II KINGS CHAPTER 19 - 24

2 KINGS 19

1 It happened when king Hezekiah
Heard it, he tore his clothes to sigh it,
And dressed himself up in sackcloth,
And went into YHWH’s house of wrath.
2 He sent Eliakim who was
Over the household and the claws
Of Shebna the scribe and the elders
Of the priests clothed in sackcloth felders
To prophet Isaiah the son
Of Amoz, who was worth a ton.
3 They told him, “So says Hezekiah,
‘Today’s a day of great pariah,
And of rebuke and blasphemy,
Because the time of birthing be,
And there’s not strength to birth a flea.
4 “It may be YHWH your Ælohim
Will hear all the words sans esteem
Of Rabshakeh Assyria’s king
His master has sent with a thing
Of reproach to the living God,
And will reprove those words of clod
YHWH your Ælohim has heard, so
Pray for the ones left in the show.’”

Beloved, I could pray Hezekiah’s prayer.
Such words I hear from Christians everywhere
As Rahshakeh proclaim upon the wall.
Such blasphemy I hear to greet Your call.
The reproach of the living God I hear
Is shouted from the pulpit loud and clear
Of every place where priest craft come to stand
In paid positions in every green land,
Or in the cloistered, monkish rates that cost
So little to support celibates bossed.
Beloved, Your glory stands above the hate
That humans spread about the earth and wait
For healing from Your wings of golden state
To fall on heads of hair and balding pate.

5 King Hezekiah’s servants came
To Isaiah, prophet by name.
6 And Isaiah said to them, “So
Shall you say to your master, ‘So
Says the blest YHWH, “Don’t be afraid
Of the words which you have heard laid
By the servants Assyrian king
Has sent to blaspheme Me a thing.
7 “See, I’ll send upon him a blast,
And he will hear a rumour cast,
And will return to his own land,
And I will cause him not to stand
Before the sword in his own land.”’”

Beloved, the words Isaiah brought still bring
A comfort to the lonely heart and sting
Of blasphemy that builds the city streets
That I must walk to find my food and treats.
I clutch the promise and believe the word
That casts out power of cursing like a turd
And re-enlivens me to faith I’ve heard
Since Sinai rang with the bells of Your voice
And I in Israel made eternal choice.
Beloved, I wait fulfilling of the stroke,
And rejoice in the death-throes of the folk
Who curse me in polite response to my
Fostering Your commandments on the sly.
I hear already rumours for to croak.

8 And Rabshakeh returned and found
The king of Assyria bound
In battle against Libnah round,
Though he had heard that he had gone
Up from Lachish before the dawn.
9 And when he heard say of the king
Of Ethiopia a thing,
And of Tirhakah, “See now he
Has come out to fight against you,”
He sent messengers back to see
Hezekiah saying in view,
10 “So you shall speak to Hezekiah
King of Judah and all that’s nigh her,
Saying ‘Let not your God in whom
You trust deceive you of your doom,
Saying “Jerusalem shall not
Be delivered into the plot
Of the king of Assyria.”
11 “See, you have heard and heard with awe
What the kings of Assyria
Have done to all lands by destroying
Them wholly, shall you be enjoying
Deliverance? 12 “Have nations’ gods
Delivered them from any prods
Of my ancestors destroying,
As Gozen, Haran, and the spring
Of Rezeph, and folk of Eden
Who were in Thelasar like men?
13 “Where is the king of Hamath and
The king of Arpad, and the land
Of the king of Sepharvaim’s town,
Of Hena and Ivah for crown?’”

Look, my Beloved! Even when You have thwarted
The wizardly way of the hog-toed, warted,
And sent the king off packing with his wares,
He still raises the tumult of his dares.
His words are lost on me as mine on those
Who in rebellion have come here and chose
To defy You in Your oneness and tried
To make of You a triad to confide
Like every heathen rate, like those who mind
No Sabbath but the sun’s day and designed
To support the imperial in state
And raise the arm and favour of the great.
Beloved, I rant to see the stubborn rate
Of those who rush into the fiery fate.

14 And Hezekiah got the brief
From the messengers in relief
And read it. Hezekiah went
Up to YHWH’s house and spread the sent
Before YHWH. 15 Hezekiah prayed
Before YHWH and said where he stayed,
“O YHWH Israel’s Ælohim, who
Stays between cherubim in crew,
You are the Ælohim and You
Alone, of all kingdoms of earth,
And You have made both heaven and earth.
16 “YHWH, bow down Your ear now, and hear,
Open, YHWH, Your eyes, see and hear
The words Sennacherib has sent
The living God reproach to vent.
17 “Truly, YHWH, the Assyrian kings
Have destroyed nations and their things.
18 “They have thrown their idols in fire,
For they were not gods to desire,
But the work of men’s hands, and wood
And stone, that’s why destruction could.
19 “So that’s why, YHWH our Ælohim,
I pray to You, save from the scheme
Of his hand, so all earthly kings
May know that You above all things
Are YHWH Ælohim, only You.
To You alone worship is due”

Let me, Beloved, join once more in the prayer
Of Hezekiah, who in temple bare
Bowed down before You, spreading out the brief
Of blasphemy and praying for the chief.
May all men know. Beloved, that You alone
Are worthy of worship who sit on throne
Of universe above both tide of time
And place, above both prose and craven rhyme.
I pray to You alone, Beloved, though I
May be the only one left under sky.
I care not for the numbers of the great,
I care not for establishments of state
And church and mosque and synagogue, I rate
All but as trash before Your grand mandate.

20 Isaiah the son of Amoz
Sent to Hezekiah what shows,
Saying “So says YHWH Ælohim
Of Israel, ‘What you would deem
To pray to Me against the king
Sennacherib of Assyria,
I’ve truly listened to the thing.’
21 “This is the thing that YHWH for awe
Has spoken about him: ‘Virgin
Daughter of Zion despised your skin,
Laughed you to scorn, the daughter of
Jerusalem shakes head and glove.
22 “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
Against whom have you cast and beamed
Your voice and lifted up your eyes
Up high? Against the holy rise
Of Israel. 23 “By messenger
Have you reproached the Lord to stir
Saying ‘With crowds of chariots
I have come up the mountain lots,
To the sides of Lebanon, and
Will cut down the tall and the grand
Cedar trees from it and the choice
Fir trees from it, and I’ll rejoice
To enter in his borders’ place,
The forest of his Carmel’s grace.
24 “I’ve dug and drunk strange waters and
With the sole of my feet I’ve fanned
Dry all the rivers of the manned.’
25 “Have you not heard how long ago
I accomplished great things of woe,
And formed it all in ancient time?
Now I have brought to pass the crime
That you should be here to lay waste
Fortified cities for a taste.
26 “That’s why their people lacked the power,
Dismayed and confounded an hour,
They were like the grass of the field,
And as the green herb without yield,
The grass on the housetops to wilt
Before the wind and the wind’s silt.
27 “Yet I know where you’re coming from,
Your advance and your retreat’s sum
And your rage against Me like bum.
28 “Because your rage against Me and
Your tumult has come up to stand
In My ears, therefore I’ll put hook
In your nose and bridle to brook
Your lips and I will turn you back
In the way you came up to track.
29 “And this shall be a sign to you,
You’ll eat this year such things as grew
Of themselves, in the second year
The same such things as so appear,
And in the third year you shall sow
And reap and plant vineyards to grow
And eat the fruit of what you know.
30 “What has escaped of Judah’s house
Shall once again take root and spouse,
And bear fruit upward once to grow.

Did You, Beloved, promise by the hand sent
Of Your prophet to hear the prayer that rent
The heart of Hezekiah at the sight
Of blasphemy to shadow all that’s right?
Indeed, if You promised to hear that prayer,
I beg of You to enter in the dare
Also petitions that I raise to You
Against the modern rack and heathen crew.
Beloved, I raise a tender voice and true
To the support of Your law which the few
Maintain as it reads in the clutter word.
I raise a voice and grasp the promise stirred
To Hezekiah as I rant and rave
That such be sent forever to the grave.

31 “Out of Jerusalem shall go
A remnant, and those who escape
Out of the mountain fortress shape
Up in the zeal of YHWH agape.”
32 “Therefore so says YHWH of the king
Of Assyria, ‘He’ll not bring
Himself to this city, nor shoot
An arrow there, neither shall boot
Or his shield come, not throw a mound
Of earthworks against it on ground.
33 “By the way which he comes, he’ll go
Back and shall not enter the row,’
Says YHWH. 34 ‘For I’ll defend this town
To save it for My own renown,
And for my servant David’s sake.’”

Beloved, Your servant David raised a voice
So broad and unflinching, the church of choice
That even sings his Psalms will not rejoice
In the curses he lays on pagan stone
When he accepts that You are God alone.
A remnant, yes, a remnant let me see
Marching beneath the banners flowing free
Emblazoned with the words of Your law given
And taking those words of Yours for to live in.
Beloved, I hope above the tattered loss
That is Christendom with its hopeless cross
That You will step down once more and return
The remnant of obedience to learn
That You are God alone, all else is dross.

35 It happened that night that came out
The angel of YHWH, put to rout
The camp of the Assyrians
And killed as many in their cans
As hundred eighty-five thousand,
So when they got up dawn at hand,
See, all dead bodies on the sand.
36 Sennacherib Assyrian king
Turned back and left and then took wing
Back to live by Nineveh’s spring.
37 It happened as he bowed before
Nisroch his god in temple store,
That Adrammelech and Sharezer
His sons attacked and killed the geezer
With a sword, and they both escaped
Into Armenia’s land well graped.
And Esarhaddon his son reigned
In his place since he was unfaned.

I have a task for You, Beloved, tonight
And for Your angels as they’re kept from sight.
The camp of the Assyrian is still
Around the hope of Zion and its hill.
The churches may be empty and the till
Of Pentecostal fervor lost in fog,
But there is still a lot cast out to dog.
The grand establishments throughout the earth
That pretend to Your service for their worth
Are waiting for an angel hand in dearth
To uproot them and cast them in the ditch.
My fever and my zeal have reached a pitch.
Beloved, send angels now upon the town
And restore to Yourself the golden crown.

2 KINGS 20

1 In those times Hezekiah fell
Ill like to die. And come to tell
Him was the prophet Isaiah
The son of Amoz, with éclat
Said to him, “So says YHWH, ‘Set now
Your house in order, and your brow,
For you’ll die, not live anyhow.’”
2 Then he turned his face to the wall,
And prayed to YHWH, began to bawl,
3 “I pray You, YHWH, remember now
How I have acted by Your face
In truth and with a perfect race
Of heart and have done good before
Your eyes.” Hezekiah wept sore.

Who would not act as Hezekiah did
When he prayed that where his darling life hid
Might be spared the stroke that attends each man
That breathes on earth? There are but few who can
Accept with equanimity the span
Of life provided in this dark world’s poke
And not beg for a moment more at least
To finish up repentance more increased.
Beloved, I do not look askance at him,
Nor do I think his prayer and actions dim.
Instead I mind how he tore down the groves
And flattened the high places of their stoves
And altars whereon children met their fate.
I do not despise Hezekiah’s pate.

4 It happened, before Isaiah
Had gone out to the middle draw,
That word came from YHWH to him saying
5 “Turn back and tell the man who’s praying,
And Hezekiah captain of
The people I uphold and love,
‘So says YHWH, the Ælohim of
David your ancestor, “I’ve heard
Your prayer and seen your tears up-stirred,
See I will heal you, on the third
Day you shall go up to the house
Of YHWH whole and well as a grouse.
6 “And I will add unto your days
Fifteen years, and I will upraise
You and this city from the hand
Of the Assyrian king and band,
And I will defend this town for
My own sake and upon the score
Of My servant David before.”’”

Hezekiah I think jumped from the pan
Into the flames, courageous, fearless man.
It’s one thing to know one is dying now,
Another to know fifteen years in trow
Separate the soul from its death in row.
The fact is secretly the soul declines
To believe less than twenty years in fines
Are left to breathe on earth, and so the whines
Of only fifteen years prey on one’s days
Like cattle set out to pasture to graze.
Beloved, You do not realize how we
Who are mortal view our mortality.
You sit upon the throne forever fit
And never have to wonder without wit.

7 Isaiah said “Now take a lump
Of figs.” And they took off a stump
And laid it on the boil and he
Recovered from his illness’ spree.

Folk remedies were known in ancient times
And are still valid now in other climes.
I’d think it might be better now sometimes
To place a fig upon the boil instead
Of rushing to the doctor to be fed.
Folk remedies are life along the way,
The fig, the date, the olive oil, the ray
Of charcoal, egg and grape juice, all give life.
The doctor is the last resort in strife
Before the body gives up and retires
Into the grave when every soul expires.
Beloved, I take Your folk cures and be done
With quacks that try to get my money won,
And so I live and enjoy the warm sun.

8 And Hezekiah said unto
Isaiah, “What sign shall accrue
That YHWH will heal me, and that I
Shall go up to YHWH’s house to spy
On the third day? Now show me why.”
9 Isaiah said “This sign shall you
Have from YHWH, and the thing that YHWH
Will do He has spoken. Now say
Shall the sundial go in the way
Forward ten degrees or go back
The same amount and be in lack?”
10 And Hezekiah answered well,
“It is an easy thing to spell
For the shadow to pass on by
Ten more degrees, no let it fly
Back on its path ten steps or try.”
11 And Isaiah the prophet cried
To YHWH and He brought it to bide,
The shadow stepped back ten degrees
By which it had gone down to freeze
On the dial of Ahaz’ decrees.

I’d hate to be a prophet, Beloved, when
The people and the kings of Your own men
Cry for a sign and miracle to show
That You are there to bless what I may know.
And yet I do know something from the days
That I have contemplated You in praise,
A moment of reprieve from the dark haze
That covers the soul and mind in illusion
And leaves humanity is stark confusion.
I bide the time and let the signs remain
In Your hand and upon the brightened plain
Where ride the lark to dive again in song
Along the righteous meadows without wrong.
Beloved, more than signs I would remain sane.

12 At that time Berodachbaladan
Babylon’s king, son of Baladan,
Sent letters and a present to
Hezekiah, because he knew
Hezekiah was sick a few.
13 And Hezekiah received them,
And showed them all things in his hem,
The precious things in his house and
The silver and the gold in hand,
The spices and fine ointment store,
And the house of all his armour,
And everything in his treasure,
There was nothing in his house sure
Nor in all his domain, that he,
Hezekiah failed to let see.
14 And Isaiah the prophet came
To king Hezekiah in blame
And said to him, “What did these men
Say? And where did they come from then?”
And Hezekiah said “They came
From a far country, Babylon.”
15 And he said “What have they begun
To see in your house and for fun?”
And Hezekiah answered spun,
“Everything in my house they’ve seen,
There’s nothing of my treasures keen
That I did not show on the scene.”
16 Isaiah said to Hezekiah,
“Hear the word of YHWH in pariah.
17 “’See the days come when everything
In your house and ancestor king
Had laid in store up to this day
Shall all be carried once away
To Babylon, till nothing’s left,’
Says YHWH. And so you’ll be bereft.
18 “Of your sons that you beget now
Shall be carried before the plough
To be eunuchs of the king won
In palaces of Babylon.’”
19 Then said Hezekiah unto
Isaiah, “Good’s the word of YHWH
That you have spoken.” And he said
“Is it not good if peace be led
And truth in all the days I’m fed?”
20 The rest of Hezekiah’s acts
And all his power and his contracts
To make a pool and canal to
Bring water in the city’s lieu,
Are they not written in the book
Of chronicles, just take a look,
Of Judah’s kings and not a few?
21 And Hezekiah went to sleep
With his ancestors’ watch to keep,
And Manasseh his son instead
Reigned and he also reigned for dread.

See now, Beloved, results of what You did
Revealing to the king what should be hid.
No man should know the day of his own death
While he still labours under weight of breath.
Now Hezekiah’s learned to meet his days
With knowledge and with everlasting praise.
It is not natural for man to know
That his is not eternity in show.
King Hezekiah’s satisfied to grow
Fifteen years and then let the kingdom go
In fires of catastrophic mael and rope.
He is a man no longer lives in hope.
With knowledge, my Beloved, You destroy that
Hope that makes a human of democrat.

2 KINGS 21

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when
He began to reign, and like hen
Reigned fifty-five years in the town
Jerusalem. His mother’s crown
Was Hephzibah. 2 And he did that
Which was evil from where he sat
Before the eyes of YHWH, and by
Abominations of the sly
Heathen whom YHWH threw out before
The folk of Israel at the door.

King Hezekiah died at fifty-four
Having reigned just nine years over a score
And did what’s right more than all those before
Or after, and yet had to beg for life
Aged thirty-nine when You had put the knife
To his throat. My Beloved, You are a bore
To let evil Manasseh reign one more
Year longer than the whole life of the just
King Hezekiah, man who bit the dust.
You are unjust, Beloved, unjust, I say
To have put Hezekiah on his way
And let Manasseh reign. I’ve seen as much
In other rulers. Evil gets the touch,
While righteousness runs afoul of Your clutch.

3 For he rebuilt up the high places
That Hezekiah in his graces
His father had destroyed, and he
Raised up altars for Baal to see
And made a grove as did the king
Ahab of Israel on the wing
And worshipped all the starry host
And served them, and such was his boast.

If You did not want those high places built
You might have thought before giving the jilt
To Hezekiah. If the people come
To worship Baal and Ashtoreth and hum
Hymns to the stars, let You take of the blame.
It stands here to Your everlasting shame.
If You care not a whit that idols stand
And prosper even in the holy land,
Then You’ve no right to judge the humans lax
Who turn away their eyes as well as backs
And let the heathen range go on as free
Under the tolerance of ear and e’e.
Am I the only voice raised up to sell
Manasseh’s idol and throw them in hell?

4 And he built altars in YHWH’s house
Of which YHWH said to man and spouse
“Jerusalem is where I’ll put
My name to see on hand and foot.”
5 And he built altars for the stars
Of heaven in the two courts of bars
In the very house built for YHWH.
5 He made his son pass through the fire
And observed times, and did admire
Enchantments, and dealt in the calling
Of some familiar spirits stalling,
And wizards, and he did much wrong
Before the eyes of YHWH for strong
Provoking him to wrath appalling.

I’d like to see Your brash appalling wrath.
All I see’s how the heathen in their path
Increase in wealth and in oppressing of
The poor and righteous whom You say You love.
Get Your arse off the throne and do a job
In wetting and controlling of the mob.
Familiar spirits still whisper and peek
And all the world has wizards where they seek
To know the future dictated by stars,
But few remember in their fancy cars,
Observing rather times of luck and fate,
The populace bows to the rich and great,
And leaves Your worship in the humble dust
Where I find all Your glories gone to rust.

7 And he set up a graven image
Of the grove that he made in scrimmage
In the house of which YHWH had said
To David and to his son fed
Solomon, “In this house and in
Jerusalem I’ve chosen bin
Out of all Israel’s tribes where I
Will put my name for ever, aye.
8 “Neither will I set Israel’s feet
Again out of place in retreat,
From land I gave their fathers if
Only they will obey, be stiff
To observe all that I command
Them and according to the law
That my servant Moses in paw
Brought them, yes, by all of that law.”

An image set up in Your sacred house!
Such wickedness was never done by mouse
Or rat upon the stink hill in the yard.
Truly Manasseh is a king ill-starred,
Since stars are what he worships, and the sun
Of Baal and mother Ashtoreth when done.
Mother earth herself as an idol set
Must vomit out the drivel that we get
Inherited from Manasseh’s last word
Destroying everything his father heard.
Beloved, methinks You’ve gone and left the lot
To their own evil, and have found a spot
Where You can be in peace enjoying rest
While without guidance humans still invest.

9 But they did not listen and still
Manasseh enticed them to swill,
To do more evil than the nations
Whom YHWH destroyed before the stations
Of Israel’s folk. 10 And so YHWH spoke
By His servants the prophets’ yoke,
Saying 11 “Because Manasseh king
Of Judah has done wicked thing,
Abominations above all
The Amorites did on the ball
Before him, and has made to sin
Judah also with idols’ din,
12 “Therefore, so says YHWH Ælohim
Of Israel, ‘See, now I deem
To bring such evil on the town
Jersualem and with a frown
On Judah, that whoever hears
Of it shall tingle in his ears.
13 “And I’ll stretch on Jerusalem
The line of Samarian hem,
And the plummet of Ahab’s house,
And I will wipe Jerusalem
As one wipes off a dish to dowse,
Wiping it and turning on hem.
14 “And I’ll forsake the remnant left
Of My inheritance bereft
And give them up into the hand
Of their foes, and they’ll be a band
In prey and spoil to all their foes,
15 “Because they’ve done what evil chose
In My eyes, and provoked to wrath
Since the day of their fathers’ path
Out of Egypt to this day’s close.’”

Truly the raw in heathendom is not
As evil as the people who have got
The divine guidance that they never sought
And so rejected without even thought.
The one who once saw light and turned away
Is dazzled in the darkness from the day,
While he who sits forever in the dark
Sees something of the shadows of the park
And lets his feet go sweetly to the mark.
Beloved, I keep my eye upon the light
That guides me to the good and to the right,
As I know that the clinging of the flame
Blinds with greater illusion and with blame,
And with its light impression fails the night.

16 Besides that Manasseh had shed
Very much innocent blood bled,
Till he had filled Jerusalem
From end to end for requiem
Besides the sin by which he made
Judah to sin and in parade
Doing evil before the eyes
Of YHWH. 17 Now the rest of the acts
Of Manasseh, all his contracts,
And his sin that he sinned, are they
Not written in the book and way
Of kings chronicled in Judah?
18 Manasseh slept with his ancestors,
And was buried in the sequesters
Of his own house, in Uzza’s garden,
And Amon his son without pardon
Reigned in his place, one of his besters.

Note this, Beloved, idolatry is free
To corner love in a monopoly
And call sex and good feeling the right way
To true religion for the keen and sway
Of lips and hips and fellowship to pray,
But when it raises love above the bold
Obedience to Your law, it is cold
To any who in faith look up to You.
Such heathen love, for all its pleasant view
Learns best to shed blood of the good and true.
Love is the source of holocaust, that’s why
Such genocide recurs under the sky.
One searches for the cause in human hate
And misses the true culprit for the bait.

19 Amon was twenty-two years old
When he began to reign as bold,
And he reigned two years in the town
Jerusalem without a frown.
And his mother who caught her breath
Had for a name Meshullemeth.
She was the daughter of Haruz,
Of Jotbah, Amon’s mother was.
20 And he did evil in the eyes
Of YHWH, and by his father’s guise,
As Mannasseh did, both unwise.
21 He acted in every way as
His father had before his jazz,
And served the idols that had served
His father, and worshipped unswerved.
22 And he forsook YHWH Ælohim
Of his ancestors as a dream,
And did not walk in YHWH’s esteem.
23 The servants of Amon conspired
Against him and killed the bemired
King in his own house it transpired.
24 The people of the land killed all
Of those who had come to make fall
King Amon, and the people of
The land made Josiah in love
His son king in his place above.
25 The rest of the acts Amon did,
Are they not written and on bid
In the book of the chronicles
Of the kings of Judah in lulls?
26 And he was buried in his tomb
In Uzza’s garden from his doom,
Josiah his son took his room.

King Amon was a pea in a pod with
His own dad, and the story’s not a myth.
They both did evil at the temple door
To worship what was not a god and more,
And yet they both pretended on that score
To worship You, Beloved, whose throne was set
Behind the idol that their vision met.
By turning in the right direction they
Were sure that they would get from You their pay.
The many temples that grace earth today
Are filled with Your thrones and the idols’ sway,
And many think they worship You astray.
Beloved, lead me from heathen paths away,
From white and black as well as from the grey.

2 KINGS 22

1 Josiah was eight years old when
He began to reign and he then
Reigned thirty-one years in the town
Jerusalem. His mother’s gown
Held the name Jedidah, her path
Was from Adaiah of Boscath.
2 And he did right before the eyes
Of YHWH and walked in all the guise
Of David his ancestor and
Did not turn aside to right hand
Nor to the left but made a stand.

See here, Beloved, both father and his dad
Had always done only what things were bad,
But when Josiah sat upon the throne
He turned his heart to You and You alone.
It is not education hits the mark,
It is not the genetic glowing spark,
It is not anything beyond the choice
Of every soul to rise beyond the voice
Of the environment as well as heart
To obey You and play the noble part.
Beloved, I wonder at the loving lad
Who had the courage that Josiah had.

3 It happened in the eighteenth year
Of king Josiah, he sent gear
To Shaphan son of Azaliah,
The son of Meshullam to cry a
Scribe to the house of YHWH, saying,
4 “Go up to Hilkiah high priest
That he may count without delaying
The silver brought to house of YHWH
That keepers of the door in view
Have gathered from the people due.
5 “And let them give it in the hand
Of the workers who in their band
Have oversight of house of YHWH,
And let them give it to the ones
Who do the work and rush their buns
In the house of YHWH to repair
The house of breaches that are there.
6 “To carpenters, and builders and
To masons and to buy in hand
Timber and cut stone to repair
The house of YHWH and make it fair.”

How is it that the hope of every king
Who loves You above all must take a fling
At building You a temple or if not
The building then repairing of the lot?
The temple’s just one more place where men can
Come to blaspheme Your name by deed and plan
As well as word. Beloved, I see the rate
Of money poured into the building late
Sent out again repeatedly to state
Human desire to build in honour’s way
Until the night unfold and take the day.
Beloved, the hand of man is never tired
Of doing either for honour inspired
Or for the shamefulness of the conspired.

7 But there was no need of account
Of the money in what amount
Was given in their hand because
They dealt with honesty of paws.

The way that Christians work today’s so full
Of accounting the thing’s a miracle,
Perhaps the only true in signs of late
Since people do not speak in tongues to rate
Nor heal their brothers fallen from the roof
Or window once asleep after the goof
Of sermon much too long. They don’t preach those
Either now that worship’s in finer clothes.
But what I meant to say, Beloved, is that
It is unusual to find holy fat
Not in the fire but in the storage vat.
I’m down to faith so grassroots in my way
That I need neither money for the pay,
But only get up from my bed to pray.

8 And Hilkiah the high priest said
To Shaphan the scribe, “I was led
To find the book of the law in
The house of YHWH.” And to begin
Hilkiah gave Shaphan the book,
And so Shaphan then took a look.
9 Shaphan the scribe came to the king
And brought the king again the thing
And said “You servants gathered up
The money delivered in cup
In the hand of the one’s who work
And have oversight without shirk
In the house of YHWH for a kirk.”
10 And Shaphan the scribe showed the king
Saying “Hilkiah priest a thing
Deliver up to me, a book.”
And Shaphan read it at a look
Before Josiah who was king.

Notice, Beloved, that reading of the book
Was specialty of scribe and priestly crook
And king could not decipher what it said
But had to depend on what the scribe read.
I thank You that in this dark evil time
I have the right to write the book in rhyme
And read it in square Hebrew at a glance
As well as join in kingly, priestly dance.
The book is hidden in my dusty heart
All broken down, needing repairer’s art,
And found each morning as I wake and start
To read forgotten words and love their lay.
Beloved, I take them with me on my way
Through thoroughfares of noon and brighter day.

11 It happened when the king had heard
The words of the law book, was stirred
And tore his clothes for what he heard.

When I hear the words of the sacred book
Read in the strains of Hebrew in my nook
And wafted by the rays of morning sun,
I too often find that my soul’s undone.
I do not rend my clothes, my wife would say
A word against a faith so run away,
But I suppose the king had servant that
Sewed up his garments when broken by fat.
It makes me think of Ahmed whom his wife
Said in his domestic and homely life
The prophet did what all men do alone
With wife, that is take needle, steel or bone
To mend his clothes and shoes, not sit on throne.
Beloved, I read and watch, I sing and groan.

12 And the king commanded Hilkiah
The priest and Ahikam the son
Of Shaphan, Achbor of Michaiah
A son, and Shaphan the scribe and
Asahiah from servant band
Of the king saying out of hand,
13 “Go and enquire of YHWH for me,
And for the people of degree
Of all Judah, about the words
Of this book that was found, the girds
Of YHWH’s wrath are great against us
Because our ancestors’ mad fuss
Not to listen to this book’s words
To do according to all that
Is written about where we sat.”

How wise is this Josiah who was king
To send to enquire of You for the thing
That was of life and death. He knew the way
Of generations had led all astray,
But did not try to defend priest or gore,
But bowed in sure repentance at Your door.
It’s rare that You find clients with their staff
Waiting in waiting room, indeed I laugh
To realize the king of Universe
Has plenty of time to read all my verse
Since the division of humans who come
To worship You is very small in sum.
Others are bowing down to baals while bird
Voice makes up most choirs where Your praise is heard.

14 So Hilkiah the priest as well
As Ahikam and Achbor fell
With Shaphan and Asahiah
To go to prophetess Huldah
The wife of Shallum of Tikvah
The son, the son of Harhas who
Was keeper of the wardrobe too,
And she lived in Jerusalem
In the college and by the hem
Of the second quarter, and they
Spoke with her on that very day.

They went to Huldah to enquire of You
No doubt because just then prophets were few
Of the male sort, and I will tell You why.
I’ve also seen churches come on the sly
And ordain women to the pulpit’s seat.
It’s always when priestly power’s in retreat
That women get that chance. Position that
Holds true power’s always one where men have sat.
And so when kings went in apostasy
The status fell in all Your prophecy
And women filled the vacuum that came out
When men no longer sought prophetic clout.
But Huldah is a great name in my mind,
A woman prophet living with the blind.

15 And she said to them, “So says YHWH
Ælohim of Israelite crew,
‘Tell the man that sent you to me,
16 “So says YHWH speaking faithfully,
‘See, I will bring destruction on
The place and its dwellers of dawn,
All the things in the book the king
Of Judah’s read, yes, everything.
17 “Because they have forsaken me,
And burned incense to other gods,
Provoking My anger with prods
Of all the works of their hands done,
That’s why My anger has begun
To flame against this place and it
Shall not be quenched, not by a fit.’”’
18 “But to the king of Judah who
Sent you to enquire now of YHWH,
So shall you say to him, ‘So YHWH
Ælohim of Israel says to
You, “The words that you heard are true,
19 “But because your heart was in view
And you have humbled yourself here
Before YHWH, when it hit your ear
What I spoke against this place and
Against the dwellers in the land,
That they should be desolate, cursed,
And have torn your clothes and have burst
In tears before Me, I have heard
You also,” says YHWH now He’s stirred.
20 “So see that’s why I’ll gather you
To your ancestors and from view
In the grave in peace and your eyes
Shall not see all the bad demise
That I will bring upon this place.”’”
They brought the thing to the king’s face.

Not even the repentance of the king
Could now save Judah from destroying wing,
But only put the moment off in grace
Because Josiah humbly sought Your face.
Beloved, I too live in a wicked place
That holds Your commandments in such disdain
That few think of their words, they think in vain
Who do remember them upon the pain
Of catechetic camps now on the wane.
The light of truth burns in the temple yet
Which is the heart of many people set
In quiet homes, invisible to me,
But bright and loving to Your eye to see.
I wait the day when You’ll gather the met.

2 KINGS 23

1 The king summoned the people and
They gathered to him like the sand
All the elders of Judah and
Jerusalem. 2 And the king went
Up to the house of YHWH and sent
All the men of Judah and all
Those living in Jerusalem
With him, and the priests from their stall
And the prophets and people all,
Both small and great, and then he read
In their hearing all the words spread
Out in the book of covenant
That was found in YHWH’s house and tent.
3 The king stood by a pillar and
Made covenant before YHWH’s hand
To follow YHWH’s every command
And His testimonies as well
As His statutes to Israel
With all the heart and all the soul,
To do the words set out in goal
Written in this book. All the folk
Stood to the covenant he spoke.
4 The king commanded Hillkiah
The high priest and priests in the draw
Of second order, and door keepers,
To bring out of YHWH’s temple sleepers
All the vessels once made for Baal,
And for the grove and for the trail
Of heavenly hosts, and these he burned
Outside Jerusalem unearned
In the fields of Kidron and then
Brought their ash to Bethel again.

I stand and look towards Kidron from the way
Of the great city and recall the day
That they brought out the vessels sacred to
The god and goddess to burn in the view
Of the folk who still in their heart of hearts
Could not relinquish idolatrous arts.
Beloved, the smoke of the fire still goes up
Towards the dome of blue, the drinking cup
And vessels that caught human blood to make
The fields and wombs fertile and for Your sake.
Today there be those still who think the blood
Of human sacrifice poured out in flood
Establishes the church and state and all
Things that grow and that prosper in the stall.

5 He put down idolatrous priest
Whom the kings of Judah increased
To burn incense in the high places
In Judah’s cities for disgraces,
And in the places round about
Jerusalem with din and shout,
Those also who burned such incense
To Baal, the sun, the moon, immense
Planets, to all the heavenly host.
6 And he brought out the grove to boast
From YHWH’s house and out of the town
Jerusalem, to brook Kidron,
And burned it at the brook Kidron,
And trampled it to powder and
Threw the powder upon the graves
Of the folk who were idols’ slaves.
He plundered the holy whores’ homes,
Male prostitutes in catacombs,
Set by the house of YHWH, and where
Women wove hangings to repair
To the grove. 8 He brought every priest
Out of Judah’s towns and released
Defilement upon the high places
Where the priests had burned incense traces,
From Geba to Beersheba and
Broke down the high places that stand
In the gates at the coming in
Of the gate of Joshua thin
Governor of the city which
Were on the town gate’s left-hand ditch.

Just think, Beloved, the whorehouses were found
Upon the temple walls and all around
The altars that Solomon had set up
To be to Your honour in drinking cup.
Belief that human sex in tenderness
Brings crops and prosperity in the mess
Of chaos on earth springs deep in the mind
Of human beings thinking they’re not blind
To scientific explanation of
The universe and justice and of love.
Such pseudoscience reigns where priests now fill
The temples with the sensuous din and thrill
Of sacred music made to fit the bill
Of sacred fornication rising still.

9 However the high places’ priests
Did not come up to altar’s feasts
Of YHWH in Jerusalem, they
Ate yeastless bread in their own way.
10 He defiled Topheth in the vale
Of Hinnom’s children to avail
That no one might make his son pass
Or daughter either through morass
Of fire to Molech, burnt like grass.
11 He took away the horses that
The kings of Judah gave out flat
To the sun at the entrance of
The house of YHWH and just above
The chamber of Nathanmelech
The chamberlain at call and beck,
And burned the sun’s chariots with fire.
12 The altars on top of the spire
Of Ahaz which the kings of Judah
Had made as well as altars cruder
Which Manasseh set in both courts
Of the house of YHWH for his sports
The king beat down and broke them too
And threw their dust out and to strew
In the brook Kidron like the dew.

Even horse offerings to the sun are found
In the great city once to You clear bound.
It seems that every form of blasphemy
Was brought into the temple there to see
The place where once ark of testimony
Sat enthroned by Your presence under cloud.
All things at last were adopted, allowed,
As later in loved Mecca where the stone
Walls of the Kaaba sounded with the groan
Of every idol known to humankind.
It’s in Your very house men are most blind.
Beloved, grant me the purity of faith
That does not bow to stone or gold or wraith,
But worships with both pure heart and pure mind.

13 And the high places there before
Jerusalem, there right in store
Of the mount of corruption which
Solomon Israel’s king did stitch
For Ashtoreth abomination
Of the Zidonian creation,
And for Chemosh abomination
Of Moabites and for Milcom
Abomination of Ammon,
The king defiled before first dawn.
14 He broke completely idol stand,
And cut down the groves from the land
And filled their places with the bones
Of men who once had worshipped stones.

The friendship of David and Solomon
With Hiram king of Tyre’s where was begun
Affection for Ashtoreth and the sight
Of Baal as a god of the sun and might.
The economic bloom that pact once made
In ships and cedar trees, gold on parade
Was not worth the effect on faith and deed
That accompanied the market in seed.
Trade in goods is foundation of world peace
Without war and without the gross increase
Of violence, and yet with trade there comes
Communication of gods and their hums.
Beloved, I buy the wheat and flour and meat,
But leave the idol in its foreign seat.

15 The altar that was at Bethel,
And the high place which was as well
From Jeroboam Nebat’s son,
Who made Israel to sin a ton,
Both that altar and the high place
He broke up and burned without trace,
And trampled it to powder dust
And burned the grove down to a crust.
16 As Josiah turned round he saw
The sepulchres in the mount’s claw,
And sent and took the bones out from
The sepulchres and burned them some
Upon the altar and defiled
It, according to YHWH’s word wild
That the man of Ælohim spoke
Who proclaimed these words at a stroke.
17 He said “What mound is that I see?”
And the men of the city said
“The grave of the man of God dead,
Who came from Judah and proclaimed
These things that you have done unblamed
Against Bethel’s altar enflamed.”
18 So he said “Leave that one alone,
Let no man move or touch a bone.”
So they let his bones there alone
With the bones of the prophet who
Came out of Samaria true.

The prophet who was disobedient
To Your Word and came back to eat when sent
And drink with Your own righteous man who lied
And turned his hospitality aside
Is honoured now after all these years spent
In his disgrace. He knew what Your words meant.
Touch not the grave of prophets nor destroy,
But leave such graves for others to enjoy.
They are reminders that Your word is fast
To purify the hearth and bring at last
The soul to You in judgement for reward,
While those who do not pray there meet Your sword.
Beloved, I’ve stood beside the prophet’s grave
And learned again that I’m only Your slave.

19 And all the houses also of
The high places that were above
In the towns of Samaria,
Which the kings of Israel to draw
Had made provoking wrathful fate,
Josiah took away with hate
And did to them according to
All the actions he would accrue
In Bethel, so the word was true.
20 And he killed every high place priest
Upon the altars and increased
Defilement burning men’s bones there,
Then went to Jerusalem’s care.

Josiah killed the lovely priests that made
Oblations in the high places and paid
Attention to the sensitive and meet,
The civilized tastes that raised to a treat
The poetry and thought that grew up in
A world of chaos turned to scale and fin.
The pagan thought that organized the dross
Of Your creation ended once in loss.
The sweet and tender lives that boldly met
Your fragmented creation with a set
Of axioms and laws to understand
Went down the drain at Josiah’s command.
The intricate and complex ways to see
The world by art sank from Reality.

21 And the king commanded the folk
All saying “Keep Passover’s stroke
To YHWH your Ælohim as writ
In the book of covenant fit.”
22 Surely there was not observed such
A Passover from the days’ touch
Of the judges of Israel,
Nor in all the days of the fell
Kings of Israel nor of the kings
Of Judah for such wondered things.
23 But in the eighteenth year of king
Josiah this Passover ring
Came to YHWH in Jerusalem.

Passover that Josiah made that week
Once long ago Jerusalem had peek
Of pageant and of prayer, thanksgiving meek
In memory of the one time You came
To interfere with government to blame.
Though all of history is just one blast
Of evil against those who came to last
In Your command and mercy, still that one
Day when You sent angel to kill the son
Of president and prime minister still
Resounds not only on the sacred hill
Jerusalem, but also in my heart
That prays You might once again do Your part.

24 Besides all those with stratagem
Having familiar spirits and
The wizards and the idols grand
And pillars and vain things they found
In the land of Judah and round
Jerusalem, Josiah put
Away and out and under foot
So he might act by the words of
The law written in book above
That Hilkiah the priest had found
In the house of YHWH on the ground.

I too have stoned pillars that represent
The Satan gods that used to mind the tent
Of people in the Middle Eastern vent.
Like good Josiah, I have lifted hand
Against idolatry upon the sand
Of the desert in far Arabia
And stood to smite down sin with stone and awe.
Beloved, I too have read the golden law
In the book found by the priest Hilkiah
And cast my vote and lot among the poor
Who look to no other thing here as sure
Except Your word and Your command. I wait
The welcome of Your open heart and gate.

25 Like him there was no other king
That turned to YHWH with everything,
His heart and soul and all his might
To do all Moses’ law for right,
Neither came after him the like,
Only kings like Alibi Ike.
26 Yet YHWH did not turn away from
The fierceness of His great wrath come
Against Judah because of all
The provocations that the call
Of Manasseh had stirred withal.

Why did you not let Judah stay and live
A righteous witness in front of the sieve
Of human empires without ever flagging
From Your law and Your blessing of their bragging?
If I had been You, my Beloved, I would
Have made the kingdom of Josiah good
For two millennia and then bring more
Kings of the like and set them up a score.
Beloved, Your ways are secret and design
Of righteousness is hidden by the vine
Of the deceit of human righteousness
And the ways of government that I guess
Were made in hell but get the right impress
Of justice in looks if not in address.

27 And YHWH said “I’ll remove Judah
Also out of my sight and paw
As I’ve removed Israel, and will
Throw off this town into the swill,
Jerusalem the one I chose,
And the house of which I suppose
I said “My name’s set where it grows.”
28 So the rest of Josiah’s acts
And all he did in cataracts,
Are they not written in the book
Of chronicles of the kings, look,
Of Judah? 29 Pharaoh Nechoh king
Of Egypt went up on the wing
In his days to attack the king
Of Assyria to the flood
Of Euphrates, and king Josiah
Went up to battle and pariah.
He killed him at Megiddo when
He had seen him there with his men.
30 His servants brought him dead up from
Megiddo in a chariot’s hum,
Took him into Jerusalem
And buried him with diadem
In his own grave. And the land’s folk
Took Jehoahaz son awoke
Of Josiah, anointed him
And made him to be a king trim
In his father’s own room and rim.

I weep for king Josiah, for the brave
And good who was forever a true slave
Of You, Beloved, and followed with his might
Every command You gave men for the right.
I weep for king Josiah and the good
Who followed him in martyrdom and should
Be written in letters of gold for all
To see the reward of Your flash and call.
Beloved, though I weep for the great, good king,
I know that You control here everything
Behind the scenes of evil and of craft.
Though men have rejoiced, You alone have laughed.
Megiddo is still there to see and those
Who see it know forever whom You chose.

31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three
Years old when he began to be
Ruler, and he reigned three months in
Jerusalem. His mother’s kin
For name was Hamutal, the doll
Of Jeremiah, Libnah’s poll.
32 He did the wrong before the eyes
Of YHWH according to the guise
Of all his ancestors had done.
33 Pharaoh Nechoh put him in bands
At Riblah in the Hamath lands,
So he might not rule in the town
Jerusalem, and then set down
A tribute on the land out cold
A hundred silver, one of gold.
34 And Pharaoh Nechoh came to make
Eliakim the son and sake
Of Josiah king in the room
Of Josiah after the doom
Of his father, and changed his name
To Jehoiakim, took the claim
Of Jehoahaz and he came
To Egypt where he died in shame.

It only took Jehoahaz twelve weeks
To undo the good that his father seeks
To instil in the hearts of Judah’s folk.
The evil always runs and goes for broke.
Your hand is seen in Pharaoh for the stroke
He laid upon Jehoahaz to stoke
The way of righteousness before the sky
Jerusalem still looked upon as nigh.
Replacing a bad king with one his brother
Born of the same wickedness and same mother
Can do nothing to change the way the world
Looks on his deeds to emulate uncurled.

Beloved, it hardly helps to change a name.
Reality remains always the same.
The king with wicked heart and action proves
That wickedness will always find its grooves.
It might have worked a miracle to change
The name of the boy to bring in his range
The goal of righteous action. But the thought
Is overcome by what the boy’s been taught.
The father may well have taught him the good,
But his own heart and people in the wood
Seduce him to the pagan altar and
Corrupt what could have been a righteous hand.
Beloved, change not my name, but change my heart
Always to know and do the better part.

35 Jehoiakim gave silver, gold
To Pharaoh, but he taxed the bold
Land to give the money as due
By the command of Pharaoh’s crew,
He charged the silver and the gold
To the folk of the land and told
Each one according to taxation
To give it up and with vexation
To Pharaoh Nechoh and his nation.
35 Jehoiakim was twenty-five
Years old when he began alive
To reign, he reigned eleven years
In Jerusalem. It appears
His mother’s name was Zebudah,
Who was daughter of Pedaiah
Who came from the town of Rumah.
37 And he did evil in the eyes
Of YHWH according to unwise
Things of his ancestors’ demise.

You might have raised according to the name
Jehoiakim the people from their shame.
You might have raised, Beloved, the king to do
The commandments, the merciful, the true.
You might have raised the sights of all the folk
To truth and justice at a kingly stroke,
If Jehoiakim had lived up to fame
Implied in his name to Your gracious claim.
Beloved, Your name when hidden in the heart
Of men’s names ought to grace them with the art
And blessing of Your presence, but I see
Jehoiakim worked out iniquity.
That failure is a human tragedy:
Before us always possibility.

2 KINGS 24

1 In his days king of Babylon,
Nebuchadnezzar came upon
Jehoiakim who then became
His servant three years for disfame
Before he rebelled at the claim.

When Hezekiah rebelled You stood firm
To give the patient early bird the worm.
How was Jehoiakim to know that now
It was too late to put on kingly brow
And take an independent stand somehow?
Two ways of dealing with idolatry:
The one sets out to crush the vanity,
The other quietly submits to gold
But keeps the inner chamber bright and bold
And unseen by the tyrant. Here I find
The two ways lie before me, though I’m blind,
The Master of the Age must give the call
Before I break the barrier and wall.
My acquiescence is my sword and mall.

2 And YHWH sent against him in bands
Chaldees, as well as Syrian bands,
And bands of Moabites and bands
Of the folk of Ammon like sands,
And set them against Judah to
Destroy it and according to
The word that was spoken by YHWH
Through His servants the prophets’ crew.
3 Truly at the command of YHWH
This came on Judah to remove
Them from before His face and prove
The sins of Manasseh for groove,
4 And also for innocent blood
That he poured out to fill like flood
Jerusalem, innocent blood,
Which YHWH would not pardon a bud.
5 The rest of Jehoiakim’s acts,
And what he did and what distracts,
Are they not written in the books
Of chronicles of Judah’s crooks?
6 Jehoiakim slept with his dads
And Jehoiachin last of cads
And his son reigned there in his place.

It’s Manasseh whose sins set fatal mark
Upon Jerusalem and every park
From Kidron up to David’s tower to lay
The mighty walls of the town in the sway
Of Babylon. Fair Babylon the great
Who never had nor shall equal or mate.
The sins of one dictator come to haunt
The sunny days and make them also gaunt.
Beloved, though I live in the aftermath
Of tyranny as well as in the gaff
Of so-called democratic psychopath,
I turn not to Egyptian arms nor go
Into Babylonian power show,
But stay within the chambered way I know.

7 The king of Egypt showed no face
Any more from his land to race,
Because the king of Babylon
Had taken up for possession
From the river of Egypt to
The river Euphrates the crew
Of all that belonged to the king
Of Egypt, he took everything.
8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years
Old when he started, it appears,
To reign, and he reigned in the town
Jerusalem three months to frown.
Nehushta was his mother’s name
Daughter of Elnathan who came
From Jerusalem, town of fame.
9 He did the evil in the sight
Of YHWH according to the spite
That his father had done not right.

Three months was all it took to show the man
A base fellow as base as any can.
At eighteen years the geezer knew his mind
And lay a path toward destruction’s rind.
The actions of these kings called wicked is
But the expected action in the fizz
Of the culture where they are found with biz.
None could or would blame them, but rather call
Them up for leadership prize in the hall.
Beloved, it’s only You and one you sent
In a prophetic bent who’ll not relent,
Insisting the idolatrous is bent
Against the culture heritage that’s meant
In all the lands around there where he went.

10 At that time Nebuchadnezzar’s
Servants, king of Babylon’s gars,
Came to attack Jerusalem,
Besieging the town like a hem.
11 And Nebuchadnezzar the king
Of Babylon came in a ring
Against the city and his slaves
Besieged it down into its graves.
12 Jehoiachin king of Judah
Went out to Babylon’s king’s claw,
He and his mother and his slaves,
His princes and officers’ waves,
And the king of Babylon took
Him in the eighth year of his rook.
13 He brought all the treasures from there,
From the house of YHWH and the share
Of treasures from the king’s house and
Cut in pieces all the gold stand
That Solomon then Israel’s king
Had made in YHWH’s temple to spring,
And YHWH had said, so was the thing.
14 He brought all Jerusalem out,
And all the princes, and the stout
Men of war, ten thousand captives,
And each craftsman and smith that lives,
Till none remained except the poor
Sort of folk at the country’s door.
15 He brought away Jehoiachin
To Babylon, and the king’s kin:
His mother and the king’s wives too,
His officers and mighty crew
Of the land, he brought in to serve
Captive from Jerusalem’s curve
To Babylon, just see what nerve.
16 And all the men who knew to fight
Even seven thousand of might,
And craftsmen and smiths to the number
Of a thousand, not to encumber,
But strong and apt for war, all such
The king of Babylon would touch
As captives in Babylon’s clutch.

The many looking on would praise the work
Jehoiakin did for town not to shirk,
Because he tried to keep the kingdom still
Running for independence of the bill
Of Babylon. The many watchers would.
How is one to know the way that one should
If not to follow desire and the track
Of popular opinion at one’s back?
Beloved, You gave the king a book to read
That very few of Judah’s kings would heed,
And so he is without excuse to stand
Before You in the judgement on the sand
Of Babylon with mother and with wife
After the bloodshed and the horrid strife.

17 The king of Babylon then made
Mattaniah his dad’s unpaid
Brother to be king in his place,
And changed his name though not his race
To Zedekiah for a space.
18 Zedekiah was twenty-one
Years old it was when he’d begun
To reign, he reigned eleven years
In Jerusalem it appears.
His mother’s name was Hamutal,
Daughter of Jeremiah tall
Of Libnah, a good town and stall.
19 He did the evil in the eyes
Of YHWH according to the guise
Of what Jehoiakim unwise
Had done before him to despise.
20 For through the angry wrath of YHWH
It happened in Jerusalem,
It happened so in Judah too,
Until He had thrown out the stem
From his presence, and so rebelled
Zedekiah and all withheld
From Babylon’s king till he quelled.

Now Zedekiah was a piece, I swear,
As brave and firm as any anywhere
To hold the fort and rise up strong and true
To the ideals of Canaan, Tyre and crew
To trust in Baal and Ashtoreth to do
The wicked thing that everyone felt right
Before the king of Babylon in sight.
Beloved, the acres of Your presence find
But little response in the human mind,
And yet the soul’s but an illusion blind
Where You’re reflected in the slow refined.
I whirled about the haze and clear and grow
To see there is no other in the show
But You before illusion must bow low.

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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