II SAMUEL CHAPTER 22 - 24

Jude Thu 09 May 2013, 02:56

2 SAMUEL 22 See PSALM 18

1And David spoke to YHWH the word
Of this song in the day occurred
YHWH’s salvation from every hand
Of enemy and from Saul’s stand.

Beloved, save me too from the hand of king
And priest and pope and mullah on the string
Of those who lord the heart and mind and find
Time to help greedy wardens in a bind.
Beloved, save me from hand of looking glass
That flatters idle lookers-on that pass
For my own image where should only be
The image of Creator and not me.
Beloved save me from look and thought and love
That short-change buyers on the mask and glove
To fill the raucous air with promise of
The coming satisfaction for the fleet.
Beloved, save me from nothing in the street
But rush to find me waiting where We meet.

2 And he said “YHWH’s my rock and my
Fortress and my Saviour when nigh.

Some say the word that David uses here
When he calls You a rock and Saviour dear,
Means that You are one and the same as Christ
As though the human and divine when spliced
Form God Almighty in a single dream.
Beloved, though there’s no I but You I deem
That Creator and created are not
To be confused no matter what the plot
Of salvation or redemption I sought.
Beloved, the heart is human on the vine
And none can read the inner thought and sign.
The lamp is flickering on the dampened stones
That form the inner temple and the thrones,
But dark corners are always filled with bones.

3 “The Ælohim of my rock and
In Him will I trust where I stand,
My shield and my salvation’s horn,
My high tower and my refuge sworn,
And my deliverer from all
Violent hand against the brawl.
4 “I’ll call to YHWH, worthy of praise,
So be saved from my foes ablaze.

The image of the horn invented by
The mother of Samuel before the try
Of David ever came to seek the throne.
The images of safety in the stone
And horn and shield are not enough alone.
Neither can tower fill my fearing breast
With satisfaction when I am at rest.
Beloved, do You indeed deliver me
From every violent hand that I see?
I trust You not when faced with sword and gun.
I see my hammered heart has battles done
And done again before the war is won.
Beloved, I trust You in the warmth and dark,
But not yet where the tanks and airplanes park.

5 “When waves of death come around me,
Floods of ungodly ones in spree.
6 “The cords of Sheol bind me round,
The snares of death face me aground.
7 “In my affiction I will call
On YHWH and cry to Ælohim,
And He’ll hear my voice from the wall
Of His temple and my cries seem
On His ears everywhere to fall.

The Red Sea still faces Egyptian shore
And that of Araby, and I see more
Water as far as Aqaba and down
To where the Indian Ocean wears the crown.
But there’s no break in all the shining sea
To set foot on dry sand like on the lea.
The cords of Sheol still there softly lap
The pebbles on the beaches of the gap,
And bright fishes swim by the coral reef
To send a message up to unbelief.
Beloved, while I sit by the Red sea wave,
Do you not tell me I sit by the grave?
Beloved, the Red Sea still faces the flight,
The courage, and the day and the starlight.

8 “And then the earth trembled and shook,
The bars of heaven moved at His look
Of anger. 9 “There went up a smoke
From His nostrils, and a fire broke
From His mouth in devouring stroke
To kindle coals of ash and oak.
10 “He bowed the heavens also and came
Down and dark was neath His feet’s claim.
11 “He rode on a cherub and flew,
Seen on the wings where the wind blew.
12 “He made the dark His hiding place,
His tent around Him was dark race
Of waters and thick clouds in sky.
13 “Through the brightness before His eye
Were coals of fire lit bright and high.
14 “YHWH thundered from the sky, Most High
Gave forth His voice and lifted cry.
15 “And He shot arrows, scattered them
In lightning and despoiling them.

The work of Sinai was not done in dream,
Not in the visions of the night to seem
A strange reality beyond the bright
Days of the common life and the sunlight.
The work of Sinai was done in the fear
Of thunder and of lightning to appear
Across the flaming, smoking mountainside,
With arrow and with cherubim to ride.
Beloved, though I was not standing to see
The lightning flash and thunder’s symmetry,
I have seen in my lifetime lightning bare
And heard the thunder quake to lift its share,
And seeing and hearing I know Your word
Is greater than anything that occurred.

16 The channels of the sea appeared,
Foundations of the world unreared,
At the rebuke of YHWH, the blast
Of His nostrils’ breath that He cast.
17 “He sent from above, He took me
He pulled me from the waters’ glee.
He saved me from strong enemy,
And from the ones who hated me,
For they were all too strong for me.

Pharoah rides on again and once again
In the form of the great and evil men
Who wage war on the continents anew
And chase the poor and refugee in view.
The waters rise from Bombay to the coast
Of far Alaska to float in the boast
Of oil and death as long as Pharaoh rides.
And yet, Beloved, Your hand’s the one that guides.
Beloved, I see the chariots in a row
And hear the battle trumpets, see the glow
Of fire and bomb to break the people’s will.
I see the pestilence on every hill
That wears the benefactor’s mask to fill
The earth with violence and evil still.

19 “They came before me on the day
Of my loss, but YHWH was my stay.
20 “He also brought me to a wide
Place, He saved me, because in stride
He set His delight at my side.

Where is that blessèd hiding place now that
The heat detectors searched out where they sat
The hidden poor in desert wilderness?
Where is their safety but within the dress
Of Your divine heart’s bleeding and caress
Of saint beneath a blood-red moon and star
That falls from out its place at noise of car?
Beloved, they came before me on the day
Of my loss, but You were my strength and stay.
And yet I pray for the tons facing ill,
The tons of dying children on the hill
Of the Sudan, of Iraq and the plain
That boasts freedom and liberty in vain.
Someday the violent will foot the bill.

21 “YHWH rewarded me according
To my righteousness as I sing,
According to the purity
Of my hands has He enriched me.

Rabbinicals wash hands before they eat
And pray Your blessing as they do the feat.
Samaritans and Muslims wash them too
Before they pray in morning or night’s dew.
No doubt men of all faiths who wash their hands
Do so while soul bows on the heavenly sands
To beg of You innocence in the way
They use their hands from day to tempting day.
Beloved, though I wash my hands when I take
The bread upon my teeth or at least make
Them clean somehow after relieving’s wake,
I pray to keep my hands clean from the task
That breaks Your loved commandment, so I ask
You guard me in both real life and the masque.

22 “For I have kept the ways of YHWH
And not done as the wicked do
Who depart from my Ælohim.
23 “For all His judgements like a dream
Were before me, and His laws too,
I did not depart from their view.
24 “I was upright before Him too,
And kept myself from wicked rue.
25 “Therefore YHWH has rewarded me
According to my righteous fee,
According to the purity
Of His eye and His sight to see.

Your seeing, my Beloved, is not alone
To evaluate what I cut in stone,
But when You see You stand up to create
A newness in the thing that was of late.
Creative sight of Sovereign and Creator
Makes turns and swirls in steps of every skater
That go beyond the practice of the score.
Your sight alone opens up freedom’s door.
Beloved, as You see me upon the stairs
And hear the humble offering of my prayers,
See my steps stumbling, let Your seeing make
My ways a skillful skipping for Your sake.
And so I shall keep myself from the ill
Until I enter on Your temple’s hill.

26 “To those who live by their mercy
You show Yourself always to be
Merciful, with the upright man
You show Yourself upright in plan.
27 “With the pure You’ll show Yourself pure,
And with the wicked You are sure
To show to them Your ways perverse.

When You inspired Muhammad once to quote
This verse in holy Qur’an, not by rote,
You made it sound as though You knew the way
To heckle hecklers with witty dismay.
Your raucous and disdainful words fall on
The air about the good and evil spawn
Of humankind to prevent the excuse
That wicked ways were not the last abuse.
Beloved, I do not hear deriding voice
To intervene upon the wicked choice,
And yet I know that Your Reality
Sets judgement on all things that I can see
And finds the hidden way beyond my ken
Whereby You speak in silence to all men.

28 “And the afflicted folk You’ll save,
But Your eyes on the proud and knave
Flash out to bring them to the grave.
29 “For You’re my lamp, YHWH and so YHWH
Will lighten me my darkness through.
30 “For by You I’ve run through a troop,
By my Ælohim I’ll take hoop
And jump over a wall with whoop.
31 “El El God, His way’s perfect, YHWH’s
Word is tried, He’s a shield in views
Of all those who trust in His crews.
32 “For who is El a God but YHWH,
And who a rock but our God true?
33 “And El God is my strength and power,
He makes my way perfect an hour.

The four letters that make up Your brief Name,
Beloved, are sacred in order they came,
And though I refer to them here and say
Huu, I do not come near the holy way
That Your Name sounds, for my lips are impure
To say the holy syllables for sure,
And my heart rises in respect and honour
Before Your Name to lay a blessing on her.
Shield me, Beloved, from idols men may choose,
Conditions and preferments in their views,
And be a rock where I may stand to know
That other names, though spoken, come and go.
Beloved, Your word is tried and becomes power
To such as me who cantillate an hour.

34 “He makes my feet like those of deer
And sets me on high places’ cheer.
35 “He teaches my hands to make war,
So that a steel bow meteor
Is broken by my arms in score.
36 “You’ve given me salvation’s shield
Your gentleness makes great my field.
You have enlarged my steps beneath
Me, so my feet did not find teeth.
38 “I have pursued my foes, destroyed
Them and not turned back from employed
Until I had consumed them all.
39 “And I’ve consumed them, wounded tall
So that they could not rise again.
Indeed, under my feet they’ve lain.

Your gentleness, Beloved, may well teach me
To make war on the vile humanity
That would rise up in violence of hope.
Your gentleness may well tie hangman’s rope.
That You stand by to see the wickedness
That freights my world when You could come to bless
May well teach my hands and my feet to war
Until the waiting world is filled with gore.
Beloved, I rise up in ungentle ire
And slay the enemy of my desire
And gate the plague that would cast me in fire.
I cannot cleanse a universe from stain,
Nor make the clouds shine with the sun or rain,
But I make clean of violence my brain.

40 “You strengthen me to battle’s song,
Subduing under me the wrong
Who rose up against me for long.
41 “You’ve given me also the necks
Of my foes, that I may their checks
Destroy because they hate and vex.
42 “They looked, but there was none to save,
Even to YHWH, but He was grave
And did not answer them or wave.
43 “Then did I beat them small as dust
Of the earth, stamp them as I trust
In the mud of the street and spread
Them out abroad where they were led.

These words alas do not apply to me.
All my enemies strike and then go free.
I do not live in such society
Where I have recourse to the law or court,
Both prejudiced against me and my sort.
Nor do I have the inclination roused
To beat to dust the one’s I have aroused
For marching to the sound of other drums,
Specifically Your Decalogue that comes
To conflict with the hue and cry abroad
In this world of no seed but more the pod.
And yet most holy people do relent
To more than half of what they represent
As divine law in ten commandments sent.

44 “You also have delivered me
From my folk’s striving and kept me
Head of the heathen, so a folk
Who did not know me at a stroke
Shall serve me under fir and oak.
45 “The sons of stranger bow to me,
Soon as they hear they obey me.
46 “Strangers shall fade away and they
Shall fear in closet where they stay.

I’m more the one fearing in closet where
I sit in stillness while the world out there
Goes berserk on its violence in spree.
But perhaps David’s fortune here to see
Is better than my path in wilderness.
And yet I’ve seen him also in the press,
And fleeing from the sword and lying tongue.
I have been old and once I too was young,
I have been honoured too, and I’ve been flung
Out from the congregation with a curse.
In all no heathen come to deal me worse
In their obedience. Instead they cry
That I must obey their majority.
I flee the stranger, in the desert sigh.

47 “YHWH lives and blessèd be my rock,
High Ælohim, my safety’s rock.
48 “To El is my vengeance who brings
Under me the folk from their springs.
49 “And He brings me out from my foes,
You also lift me high who chose
Me above them against me rose,
You saved me from violent throes.
50 “Therefore I will give thanks to You,
O YHWH, among the heathen due,
And I’ll sing praises to Your name,
51 “The tower of His king’s safety’s claim,
He shows mercy to His anointed,
To David and his seed appointed
For ever and ever in fame.”

Though I live in the vale of fatal woes
Where every priest and king here living chose
To ignore Your Sabbath and unity,
I know that You’re the Rock to which I flee.
I know not what vengeance is best to fall
Upon the ruler and upon the small
Who berate me for following Your word.
I know not indeed, but my heart is stirred
To give to You the violence and strain
And pray that You rain on them the best rain
In justice and in mercy till the way
Of earth is void of evil every day.
Beloved, be vengeance in Your arm and face
When You return toward my dwelling place.

2 SAMUEL 23

1 And these are David’s last words spoken,
Saying of Jesse’s son in token,
David, and the man raised on high,
Anointed by Ælohim, by
The God of Jacob, and the sweet
Singer of Israel for treat.
2 The spirit of YHWH spoke by me,
And His word on my tongue was free.
3 Israel’s Ælohim saíd “The Rock
Of Israel spoke to me in stock,
He that rules over men is just,
Ruling in Ælohim’s fear’s trust.
4 As morning light at the sunrise,
A morning caught in cloudless skies,
Like tender grass sprung from the earth
Clear shining after rain on dearth.
5 Is not my house with Ælohim
Set for eternal pact to seem
Made with me ordered in all things
And certain, for deliverings
And my desire on everything,
Will He not make increase my ring?
6 But the ungodly, they’re as thorns
Thrust out, all of them from their bourns,
Not to be touched with naked hand.
7 But the man that touches their stand
Must be armed with a coat of mail
And staff of spear, and without fail
They shall be burned upon the flame
In their own place and in their claim.”

Beloved, I see the last words David spoke
Were quoted from Your own as writ in oak.
His dying day saw him relinquish all
That called his heart against the heathen pall
And greed that covered earth in cloak of sin
To turn to You alone instead of kin.
Beloved, I hear the last words David knew
Fresh from Your lips as on the garden dew,
And find that no desire is true or great
But that which follows in Your love and hate.
Beloved, let me take on my last breath token
Of Your name in the tongue of David spoken
To find the syllables rise on the air
To greet the everlasting golden share.

8 These are David’s great heroes’ names:
Josheb-Basshebeth, Tachmonite,
Chief among captains without blames.
The same was Adino Eznite,
Who killed eight hundred in one fight.

Beloved, I have not killed a single soul.
For me that has just not been my life’s goal.
A hero I am not, I see, with arm
Raised up to do anyone at all harm.
Not called by inclination or Your law
To keep the heathen hordes down and in awe,
I make my way through wilderness and street
Of city not to kill any I meet.
Beloved, the hero of David of old
Was fine and surely a great man, and bold,
But those who step out on this day and time
Are not worth peck, penny or pilfered dime,
From warrior to the mercenary crime,
Protecting interests of wolf in sheepfold.

9 And after him was Eleazar
Son of Dodo the son and star
Of an Ahothite, one of three
Mighty men with David in spree
To risk their lives against the hand
Of Philistines gathered in band
To battle when Israel’s men failed.
10 And he stood firm and never quailed,
But struck the Philistines until
His hand was weary of the kill,
And fingers stuck fast to the sword,
And YHWH gained great victory’s accord
That day, and the folk then returned
After him to spoil the foe spurned.

The Philistine was civilized beyond
Compared with Israelite come to abscond.
The Philistine was merchant of the sea,
Well-schooled in ships, markets and industry.
The Philistine was great in science too,
And knew the things that any had to do
Applying eugenics to birth control
And breeding giants when to take a toll.
The Israelite, Beloved, was one to lose
Even the skills he had begun to choose.
So why did You make lesser folk become
Your chosen when You started out to hum?
Why not choose of the great and not the small?
The great can also hear and follow call.

11 And after him was Shammah son
Of Age Ararite when done.
The Philistine in troop arrived
In lentil field, the folk survived
By fleeing them under the sun.
12 He stood in middle of the field
Defending it and would not yield
But killed the Philistines, and YHWH
Made a great victory’s ado.

If I’d only lentil field to defend,
And stood alone against the powers that bend
Against me in a troop of Philistines
Wise in their cunningness and wicked lines,
I think I would have joined the fleeing crowd
And let the Philistines rejoice aloud
Among the lentils for their spoil and rate.
I’d leave those sorry lentils to their fate.
But I’m no hero in the battlefront.
The battle is not longer, and the brunt
Is rather felt by those who stand astride
The oil pipelines or have organs to hide
From butchers selling on behalf of state
And other wealthy members come in late.

13 And three of thirty chiefs went down
And came to David’s harvest brown
Into Adullam’s cave, the troop
Of Philistines encamped to stoop
In the valley of Rephaim.
14 And David in the stronghold stayed,
The Philistines’ fort was waylaid
In Bethlehem. 15 And David longed
And said “Who will give me unwronged
Water to drink out of the well
That is in Bethlehem’s gate fell?”
And the Philistine army camped
In Bethlehem and there revamped.
16 And the three mighty men broke through
The Philistine lines whence they drew
Water out of Bethlehem’s well
That was by the gate, took a spell
And brought it to David, but he
Would not drink of it but simply
Poured it out to YHWH in the dell.
17 And he said “Be it far from me,
O YHWH, that I should drink in fee
The blood of men in jeopardy
Of their lives?” And so therefore he
Would not drink it. These things did three
Mighty men, heroes faithfully.

The thing is questionable, truly so.
If David was so gracious on the go,
Then why did he express desire and show
The men he wanted water from the flow
Of Bethlehem? It was a dirty deed.
But was it grateful of him in his need
To pour the water out upon the seed
Of rocky thistle and the sturdy weed?
I think not, my Beloved, and did You ask
For the oblation of unholy task?
A bunch of thugs they seem to me from here,
Who show off bragging that they have no fear.
Beloved, keep me from Bethlehem’s old well,
And satisfied with what water I smell.

18 And Abishai the brother of
Joab, son of Zeruiah,
Was the chief of the three above.
And he lifted up his spear and
Killed three hundred upon the sand,
And gained fame among three in awe.
19 Of those three most in honour held
He became chief of those unquelled,
But attained not to the first three.
20 And Benaiah Jehoiada’s
Son, and son of a valiant buzz
Of Kabzeel, who did mighty deeds,
He struck the altar hearths to seeds
In Moab, he went down also
And killed a lion in the tow
Of a pit in the time of snow.
21 And he killed an Egyptian, one
Great it appears, the Egyptian
Had in his hand a spear as great
As the side of a ladder, mate,
And he went to him with a staff,
And grabbed the spear, and with a laugh,
He killed him with his own spear’s gaff.
22 These things did Benaiah the son
Of Jehoiada, and he won
A name among three heroes done.
23 More honoured than the thirty, he
Did not attain to the first three.
David set him guard faithfully.

The mighty deeds of ancient time require
The furnishings of ancient heart desire.
Three hundred slain upon the field still lie
With bones to bleach against the shining sky.
The sword of the Egyptian like the side
Of a ladder may long since be applied
To some campfire of Bedouin or lost
Beneath the staff that David’s hero tossed.
The only thing left of the slaughter done
Is in the praise the poet gave the gun.
The memory is made of nothing soft,
But dust in air once thrown in word aloft.
I sip those words for what hero’s begun
Has long since disappeared beneath the sun.

24 Asahel Joab’s brother was
One of the thirty as one does:
Elhanan Dodo’s son who came
From Bethlehem, city of fame,
25 Shammah the Harodite and yet
Elika, Harodite you bet,
26 Helez the Paltite, Ira son
Of Ikkesh Tekoite who won,
27 Abiezer Anathothite,
And Mebunnai the Hushathite,
27 Abiezer the Anothite,
Of the sons of the Anothite.
28 Zalmon the Ahohite and more
Maharai Netophathite’s score,
29 Heleb the son of Baanah who
Was also Netophathite true,
Ittai the son of Ribai who
Was from Gibeah of the sons
Of Benjamin come in their tons,
30 And Benaiah Pirathonite,
Hiddai of Gaash in the brooks’ sight,
31 Abi-albon the Arbathite,
And Azmaveth the Barhumite,
32 Eliahba the Shaalbonite,
Of the sons of Jashen by right,
Jonathan, Shammah Hararite,
Ahiam son of Sharar who
Was Ararite, Eliphelet
The son of Ahasbai in due,
The son of the Maacathite too,
Eliam Ahithophelthe
The son, the Gilonite in fee,
35 Hezrai the Carmelite, Paarai
The Arbite, 36 Igal son not sly
Of Nathan of Zobah, Bani
The Gadite, 37 Zelek Ammonite,
Naharai who was Beerothite,
And armour-bearer of Joab
The son of Zeruiah’s scab,
38 Ira the Ithrite, Gareb too
An Ithrite from his father’s due,
39 Uriah the Hittite, in crew
Thirty-seven of heroes true.

Every prophet and divine guide is met
Among the forties whirling on the floor
Of heaven and earth before the open door
That lead up to Your throne and where it’s set.
The threes, the fours, the sevens come to get
The twelves, the sixteen, and the twenty-four
To fly among the righteous to find more
Than hides beneath the altar’s burning net.
Beloved, the secret heroes of the world
That follow unseen, unheard on the path
Of brightness by the lion and the steed
Are gathered by Your banner once unfurled
To be both instruments of divine wrath
As well as of peace before shameless greed.

2 SAMUEL 24

1 Again the anger of YHWH flamed
Against Israel, and He was blamed
To move David against them saying
“Go count Israel and Judah playing.”

The judgment always falls on us for doing
The thing we think we have to. Rarely is
There choice of punishment in our subduing
As David had in famine, war, and his
First choice, the plague. He threw himself on mercy
Instead of trusting in his fighting arm.
We might consider without controversy
His choice astute avoidance of great harm,
Since he chose Your abuse and not his brother’s.
There is no mercy found with those who are
Dissatisfied with their power over others.
They sigh and wish upon a falling star.
The trick is not to count one’s might in numbers
But just enjoy tomatoes and cucumbers.

2 And the king said to Joab who
Was captain of the host in view
With him, “Go now back and forth through
All the tribes of Israel from Dan
Even to Beersheba to scan
The number of the folk that I
May know the sum and to rely.”
3 And Joab said to the king, “How
YHWH your Ælohim add a brow
To the folk many as they be
A hundredfold, and may you see
It, my lord king, but why does my
Lord king desire this thing on sly?”
4 Nevertheless the king’s word won
Out against Joab and when done
Against the captains of the host.
That’s why Joab with all the boast
Of army captains went out from
The presence of the king to come
To count Israel’s people in sum.

The thing that bothers me about the king
Or president or captain is the sting
They all have when it comes to doing wrong.
Joab knew sin sat in the counting long
Before the king suggested such a deed.
He even told the king his notion’s seed.
Despite his knowledge of the wrong and right
He obeyed the king without moral fight.
Beloved, the reason so few keep the word
That You once spoke on Sinai undeterred
Is simply because, though they know what’s good
And evil, they do nothing as they should.
Instead they obey captain, king or priest
And go out with their sins fourfold increased.

5 And they passed over Jordan and
Pitched in Araer, on right stand
Of the city in middle of
The valley of Gad and above
To Jazer, 6 then to Gilead,
And to Tahtim-Hodshi’s land clad,
And came to Dan-Jaan, and around
About to Zidon, 7 came to ground
At the stronghold of Tyre and to
And cities of the Hivites’ view,
And of the Canaanites, and they
Went out to south of Judah’s way
At Beersheba to end the stay.
8 And so they went around the land
And to and fro in every stand
Until they came back to the town
Jerusalem with sword and gown
At end of nine months twenty days.
9 And Joab gave the sum of praise
Of the people in the king’s hand,
And in Israel there were to stand
Eight hundred thousand valiant men
That drew the sword to fight again,
And Judah’s men numbered up to
Five hundred thousand men in crew.

The number of the fleet had doubled since
Coming from Egypt sucking on a quince.
Doubled and more, I say, by hundred strong
Of thousands, that was quite the mighty throng.
Why did You want to keep the growing score
A secret from the battle and the fore?
Quite simply, I suppose, so man would know
That he is helpless before any foe
Unless the strength of Your arm’s in his right.
And yet, the strong and wicked in Your sight,
Sin without retribution, while the just
Are ground into their poverty and dust.
Beloved, let numbers take their flight and fail
While You and Your goodness come to prevail.

10 And David’s conscience hurt him when
He had counted all the folk’s men.
And David said to YHWH, “I’ve sinned
Greatly in what I’ve packed and binned,
But now, O YHWH, forgive I pray
You Your servant’s wickedness’ way,
For I have done a foolish thing.
11 And when David rose up to sing
At dawn the word of YHWH came to
The prophet Gad, David’s seer true,
Saying 12 “Go speak to David, ‘This
Is what YHWH tells you not to miss,
I lay on you three things, so choose
One of the three, and so you lose
In what I will do to you too.’”

Ah my Beloved! Was not the man bereaved,
And did he not humbly ask You aggrieved
To recognize repentance in the bill
He prayed to You after counting his fill?
So what is this? Are You not full of grace
To pardon one who stumbled on the race?
You do not say to sacrifice a bull
To make You an atonement paid in full,
Nor do You point him to a future lamb
Upon a cross to satisfy I AM.
Instead You give him choice of three plagues in
Punishment for sorely repented sin.
Beloved, I tremble to see how You state
The path to Your favour at David’s gate.

13 So Gad came to David and told
Him and said to him, “Choose the bold,
Shall seven years of famine come
To you in your land or in sum
Will you flee three months from your foes
While they pursue you on their toes,
Or shall there be three days of plague
In your land? Now think and decide
What answer I shall go provide
To Him who sent me to your side.”
14 And David said to God, “I am
In a great strait, let’s fall like lamb
Into the hand of YHWH, for He
Is great in mercy, and let me
Not fall into the hands of men.

Beloved, David’s heart seems better than Yours,
For he trusts You before men to set scores.
Despite Your stubborn punishment on him
He keeps his view of Your mercy undim,
Or else he has a clear picture of rate
Of the sadistic in the human trait.
What else is to be done, I guess, when three
Choices are all dark set and painfully.
Beloved, I too choose You above all men
Who would punish my sins and then again
Punish my righteousness when I take You
Alone to be the ruler of my due.
Beloved, I too choose You when You seem to
Have no mercy at all better than ten.

15 So YHWH sent a plague on the folk
Of Israel from morning’s stroke
Even to the appointed time,
And there died from the folk for crime
From Dan to Beersheba again
Seventy thousand valiant men.
16 And when the angel stretched his hand
Toward Jerusalem as planned,
YHWH repented the evil, He
Said to the angel in the spree
Of destruction of the folk, “See,
It is enough, now stay your hand.”
And the angel at YHWH’s command
Was by the threshing-floor owned by
Araunah the Jebusite guy.

David was right that You would spare the folk
Before the drenching slaughter of Your stroke.
David was right to place himself behind
Your mercy even when You were not blind
To his sins, bent on punishment in kind.
David was right that human mercy’s not
Intrinsic to the heart, but something taught
By long submission to Your throne and share.
Beloved, I follow David’s heart to be
Trusting of You alone, I’ve come to see
In fifty years of dealing with the throng
That trusting others always leads one wrong.
Beloved, I follow David’s prayer and find
Your justice is a mercy, core and rind.

17 And David spoke to YHWH when he
Saw the angel strike the folk free,
And said “See I have sinned and I
Have done here iniquitously,
But these sheep what have they done here?
Let Your hand, I pray, on me steer,
And on my father’s house for fear.”

One role of divine guide is intercession
Along with his own prayer and his confession.
But let me remind You that David’s sin
Is not one of the big ten in the bin.
Results seem more than he should have to bear
To say nothing of Israel’s people’s share.
But that’s reality: a twist of fate
A cigarette butt thrown out without hate
Results in conflagration of a state.
Beloved, have mercy on the weak ones here
Who suffer at unthinking hand on gear.
Though I am neither divine guide nor prophet,
The quivering world is one I do not scoff at.
I intercede beside the casting bier.

18 And Gad came to David that day,
And said to him, “Go up, I pray,
And build an altar to YHWH in
The threshing-floor and in the bin
Of Araunah the Jebusite.”
And David went up to the site
According to Gad’s word as YHWH
Commanded him in what to do.
20 And Araunah looked out and saw
The king and his servants in claw
Coming on toward him and he went,
Araunah did, and bowed present
Before the king face on the ground.
21 And Araunah said “Why is found
My lord the king come to his slave?”
And David said “To buy the pave
And threshing-floor from you to make
An altar to YHWH for the sake
Of the plague that it may stop here
From the people and from their fear.”

Everything was done it would seem when You
Relented from the plague and derring-do.
And yet David will not leave well enough
Alone by prayer and intercession rough,
And Gad appears to prophesy and score
By commanding an altar at the door.
Is not enough enough? Why must faith take
The gyrations that sacrifices make?
The plague had stopped before David came out
To buy the threshing floor, and so I doubt
That what I and my own do in the church
And synagogue or on the easy perch
Of minbar is a necessary torch
Of light here sitting on the cosmic porch.

22 And Araunah said to David,
“Let my lord the king take the bid
And offer up whatever he
Thinks good for him. and now, just see,
The oxen of the holocaust,
And threshing-instruments not lost
And yokes of the oxen for wood.
23 Arauna did all that he should
For the king giving the king all.
And Araunah answered king’s call,
“YHWH your Ælohim accept you.”
24 And the king said to Araunah,
“No, but I’ll surely buy by law
And I’ll not offer burnt offering
To YHWH my Ælohim a thing
That costs me nothing. So David
Bought the threshing-floor and the skid
Of oxen for fifty silver
Shekels. 25 And David came to stir
Up there an altar for YHWH and
Offered holocausts on the stand
And peace offerings, so YHWH was sought
For the land, and the plague He wrought
On Israel ceased from the distraught.

It happened once before with Abraham
And the sons of Heth when to buy a ham
To bury Sarah in, the other said
To take the plot for free and make her bed.
But Abraham insisted he must pay.
So David also deals out coin to lay
Upon the paunch of owner of the straw.
It’s just a form of courtesy in awe.
Beloved, I view the lives by David’s touch
And see how human thoughts and cultures much
Colour and blur the lines of right and wrong.
I hear how every man sings his own song
And see Your judgement rise to lay it bare
Before the starry heavens everywhere.

Just one more thought, Beloved, before I leave
The Book of Samuel on my checkered sleeve,
I say it’s magic thing the angel stopped
At the very threshing floor that was propped
By Araunah the Jebusite. It seems
That altar set by Israelite for dreams
Was passed by in Your divine choice. Instead
You chose to honour Canaanite unbred.
Beloved, I am a Hittite dog, but I
Offer the altar of my heart and try
To give the place to be Your golden throne.
I bow to Israel’s God, and You alone.
And like Araunah I ask naught for me
But that You accept my altar in fee.

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

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