1 KINGS CHAPTER 21 - 22

1KINGS 21

1 It happened after these things that
Naboth Jezreelite had a vat
And vineyard in Jezreel near by
The palace of Ahab the guy
Who was king of Samarian sky.
2 And Ahab spoke to Naboth and
Said “Give me your vineyard at hand
So I may have it for a plot
Of herbs, because the place is not
Far from my house, and I will give
You a better vineyard to live
Than it, or if it better seems
To you I’ll give beyond your dreams
Its worth in money in a sieve.”
3 And Naboth said to Ahab then,
“YHWH forbid me, that I again
Should give my fathers’ heritage
To you for onions and for sage.”

In Israel still there were such people paid
To live by the anarchy that was weighed
Out to the tribes before a king was set,
Before the judges had in battle met
Sisera and before the rod of Moses
Brought water from the rock as well as roses.
Beloved, I rejoice that a man could bring
Such a response to give a prince and king.
Of course I know that he will live to pay
For every proudful thing he dared to say.
But death must come to all sometime and last
It’s good to use one’s death in ways to cast
A vote against establishment and cry
A prayer to You above kings in the sky.

4 And Ahab came into his house
Heavy and displeased as a grouse,
Because of the thing Naboth said,
The Jezreelite, to him well-bred,
For he had said “I shall not give
You my dads’ heritage to live.”
And he lay down upon his bed
And turned away his face to spread
And Ahab would not eat his bread.
5 And Jezebel his wench came in
To him and told him, “Why for jinn
Is your spirit so full of dread
That you refuse to eat your bread?”
6 And he said to her, since I said
A thing to Naboth Jezreelite,
And told him, “Give me for my right
Your vineyard for money or spite,
Or else if you like I will give
You a vineyard for it to live,
And he answered, ‘I will not give
You my vineyard for a long sight.’”

Poor Ahab, so sad that his treacle can
Not tempt him off his pouting cause a man
Refused to render him what’s his in due
Because he wears a crown on his cashew.
But Ahab has a wife of sympathy,
Who understands the feelings’ filigree
Of sensitive souls hurt by populace
Of rogues who need to be put in their place.
Most presidents and judges have such tarts
To posture and pose when they play at darts
At the nearby pub or palace or house
Of legislature. Quiet as a mouse,
Such ladies come to courage their weak men
To slaughter others and slaughter again.

7 And Jezebel his wife told him,
“Do you rule Israel with a whim?
Get up, eat bread and let your heart
Be happy, I shall give to start
The vineyard of Naboth who comes
A Jezreelite to do his sums.

Behind each man’s success a woman drives
The cattle to the pasture, smokes the hives
And makes the house a home, and there is no
Exception in deserving ways that show
In Jezebel, sweet Jezebel, who takes
Care of her poor, weak husband in his shakes.
The good a man does often is the seal
Of how good his wife is about the wheel.
The evil of a man is sure to be
Reflection of a wife’s iniquity,
Unless of course the man in his own right
Is evil in what he does day and night.
Ahab and Jezebel, a power pair
Ready to rule the world with time to spare.

8 And she wrote missives in the name
Of Ahab and sealed with the claim
Of his seal, and sent letters to
The elders and the nobles true
Who where in the town living there
With Naboth pretending they’re fair.

When ladies write to newspapers for fun
Sometimes they get results for what they’ve done.
When they write to their congressmen to set
Them doing wicked deeds, success is met.
It’s only good that’s hard to get a hearing,
And when a lady’s hand is in the clearing
There’s precious little to be done the while.
The elders and the nobles find a smile
Bewitching and attuned as they’ve become
To charms and wealthy lobbies both in rum
And firearms not to speak tobacco’s name,
Methinks there’s little left of any shame.
Manipulation of decision-maker
Is better than a tail of bird salt-shaker.

9 And she wrote in the missives saying
“Call a fast and set Naboth playing
At the head of the people staying.”
10 And set two men, sons of Belial,
Against him to bear witness vile
Saying ‘You have blasphemed the gods
And king.’ Then take him out, with clods
Stone him to death for all his guile.”

The woman told the truth, deedy she did.
She didn’t say a word beyond the bid
Of what Naboth had done in his refusing,
She didn’t tell a lie in her accusing.
Naboth was disrespectful to the king,
And surely did not fear the gods for sting,
But stubbornly stayed in the ancient law
That You, Beloved, set up against the claw
Of usurpation and abuse of land.
The man was clearly guilty in his stand.
See Jezebel is surely in her rights
To judge such folk to death and not for spites.
Beloved, I too live in a land well-ruled
By Jezebels and Ahabs finely schooled.

11 So did the men of his town do,
The elders and the nobles true,
Who lived in his town, just and sent
Jezebel to them and as meant
In the missives which she had sent.
12 They called a fast, and they set up
Naboth in head as people’s tup.
13 And there came two men the sons of
Belial and sat against love
Of him and so they witnessed, did
The men of Belial to skid
Against Naboth in front of folk
Saying “Naboth came to invoke
Blasphemy against gods and king.”
And they took him outside the ring
Of the town and stoned him with stones
Until he died among his groans.

See here, Beloved, the way courts always go.
They follow according to evil show
And never do justice unless it might
Serve wicked hands by product on the slight.
All men are perjured in this vale of gears,
And all partake of murder in the steers
Of state, and all invoke Your name in turn
In blasphemous contentions as they earn.
Beloved, I flee to You from justice here
As I flee from the nobles and the peer,
And see the city gathered in the field
To stone the innocent and unappealed.
There’s nothing changed since Jezebel went out
To do her business with whisper and shout.

14 And they sent to Jezebel saying
“Naboth is stoned and with death paying.”
15 It happened when Jezebel heard
That Naboth was stoned dead as turd
That Jezebel said to Ahab,
“Get up and possess it and grab
The vineyard of the Jezreelite
Naboth, which he refused in right
Of silver to you, for Naboth
Is not alive, but dead for oath.”
16 It happened when Ahab heard that
Naboth was dead, rose where he sat,
Did Ahab to go down to take
The vineyard of Naboth, the stake
Of Jezreelite for a keepsake.
17 And there was the word of YHWH to
Elijah the Tishbite in view.
18 “Get up, go down to calling of
Ahab king of Israel above
Who’s in Samaria; see loath
He’s in the vineyard of Naboth
Where he’s gone down to take the troth.
19 “And you shall speak to him and say
‘So says YHWH, “Have you had your way
To kill and then take up the stake?”’
And you shall speak to him awake
Saying ‘So says YHWH, “In the place
Where dogs licked Naboth’s bloody face
Shall dogs lick up your blood a space.”’”

Beloved, I’ve noticed when You speak to men
It’s never to warn them what will again
Take place if they are fooled by summons to
Enjoy a place of honour with the crew
Of wickedness that deny law and grace.
I’ve noticed You speak only face to face
To call the wicked to repentance and
To tell them what evil they did in hand
After the thing was done. I’d think You’d learn
To warn the perpetrator to be stern
To keep the narrow way, or else at least
To warn the victim between he is fleeced.
But no. The only thing You seem to know
Is blaming evil done after the show.

20 And said Ahab to Elijah,
“Have you found me, my enemy?”
And he said “I’ve found you a straw
Because you’ve sold yourself to work
Evil before YHWH’s eyes and smirk.
21 “See I shall bring on you the bad
And take away posterity
From you and cut off from Ahab
Who comes against the wall to pee,
And everyone that is shut up
And left in Israel to sup.
22 “And I will make your house as that
In which Jereboam once sat,
The son of Nebat, and like house
Of Baasha, Ahija’s son’s louse,
For provocation by which you
Have provoked Me to anger’s rue.
And made Israel to sin with you.”

Oh yes, besides the accusation You
Bring against evil-doers hitherto,
You also mention what’s their punishment
For doing bad things to the innocent.
Just watch what happens when You speak to those
Who bear the rulership that You once chose:
They’ll make pretence of being sorry found,
But cannot repair damage to the ground.
And You forgive the clown and leave the weak
In destitution for the things they seek.
Beloved, I raise I cry and sing a song
In accusation of Your way of doing wrong.
Speak, speak to those tempted before the act,
Warn, warn the victim once before the fact.

23 And also to Jezebel spoke
YHWH saying “The dogs at a stroke
Shall eat Jezebel by the ditch
Of Jezreel without a hitch.
24 “The one of Ahab that dies in
The city will the dogs for sin
Eat, and the one who dies out on
The field birds of the sky impawn.”
25 None was there ever of the like
Of Ahab, sold himself to strike
In wickedness by eyes of YHWH,
Whom Jezebel his wife gave clue.
He did abominable things
In following idols in strings
Like all the Amorites that YHWH
Cast out before Israel’s folk’s crew.
27 It happened when Ahab heard these
Words that he tore his clothes, with ease
Put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted,
Lay in sackcloth and while it lasted
Walked softly, low profile to please.
28 And the word of YHWH came again
To Elijah the Tishbite then.
29 “See how Ahab humbles himself
From before My face like an elf?
Because he humbles himself now
Before me, I will not bring plough
Of evil in his days, but in
His son’s days will I bring the sin
Upon his house for what he’s been.”

What did I say, Beloved? You’re taken in
By every man that weeps for rate of sin
That’s found him out and caused him some chagrin.
Be wise and look upon the human heart
And see how far repentance plays a part.
Repentance of a king? Don’t make me laugh.
Repentance of a king is not worth chaff.
What now for Naboth? Why not use Your power
To raise him up and give him back an hour
Enjoying vineyard given to his dad?
Repentance of Ahab just leaves me sad,
Although I guess the angels in Your court
Sing praises and rejoice he holds the fort.
Beloved, if You are just You’re also mad.

1 KINGS 22

1 And they sat for three years without
War between Syria to shout
And between Israel to pout.
2 It happened in the third year that
Jehoshaphat the king that sat
In Judah came down to the king
Of Israel once more to sing.
3 And said the king of Israel to
His servants, “Do you know it’s true
That ours is Ramoth Gilead,
And we are silent as too sad
To take it out of the bare hand
Of the king of Syria to stand.
4 And he said to Jehoshaphat,
“Will you go with me to make flat
Out battle in Ramoth Gilead?
Jehoshaphat said to the mad
King of Israel, “I’m as you are,
My people as your people’s star,
My horses as your horses’ pad.”
5 Jehoshaphat said to the king
Of Israel, “Enquire the thing,
Please, at the word of YHWH today.”
6 So the king of Israel called in
The prophets four hundred in bin,
And said to them, “Shall I go up
Against Ramoth Gilead like tup
To battle or shall I forbear?”
And they said “Go up, have no care,
For the lord shall give up the thing
Into the hand of lord the king.”
7 And said Jehoshaphat, “Is there
No other prophet anywhere
To YHWH as yet? And that we may
Enquire of him also this day.”

I wonder that a king upon the throne
Would doubt the crown’s priests since they were full-frown.
Jehoshaphat is blasé when it comes
To four hundred church wardens with their tums.
Perhaps it was just prejudice that made
Him thing the northern prophets were waylaid.
I’d be loath to think less of his review,
And rather consider that in his brew
There was a bit of common sense and light.
Once in a generation in the night
Of this world there is one spark of the right
That flashes for a moment on the pool
Where every queen’s a slut and king a fool.
Beloved, once in a lifetime good takes flight.

8 And said the king of Israel
To Jehoshaphat, “There is still
One man to enquire with YHWH from,
But I hate him because he’s dumb
To prophesy upon me good,
But only evil, Micaiah
And the blasted son of Imlah.”
And Jehoshaphat said “You should
Not speak so, you’re a king, not hood.”
9 The king of Israel called a eunuch
And said “Get going like a Punic
And bring Micaiah to me fast
The son of Imlah, the outcast.
10 And Israel’s king along with king
Jehoshaphat of Judah’s spring
Sat each on his throne and having
Put on their robes, sat in the square
By the gate of Samaria there,
And all the prophets prophesied
Before their faces on each side.
11 Zedekiah son of Chenaanah
Made iron horns and then like goner
Said “So says YHWH, with these you’ll push
The Syrians till they burn like bush.”
12 And all the prophets prophesied
In like manner with words of pride,
“Go up to Ramoth Gilead,
And prosper, YHWH shall surely add
It in the king’s hand given wide.”
13 The messenger who went to call
Micaiah spoke to him to bawl,
“See now, the prophets words are good
To the king as agreement should,
Let your word please be like the rest
Of them and speak what is the best.”

The representatives of church and state
In public views always come to relate
Their cantillated spells congratulate
The plans and powers of those who would make war.
Who does not follow protocol in store
Is not allowed to enter in the place
Where the tv cameras focus on face.
In ancient time the conjurors came too,
And proclaimed magic spells to prosper brew.
Who sang a sour note did an evil thing
To spoil the spell that favoured God and king.
And so the messenger is kind to tell
The prophet protocol and to act well
When he comes in to cantillate his spell.

14 And Micaiah said “As YHWH lives,
What YHWH says to me when He gives,
Is what I’ll say in narratives.”
15 So he came to the king. The king
Said to him, “Micaiah, what bring,
Shall we fight Ramoth Gilead
Or be content with what we had?”
And he gave him answer, “Go well,
And prosper, for YHWH shall dispel
It in the king’s hand and be glad.”
16 And the king said to him, “Say now
How often must I tell you how
To tell me nothing but what’s true
In glorious, blessed name of YHWH?”
17 And he said “I saw Israel all
Scattered upon the hills to bawl
As sheep without a shepherd, and
YHWH said ‘These have none to command,
Let them return each man to his
Own house in peace and leave the fizz.’”

The point is not to find out what the will
Of Your desiring is, Beloved, when still
The prophets stand to sing Your praise and fill
Their temples with the donkey-cart and swill.
The point is to cast spell on small and great
And whip up courage to die in their fate
By proclaiming success in positive.
Man can create his own reality,
It seems, if he speaks loudly in his spree
Of psychowash subservient to state.
No one should prophesy in omen word
The future, but just what might have occurred
If patron does as he himself desires.
Put out, put out, Beloved, prophetic fires!

18 And so the king of Israel said
Unto Jehoshaphat instead,
“Did I not tell you that he would
Cantillate evil and no good
About me as a prophet should?”
19 And he said “Hear now word of YHWH,
I saw YHWH sitting on His pew,
And all the heavenly host in view
Standing beside Him on His right
Hand and on His left hand in sight.
20 “And YHWH said ‘Who’ll persuade Ahab
To go to Ramoth Gilead
To fall there?’ And one said one thing,
Another said another thing.
21 “And there came out a spirit and
Stood there before YHWH at His hand
And said ‘I’ll persuade him to stand.’
22 “And YHWH said to him, ‘Tell Me how?’
And he said ‘I’ll go and endow
The mouth of all his prophets now
With lying spirit.’ And He said
‘By you he surely can be led.
And so succeed, go and be sped.’
23 “Now therefore, see how YHWH has put
A lying spirit, mouth and foot,
In all these prophets of yours here,
And YHWH’s told evil on your gear.”
24 Zedekiah son of Chenaanah
Went near and hit Micaiah saner
Upon the cheek, and said “Which way
Went YHWH’s spirit from me to say
Such things to you to be a gainer?
25 And Micaiah said “See, you’ll see
The day when to your room you’ll flee.”

Ah, my Beloved, if only I could find
Such words the prophets used in days behind!
Such wit and humour now I guess is found
Among an advertiser on the ground,
But hardly any preacher now can match
Even the message the false prophets snatch.
Beloved, here I repent the sordid way
I write jingles in mediocre pay,
While Baal’s sons’ words spoken against the fray
Millennia ago are fresh as play.
I sell my soul to You, Beloved, but yet
I suffer that my tongue and lips are wet
With mere truth and the ranting of the sweet.
O my Beloved, hear, give to my tongue feet!

26 And so the king of Israel said
“Take Micaiah and bring him led
Back to Amon the chief of town,
And to Joash the king’s son’s frown.
27 “And say ‘So says the king, “Put this
One in the prison not to miss
And feed him sorrow’s bread and give
To drink afflictions watered sieve
Till I come back in peace to live.”’”

See now, Beloved, how wisdom of the king
Of Judah brought about the wicked thing
Against Your prophet in his flesh and skin.
No use to take half measures against sin.
To warn the sinner is no way to do.
You have to strike him down there in his pew
Or in his pulpit more the like, it’s true.
So Ahab will give bread and water while
He’s off to squander life a weary mile.
Free board and room for every prophet come
In Your name, my Beloved, is Gospel’s sum!
I rush to prophesy before the throne
Of president and congress for a bone,
But have nothing to say but what’s in stone.

28 And Micaiah said “If you come
Back at all in peace and in rum,
YHWH has not spoken by me.” And
He said “Take note, folk, all your band.”
29 So king of Israel and the king
Of Judah, Jehoshaphat’s sting
Went up to Ramoth Gilead
To do whatever thing they had.
30 And so the king of Israel said
Unto Jehoshaphat as led,
“I will disguise myself and go
In to the battle, but for show
You put on robes from head to toe.”
So Israel’s king disguised himself,
Went into battle like an elf.

The evil king always hopes to disguise
Himself from his people and holy eyes,
From friend and foe, so no one will suspect
How much he would oppress Your own elect.
The king of Israel on the battle day
Hoped to be unseen by the powers that slay,
And his own machinations came to foil
The safety that the gunners hand in toil.
Beloved, I find You too always disguised
In faces of the lowly and despised,
In shy beasts that peer at me from the gloom
Of fir and fern and slink into their room,
In glimpses of the feathered round that wakes
A song beyond the hewn and scribbled stakes.

31 And Syria’s king gave the command
To his thirty-two chiefs at hand
Who ruled over his chariots’ band,
Saying “Don’t fight with small or great,
But only Israel’s king in state.”
32 It happened when the chariot chiefs
Saw Jehoshaphat in his briefs,
They said “Surely it is the king
Of Israel.” They turned in ring
To fight against him, then cried out
Jehoshaphat as if in rout.
33 It happened when the chariot chiefs
Noticed it was not by beliefs
The king of Israel, that they turned
Back from pursuing him they spurned.
34 And a man drew bow by hazard
And struck Israel’s king between hard
Joints of his armour, so he said
To his chariot driver, “Be led
Away and carry me outside
The ranks, for I’m wounded betide.”
35 The battle then increased that day,
And the king was held up at bay
In his chariot against the troops
Of Syrians, and as day droops
He died, and the blood ran out from
The wound into the chariot’s drum.
36 There went a proclamation through
The army when the sun withdrew,
Saying “Let every man go to
His own city, and every man
To his own country as he can.’

Since You’re in hiding now, Beloved, the wake
Of church and synagogue and mosque must make
Due with the absence of the good and true.
They groan beneath the burden of the pew,
The writhing of the rich, the proudful stare
Of the unjust and those who overbear.
Since You’re in hiding now, all men forsake
The golden lamps, the showbread, and the stair.
Beloved, I meet the temple now bereft
Of incense and of worshippers in cleft.
I find the quiet of the empty room
A harbinger of judgement and of doom,
As yet I take joy in the peaceful glade
That bounds in all the wonders I am paid.

37 So the king died, and he was brought
Into Samaria, in lot
They buried Samarian king caught.
38 One washed the chariot in the pool
There in Samaria, and a school
Of dogs licked up his blood, and they
Washed his armour in just the way
The word of YHWH had come to say.
39 The rest of the acts of Ahab,
And all he did to do and grab,
The ivory house that he had made,
And all the towns of his parade,
Are they not written in the book
Of chronicles of Israel’s crook?
40 And so Ahab slept with fathers,
And Ahaziah, son of bothers,
Reign in his place to count his pothers.

Beloved, I now commend You for the way
That You take care of dogs even today.
You give them the blood of their kings in pay
For the respect they show Your righteous ray.
The dogs keep their commandments to the hilt
And look disdainfully upon the silt
Of human life surrounding them in breed.
The dogs never relax the moral deed,
But lap the blood left to them in their greed.
Beloved, I am a dervish dog in seed,
Although I fail to be enthusiastic
And wag my tail at odours beyond plastic.
I merely sleep beside the golden throne,
And thump my tail twice when You throw a bone.

41 Jehoshaphat the son of Asa
Began his ruling over Judah
In the fourth year of Ahab king
Of Israel in Israel’s ring.
42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five
Years old when he bagan to thrive,
And he reigned twenty-five years in
Jerusalem. And his mom’s din
Was Azubah, daughter in fact
Of Shilhi and to be exact.
43 He walked in all the ways of Asa
His father, and turned not away, sir,
From doing what was right before
The eyes of YHWH, 44 and yet the store
Of high places were not removed,
For the folk still burned unreproved
Offerings and incense as they wished
Upon the high places undished.
45 And so Jehoshaphat made peace
With Israel’s king that did not cease.
46 The rest of the things that he did,
Did old Jehoshaphat and bid,
Are they not written in the book
Of chronicles, just take a look,
Of Judah’s kings and what they shook?
47 And those left who served in the rites
Of fertility on the sites
As male prostitutes, who remained
In the days that his father gained,
Did Asa, he took from their rights.

The temples built in ancient times serve as
The place where people went to get their jazz.
They had both men and women there in trust
To serve the populace upon the dust.
Disarmingly excuses that they used
Were that the crops would fail if they abused
The earth by chastity and living clean.
Such is the faith of human hearts in bean.
Beloved, I turn from church and multitude
To find in Your invisible and brood
Of temple in the melodies that sing
Themselves across David’s Psalms with a ping.
The single soul arises on the wing
And swerves away from all the bees that sting.

48 Then no king in Edom was there,
A deputy took the king’s share.
49 Jehoshaphat made ships to go
From Tarshish to Ophir for glow
Of gold, but they did not get there,
Because the ships were broken bare
At the place called Eziongeber.
50 Then Ahaziah, Ahab’s son,
Said to Jehoshaphat, “By gun,
Let my servants go with your own
In the ships.” But Jehoshaphat
Would not consent to such as that.
51 Jehoshaphat slept with his dads,
Buried with his fathers and lads
In his dad’s town, David’s own town,
And Jehoram his son took gown
To reign in his place on his pads.
52 Ahaziah son of Ahab
Began to reign in Israel sad
Samaria, seventeenth year
Jehoshaphat was king to fear
In Judah, and he came to reign
Two years over Israel as thane.
53 And he did evil in the sight
Of YHWH, and walked in ways not right
Of his father, and in the way
Of his mother, and in the way
Of Jeroboam, Nebat’s son,
Who made Israel to sin begun.
54 For he served Baal, and worshipped him,
Provoked to wrath YHWH Ælohim
Of Israel, according to
All that his dad had used to do.

The king that reigned after Ahab was one
Who tried to do the right as well as fun,
And understood that Baal was scientific,
Compared to You, Beloved, a god terrific.
He was no innovator on the throne,
But followed the traditions to a groan,
Conservative in black suit and black tie,
Dressed fit to kill and worthy yet to die.
Beloved, I follow all the tracks around
The altars of the righteous on the ground
And find their hypocrisy does abound.
The crowd will follow royal orders when
The market takes a share in tax from men
For buying idols up to make a yen.


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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