II KINGS CHAPTER 13 - 18

2 KINGS 13

1 In the twenty-third year that reigned
Joash son of Ahaziah
King of Judah Jehoahaz
Son of Jehu started and deigned
To rule Israel in Samaria
For seventeen years without jazz.
2 He did the evil in the eyes
Of YHWH, and followed alibis
Of Jeroboam Nebat’s son,
Who made Israel to sin when done,
He did not depart from that guise.
3 The wrath of YHWH enflamed and rose
Against Israel and so He chose
To give them over to the hand
Of Hazael and Syrian band,
And of Benhadad Hazael’s son
All of their days when once begun.

The writer thinks You are the punishment
Behind every fight that comes to the tent,
Because kings of Israel did not relent,
But refused to worship in the place sent,
Jerusalem, for fear the people’s hearts
Would stay in David’s house and David’s carts.
Beloved, I seek the noble way today,
And though I’ve been in Quds and heard the sway
Of Hebrew and of Arabic to gloss
The tongue in the old streets, I hear the boss
And make my pilgrimage to the place where
The prophet said to go, the place to share
According to Your Christ not in the mount
Nor yet in sweet Jerusalem’s bright fount.

4 Jehoahaz prayed to YHWH and
YHWH listened to him, understand
He saw Israel’s oppression, since
The Syrian king had made them wince.
5 YHWH sent a saviour to Israel,
So they escaped the Syrians’ bell,
And Israel’s folk lived in their tents
As they did before the offence.

You answer prayer, and yet the supposed fault
That brought Your wrath leaves still room for assault.
You sent a saviour, how many of those
Have You sent to the world in its death throes
And how many have met those who appose
Your laws both in attacker and the bent
Ones who have formally come to present
Their vows to You to worship only You.
You sent a saviour in times false and true.
Beloved, I seek the saviour of all men
And find him hidden in the clouds again,
Unready to reveal a face apart,
Although I may reveal a loving heart
To those who hide their faith in Your own den.

6 But still they did not depart from
The sins of house of Jeroboam,
Who made Israel sin, but instead
Acted according to that dread,
And there remained also the grove
In Samaria for a trove.

I’ve seen the groves. The Turkish Alevis
Come to the sweet groves and under the trees
Hang up the little goats whose blood has flowed,
To flay their skins off from the flesh in mode
To cut the meat into the pots and play
The oboe and the drum for marriage gay.
I’ve seen the groves. Not every grove’s a sin.
I’ve heard the sweet music and hear the din.
Sometimes the groves are made of trees that spin
Their leaves and bark of marble and to win
The wealth of buildings fine above the sod.
Sometimes the groves are dwelling place of God,
And sometimes places where in sensual thrust
The hips gyrate to sounds of heathen dust.

7 Neither did He leave of the folk
To Jehoahaz but the stroke
Of fifty horsemen, chariots ten,
And ten thousand infantry men,
For Syria’s king had made destruction
Like dust of threshing in reduction.
8 The rest of Jehoahaz’ acts
And all he did in his contracts,
Are they not written in the book
Of chronicles to take a look
At Israel’s kings in their own nook?
9 Jehoahaz slept with his dads,
And they buried him in the pads
Of Samaria, and Joash
His son reigned in his place to clash.

I’d think, Beloved, it was not punishment
To be left without army in event
The army is a useless thing at best
And costly when the people are at rest.
Punish the world today, Beloved, and send
Us an army for fifty to comment
In cavalry, and only ten tanks that
Support ten thousand soldiers where they’re at,
And that that army suffice for the world
That in its present violence uncurled
Goes on the impoverish every son
Of every mother when the warring’s done.
Beloved, punish us fair as in the days
Jehoahaz met Syrians in the blaze.

10 The thirty-seventh year Joash
Was king of Judah, Jehoash
The son of Jehoahaz started
To reign over Israel charted
In Samaria sixteen years.
11 He did the evil it appears
Before YHWH, he did not depart
From all the sins come from the heart
Of Jeroboam Nebat’s son,
Who made Israel to sin when done,
But acted in comparison.
12 The rest of Joash’ acts and all
He did and his power wherewithal
He fought against Amaziah
The king of Judah are in awe
Written in the book of the times
Of Israel’s kings and of their climes.
13 And Joash slept with his dads and
Jeroboam sat on his stand,
And Joash was buried with kings
Of Israel in Samarian rings.

Joash who reigned as Israel’s king
Was not like his namesake to sing
Your praises in the temple taught
Where Psalms arose and lambs were sought.
Joash was just a wicked man
Like those before him in the plan
Of the kingdom of northern rate.
He lived and reigned to spite his hate.
Beloved, though I in different state
Look back on the acts of such men
Who held the scepter, here again
Power tempts the soul to grant the ride
To wealth and stealth and to abide.
Beloved, Beloved, in You I hide.

14 Elisha fell sick with the matter
From which he died. Joash the latter
King of Israel come down and cried
Over his face and said beside,
“O my father, my father dear,
Chariot of Israel and the steer.”
15 Elisha told him, “Take a bow
And arrows” And he was not slow
To take bow and arrows for show.
16 And he said to Israel’s king,
“Put your hand on the bow and string.”
And he put his hand on it and
Elisha laid hand on his hand.
17 He told him, “Open toward the east
The window.” He did so at least.
Then Elisha said “Shoot.” And he
Shot. And he said “the arrow free
Of YHWH’s salvation, and the arrow
Of deliverance from the harrow
Of Syria, for you’ll attack
The Syrians in Aphek on track
Till you’ve destroyed them front and back.
18 And he said “Take the arrows now.”
And he took them. He would allow
The king of Israel, “Strike upon
The ground.” And he struck with his brawn
Three times and then he stopped and stayed.
19 The man of Ælohim was mad
At him and said “You should have made
Five or six strikes, not it is sad,
You would have attacked Syria
Till you’d destroyed it with your paw,
But now you’ll only strike three times
To punish for so many crimes.”

Joash before Elisha’s deathbed sought
To comfort tears, but his face was not taught
To hate the civilized and heathen plot,
And so he only struck the ground a rate
Of three, perhaps trinity was his fate.
He should have struck the ground seven times at least
Or better twelve as divine guides increased,
And he might have established in that place
Eternal kingdom for a holy race.
The opportunity to do good fails,
And You alone increase when good prevails,
And limit the wrong to a pretty shore
To stop the evil knocking at the door.
Beloved, I come to strike before Your grace.

20 Elisha died, they buried him.
And the bands of Moabites grim
Invaded the land at the turn
Of the year. 21 and they came to learn
As they were burying a man,
They saw a band coming as can,
And they threw the man in the grave
Of Elisha, and when the brave
Man was let down and touched the bones
Of Elisha, with shouts and groans
He came to life, stood on his feet.
22 But Hazael came to defeat
Israel, did the Syrian king
All days of Jehoahaz’ ring.
23 But YHWH was gracious to them and
Had compassion on them at hand,
And respect for them because of
His covenant with Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, and for love
Would not destroy them in the scam,
24 Then Hazael Syrian king died,
And Benhadad his son and side
Kick reigned is his place satisfied.
25 Jehoash Jehoahaz’s son
Took back from Benhadad the son
Of Hazael the cities won
Back from Jehoahaz his dad
By war. Three times then Joash had
The victory and so he got
Back the cities in Israel’s plot.

Though I have been thrown in the prophet’s grave,
And gained knew life, still I have been the slave
Returning to the heathen dust that glows
Upon the hearth of civilized men’s toes.
Yet You have been one full of grace to me
To send me out again for victory.
Beloved, I see the armies of the dead
In Palestine revealed before my head,
And how the train of happenings with dread
Repeated on the hills and valleys spread.
Beloved, I see the armies wax and wane,
I see the days of peace, the days’ refrain
Of battle and of slaughter and the gore.
I see the world turn and return once more.

2 KINGS 14

1 In second year of Joash son
Jehoahaz Israel’s king done
Reigned Amaziah who was son
Of Joash king of Judah’s bun.
2 He was twenty-five years old when
He started to reign over men,
And he reigned twenty-nine years in
Jerusalem. His mother’s kin
Were from Jerusalem, by clan
His mother was Jehoaddan.
3 He did the right in eyes of YHWH,
Yet not like David his dad true,
He did everything that his dad
Joash did, both the good and bad.
4 Still the high places were not swept
Away, and still the people kept
On them sacrifice and incense,
On the high places for defense.

No matter what good I may do below
The hills and fir trees and the pines on show,
The fact remains the high places stand still
Upon the market squares and fit to kill.
The altar bears the mocking sacrifice
Of bread and wine and everything that’s nice.
The altar piece is painted with such skill
That the three die in agony of will
Upon the darkness of Golgotha’s hill.
The rising sun above all this is writ
Across its face with a distortion fit
Of Your name stretched in Hebrew to mean that
The sun still shines and shines well where it sat.
Only the idol incense fails to grow.

5 It happened when the realm was firm
Beneath his hand, he killed like worm
The servants who had killed his dad
The king, they had done something bad.

I look about for throne and crown to make
Me ruthless in the ways I have in stake.
Vengeance is sweet, and sweet it is to be
A king so that one can take a hand free
With sword or else just give word of command
And see heads roll along the bloody sand.
If anyone had killed my father I
Would have been glad to raise a hue and cry.
But where I live such things are hardly done.
The killer is placed in the storage bun
And kept a few years at best, then set loose
To kill again, unless he’s learned his goose.
Beloved, the king is right, no doubt, to slay
The killers of his father in the way.

6 The murderers’ children he did
Not kill because of the thing hid
In the book of Moses’ law when
YHWH commanded saying to men,
“The fathers shall not die because
Of the children, nor children’s paws
Be cut off for their fathers’ sin,
But everyone shall suffer din
For what his own wickedness win.“

Good man! He labours after my own heart
And after that of Your Christ for his part
Who also is a stickler for the art
Of following the Torah’s horse and cart
Instead of Mercedes Benz and the row
Made by Rolls Royce and others anyhow.
Let me, Beloved, justify what I’ve done
Always by Your word read under the sun,
And let the light of day peer down and say
That I am right to do, to save or slay.
The Torah-true life is for man and king
And has a matter to prop everything.
Hardly a day goes by when I refer
To Torah’s law for such things that occur.

7 He killed from Edom in the vale
Of salt ten thousand men in mail,
And took Selah by war and called
Its name Joktheel to this day walled.
8 Messengers Amaziah sent
To Jehoash Jehoahaz’
Son who was Jehu’s son and bent
To be Israel’s king with pizaz
Saying “Come, let us look each other
In the face like brother to brother.”
9 Jehoash king of Israel sent
To Amaziah Judah’s gent
Saying “Thistle in Lebanon
Sent to the Lebanese cedar
Saying ‘Give your daughter anon
To my son as wife,’ from afar
A wild beast there in Lebanon
Trod down the thistle popular.
10 “Because you won a victory
Over Edom, your heart goes free
In pride. Stop while you are ahead
And stay at home, why now be led
To meddle and get hurt and fall,
You and all Judah in the stall?”
11 But Amaziah would not listen.
So Jehoash king set to glisten
In Israel went up and he
And Amaziah king of free
Judah met fact to face in place
Of Bethshemesh which is the grace
Of Judah for a plot and race.
12 And Judah got the worst of it
Before Israel, and fled a bit
Each man to his own tent to sit.

I guess my understanding of the words
That ancient Hebrews used when they threw turds
Is lacking. I’d not seen hostility
In Amaziah’s way of speaking free
To Israel’s Joash, but perhaps he meant
To call him out to battle and to tent
While he was on a roll of victory.
In any case Jehoash sent the ball
Back in his court to bounce it over wall.
Beloved, the clash of kings is never done
And nothing changes here beneath the sun.
Do not think I sent these rhymed darts to You
To challenge in the wake of interview
With foes I’ve conquered before melting dew.

13 And Jehoash Israel’s king
Took Amaziah Judah’s king
The son of Jehoash the son
Of Ahaziah when he won
At Bethshemesh and came up to
Jerusalem, and broke anew
The wall of Jerusalem too
From the gate of Ephraim up to
The corner gate four hundred arm
Lengths, doing Jerusalem harm.
14 He took all the silver and gold
And all the vessels that were told
In the house of YHWH, and in all
The treasures of the king’s house stall,
And hostages and then went back
To Samaria with the stack.
15 The rest of Jehoash’s acts
That he did and his power on facts,
And how he fought there Judah’s king
Amaziah, do they not sing
In the book of chronicles well
Of the kings over Israel?
16 Jehoash slept with his ancestors,
Buried by Samarian questers
With the kings of Israel, and then
Jeroboam his son for men
Reigned in his place and in his den.

Three things the victor did in ancient time
When he had joined the battle and the clime
To open city gate and cast his spell.
The first thing he would do and do so well
Is break down half the wall, at least a corner
Preventing their resistance back of horner.
The second thing is rob the palace and
The temple of its gold and ampersand.
The third is take some hostages as slaves
And leave the rest to wander toward their graves.
The victor of today’s another guy.
There are no walls to break down on the sly.
But oil is more the reason for attack,
And gold is their to help in any slack.

17 And Joash Azaziah’s son,
King of Judah, lived as he won
After the death of Jehoash
Son of Jehoahaz to splash
As king of Israel fifteen years.
18 The rest of Amaziah’s acts,
Are they not written for contracts
In the book of the chronicles
Of Judah’s kings as miracles?
19 They laid a plot against him in
Jerusalem. He fled his kin
To Lachish, but they followed him
To Lachish where they killed him grim.
They brought him back on horses’ back
And he was buried in the sack
With his ancestors in the town
Of David, Jerusalem’s crown.
21 And all of Judah’s people took
Azariah, sixteen years old,
And made him king, those who forsook
His father Amaziah’s brook.
22 He built Elath as it is told
And restored it to Judah’s fold,
And after that the king slept with
His ancestors and in their myth.

I’ve seen the crystal water at Eilat
Filled with its coloured fish, vision for cat,
And swum about the shore and looked abroad
To see the barren Arab hills of sod
And stone across the border. I have stood
Upon the mountainside to where I could
Clamber with joy towards a naked sky.
I thank You and the king for his good try
Restoring Eilat to Judean fold.
I look out on the Sabbath morning bold,
And visit Yemenite synagogue where
I find the kindness and sweetness to bear
The memories of centuries long past
In the bright voices that the young boys cast.

23 In Amaziah’s fifteenth year,
Who was the son of Joash’ fear,
The king of Judah, came to reign
Jeroboam in the domain
Of Samaria, as the son
Of Joash king of Israel won,
For forty-one years then was done.
24 He did the evil in the eyes
Of YHWH, and he did not despise
All the sins of Jeroboam
The son of Nebat who like ram
Made Israel sin by the calves’ scam.
25 He gained back all of Israel’s lands
From Hamath’s entrance to the sands
Of the sea of the plain, as taught
By the word of YHWH Ælohim
Of Israel, the word He brought
By the hand of Jonah His trot,
The son of Amittai, prophet
From Gathhepher when he was met.
26 For YHWH saw Israel’s oppression
Was very bitter, few with gun,
Poor and in want, nor was there found
A saviour anywhere around.
27 And YHWH said He would surely not
Blot out the name of Israel’s plot
From under heaven, but He saved
Them by the hand of the engraved
Jeroboam son of Joash.
28 The rest of Jeroboam’s acts,
And all he did and his extracts,
How he warred, how he overcame
Damascus and Hamath of fame
Which had belonged to Judah to
Take to Israel’s possession too,
Are they not written in the book
Of chronicles of kings in nook
Of Israel? Just take a look.
29 And Jeroboam slept along
With his ancestors, with the strong
Kings of Israel, and Zachariah
His son reigned instead of pariah.

When evil befalls any nation that
Has made a covenant and turned and spat,
Your prophet says that evil’s at Your hand,
Because of the folk’s sins in wicked band.
And yet the king does evil here to stand
In his namesake’s beguiled and fashioned fate.
And yet You do not turn upon his gate,
But in Your mercy grant respite and wait
To see enlargement of Israel’s estate.
The truth is not that evil is the score
Of Your wrath only sitting at the door,
Nor that You have mercy on whom You will.
The truth is faith always can fit the bill.
Do not see me a cynic on my sill.

2 KINGS 15

1 Then in the twenty-seventh year
Of Jeroboam Israel’s peer,
Azariah who was the son
Of Amaziah started fun
Of reigning king of Judah won.
2 Sixteen years old was he when he
Began to reign, and he reigned free
Fifty-two years in the city
Jerusalem. His mother’s name
Was Jecholiah of the same
Jerusalem, city of fame.
3 He did the right in eyes of YHWH,
All that he saw his father do,
Amaziah, true-hearted too.
4 But only that the high places
Were not removed, for the races
Of people sacrificed and burnt
Incense still where they once had learnt
On the high places for their daces.
5 YHWH struck the king with leprosy
Till the day of his death, and he
Lived in a house apart. And then
Jotham the king’s son judged the men
Of the land over house and den.
6 The rest of Azariah’s acts
And all he did, are they not facts
Written down in the chronicles
Of Judah’s kings’ conventicles?

No doubt in Your prophet’s writing and view
It was Your hand that rewarded the true
Righteousness of Azariah’s life too.
And it was Your hand that struck the king down
With leprosy, because he set no frown
Upon the high places but let the folk
Sacrifice and burn incense on the stoke.
So faith perceives that every consequence
Is the punishment or reward in pence
Of what men do. I think that faith is weak
To see reality upon the peak
Of those who are both righteous and who share
In suffering in a world of do and dare.
The question’s always one that human’s speak.

7 So Azariah slept among
His ancestors, and then they strung
Him out in his ancestors’ tomb
In David’s city, in his room
Jotham his son reigned without gloom.
8 The thirty-eighth year of the king
Azariah of Judah’s sting,
Then Zachariah who was son
Of Jeroboam joined the fun
To reign over Israel in town
Of Samaria, six month’s crown.
9 And he did evil in the eyes
Of YHWH, by his ancestor’s lies,
Departing not for the sins of
Jeroboam Nebat’s son’s glove,
Who made Israel sin though unwise.
10 And Shallum son of Jabesh plotted
Against him and attacked him spotted
Before the people, and killed him
And reigned in his place. He was grim.
11 The rest of Zachariah’s acts,
See they are written in contracts
Of the book of chronicles of
The kings of Israel above.
12 This was the word of YHWH that He
Spoke to Jehu saying, “To three
And four generations shall sit
Your sons on Israel’s throne as fit.”
And so it happened and was lit.

Sometimes Your prophet sees the events swell
As by prophetic word that none can quell,
As though fate lay on every man and all
He might try to do could not weather squall.
Punishment, fate and mercy all combine
To explain both the sweet and bitter wine,
While I in condescending view look down
On all the faithful and sinners in town.
Beloved, the fact is none of us can know
The why and wherefore of the ways things go.
Philosophy leaves much to tail and toe,
And those thoughtful on earth are satisfied
With no explaining reason why they died.
The man did evil. But the omens tried.

13 Shallum son of Jabesh began
To reign in the year that was scan
Thirty-nine of Uzziah king
Of Judah, and he reigned full swing
Of a month in Samaria’s wing.
14 For Menahem son of Gadi
Went up from Tirzah, and then he
Came to Samaria to strike
Shallum son of Jabesh with spike,
And killed him and reigned in his place.
15 The rest of Shallum’s acts and race
And his conspiracy to face,
See, they’re written down in the book
Of chronicles of Israel’s crook.

The way to keep from being king, it seems,
Is to have assassin break in your dreams.
Assassination’s not gone out of style,
Although the means have improved with men’s guile.
To be assassin’s shortest way and trick
To become king, not democratic pick.
Inheriting the throne is dangerous
Unless the prince has learned of blunderbuss.
Beloved, I seek no throne, and so I find
No reason to assassinate the kind
Of people who compete for what’s not theirs,
And people who’re always putting on airs.
Instead I seek invisibly gold stairs
Toward celestial secrets out of mind.

16 Then Menahem attacked Tiphsah
And everything in it he saw,
And all the lands around up from
Tirzah, because they did not come
Out to him, so he attack all
With pregnant women to appall
He ripped up killing in the stall.

Each culture area has its own style
Of warfare actions to adjust the dial,
And in each place such acts are evident
And found inevitable in the bent
Of human constitution though they be
Unheard of in another place and fee.
Eurasians always rape the female sex
When they go out to battle and to vex.
The native culture of Americas
Rather raped men caught in their raiding claws.
The ancient Middle East is so concerned
That war without splitting the pregnant burned
Is not a war at all, that they would go
Out planning for the naked, avid show.

17 In year thirty-nine of the king
Azariah of Judah’s sting
Menahem Gadi’s son began
To reign over Israel and fan
Ten years in Samaria by plan.
18 And he did evil in the eyes
Of YHWH, he did not turn his prize
In all his days from the sins of
Jeroboam Nebat’s son’s glove
Who made Israel to sin in guise.
19 Then Pul the Assyrian king
Came up to the land’s attacking,
And Menahem gave Pul a bag
Of one thousand pieces of rag
Silver, so he would then affirm
To him the kingdom not to squirm.
20 And Menahem taxed all the men
Of Israel, all the mighty men
Of wealth, from each man to account
Fifty silver shekels’ amount,
To give to the Assyrian king.
So the Assyrian king turned back
And did not stay in the land’s track.

Chilean hordes reveal the truth at last.
War’s not inevitable thing that passed
For hope or wail in every land and time.
It’s an effect of choices in the rhyme.
Fair trade between communities suffices
To stop war so as not to disturb prices.
It’s barbary alone in taking taxes,
Or greed to acquire other people’s faxes
That allows wrathful excuses to win
And throw out peace with carrots in the bin.
Beloved, I come to join You in Your perch
On high to observe people in the lurch.

21 The rest of Menahem’s acts and
All that he did are writ by hand
In the book of the chronicles
Of the kings of Israel’s numskulls.
22 Menahem slept with his ancestors,
And Pekahiah, no molestors,
His son reigned in his place for nesters.
23 The fiftieth year of the king
Azariah of Judah’s spring
Pekahiah who was the son
Of Menahem began to run
Israel in Samaria and
Reigned there two years as he had planned.
24 And he did evil in the eyes
Of YHWH, he did not leave the guise
Of Jeroboam’s sins, the son
Of Nebat, who made Israel run
To sin. 25 But Pekah who was son
Of Remaliah, a chief Hun
Of his conspired against him and
Attacked him on Samarian sand
In the palace of the king’s house,
With Argob and Arieh’s grouse,
And with him fifty men among
The Gileadites come unstrung
To kill him, and reigned in his place.
26 The rest of Pekahiah’s acts,
And all he did in his contracts,
See, they are written in the book
Of Israel’s kings’ chronicles, look.

Pekahiah is an example of
The kind of king who inherited glove
And found assassins waiting in the wings
Of the stage that sets and deposes kings.
All that’s irrelevant, I trow, to fact
The king was evil in the way to act.
It does not seem to make a difference whether
The father keeps the son on righteous tether
Or lets him run free in sins of his choice.
None listen to mom and dad’s warning voice.
The son of righteous king may be a bum.
The wicked king may bring forth one to hum
Your praises with good deeds around the earth.
Each king and man himself decides his worth.

27 In the fifty-second year of
Azariah who was king of
Judah, Pekah who was the son
Of Remaliah went to run
Israel in Samarian sun,
And reigned there twenty years when done.
28 And he did evil in the eyes
Of YHWH, not learning to despise
The sins of Jeroboam son
Of Nebat, who made Israel run
To sin. 29 In the days of the king
Pekah of Israel came to sing
Tiglathpileser who was king
Of Assyria, and he took
Ijon as well as every nook
Of Abelbethmaachah, as well
As Janoah and Kedesh tell,
And Hazor and Gilead to keep,
And Galilee, for all to weep
In the country of Naphtali,
And took them captive on the fly
Into Assyria to sweep.
30 Hoshea son of Ela made
A plot against Pekah betrayed
The son of Remaliah and
Attacked him and killed him with band
And reigned in his place in the year
Twenty of Jotham son to fear
Of Uzziah without a tear.
31 The rest of Pekah’s acts and all
He did, see, they are in the stall
Of the book of the chronicles
Of Israel’s kings for tentacles.

One king takes back the cities lost and then
As time goes on the empire finds new men
To turn the tide and push the border back.
I truly doubt, Beloved, the cause is lack
Of love and obedience to You in one
Case or the faithfulness by which was done
The worship due to You instead of fun
In grove of Baal and Ashtoreth. I doubt.
It seems that folk push each other about
According to the level of their strength.
They did so then, they do so now at length
Bombs are run by atomic force to make
The enemy inside out crispy steak.
At least in those days steak was rare a shake.

32 In the second year of Pekah
Who was son of Remaliah
The king of Israel, began
Jotham son of Uzziah man
To rule Judah. 33 Twenty-five years
Old was he when despite his fears
He started to rule, and he reigned
Sixteen years in Jerusalem.
And his mother’s name undisdained
Was Jerusha daughter of Zadok.
34 And he did with both pick and haddock
The right thing in YHWH’s eyes, he did
According to all that he bid,
His father Uzziah cool-brained.
35 But still the high places were not
Removed, the fold sacrificed lot
And burned incense in the high places.
He built the higher gate for traces
Of the house of YHWH in its graces.
36 The rest of Jotham’s acts and all
That he did are they not withal
Writ in the book of chronicles
Of Judah’s kings like barnacles?
37 In those days YHWH began to send
Against Judah Rezin to wend,
The king of Syria as well
As Pekah Remaliah’s spell.
38 And Jotham slept with his ancestors
And was buried with his ancestors
In the city of David who
Was his ancestor, Ahaz too
His son reigned in his place and pew.

I see the higher gates built up to hide
The high place and the grove concealed inside
The church and churchly heart. The famous build
The higher gates and with that stop-gap filled
Content themselves they’ve done great deeds to make
Humanity a better one and stake
Their fortune on the profits of the wake.
The sweet Christian fold’s different from the one
The Middle East produces on the run.
The tripartite system’s at Roman root
And even Celt desires to lick the boot.
Beloved, I break down my heart’s higher gate
Raze the high place, the grove annihilate,
And find Your worship’s not a culturate.

2 KINGS 16

1 The seventeenth year of Pekah
Who was son of Remaliah,
Ahaz the son of Jotham king
Of Judah began to take wing.
2 Twenty years old was Ahaz when
He began to reign over men,
And reigned sixteen years in the town
Jerusalem, and to his crown
Did the right in the eyes of YHWH
His Ælohim, like David too.
3 And he acted like Israel’s kings,
Even made his son pass the stings
Of fire by the abominations
Of the heathen, whom YHWH from stations
Expelled from before Israel’s folk.
4 He sacrificed and came to stoke
Incense in the high places, and
On the hills and about the land
Under every green tree to stand.

The pagan sacrifice of the first-born
In Molech’s burning arms, from mother torn,
Was considered by civilized estate
Essential to success of farm and rate
Of city. To neglect the sacrifice
Of one soul for the nation would suffice
To bring catastrophe on everyone.
It was expedient to have the thing done.
Today fathers still sacrifice a son
To business, education or defense
As fighting’s called. Not all killing’s good sense
Is focused on the first-born and the free.
Sometimes an execution’s solvency
Is what saves people from catastrophe.

5 Then Rezin king of Syria
And Pekah of Remaliah
King of Israel came to the town
Jerusalem to war with frown,
And they besieged Ahaz but could
Not conquer him for bad or good.

Judah and Israel were supposed to seek
Your face alone on Sabbaths week to week,
And face the world of pagan wealth and power
To hold Your honour up to eyes an hour.
But what do I see here? Expected fate
Of brother against brother and the state
Cooperating with idolatry
To smash the other with velocity.
Beloved, I have not brother, and thanks be,
If that’s the way a brother would treat me.
I’d rather take my fortressed soul and see
Alone the world go by, and give my hand
To one in need rather in blood to stand
Pockets full of the Syrian contraband.

6 At that time Rezin Syria’s king
Recovered Elath to the wing
Of Syria and drove out the Jews
From Elath, and the Syrians choose
To come to Elath and live there
Until this very day a share.

The Arab and the Jew share to this day
The town of Elath, the Arab holds sway
Upon the east, and on the western bay
The Jewish state sets up its verdant way.
The borderland between the two is caught
Up in the thread of quarrels that were sought
In new markets, and not the troubled toil
Of Syrian in ancient times for oil.
When we learn to burn hydrogen, I guess,
Every country will be the prey and mess
The Middle East is today for address.
Beloved, I see the blue sky in reflection
Of the Red Sea beside the loud confection
Of the airport in the town of selection.

7 So Ahaz sent messengers to
Tiglathpileser who was due
King of Assyria to say
“I am your servant and in pay
Of you, come up and save me out
Of the power of the Syrian clout,
And out of the might of the king
Of Israel, risen to sting.”

If Israel can pay Syria for a bit
Of armour and a fight among the fit,
Then Judah too can play that single game
And send Assyria payment for her shame.
Ahaz is wise as Israel in his part
To ally himself with Assyrian heart,
And be a servant instead of a king.
Exchange of wealth accomplishes the thing.
Beloved, I send word to Your empire’s throne
To tell You that I have been left alone
To face the arms of church, factory and state,
And so depend on You to turn my fate
From such submission to true Islam’s rate,
Without Umayyad or Abbasid pate.

8 And Ahaz took silver and gold
Found in the house of YHWH and told
In the king’s house’s treasury
And sent a gift in hope to see
The king of Assyria for fee.
9 Assyrian king listened to him,
For the king of Assyria grim
Went off against Damascus’ rim,
And took it and carried captive
To Kir, did not let Rezin live.
10 And king Ahaz went to Damascus
To meet Tiglathpileser’s maskus
The king of Assyria and
Saw an altar that was at hand
In Damascus, and king Ahaz
Sent to Urijah priest he has
The pattern of the altar and
How it was made by craftsman’s hand.
11 And Urijah the priest built all
The altar according to all
That king Ahaz had sent in call
From Damascus, and so he made
Urijah the priest while he stayed
Did king Ahaz in Damascus
Before he came up with the bus.

The strong distinction that today I’d make
Between the cult of YHWH and what’s in stake
In heathen cult is probably all wrong.
Ahaz took pattern from the Syrian song
And raised it in Jerusalem as strong
As in Damascus. I see even in
The wilderness tent Moses’ came to win
With the Egyptian architecture and
Their taste in colours in alternate band
Of blue and red and purple every hand.
Beloved, You state in ten commandments what
Is needed to fulfil the golden but.
The rest is the free choice of cultured mind
That sees beauty of form, colours in kind.

12 When the king came from Damascus,
The king saw the altar not worse,
And the king came near the place of
Sacrifice and offered for love.
13 He burnt his burnt offering and meat
Offering, and poured drink offering neat,
And sprinkled the blood of his peace
Offerings on the altar’s release.
14 He also brought altar of brass
That was before YHWH from the grass
In front of the house, from between
The altar and YHWH’s house as seen,
And put it on the north side of
The new altar of Ahaz’ love.
15 And king Ahaz commanded then
Urijah the priest saying then,
“On the great altar burn the offering
At morning and evening meat proffering,
And the king’s burnt sacrifice and
His meat offering, and for the land
The burnt offering of all the folk,
And their meat offering at a stroke
And their drink offerings and then take
And sprinkle on it all the stake
Of blood of the burnt offering and
The blood of sacrifices, and
The brass altar shall be for me
To enquire by and privately.”
16 So Urijah the priest did as
Had commanded his king Ahaz.
17 And king Ahaz cut off the sides
Of the bases, removed the tides
Of the laver from them and took
Down the sea from the brass ox crook
That was under it and he put
It on a stone pavement for foot.
18 The Sabbath covered placed they’d built
And the king’s entry outside stilt,
He turned outside the house of YHWH
On account of Assyrian crew.
19 The rest of Ahaz’ acts which he
Did, are they not written in fee
In the book of chronicles set
For all the kings of Judah yet?
20 And Ahaz slept with his ancestors,
And was buried within sequesters
With his ancestors in the town
Of David, and then took the crown
Hezekiah his son instead,
So Judah was by a king led.

I see the oecumenical in place.
Ahaz made place of sacrifice and grace
Outside the sacred temple but in view
On the north side providing for the crew
Of the uncircumcised who battled for
The king Ahaz in strength to keep his store.
The wisdom of his choice is clear to see.
He could not bring heathen impurity
Into Your house, but he could bring the prayer
Of Your house out to hear and stand there where
The heathen was allowed. Beloved, I bring
Petition sacred to my soul and fling
My pearls before the swine and feel the sting
Of trampling without sight or knowledging.

2 KINGS 17

1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king
Of Judah Hoshea the son
Of Elah started out to bring
His rule over Samarian gun
In Israel to reign nine years.
2 And he did evil it appears
Before the eyes of YHWH, but not
As Israel’s kings before his slot.
3 Against him rose up in attack
Shalmaneser king front and back
Assyrian, and Hoshea
Became his servant and in awe
Gave him presents, tribute in paw.
4 And the Assyrian king found out
Hoshea had plotted his rout,
For he had sent messengers down
To So king of Egyptian town,
And brought no tribute to the king
Of Assyria the which thing
He had done year by year before.
That’s why Assyrian king in store
Shut him up behind prison door.

Hoshea bought stock in Egyptian wear
Which was a mistake for the spiteful care
That Shalmaneser had to keep account
Of his clients in dutiful amount.
Hoshea’s mistake was one of perception
And not simply a matter of ineption.
It’s easy now to see Egypt’s decline,
But from Hoshea’s slope that land was fine
For centuries. The new stock come of late
Is always seen as a risk from the state
Of Wall Street. My Beloved, that’s why I put
Stock in trust in Your sacred name and foot
Set on earth and invisible to those
Who walk around in fashionable clothes.

5 And then king of Assyria
Came up through all the land with claw
And went up to Samaria,
And besieged it for three years’ time.
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea
The dread king of Assyria
Took Samaria in its prime
And carried Israel away
Into Assyria to play,
And put them in Halah and in
Habor by river Gozan’s bin,
And in the cities of the Medes.
7 The sin of Israel exceeds
Against YHWH their Ælohim, who
Had brought them from Egyptian crew,
From under the power of Pharaoh,
King of Egypt, and they let go
To fear other gods in chapeau,
8 And acted by their pagan laws,
Which heathen YHWH threw out like straws
Before Israel’s folk and the kings
Of Israel, which they made in strings.
9 And Israel’s folk did secretly
What was not right against YHWH, see,
Their Ælohim, and they built high
Places in all their cities by
The watchmen’s tower to fortified
City and every place beside.
10 They set up images and groves
On every high hill to dispose
And under every green tree’s rose.
11 And there they burnt incense in all
The high places as by the call
Of the heathen whom YHWH threw out
Before them, and in wicked flout
Provoked YHWH to anger about.

Political theory that’s based on what
Idols may be set up in temple shut
Or in the open hill-top groves it seems
Is just naiveté and stands on dreams.
The truth is Hoshea made a mistake
In trusting in Egypt and in its wake,
And that’s why Shalmaneser came to take
The people all away in three years’ shake.
Causality and explanation fail,
Beloved, beneath the overwhelming pale
Of intervention by the divine guide,
Of armies set aghast before the slide
Of Your approach. I wait the true and find
The glories of eternity in mind.

12 For they served idols, that’s why YHWH
Had said to them, “You shall not do
This thing.” 13 Yet YHWH had testified
Against Israel and Judah’s pride
By all the prophets, all the seers,
Saying “Turn from your evil fears,
And keep My commandments and My
Statutes according to the ply
Of all the law I commanded
Your fathers and which I would bid
You by My servants, prophets high.
14 And still they would not listen, but
Hardened their necks like the necks shut
Of their ancestors, who did not
Believe YHWH their Ælohim’s plot.
15 And they rejected His statutes,
His covenant made with recruits
Of their ancestors, His witness
That He witnessed against their mess,
And they followed vain idols and
Became vain, and followed the band
Of heathen round about their land
Of whom YHWH had warned them not to
Be like them in the things they do.

It’s not so much attraction of the gods
And goddesses of Grecian temples’ prods
That still attracts the human heart and mind.
It’s not so much the spirit and divined.
It’s more the pull of what the neighbour does
And what the neighbour has for fur and claws.
The simian approach to everything
Is imitation of the neighbour’s ring.
But from a spectator’s view that seems rough:
There’s no function in fact for jewels on muff.
It’s monkeyish and crowish to be caught
In glitter of the neighbour’s fancy lot.
Beloved, though sunken in the monkey row,
I look to You, depart from glitter show.

16 They left all the commandments of
YHWH their Ælohim and made love
To molten images, two calves,
And made a grove, worshipped by halves
All the stars of the sky and served
Baal a false god and undeserved.

Not only glitter seduces the paws
And eyes of humankind, rather than laws
Of idols on the waste of gold and stone.
There’s something else that itches to the bone.
The worship of idols is made to fit
The hormones of the simian lack of wit
To enjoy sex instead of time of rut
Each and every day one can crack a nut.
The sexy worship of Baal, Ashtoreth
Once penetrated every shibboleth
Of ancient Israel, and now it seems
To be the fount of what a Christian dreams,
Blessed by the music and the crowd and sure
That what he feels is from a Spirit pure.

17 They caused their sons and daughters too
To pass through the fire, used askew
Divination and enchantments,
And sold themselves of common sense
To do evil before the eyes
Of YHWH, provoking His reprise.

Glitter and sex are only two of three
Things that seduce pagan humanity
Dressed in a Christian fashion to be free.
The third is a successful life drawn on
The education of illicit dawn.
Israel once sacrificed the first-born child
In fiery arms of Molech and the wild
Din of contemporary Christian rock.
Now sacrifice is made upon the stock
Of sacrifice of all to gain success.
Nothing more can Creator give to bless.
The divination of the future comes
When the soul makes calculation of sums.
Beloved, I trust in You and fail to guess.

18 That’s why YHWH was exceeding wroth
With Israel and threw their broth
Out of His sight till none was left
But only Judah’s tribe bereft.
19 Neither did Judah keep the law
From YHWH their Ælohim’s fair paw,
But acted like Israel for straw.
20 And YHWH rejected all the seed
Of Israel, and oppressed their creed,
And gave them up to spoilers’ greed,
Till He had thrown them out before
His face and so settled the score.
21 He tore Israel from David’s rule
And they made Jeroboam fool
The son of Nebat king and he,
Jeroboam drove Israel free
From following YHWH, made them sin
A very great and awful sin.
22 For Israel’s folk acted by all
The sins of Jeroboam’s fall
That he did, they did not depart
From them not in deed nor in heart,
23 Until YHWH cast Israel out from
Before His face for rascaldom
As stated by all His servants
The prophets. For extravagance
Israel was carried from their land
To Assyria where they stand
Until this day. 24 Assyrian king
Brought from Babylon and Cuthah,
And from Ava and from the spring
Of Hamath and from Sepharvaim,
And settled towns of Samaria,
And they lived in its cities’ clime.

Effect of seduction of glitter and
Sex and success is to fail in the land
And be swept up before the rushing flood
Of market, hardly noticing the blood
Upon which the economy is built,
The controlled violence of pick and stilt.
So Israel was taken out to live
In peaceful slumber that the idols give.
Beloved, I turn away from haste and search
To find the right cathedral and the church.
I turn to You alone and take no god
Or goddess from the singing of the rod.
I bow in silence toward the marbled room
That is reflected in my heart till doom.

25 As soon’s they started living there,
They did not fear YHWH for their share,
So YHWH sent lions among them
And they also killed some of them.
26 That’s why they brought it to the king
Of Assyria, and saying
“The nations you removed and placed
In the towns of Samaria’s waste
Do not know how the land’s God must
Be worshiped, that’s why in disgust
He’s sent lions among them and
See they are killing them at hand
Because they do not know how to
Worship the God of the land due.”
27 The king of Assyria commanded,
Saying “Take there one of high-handed
Priests that you brought from there and let
Them go and live there to revet
Them in the worship of the God
Of the said land and of its sod.”
28 Then one of the priests they had taken
Away from Samaria forsaken
Came and lived in Bethel and taught
Them how to fear YHWH as they ought.
29 Nevertheless each nation made
Gods of their own and on parade
Put them in houses of high places
Which the Samaritans’ disgraces
Had made, each nation in the towns
Wherever they lived in their gowns.

The lions that came out to eat the crowd
Of people that replaced the folk allowed
To be deported from the land were sent
The prophet says by You in anger bent
Because they did not honour You as god
Of Israel’s hills and rivers and its sod.
That explanation’s heathen of its sort,
The idea every land has god in sport
That must be worshipped by the passing crew.
That faith was trounced by Abram and his few
Who traveled everywhere, but worship You.
Your prophet does not say if the plan worked
To bring a priest to help them in the quirked.
I doubt the prospect fits like a new shoe.

30 The men of Babylon then made
Succothbenoth, the men waylaid
From Cuth made Nergal and the men
Of Hamath made Ashima’s den,
31 And the Avites made Niblaz and
Tartak, and the Sepharvites hand
Was turned to burn their children in
Fire to Adrammelech in bin
And Anammelech, who were gods
Of the Sepharvaim men and clods.
32 So they feared YHWH and made themselves
Priests of high places lowest elves
Who sacrificed for them disgraces
In the houses of the high places.
33 They feared YHWH and served their own gods
According to the customed prods
Of the nations whom they took out
Away from there and on the route.
34 Unto this day they act by those
Former customs their fathers chose,
They do not fear YHWH, neither do
They act according as is due
By their statutes and ordinance,
Or after the law’s commandance
That YHWH commanded Jacob’s crew
Whom He named Israel to be true,
35 With whom YHWH made a covenant,
And charged them saying “Don’t consent
To worship other gods and bow
Down to them to serve them, endow
Them with sacrifices and vow.

Prophetic word here has appearance of
Political explaining of the shove
Between Jew and Samaritan that late
Under the Persians came to divide rate.
The Persians invented the Jewish state
To balance out Samaritan with hate
And so to rule the land of Palestine
With cunning and with their own planned design.
Far-reaching were the effects of the plan
The Persians made for woman, child and man.
Diplomacy and not raw force is their
Best attribute, and they come out to share
The surface of the load of power, but bear
Their secrets in wise wonder and clear care.

36 “But YHWH who brought you from the land
Of Egypt with great power and hand
Stretched out, Him shall you fear and Him
Shall you worship, also to Him
Shall you bring sacrifices trim.
37 “And the statutes and ordinance,
And the law and its commandance,
Which He wrote for you, you shall keep
For ever and not come to weep
For other gods in wicked heap.
38 “And the covenant I have made
With you, you shall not leave waylaid,
Neither shall you worship at hand
Other gods come from any land.
39 But YHWH your Ælohim you’ll fear
And He shall save you from the gear
Of all your foes when they appear.”
40 And yet they did not listen, they
Acted in just their former way.
41 So these nations feared YHWH and served
Their graven images unswerved,
Both their children and children’s sons,
As did their ancestors by tons,
So they do to this day. It stuns.

Though I was never brought out from the state
Of Egypt, nor did I live under fate
Of slavery by the Nile, but only kept
A memory of kindly folk who wept
To meet and greet me by the pyramid,
Still I pray, My Beloved, that where You hid
Your great salvation is a secret shown
To me also before Your righteous throne.
Beloved, let me not take Egyptian god
Nor any other on the famous sod
Of market and of temple sent from Rome
Or Babylon, Geneva, or the dome
Even of St. Paul’s where the quire is thick
With beauty of sound and the oaken stick.

2 KINGS 18

1 Now it came to pass in the third
Year of Hoshea son of bird
Elah king of Israel, the son
Of Ahaz who was king of Judah,
Hezekiah started to brood her.
2 Twenty-five years old was he when
He started to rule over men,
And he reigned twenty-nine years in
Jerusalem. His mother’s kin
Name also was Abi, daughter
Of Zachariah to infer.
3 And he did what was right in eyes
Of YHWH, according to the guise
Of all that David his dad did.
4 He took away high place forbid
And broke the idols, cut down groves,
And broke in pieces what in troves
Moses had made, serpent of brass,
Since till those days Israel en masse
Had burnt incense to it, and he
Called it Nehushtan, brazen scree.

Hezekiah was a ruler who saw
Beyond the law of jungle, law of claw,
And broke down the high places and their groves
Where people came to orgies in their droves.
A king or president today like him
Would take a view of churches low and dim
And smash them all to pieces, like as not,
Since that is where sex orgies still are taught
With trap-set and with swaying arms and hips.
Let me not take their name upon my lips.
He’d also break down banks because they draw
Their usury called interest from the craw
Of everyone, and so cause violence
To fall on modern Israel and her tents.

5 He trusted in YHWH Ælohim
Of Israel, after his scheme
There was none like him of all kings
Of Judah, nor before in springs.
6 Because he stuck to YHWH and did
Not stop following Him, but hid
In keeping His commandments which
YHWH gave to Moses without hitch.
7 And YHWH was with him and he won
The victory in all he’d done,
And he rebelled against the king
Of Assyria, served not a ping.
8 And he attacked the Philistines
As far as Gaza and combines
Of borders from its signal tower
To the fortification’s power.

King Hezekiah would not stand to be
Subjected to a foreign king in fee,
And so he rebelled from establishment
The UN had accepted as the bent
Way that officially one ought to go.
He did not accept the Assyrian show.
Unfortunately there were soldiers none
The UN could send in to stop the fun.
And so he attacked peaceful Philistine
And then went home victorious to dine.
Beloved, I should have lived in those days rare
When politicians still knew what was fair,
And when Your temple was raised in the air
To celebrate Your worship once with care.

9 It happened in the fourth year of
King Hezekiah, which above
Was the seventh year of the son
Of Elah king of Israel won,
Hoshea, that Shalmaneser
King of Assyria came to stir
Against Samaria in blockade.
10 At the end of three years they stayed
To take it, then in the sixth year
Of Hezekiah, to appear
In the ninth year of Hoshea
King of Israel, Samaria
Was taken. 11 The Assyrian king
Carried away Israel to sing
In Assyria, and put them in
Halah and in Habor in bin
By the river of Gozan and
In the cities of the Medes’ land.
12 Since they did not obey the voice
Of YHWH their Ælohim for choice,
But broke His covenant and all
That Moses YHWH’s servant in call
Commanded, and would not listen
And would not do those things again.

Success of Hezekiah seems to prove
The theory that obedience to the groove
Of Your law in breaking grove and high place,
The heathen churches of a heathen race,
Was the best weapon to establish throne
And rulership over Judean groan.
Perhaps the insight that gave the king right
In his religion also improved sight
In how to defend the kingdom and get
Its independence from the power set.
I too have here my temple where I come
To inner chamber to worship and hum,
But do not break down idols with my axes,
Nor fail to give the Caesar all my taxes.

13 In the fourteenth year of the king
Hezekiah Sennacherib
King of Assyria to sting
Came against the fortified jib
Of all the towns of Judah and
Took them, every one in the land.
14 And Hezekiah king of Judah
Sent to Assyrian king the feuder
At Lachish, saying “I’ve offended,
Back off from me, what you’ve intended
I’ll pay.” And the Assyrian king
Set tax on Hezekiah king
Of Judah three hundred talents
Of silver and thirty talents
Of gold. 15 And Hezekiah gave
Him all the silver in the cave
Of YHWH’s house and the treasuries
Of the king’s house as if to please.
16 Then Hezekiah cut the doors
Of the temple of YHWH and scores
Of the pillars which Hezekiah
King of Judah had set up by her
Overlay, and then gave it to
The king of Assyria as due.

The time came when it was not enough to
Cut down the groves and destroy high place crew
In order to get safety from the brew
Established in the world for false or true.
So Hezekiah also had to pay
Taxes to be left alone in his sway.
That is a comfort to me in my way
Of failure to cut down the groves and stay
Idolatrous flood of oppression’s day
In the state church and in the far worse play
Of Pentecostal orgies that abound
Wherever Christ is mention or is found.
Beloved, forgive me that I pay my tax
Supporting the established mics and macs.

17 And the king of Assyria sent
Tartan and Rabaris and lent
Rabshakeh from Lachish to king
Hezekiah with a great wing
To strike against Jerusalem.
And they went up, came to the hem
Of Jerusalem. And when they
Had come up, they stood by the way
Of the canal to the high pool,
By the way of the fullers’ field.
18 When they to the king had appealed,
There came out to them stocked and steeled
Eliakim son of Hilkiah,
Who was over household and by her,
And Shebna the scribe and Joah
Son of Asaph, recording paw.
19 And Rabshakeh said to them, “Speak
Now to Hezekiah, he’s weak,
So says the great king, who is king
Of Assyria, ‘What faith you bring?
20 “You speak vainly to have a plan
And strength to battle as you can.
In whom do you trust and rebel
Against me, think now and do tell?
21 “See now, you trust in the lone staff
Of this bruised reed at which they laugh,
In Egypt, on which if a man
Leans, it will surely, spick and span,
Go in his hand and pierce it through.
So is Pharaoh of Egypt to
All who trust him. 22 “But if you say
To me, “We trust in YHWH today
Our Ælohim,” is that not He
Whose high places and altars’ fee
Hezekiah’s taken away,
And told Judah in all their sway,
Jerusalem ‘You’ll worship here,
Jerusalem’s altar with fear?’”

Attackers of Jerusalem knew well
How to cast up theological spell
And muddy waters and create the doubt
That Hezekiah knew what he’s about.
The argument that he broke down Your churches
And so left Your worshippers in their lurches
Is just the argument sweet Christian now
Will find to support heathen talk and plough.
They call You by the name of Trinity
And pretend all faiths are one to the free,
And blind souls to Your law and to Your love
When You refuse to work both hand in glove
And in the name of idols in their glee.
Beloved, though I’m alone, look down on me.

23 “Now then, I pray, give pledges to
My lord the Assyrian king due,
And I’ll give you two thousand horse,
If you can set riders in course.
24 “How then will you turn back the face
Of even one captain in chase
Of the least of my master’s men,
And put your trust on Egypt then
For chariots and for horsemen?
25 “Have I now come to the attack
Without YHWH’s aid against the back
Of this place to destroy it now?
YHWH said to me ‘Go up and plough
This land to its destruction now.’”

Assyrian to the attack is now
Ready to say that You held up his brow
And brought destruction on Jerusalem
By his hand in theological gem.
He also bellows in pride at the state
Comprised of so few who stand armed and wait.
I too, Beloved, hear the same argument,
That You back only those who enter tent
Of Trinity, that blasphemous belief,
Are protected by You from robbing thief.
I also hear that numbers create truth,
And since the band is small and without ruth
That keeps Your ten commandments as they’re writ,
My faith is one to fail since it’s not fit.

26 Then said Eliakim the son
Of Holkiah and Shebna won,
And Joah to Rabshakeh, “Speak
Please to your servants in the reek
Of Syrian language, for we know
It and do not talk with the show
Of the Jews’ language in the ears
Of the people that mind the tiers.”
27 But Rabshakeh said to them, “Did
My master send me to the bid
Of your master and to you here
To speak these words? Should I appear
To the men on the wall so they
May eat their own shit and then stay
To drink their own piss in your way?”

Beloved, speak now to Rabshekeh and those
Who echo his message in refined prose,
Where rhetoric hides the abysmal thought
Of shit and piss for good doctrine that’s brought
On golden platters of the Christian church
And even to the synagogue and perch
Of Mulla, speak, Beloved, and show Your arm
To protect the slight faithful from their harm,
And lay a curse upon the furthest rung
Of heathen rhetoric that has been sung
In sensual lays and rhythms on the tongue
Of priest and cantor, drumbeat flying fast,
While the parishioners not to be last
Wail and prevail to shake their hips halfmast.

28 Then Rabshakeh stood up and cried
With a loud voice on the Jews’ side
And spoke in the Jews’ tongue and said
“Hear the word of the great king spread
Over Assyria, be led.
29 “So says the king, ‘Do not believe
Hezekiah, he’ll not relieve
You and save you out of his hand.
30 “Neither let Hezekiah stand
To make you trust in YHWH, and say
“YHWH will deliver us today,
And this town shall not under sway
Of the king of Assyria.”’
31 “Do not listen to Hezekiah,
For so says the king and pariah
Of Assyria, ‘Make with me
A treaty by a present, see,
And come out to me, and then eat
Every man of his own vine’s treat,
And every one of his fig tree,
And drink every one of the sea
Of his own cisterns at his feet,
32 “Until I come and I take you
Away to a land like your view,
A land of corn and wine and dew,
A land of bread and vineyards too,
A land of oil, olive and honey,
Where you may live with house and money
And not die, and take not heed now
To Hezekiah when his brow
Persuades you saying “YHWH will save.”

The heathen church seduces on the hill
Of Jerusalem, I can hear it still
Calling men to the favourite water hole
And lifting up the oil and gold in bowl.
Wealth is enducement enough for the most
Of men, both those submitting and who boast.
Sex and cents bring the world to heal and bind
All men in one faith and one heart to find
Rebellion against You, against Your law
In what is best to favour gun and claw.
Beloved, I hear the ringing words and plot,
I see the advertisement for the lot,
And turn toward the gold of dawn to sing
A single song to You, my Lord and King.

33 “Have any gods of nations down
Saved their lands from beneath the frown
Of the Assyrian king? 34 “Where are
The gods of Hamath and the star
Of Arpad? And where are the gods
Of Sepharvaim, flung to the clods,
Hena and Ivah? Did they come
Deliver Samaria and hum?
35 “What gods are their among all gods
Of all countries that with their prods
Saved their country out of my hand,
That YHWH should deliver the land
Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
36 But the people said not a word,
They held their peace as though not stirred,
For the king’s command was to say
Nothing in answer to his spray.
37 Then came Eliakim the son
Of Hilkiah of the housedom,
And Shebna the scribe and Joah
The son of Asaph in whose paw
Was the recording, with clothes torn
To Hezekiah, told the scorn
Of Rabshakeh in what he’d sworn.

The argument is thrown out with both spite
And disdain for the faith I hold with might.
Have You saved me, Beloved, from poverty
And pest and plague blown on humanity?
Have You put forth a hand against the rot
Of holocaust and genocide that’s wrought
Destruction of those who have kept Your word
And Sabbaths despite all and still unspurred?
Beloved, the argument falls on my ears
And falls upon the waking of my fears,
And yet I meet the argument that springs
Eternally it seems from mouths of kings
With silence. And with silence I take wings
To find my refuge in You without tears.

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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