rights.
The answer to questions of universe
Demand I count the wings of the perverse.
The answer to duty to survive this
Is waiting for Your whisper and Your kiss.
Beloved, I stand below the graven hill
To find Sinai transfiguration’s bill.

6 And he believed in YHWH, and so
It was accounted to his stow
For righteousness. 7 And He told him,
“I’m YHWH that brought you from the grim
Chaldees’ Ur, to give you the land
Of Canaanites to keep in hand
For ever, and I will be God
To you and yours upon the sod
After you.” 8 And he said “Lord, Lord,
How shall I know I’ll receive it?”
9 And He said to him, “Take Me fit
A heifer of three years, and goat
Of three years, and a sheep of note
Three years old, and a turtle-dove,
And a pigeon.” 10 And the above
He took all in the middle of
The month and he lived at the oak
Of Mamre, near to Hebron’s stroke.

Believing what You say is righteousness.
I believe what You said at Abram’s guess,
And what You said in public from the hill
Of Sinai in words heard by Jack and Bill.
I believe what You say in secret dream
To all the prophets in the Scripture’s seam.
And believing Your word and promise true
I show my belief in the things I do,
Ignoring what the crowd would mandate to
The hand of everyone in Katmandu.
Beloved, I whirl upon the circle of
The Decalogue cantillated in love,
And thus move my straw in the cosmic wind
Regenerating fast a world that sinned.

11 And there he built an altar, and
Sacrificed all these, on the stand
Of the altar he poured their blood,
And divided them in the flood,
And laid them over each on each,
But he did not divide the reach
Of the birds. 12 And birds came down
Upon the pieces, with a frown
Abram drove them away, and did
Not let the birds touch what he hid.
13 And it happened, when sun had set,
That ecstasy [in deep trance] set
On Abram, and indeed a dark
Great horror fell upon him stark,
And it was said to Abram, “Know
Surely your children on the go
Shall be as strangers in a land
That is not theirs, and they shall stand
In bondage and affliction there
Four hundred years. 14 “And I will bear
Also judgement upon the nation
Also to whom they will in station
Be as servants, and after that
They shall come out from where they sat
With great possessions. 15 “And You’ll go
To your fathers in peaceful show,
And be buried in good old age.
16 “But on fourth generation’s page
They shall return here, for the sin
Of Amorite’s not yet in bin.”

Beloved, the prophet knew the future caught
In the web of the divine astronaut.
You told him after fifty years of grief
Drove him to seek in every chance relief
From worry for the future. Let my hope
Remain in You despite the cunning rope
Of darkness that the future holds for me.
I live in trust of You and come what see.
My great grandson may or may never be,
But in the circle of the ages free
My whirling in Your name eternally
Shall have its song and step before Your throne,
Though I may lie with nothing on my bone,
Beneath the sinking suns and silently.

17 And he woke up from his sleep, and
He got up, and the sun had set,
And there was a flame on each hand,
And a furnace indeed to get
Smoke, and a flame of fire between
The pieces. 18 And on that day’s scene
YHWH made covenant with Abram,
Saying ‘To your children I am
Giving this land, up from the flow
Of Egypt, up to where shall go
The great river, River Euphrates,
The Kenites, the Kenizzite mateys,
The Kadmonites, the Perizzites,
The Rephaim, the Phakorites,
And the Hivites, and Amorites,
And Canaanites, and Girgashites,
And Jebusites. 19 And the day passed,
Abram offered the pieces last,
And the birds, and their fruit offerings,
And their drink offerings in their springs,
And fire consumed them. 20 On that day
We made covenant with Abram,
According as we had made way
Of covenant in epigram
With Noah in this month, and he,
Abram, renewed the festival
And ordinance perpetual
For himself. 21 And Abram rejoiced,
And made known all these things loud-voiced
To Sarai his wife, and believed
That he’d have children unrelieved,
But she did not bear. 22 And Sarai
Advised her husband Abram why,
And said to him, “Go in to Hagar,
My Egyptian maid not to plague her:
It may be that I shall build up
My children to you by her cup.”
23 And Abram listened to the voice
Of Sarai his wife out of choice,
And said to her, “Do so indeed.”
And Sarai took Hagar, her maid,
The Egyptian, and gave her to
Abram, her husband, to be due
His wife. 24 And he went in to her,
And she conceived and was astir
To bear him a son, and he called
His name Ishmael, heard well installed,
In the fifth year of this week’s tier [1965 A.M.],
And this was the eighty-sixth year
In the life of Abram with fear.

The middle of the third month set the tune
For Pentecost, day of Enoch at noon
And thanksgiving of Noah from the ark.
Who knows but what it goes back to the park.
And on this day of blessing in the year,
The only one to fall on first day’s gear
When Baal and sun worshippers come to fear,
Abram also sees visions fearsome, stark.
Strange that the miracle should set about
To make him take another wife en route.
Yet such was Your will, My Beloved, to show
The famous prophet Ishmael on the go.
The blessings of the day reach to this time
And make rejoice my heart in song and rhyme.

WEEK 22 JUBILEES 15

1 And in the fifth year of the fourth
Week of this jubilee, [1979 A.M.] went forth
In the third month, and in the middle
Of the month, Abram, came to fiddle
The celebration of the feast
Of first-fruits of the grain increased.
2 And he offered new offerings
On the altar, the first-fruits’ springs
To YHWH, a heifer and a goat
And a sheep on the altar dote
As a burnt sacrifice to YHWH,
Their fruit offerings, drink offerings due
He offered on the altar with
Frankincense. 3 And YHWH appeared with
Abram, and said to him, “I am
Ælohim Almighty, Abram,
Approve yourself before me and
Be perfect. 4 “And I will command
My covenant between Me and
You, and I will multiply you
Exceedingly beyond your few.”

You always demand of a man perfection,
And so in times past that was predilection
Of every man. All tried utmost to be
And do everything done as perfectly.
My grandfather could make a hunting gun
From just a lump of iron and stock begun
Of curly maple seasoned in the shed.
The bore was perfect when the thing was fed.
Today a man is satisfied to bet
A shilling that his hand’s not steady yet.
Better perfection than the blinding brood
Of self-effacement in self-esteem stewed
Who are great just because they are in feud
With Self and ignore Your command well set.

5 And Abram fell upon his face,
And Ælohim talked in that place
With him, and said “Indeed my law
Is with you, and you shall in awe
Be the father of many nations.

When Abram lived upon the earth the glow
Of nations had but little in the show
Of descent from the chosen man below.
A cousin perhaps sat upon the throne
Of Ur which he with good sense left alone.
But now his flock’s dispersed around the globe
And wearing turtleneck and silken robe.
From Zanzibar to Vladivostok I
Might find the set of jaw, the glint of eye
Betraying descent from Abram to spy.
All now receive the promises made then
That You, Beloved, should come down among men
And join the inner Self along the road
Where caravans once traded load for load.

6 “Neither shall your name in your stations
Anymore be called Abram, but
Your name from now on, shall be cut
For ever as Abraham. 7 “For
Father of many nations more
I have made you. 8 “And I will make
You very great, and I will make
You into nations, and kings shall
Come out of you. 9 “Surely I shall
Establish My covenant here
Between Me and you, without fear,
And your children after you, to
Their generations not a few,
For an eternal covenant,
So that I may be a God meant
For you, and for your children sent.
10 “The land where you’ve been sojourning,
The land of Canaan, that I bring
You to possess it always, and
I will be their God in the land.”

The centuries between that day and this
Suppose that even Abraham’s sons miss
Perhaps the covenant. No one is sure
He is not of Abraham’s descendant pure.
And yet as I train feet to climb the rock
Encrusted with arboreal ice stock,
And hear the black-cap twittering Your name,
I think I too must have covenant claim
That You are my God as much as the One
Of fir and pine and creature on the run.
My tracks are so much like theirs that my wife
Warns me such denizens have come for strife
Into the garden, where my feet have made
Marks in the gathered snow instead of spade.

11 And YHWH said to Abraham “And
As for you, keep my covenant,
You and your every descendant
After you: and circumcise each
Male among you, and in your reach,
Circumcise your foreskins, and it
Shall be a token and sign fit
Of an eternal covenant
Between Me, you and descendant.

Let me register one more time surprise
For the sign of Your covenant in guise.
You do not put the thing in Decalogue,
Which means circumcision is not whole hog.
The thing seems to fastidious mind like mine
Trained up in civilization to whine
Not only surprising but primitive
Excess come from where people learn and live
Without the benefit of thought and grace.
If I’d not been done by parents apace
I think I could like St. Paul find a trace
Excuse to dispense with the circumcision
Delivered centuries ago in vision,
Passed down as a tradition in collision.

12 “And the child on the eighth day you
Shall circumcise, each male in view
Throughout your generations, him
That’s born in the house, or whom trim
You’ve bought with money from any
Stranger, whom you’ve acquired in fee
Who’s not your child. 13 “And everyone
Born in your homestead shall be done
In circumcision, and those whom
You have bought with money and room
Shall be circumcised, and My pact
Shall be in your flesh for an act
Eternal. 14 “And uncircumcised
Male who’s not circumcised, apprised
In the flesh of his foreskin on
The eighth day, that soul shall be drawn
Off from his people, for he’s broken
My covenant at least in token.”

Some put the circumcision off to be
Until the boy has attained puberty,
No doubt in imitation of Ishmael
Who was at that stage when You made the file.
The servant bought was also circumcised
At what age he was when he was apprised.
The eighth day is an ideal for the true
Born in the family, part of the crew.
Beloved, the days go by, Your footprints seem
To vanish and appear beside the stream
In sands of silver where the green fronds gleam.
The eighth day from birth is eternity
For me who wander in search of Your tree
And find my pagan heart leaning on Thee.

15 Ælohim said to Abraham,
“As for Sarai your wife madam,
Her name shall be Sarai no more,
But Sarah shall be her name’s store.
16 “And I will bless her, and give you
A son by her, and I will bless
Him, and he shall come to impress,
Become a nation, and kings of
Nations shall come from him in love.”
17 And Abraham fell on his face,
And rejoiced, and said in his pace,
“Shall a son be born to him that
Is a hundred years old and fat,
And shall Sarah, who’s ninety years
Old, bring forth children without tears?”
18 And Abraham told Ælohim,
“O that Ishmael might live and dream
Before you!” 19 And Ælohim said
“Yes indeed, and Sarah shall bed
Also a son, and you shall call
His name Isaac, and I’ll install
My covenant with him, a great
And everlasting covenant,
And for his descendants in state
After him. 20 “And the applicant
For Ishmael also I have heard,
And indeed I’ll bless him by word,
And make him great, and multiply
Him exceedingly to the sky,
He shall beget twelve princes, and
I’ll make him great and in the land.

With the same promise made to both the sons
Even in Jubilees, after the tons
Of troubles with so many relatives,
Before the quarrels, I must say “What gives?”
Arab and Israelite still join the fray
Each with their unique claims in light of day,
Forgetting that Isaac and Ishmael too
Were beloved sons of one father and crew.
Beloved, You made a world and in it set
Humankind before Your face to be met
As reflection of Your love and Your being.
Too often hearts are harder than eyes seeing.
As territorial species mankind
May not be dumb, but is both deaf and blind.

21 “And I’ll establish covenant
With Isaac, whom Sarah shall plant
For you, in these days, in next year.”
22 He left off speaking with him clear,
Ælohim went from Abraham.
23 And Abraham did according
As Ælohim in cryptogram
Had said to him, and so he took
Ishmael his son, no backward look,
And all that were born in his house,
And whom he had bought with his browse,
Each male in his house, and went out
To circumcise and cut about
The flesh of their foreskin with shout.

Such firm believer in democracy
As every man in this blessed century
Must be to keep his citizenship free,
I wonder that You command Abraham
To circumcise the pox ad nauseam
Of servants bought for money and who wait
To do the bidding of Sarah or great
Abraham without murmuring their fate.
It is enough they’re forced to do the task.
So could not circumcision wait to ask
If they would take the covenant or no?
Of course none ask the eight days child to show
His willingness, and son is greater than
The servant, whether maidservant or man.

24 And on the self-same day was set
Abraham circumcised, and yet
All the men of his house, and all
Those whom he’d bought with money’s thrall
From offspring of the stranger, all
Were circumcised with him. 25 This law
Is for all generations’ awe
For ever, and there is no claw
Of circumcision of the days,
And no omission of the rays
Of one day out of the eight days,
For it’s eternal ordinance,
Ordained and written utterance
Upon the heavenly tablets’ glance.

The lovely Jesus once pointed out that
The circumcision once in seven sat
Upon the holy Sabbath. He forgot
The irony of circumcision plot
That it fell on all men near enough to
Cut with a blade in hand, and that is true.
No wonder faithful Jewish doctors caught
In the American hospital plot,
And Muslim physicians who also wait
On Christian children in Chicago’s state,
Take on themselves the burden of command
And cut each and every baby in hand.
The covenant’s to cut without waiting
Beyond the day each superfluous wing.

26 And every one that’s born, the flesh
Of whose foreskin is not done fresh
And circumcised on the eighth day,
Belongs not to the children’s way
Of pact YHWH made with Abraham,
But to destruction and to damn,
Nor is there, moreover, a sign
On him that he’s the Lord’s divine,
But he’s destined to be destroyed
And slain from the earth, and employed
To be rooted out of the earth,
For he’s broken the pact of YHWH
Our God. 27 For all the angels true
Of the presence and all those yet
Angels sanctified where they’re set
Have been created from the day
Of their creation in their sway,
And before angels of presence
And sanctification’s incense
He has sanctified Israel,
That they should be with Him a spell
And with His holy angels swell.

Even the angels have no choice to be
Uncircumcised if they wish to be free.
Some men are even born as so angelic
Despite the protestations evangelic.
Without mercy the others are destroyed
In the words that the Jubilees employed.
Excuse for that is broken covenant.
Why not destroy instead uncle and aunt
Who left the child uncircumcised to dance?
The child’s not responsible for his pants.
Perhaps the focus on individual
Responsibility this day banal
Should be reviewed and in its place to stand
Corporate grace and righteousness well-planned.

28 Command the folk of Israel
And let them too observe the sign
Of this covenant and design
For their generations as an
Eternal ordinance by plan,
That they will not be rooted out
Of the land. 29 For the command shout
Is ordained for a covenant,
That they observe it poursuivant
For ever among all the folk
Of Israel. 30 For Ishmael and
His sons and all his brothers and
Esau, YHWH did not cause to stand
Approaching Him, He chose them not
To be His priests, they are the lot
In children of Abraham still,
Because He knew them, but His will
Was to choose Israel to be
His representatives in fee.
31 And He sanctified it, and took
It gathered from among the book
Of all the children of men, for
There are many nations and more
Of peoples, and all are His, and
Over all He’s placed spirits’ hand
Leading them astray from His band.

Are all the nations of the world astray
Except for Israel by Aqaba’s bay?
I see Your Decalogue printed out nice
In principles found in every faith’s slice,
At least in half and often more. I see
That no nation follows You faithfully.
Even Israel is known to kill at times,
If other nations have their fill of crimes.
My Iroquoian soul’s divided up
Into twelve portions in one reeling cup
To be Christian, Muslim, Jewish, not last
Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist and Zoroast,
Confucianist and four more yet unstated,
All looking to You, my Love, unabated.

32 But over Israel He did
Not appoint any angel lid
Or spirit, for He is alone
Their ruler, and He from His throne
Will preserve them and require them
At the hand of His angels’ hem
And His spirits, and at the hand
Of all His powers in the land
In order that He may preserve
Them and bless them, that they not swerve
From being His and He may be
Theirs from now and eternally.

Perhaps the chosen tribe despite their killing
Shall be rewarded with life though unwilling,
And all others cast in eternal death.
I submit to Your will, Beloved, with breath
Lent from You one kiss at a time. I see
My wayward soul spinning though faithfully
Without reward sent out to wander fast
In the desert of space without the blast
Of punishment greater than to be drawn
Into the burning sun of Your love’s dawn
To disappear without a tracing being
Into the great heart that lifted by freeing
Israel from Egypt. Beloved, I ask no
Grace beyond the burning love in its glow.

33 And now I announce to you that
The children of Israel for scat
Will not keep true this ordinance,
They will not circumcise for chance
Their sons according to this law,
In circumcision’s flesh to draw
They will omit cutting their sons,
And all of them, Beliar’s sons,
Will leave their sons uncircumcised
As they were born and were apprised.
34 And there will come down a great wrath
From YHWH on Israel’s folk’s path,
Because they forsook covenant
And turned back from His word to rant,
And provoked and blasphemed, since they
Do not observe this law and way,
For they’ve treated their members like
The Gentiles, so they may for spike
Be removed and rooted out of
The land. And there will be no love
Or pardon or forgiveness to
Them [so that there should be found due
Forgiveness and pardon] for all
The sin of this eternal thrall.

I weep to read these words, Beloved, and know
That scholars report they return the show
Of Hellenizers naked in the gym
With foreskins hanging proudly at their whim.
Not uncut nakedness brings on my tears,
But that the prophecy in anger’s fears
Was justified in centuries to come
As the slaughters added sum upon sum
And as the people were driven to slum
Away from horrible Jerusalem.
Forgive not only Israel, Beloved,
But all mankind, both silk and leather gloved,
Who stand before Your throne by day and night
Without once realizing their lost plight.

JUBILEES 16

1 And on the first day of the fourth
Month (Wednesday) We appeared and ventured forth
To Abraham, at the oak of
Mamre, and We talked in Our love
With him, and we announced to him
That a son would be born to him
By Sarah his wife. 2 Sarah laughed,
For she heard what We said and quaffed
With Abraham, so We scolded
Her, and she feared for what she did,
And denied that she’d laughed because
Of the words. 3 And despite her flaws
We told her the name of her son,
As his name’s ordained and begun
In the celestial tablets won,
As Isaac, 4 And when we returned
To her at a set time unspurned,
She would have conceived a son then.

If Isaac’s name was ordained for his fame
In the celestial tablets as a claim,
Then it made no sense for Sarah in time
Not to laugh, not laughing would be a crime
Against what You had ordained for her part.
It’s no use complaining when we take heart
To do as You’ve determined from the start.
Beloved, let Sarah laugh, it’s not a thing
Forbidden on the tablets or the ring
Of Decalogue. Let Sarah laugh for joy
Or in ignorant derision employ
The tongue You gave her. My Beloved, I try
To sit on threshold of the opal sky
And watch Your moving tablets slipping by.

5 And in this month YHWH executed
His judgments on Sodom refuted,
Gomorrah, and Zeboim, and
All the region of Jordan’s land,
And He burned them with brimstone and
Fire, and destroyed them till this day,
Even as I have had my say,
Declared to you in all their works,
That they’re wicked with sinners’ quirks,
And that they defile themselves and
Do fornication on the sand
In their flesh, and work uncleanness
On the earth. 6 And, in like address,
Ælohim will work out judgment
On the places where they have lent
The uncleanness of Sodomites,
Like the judgment of Sodom’s lights.

The fourth month, on a pleasant day in June
When the sun had waxed hot before its noon,
You rained down brimstone on Sodom to be
A warning for the afterworld to see.
You who created instinct in mankind
To copulate, one strong enough to bind
The population to some reproduction
Without an irresistible seduction,
Know well enough how strong to make the drive
So that it works, but does not enslave hive.
One can choose to control but not to set
Wholly aside what’s in the body met.
And having given choice, Beloved, You make
A man responsible for that choice’ sake.

7 But Lot we saved, for Ælohim
Remembered Abraham in dream,
And sent him out from the destruction.
8 He and daughters without abduction
Committed sin upon the earth,
Such as had not been on the earth
Since days of Adam till his time,
The man lay with his daughters prime,
As it would seem priest with parishioner
Reluctantly to put his fish in her.
9 And, indeed, it was commanded
And engraven concerning bid
Of all his descendants upon
The heavenly tablets, to be drawn,
Removed and rooted out, and make
Judgment upon them in like stake
As of Sodom, and leave no seed
Of the man on the earth to bleed
Upon the day of condemnation.
10 And in this month Abraham’s station
Moved from Hebron, and departed
And lived between Kadesh and hid
By Shur upon the mountains of
Gerar. 11 And in the middle of
The fifth month he moved from there, and
Lived at Beer Sheba on the sand.

Beloved, it is not necessary that
You give me explanation for the fat
And lean on earth, and for the count diminished
Of one folk or the numbers not yet finished
Of some folk other. Lot’s born family
Was rated in the heavenly tablet’s fee
Not to continue in the earthly spree.
Root out, Beloved, whom You will, but invent
No reasons to give my mind worry spent.
Sin it may be in trying to prevent
Misfortune of extinction, but the pride
Of succession is one come from Your side
On all who obey the first law to be
Progenitors and do so faithfully.

12 In middle of the sixth month YHWH
Visited Sarah and did to
Her as He had spoken and she
Conceived. 13 And she bore a son wee
In the third month, and in the middle
Of the month, at the time and fiddle
Of which YHWH had told Abraham,
On the festival of the yam,
First fruits of the harvest, was born
Isaac. 14 And Abraham was sworn
To circumcise his son upon
The eighth day: he was the first drawn
To be circumcised according
To covenant everlasting.

Isaac was the first to be circumcised
Upon the eighth day as it was apprised.
His birth on the feast of first fruits was great,
Although in that place there was threatened fate
That being cut the second week of June
Was like to bring infection in the noon
Sun of July. So I should have thought twice
About such operations almost vice.
Of course that’s not to ignore Sarah’s fear
When Abraham took him first of the year
In mock sacrifice to assuage the thirst
Of Canaanite for human offering worst,
Or as it may be at Your own demand.
It is not found in Decalogue’s command.

15 And in the sixth year of the week
Four We came to Abraham’s peek,
To Beer Sheba, and we appeared
To him [as we’d had Sarah feared
That we should return to her, and
She’d have conceived a son in hand.
16 In the seventh month We returned,
And found Sarah with child unspurned
Before us] and we blessed him, and
We announced to him all at hand
Which had been decreed about him,
That he should not die nor grow slim
Till he should beget six sons more,
And should see them before the door
Of his death, but that in Isaac
Should his name and descendants’ pack
Be called: 17 and all the children of
His sons [to be born] should for love
Be many peoples, and be counted
Great with the earth’s peoples amounted,
And from the sons of Isaac one
Should become a holy seed won,
And should not be counted among
The peoples. 18 For he should be hung
A special portion of Most High,
And all his descendants to spy
Had fallen as possession to
Ælohim, also unto YHWH
A people for possession true
Above all nations and it should
Become a kingdom of priests good
And holy nation. 19 And We went
Our way, and we announced as sent
To Sarah all that we had told
Him, and they both rejoiced with bold
Great joy. 20 And he built there an altar
To YHWH who had with guiding halter
Delivered him, and who was making
Him rejoice there where he was taking
His sojourn, and he celebrated
A festival of joy elated
In this month seven days, and near
The altar which he’d built in fear
At Beer Sheba. 21 And he built booths
For himself and for all the youths
In his employ upon this feast,
And he was the first, not the least,
To celebrate Succoth on earth.
22 And during these seven days’ worth
Every day he brought to the place
Of altar a burnt offering’s trace
To YHWH, two oxen, also two
Rams, seven sheep, one he-goat too,
For a sin offering, that he might
By it atone for himself and
For his children. 23 And, as a thank
Offering, seven rams, seven rank
Kids, seven sheep, and seven goats,
And their fruit offerings, corn and oats,
And their drink offerings, and he burnt
All the fat on the altar learnt,
A chosen offering unto YHWH
For a sweet smelling savour’s clue.

The festival of booths it seems was first
Made in rejoicing at the news that burst
On Abraham that six more suns should find
Their way into his house and heart combined
To become nations great and full upon
The earth spread out and in their favour drawn.
But most the festival rejoicing met
The news of Levi as a tribe unset
Among the number of Jacob, but to
Be in itself a nation of priests true.
This priestly bias of the text is taught
By scholar for the writer’s show when caught.
But You and I, Beloved, know what is done
To make all men who choose priests under son.

I turn to You, Beloved, in Abrahamic faith
And pause to mind on earth of elf and wraith
That I sojourn from day to day and seek
A caravan saray each night to peek
At stars open above my sleepy head.
I stop to mind that I am a soul lead
In whirling through the desert without place
Or home or hearth beyond Your hidden face.
I meet the wind, the frost, the cold and heat
And rest my tired frame here at Your feet
For only that brief hour at which is meet
To stay, and then go on my weary way
Rejoicing in the bread and wine the day
Gives to my soul. Beloved, I cannot stay.

24 And morning and evening he burnt
Fragrant substances as he’d learnt,
Frankincense and galbanum, and
Stackte, and nard, and myrrh, and band
Of spice, and costume, all these things
Seven in number offerings,
Crushed, mixed together in like parts
And pure. 25 He celebrated arts
Of this feast during seven days,
Rejoicing in whole-hearted praise
With all his soul, he and all those
Who were in his house, as he chose,
And there was no stranger with him,
Nor any uncircumcised grim.
26 And he blessed his Creator who
Had created him in his crew,
For He’d created him according
To His good pleasure and affording,
For He knew and perceived that from
Him would the righteous planting come
For generations eternal,
From him a seed angelical,
So that it should become like Him
Who’d made all things with gear and trim.
27 And he blessed and rejoiced, and called
The name of this feast as installed
The festival of YHWH, a joy
Acceptable to the employ
Of Most High El. 28 And we blessed him
For ever, his seed after him
Throughout all ages of the earth,
Because he celebrated worth
Of this feast in its season’s birth,
According to the witness’ girth
Of heavenly tablets. 29 For this reason
It is ordained and in its season
Upon the heavenly tablets for
Israel, that they shall keep more
The feast of tabernacles then
For seven days with joy to men,
In seventh month, acceptable
Before YHWH, statute eternal
Throughout their generations’ toll
And every year. 30 And to this there
Is no limit of days, its share
Is ordained for ever regarding
Israel that they should with barding
Celebrate it and live in booths,
And set wreaths on the heads of youths,
And take leafy boughs, and willows
From the brook where the willow grows.

Where I live seventh month may have new frost
To greet the early morning where embossed
With newly fallen leaves the ground shows clear
To greet the crisply standing willows’ fear.
A willow of immense girth on a year
Fell by my house with root still in the ground,
And under its top there may still be found
A willow booth with hops growing around
To kiss the summer days with shade and sly
Myths whispered to an unencumbered sky.
Beloved, I meet you by the willow thrown
Down from Your heaven to meet flesh and bone,
And find its silver leaves when each year grown
The promise of a year that’s not yet known.

31 Abraham took branches of palm,
And the fruit of goodly trees balm,
And every day going around
The altar with the branches’ sound
Seven times [a day] in the morn,
He praised and gave thanks as he’d sworn
To his God for all things in joy
That on earth and in heaven employ.

Beloved, I too pass through the seven veils
To find Your face before which all the tales
Of humankind at last come to a rest.
I circumambulate the earthly breast
To rise at dawn a spark to Your throne’s crest
To disappear within Your calling heart.
The festival is only heaven’s start.
Beloved, I too look to the distant sails
Upon a sea of sturgeon and not whales
To find the rare and hidden loon’s last nest
Among the wails of prehistoric’s best.
I contemplate full what I observe lest
I rise at evening having shirked my part
In Your creations’ full and wondered art.

WEEK 23 JUBILEES 17

1 And in the first year of the week
Five, Isaac was weaned from the seek
In this jubilee, [1982 A.M.] Abraham
Made a great banquet without ham
In the third month, and on the day
His son Isaac was weaned away.
2 And Ishmael, the son of Hagar,
The Egyptian, and not to plague her,
Was before face of Abraham,
His father, in his place and clam,
And Abraham rejoiced and blessed
Ælohim since he’d seen confessed
His sons and had not died childless.
3 And he remembered the address
Which He’d spoken to him that day
On which Lot had parted away
From him, and he rejoiced because
YHWH had given him children’s paws
Upon the earth to inherit
The earth, and he blessed as was fit
With all his mouth the Creator
Of all things. 4 And Sarah saw more
Ishmael playing and dancing, and
Abraham rejoicing at hand
With great joy, and then she became
Jealous of Ishmael and his fame
And said to Abraham, “Cast out
This bondwoman and her son stout,
For the son of this bondwoman
Will not be heir here with my son,
Isaac.” 5 And the thing was grievous
In Abraham’s sight, for the fuss
Over his maidservant and more
Because of his son at the fore,
That he should drive them out from him.

How happy Ishmael was in Isaac’s joy,
And Isaac in big brother’s simple ploy
To sing and dance with him about the camp.
The jealousies of grown-ups always damp
The innocence of love. Beloved, I spring
Into Your arms to flee the thoughtless ring
Of human fears. The shrivelled heart’s offended
By nothing more than joyfulness attended.
Beloved, let my heart be plucked clean and bare
Of every hope and joy, the will to share,
But let it not, beyond the wear and care,
Shrink to that awful state of foul delection
That before innocent joy takes exception.
Bereft if need be, save me that complexion.

6 And Ælohim told Abraham,
“Let it not be grievous to you,
Because of the child and his true
Mother, the bondwoman, in all
That Sarah has said to you, call
Obedience to her words and do,
For in Isaac shall your name and
Seed be called. 7 And of the son grand
Of this bondwoman I will make
Him a great nation for your sake.”

Some would deride denying even promise
Made to Ishmael. I am a doubting Thomas.
I doubt, even when You compel the man
To follow Sarah in her evil plan,
That You strike off Ishmael and to instate
His little brother in the golden plate.
Ishmael would give his very heart for him,
And Isaac loved few with such cherished vim
As his big brother Ishmael with his bow
And brash flight into desert’s evening glow.
Your grace, Beloved, is broad enough for all,
So how could two be cramped once in Your stall?
Ishmael in joy lifts up the new-weaned child,
Remembering him in desert years and wild.

I here protest, Beloved! Sarah defies
Your very own decree beneath the skies
That Ishmael and Isaac should share the store
Of fame and fortune now and evermore.
Sarah defies the divine word, and yet
You give in to the jealous female sweat.
Such patriarchal, chauvinistic skill
Is like to make the modern cads fall ill.
I keep me quiet from the jealous score
And wait in silence on the brazen shore.
I shall not run the risk that You might start
To yield to me too in my craven part,
Although I am no woman, have no heart,
At least I cover mouth in shame, stand still.

8 And Abraham rose up early
In the morning, and took bread free
And a bottle of water too,
And placed them on the shoulders true
Of Hagar and the child, and sent
Her away. 9 And so out she went
And wandered in the wilderness
Of Beer Sheba, until was spent
The water in the bottle, and
The child was thirsty on the land,
Could not go on, and could not stand.

Does no one care that Ishmael thirsts, no one?
Who have no pity on the thirsty run
The risk of turning on a day of sun
To find the way blocked to the river and the stream.
There is no spring even in land of dream
For every hand. There’s always some fraught hour
In life when water is not in one’s power,
And one must bow in gratitude to him
Who draws the draught from Kauthar to the rim.
Without water may stand a golden tower,
But not a man. Beloved, I drink the fit
Wine of Your giving, yet I cannot sit
On earth without the alabaster cup
Remembering Ishmael’s thirst when time was up.

10 And his mother took him and cast
Him under an olive tree fast,
And went and sat down from his place,
At distance of a bow-shot’s trace,
For she said, “Let me never see
The death of my child by the tree,”
And sitting there wept copiously.

The salty tears of Hagar could not quench
The thirst of Ishmael by the olive bench.
The story is repeated at the wheel
Of Genesis, and yet how few here feel
The wrench at heart for Hagar’s sorrow shone.
I must be hard inured by silver stone
Of new broadcast that daily bring the news
That such and such a mother in the pews
Of famine or catastrophe is lost
In sorrow. Seeing sorrow lessens cost.
Beloved, I do not ask to feel the woe
Felt by the daily denizens that know
The heel of accident and pain and crime.
I do not beg to be loosened from time.

11 And an angel of Ælohim,
One of the holy ones to gleam,
Said to her, “Hagar, why weep here?
Get up, take the child without fear,
And hold him in your hand for choice,
For Ælohim has heard your voice,
And seen the child.” 12 She opened eye,
And saw a well of water by,
And she went there and filled her cup
With water, and she lifted up
Her child and gave him what to drink,
And she arose and left that brink
And went towards the wilderness
Of Paran. 13 And the child to bless
Grew and became an archer, and
Ælohim was with him and hand,
And his mother took him a wife
From Egypt’s daughters full of life.

The personality of Hagar leaves
Little to view but hem and flowing sleeves.
She wept her hard lot and that of her son,
Courageously she battled on and won
A place for herself under blazing sun,
But sometimes came to her rope’s end and waited
For You alone when all the world was slated
Against her. It’s so still. Sweet Christians hand
The medals to Sarah, shallow and grand,
Superior for being mistress, not
A servant like Hagar. Yet I’ve been taught
By trips to Egypt to know that the plot
Of personality there runs as sweet
As any. Hagar must have been a treat.

14 And she bore him a son, and he
Called his name Nebaioth, for she
Said “The Lord was here near to me
When I called upon Him for free.”

Ah, note, Beloved, and share what You discern
With all the world who think that You are stern
With every nation but Israel to learn.
This wife of Ishmael, Egyptian wife brought
Up from the delta or the river plot,
Shows faith where woman can, she names her son
After the care that You give when man’s done.
Ah, see, Beloved, no Hebrew woman this
Who brings to You Your honour and a kiss.
Look on the sight, it’s not a thing to miss,
And know that thousands more that seem alone
Also, despite their birth, bow at Your throne.
There is no race or faith but has its own
Who turn to You from hard hearts and from stone.

15 And it happened in seventh week,
In the first year that came to peek, [2003 A.M.]
In first month of this jubilee,
In the twelfth of this month, there came
Voices in heaven for Abraham,
That he was faithful in all that
He told him, and that where he sat
He loved YHWH, and in every trial
He was faithful and without guile.

So Abraham had reputation that
Went far beyond the tent-pin where he sat,
Into the very counsels of Your flight
Beyond the starry winds of day and night.
I look upon a life born like a fish
In silver and gold flashing for a wish,
And find it caught and consumed on a dish,
With nothing left but mess of bones in pile.
Virtue at ending is merely to smile.
I do not look for fame with such fortune,
After I have passed morning and life’s noon,
But ask that after having spoiled the plate,
That something might be left of me for fate
To enter with archangel at fourth gate.

16 And the prince Mastema came and
Said before Ælohim, ‘Command,
Abraham loves Isaac his son,
And he delights in him as won
Above all things, now bid him offer
Him as a burnt-offering to proffer
On the altar, and You will see
If he will do this thing freely,
And You will know if he can be
Faithful in everything whereby
You are pleased to give him a try.

If the prince Mastema is he who came
To invent rites of passage in Your name,
Then do I not well, my Beloved, to seek
No festival beyond the end of week?
Though Abraham delighted in the sons
He sacrificed in the mock ways and runs
That satisfied the populace that went
After Mastema’s sacrificial bent
For human flesh, he humbly bowed to Your
Word that came in a vision of the gore
That You seemed to demand in vision spent
In personal awaiting for present.
Beloved, the vision of one man alone
Leaves to be desired, fie on flesh and bone.

17 And YHWH knew that Abraham was
Faithful in all his trials and claws,
For He had tried him through his land
And with famine, and by command
Had tried him with the wealth of kings,
And tried him again through the things
Of his wife, the time she was torn
From him, and with the bloody thorn
Of circumcision, and had tried
Him through Ishmael and Hagar’s pride,
His maid-servant, when he sent them
Away. 18 In every sleeve and hem
By which He’d tried him, he was found
Faithful, and his soul was not bound
By impatience, and he was not
Slow to act, for he in his plot
Was faithful and loved YHWH a lot.

Your trials, Beloved, did nothing to prove that
Your servant was a good one where he sat.
For doubt arises still in human breast.
Some deny the existence of the best.
But Your trials bore fruit in the way they spoke
To the soul of the man beneath the oak.
Your coming in the sweet and in the fair
Raised in his heart the loveliness of air.
But Your coming upon the awful calm
Of horror bleeding beneath sharpened palm
Sanctified that flesh that in service bent
To find love and alone love was unspent.
Beloved, I flee to Your gross punishment
And rise above the scourgings’ fatal share.

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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