EZRA CHAPTER 6 - 10

EZRA 6

1 So King Darius made decree
To search the archives carefully
To find the warehouse in the town
Of Babylon where they’d put down
The treasures. 2 There was found in court
At Achmetha, a roll in sort,
The province of Media, and on
It there was such a record drawn.
3 In first year of Cyrus the king
Cyrus the king decreed a thing
For Allah’s house in city of
Jerusalem, “Let house above
Be built, and altars where they lay
The sacrifices, and make stay
Foundations of it strong, the height
Of it shall be then sixty right
Armlengths, and the width of it true
Sixty armlengths when come in view.
4 “Three rows of great stones and a row
Of new timbers, and let it show
Expenses taken from the store
Of the king’s house when they need more.
5 “And also let the golden pots
And silver ones of Allah’s lots
Which Nebuchadnezzar too out
Of the temple and at the rout
Of city of Jerusalem
And brought to Babylon pro tem,
Be sent out and brought up again
To Jerusalem’s temple then,
Each in its place, and set them there
In Allah’s house and kept with care.

Usurpers always keep archives and write
The sins they’ve done, so in the noble flight
Of those who come after, the things may be
Pretended when auspicious, set to right.
Look for the archives, and You’ll find the tree
Of usurpation and the false writ see
The coming of the hopeful for the light.
It is a true principle faithfully.
Beloved, I turn my eyes about me where
The tide of church and record house must share
The same offices so the heat bill comes
Not above what can bear the city’s sums.
Beloved, I have suspicions of the free
That they secretly host idolatry.

6 “Now Tatnai, governor beyond
The river, Shetharboznai’s bond
And your mates the Apharsachites,
Which are beyond the river rights,
All you keep away from the sites.
7 “Leave the work of this house alone
And place of the God Allah’s throne,
And let the governor of Jews
And elders of the Jews now choose
To build this Allah’s house in mews.
8 “Moreover I issue decree
‘For what you’ll do for those who see
The building of Allah’s house here,
The elders of these Jews appear,
That out of the king’s revenues
Of tribute beyond river’s views,
Expenses shall be given to
These men unhindered what they do.
9 ‘And whatever they need, both young
Bulls as well as rams and lambs strung
For the burnt offerings of Allah
Of heaven, wheat, salt, and wine in paw,
And oil as much as set for priests
Appointed for the city’s feasts
In Jerusalem, let it be
Provided them each day surely.
10 ‘That they may offer sacrifice
Of sweet incense up to the nice
Allah of heaven and pray for life
Of the king and his sons and wife.’

Ah, here’s the rub! Pray for the king and sons.
I’ve been in churchly services by tons,
And what do I hear in each place of prayer
But that they make petitions everywhere
To You or to the idols that live under
Your blessèd name be provided with thunder
To keep and protect the state and the one
Who heads the state and armies when they’re done.
Beloved, hypocrisy is always found
Where prayers are made for presidents around,
And for their armies fighting on the ground.
Beloved, just take a look and You will see
How harsh the world’s become though faithfully
Set in the Persian debt of cross and tree.

11 “Also I have made a decree
That who shall change this word in fee,
Let timber be pulled from his house
And set up where he’ll hang like grouse,
And let his house be turned into
A pile of dung for all to view.
12 “And the Allah who’s caused His name
To stay there, may He kill the claim
Of all kings and folk who shall put
Their hand to change or bash the root
Of this house of Allah which is
At Jerusalem. In a whiz
Let this decree be carried out
That I Darius make with clout.”

Just look, Beloved, at what force has been set
To support You and Your house and to get
All people to respect You and Your name.
I’d think You’d hang Your head for very shame.
Is not invisibility enough
To get You over every tempting tough?
Must You have kings and armies to protect
Your name and fame for love of the elect?
Beloved, I see the end of every start
That binds with fear both beast and human heart,
And think that I relinquish every part.
Beloved, my temple is not made of stone,
It is not made with ivory and gold throne,
But is the song of prayer to You alone.

13 Then Tatnai, governor to stand
On this side of the river strand,
Shetharboznai and all their band,
According as Darius king
Had ordered, so they did the thing.
14 The elders of the Jews, they built
And prospered through the sayings gilt
Of Haggai the prophet and yet
Zechariah Iddo’s son set.
And they built and finished the place
According to command and race
Of Israel’s Allah and by word
Of Cyrus and Darius stirred,
And Artaxerxes Persia’s king,
And that’s how they did everything.
15 The house was done on the third day
Of Adar’s month, which was in way
Of the sixth year of the reign of
Darius the king writ above.
16 The folk of Israel and the priests,
And the Levites ready for feasts,
And the captive people then kept
The dedication of the swept
House of Allah with joy and wept.

Your house is built today and every day
As I lift up a slender voice to pray.
Your house is made of living flesh and blood
And Psalms sung on the loving tongue, the stud
And wall are shifted with the turning breeze
Invisibly beneath the startled trees
That join in cantillating of Your word.
Your temple is not something seen but heard.
Beloved, within the inner chamber where
I set aside both form and guise and care,
My spirit is renewed to find You there,
And to rejoice above the pitied share
Of those whose temple’s made of fragile stone
Without prostration at Your inner throne.

17 They offered at the dedication
Of this house of Allah in ration
A hundred bulls, two hundred rams,
And four hundred also of lambs,
And for a sin offering for all
Israel twelve goats by number’s call
Of all the tribes in Israel’s hall.
18 They set the priests in their divisions,
And the Levites and with precisions
For the service of Allah which
Is at Jerusalem by pitch
Of what’s written in Moses’ book.
19 The captive people came and took
The Passover on fourteenth day
Of the first month in the right way.
20 The priests and Levites purified
Themselves together, all in pride
Were pure, and sacrificed for all
The captive people at the call
The Passover, and for the priests
Their brothers and themselves in feasts.
21 The folk of Israel who had come
Back from captivity in sum,
And all who had converted to
Them from the filth of heathen pew,
To seek YHWH Ælohim of folk
Of Israel ate it at a stroke.
22 They kept the feast of yeastless bread
Seven days with joy and not dread,
For YHWH had made them joyful and
Turned the hear of the king of band
Of Assyria to them to make
Their hands strong in the work for sake
Of the house of Ælohim God
Of Israel upon the sod.

The mention of the building is both rare
And fine to rejoice in the loving care
That You showered upon the earthly crew
That returned to Jerusalem anew.
The mention of the priest and sacrifice
Is something that my heart finds very nice,
And yet one thing is missing from the whole,
One thing that would have been my garnered goal.
The ark of covenant is never found
Within the temple and upon its ground.
And yet I trust like my hymns that resound
In words of Decalogue without the stone
Tables, You also accept what they own.
If You are present nothing else takes toll.

EZRA 7

1 So after these things in the reign
Of Artaxerxes Persia’s thane,
Ezra and the son of Seraiah,
Who was the son of Azariah
Who himself was son of Hilkiah
2 The son of Shallum, Zadok’s son,
The son of Ahitub when done,
3 The son of Amariah, son
Of Azariah, who was son
Of Meraioth, 4 who was the son
Of Zerahiah, Uzzi’s son,
The son of Bukki, 5 who was son
Of Abishua who was son
Of Phinehas who was the one
Sired by Eleazar the son
Of Aaron the chief priest when done,
6 This Ezra came from Babylon,
And was a skilful scribe in law
Of Moses, which YHWH Ælohim
Of Israel had given in paw,
And the king gave him, it would seem,
All he asked for, according to
The hand of his Ælohim YHWH.

What would we do today without the hand
Of Ezra taking up the sacred word
As scribe and priest, despite the times were blurred
And it seemed all was lost, city and land,
The memories of the past, the mighty band
Of Gideon’s three hundred with fire stirred,
And Deborah whose woman’s rule conferred
With Barak to win back the silver strand?
What would I do, Beloved, as I report
The visions that I find among the pages
Of Torah and of snow-encrusted soil,
If Ezra had not been a scribe at court
And hobnobbed with the ancients and the sages,
What would have come of me and my small toil?

7 And there went up of Israel’s folk
And of the priests, and many yoke
Of Levites, singers, porters and
The Nethinim into the land
Of Jerusalem in the year
Seven of Artaxerxes’ career.
8 And he came to Jerusalem
In the fifth month by stratagem
The seventh year of the king’s reign.
9 The first day of the first month lain
He started out from Babylon,
And on the fifth month’s first day he
Came to Jerusalem in fee,
According to the favoured hand
Of his Ælohim on the land.
10 For Ezra had prepared his heart
To seek the law of YHWH apart,
And do it, and to teach the folk
In Israel statutes at a stroke.

Did Ezra once prepare his heart to read
Your law, Beloved, and every command heed?
Then bless his loving soul, and let me mind
His memory beyond both heart and kind.
Did Ezra once prepare his heart? I see
The golden beams of Your eternity,
But they should have been lost if one had not
Doubted the might of Babylon and got
The fragmentary pages cast aside
By Your own people when they came to hide
In Babylon from hunger and the curse
Of trying to be nation and not worse.
The courage of one man not to despair
Saved Torah, Psalm, and prophets for my share.

11 Now this is what the letter said
The king Artaxerxes was led
To give to Ezra the priest and
The scribe, the scribe of the command
And Torah of YHWH and of His
Statutes to Israel, that is,
12 “Artaxerxes, the king of kings,
To Ezra the priest, scribe in things
Of the law of Lord Allah in
The sky and so forth to begin,
13 “I make decree that all of them
Who are of Israel’s folk and them
Of priests and Levites in my realm
Who freely wish to take the helm
And go up to Jerusalem,
May go with you. 14 “And since you’re sent
By the king and his seven spent
Counsellors, to enquire about
Judah and Jerusalem’s rout,
By the law of your Allah's hem,
Which is in your hand, it would seem,
15 “To carry back silver and gold
The king and council freely hold
Out to Israel’s Allah, whose room
Is in Jerusalem to bloom,
16 “And all the silver and the gold
That you can find in all the hold
Of the province of Babylon,
With voluntary offering drawn
From the people and of the priests
Offered willingly for the feasts
Of the house of their Allah which
Is in Jerusalem to pitch,
17 “That you may buy quickly with this
Money bulls, rams and lambs remiss
With their food offerings and their drink
Offerings and offer at the brink
Of the altar of the house of
Your Allah which is in above
Mentioned Jerusalem in glove.

When kings return to see the matter done,
It seems there’s no other way to be seen
Than gold and silver shadow on the green,
And all the passing flowers beneath the sun
Ignored for being temporary fun,
While only permanence can weather keen
Storms of both ignorance and the sharp sheen
Of politics. And yet no victory’s won
By offerings on an altar, silver pots
Nor strength of numbers in the rank and file,
Nor hopeful courtiers writing reams of rhyme.
The victory is always calling shots
From its own stable platform without guile,
One man who cares nothing at all for time.

18 “Whatever may seem right to you,
And to your brothers in your crew,
To do with what remains of gold
And silver in the hand to hold
Do according to Your Allah
And what He might require in awe.
19 “The pots also given to you
For the service and in the view
Of the house of your Allah true
Take them before the Allah of
Jerusalem mentioned above.
20 “And whatsoever more is needed
For the house of your Allah heeded,
That you’ll have occasion to give,
Take it from the king’s treasure sieve.
21 “And I, I Artaxerxes king,
Make a decree to all the ring
Of treasurers beyond the spring,
That whatever Ezra the priest
And scribe of the law and the feast
Of the Allah of heaven might need
Of you to provide it with speed.

Wait here, Beloved, I take a great offence
That those who eavesdrop on our conversation
Are angry with Your poor servant in station
For using the word Allah in the tents
Of Hebrew Scripture and go wrathful hence
As though the fault were mine and not creation
Of You Yourself in Syrian elation
That still prefers the Aramaic sense.
The fact is Allah’s written every time
I use it here and I merely invoke
The same letters that in Hebrew remain
To spell Ælohim in my prosy rhyme.
It’s You, Beloved, who laid the fatal stroke,
And left my critics with ignorant stain.

22 “Up to a hundred silver pound,
And to a hundred measures bound
Of wheat, and to a hundred store
Of wine and to a hundred more
Of oil and salt as none forbore.
23 “Whatever heaven’s Allah will
Command, let it be done to fill
For the house of Allah of sky,
For why should their be wrath come by
The realm of the king and his sons?
24 “Also we certify in tons
Concerning the priests and Levites,
Singers, porters, Nethinims’ rights
Or servants of this Allah’s room,
It shall not be lawful to doom
Them to toll tribute or custom.
25 “And you, Ezra, after wisdom
Of your Allah, as in your power,
Set magistrates and judges glower,
Who may judge all the folk that sit
Beyond the river, all as fit
To know the laws of your Allah,
And teach the ignorant in awe.
26 “And whosoever will not do
The law of your Allah and true,
And the law of the king in view,
Let judgement fall quickly on him,
Whether it be to a death grim,
Or banishment or confiscation
Of property, or prison’s station.”

The purpose of the king in setting out
To remedy the fallen house of God
Is not an act of faith, but fear in pod.
He’s still afraid the conquered gods may shout
A word against his kingdom turned about
And that’s why he comes clean to give a prod
To taking back the temple pots and plod
Back to Palestine to rebuild with clout.
It’s not for Your praise that the king does this,
But that the people might express their own
Loyalty to his throne by prayers to You
In favour of the king and not to miss
Either a night or morning overthrown,
But keep the king’s welfare always in view.

27 Blessed be YHWH Ælohim of our
Fathers, who has put such a power
As this into the king’s heart now
To beautify the house somehow
Of YHWH in Jerusalem’s brow,
28 And has extended me mercy
Before the king and council free,
And before all the mighty men
Of the king. I was strong again
As the power of YHWH Ælohim
Of mine was on me not in dream,
And gathered out of Israel
Chief men to go with me a spell.

Like Ezra I too raise Your broken word
Up once again after covered with turd
It served the generations as a crutch
To support usurping kings for as much.
Like Ezra I too knuckle under state
And find the favour of the palliate
Is necessary not just to my bread,
But also that I may in peace be led
To restore that grand temple of Your being
Upon this earth with cantillating seeing
The Hebrew and the Aramaic song
Still on the air, though with a slender throng.
Beloved, even alone I take on lip
Your law and from its nectar stay to sip.

EZRA 8

1 Now these are the chief of their fathers,
A genealogy, no bothers,
Of those who went up with me from
Babylon, in the reign in sum
Of Artaxerxes the king rum.
2 One of the sons of Phinehas,
Gershom; of Ithamar’s sons pass
Daniel; of the sons of David
Hatush. 3 Of Shechariah’s bid
And sons of Parosh, Zechariah,
And with him counted by pariah
Of males in genealogy
Comes to a hundred and fifty.
4 Of the sons of Pahathmoab,
Elihoenai, the son and scab
Of Zerahiah, and with him
Two hundred males both glad and grim.
5 Of the sons of Shechaniah,
The son of Jahaziel raw
And with him three hundred males’ paw.
6 Of the sons also of Adin,
Ebed the son of Jonathan,
And with him fifty males in bin.
7 And of the sons of Elam there
Were Jeshariah in the care
Of Athaliah and with him
Seventy males both patched and trim.

These churches are right small, although the guest
Might think that two hundred come to invest
Your Sabbath songs with glory of their throats
Is enough for the spelling of such notes.
Indeed, Ezra has no complaints to find
With the numbers as such he has in mind.
Who want to enter in the Promised Land
And find the courts of heaven on the strand
Of Jordan may be few, indeed they are
Much fewer in my travelling on this star.
Yet even a few men and women can
Make great strides of faith and encircle span
Not only of infinity of grace,
But an eternity in every place.

8 And of the sons of Shephatiah,
The son of Michael Zebadiah,
And with him fourscore males to fly you.

YHWH is my judgement and YHWH is my gift
Are names of men that went with Ezra back
To the land of promise and were not slack
In hopeful means to succeed and to lift
The walls and temple and to make short shrift
Of those who might oppose the growing rack
Of building stones that trace a shining track
Against the foes around that stand up miffed.
And yet today as I think of these names
I wonder what mom or dad in that land
Not knowing what might come a future day
Had faith to give such epithets with claims.
With judgement and with gift You come to stand,
Beloved, and open up for me a way.

9 Of the sons of Joab, the son
Of Obadiah Jehiel’s son,
And with him two hundred eighteen.
10 The sons of Shelomith to glean
The son of Josiphiah and
With him one hundred sixty band.
11 And of the sons of Bebai there
Were Bebai’s son named Zechariah
With twenty-eight males in his care.
12 And then the sons of Azgad try you,
Johanan son of Hakkatan,
With him a hundred and ten span.
13 Adonikam brought the last sons
Whose names are these on toes and buns,
Eliphelet, Jeiel and sails
Of Shemaiah, and with them males
To count of sixty as entails.
14 Of the sons also of Bigvai
One Uthai and Zabbud to vie,
And with them seventy males to try.
15 I gathered them together at
The river that runs to where sat
Ahava, and there we remained
Three days in tents while I attained
A view of the folk and the priests,
And found no Levi’s sons for feasts.
16 So I sent for Eliezer,
For Ariel, and for the fer
Shemaiah, and for Elnathan,
And for Jarib, and Elnathan,
And for Nathan and Zechariah,
And for Meshullam, no pariah,
The chief men, also for Joiarib,
And for Elnathan not to fib
Men of understanding in bib.

The genealogy may seem long here,
Indeed it’s only useful in the ear
When sung in the original tongue and
Heard in the language of the Promised Land.
And yet the thing is broken down again
In later chapters for sounding the men
Who married pagan wives to get them cheer.
Beloved, the name lists are a grace to me
When I hear the words of eternity
Cantillated to fresh my eye to see
And hear, to hear the twittering on limb
Of sparrow angels with trigger and vim
Spy out Your revelation with a trill
And then fly off to explore the next hill.

17 And I sent them with the command
To Iddo the chief of the land
Of Casiphia, and told them
What they should say ad hominem
To Iddo, to the Nethinim
His brothers and the place of scheme
Casiphia, that they should bring
Us ministers and such to sing
In the house of our Ælohim.
18 And by the good hand of our God
On us they brought a man by prod
Of understanding of the sons
Of Nahli, son of Levi’s runs,
The son of Israel, and one seen
Sherebiah in band eighteen
Of sons and brothers on the scene.
19 And Hashabiah and with him
Jeshaiah of the sons not dim
Of Merari, his brothers and
Their sons, in all twenty in band.
20 Also of the Nethinim, whom
David and the princes gave room
For the service of the Levites,
Two hundred twenty of the wights
Of Nethinim, and of them were
Expressed by name down to a fer.

It’s interesting that porters and the singers
Did not from the first volunteer as ringers,
But had to be hunted up from the street
Where they had settled to enjoy the treat
Of empire peace though oppression’s fruit blasted.
All human peace is someone’s pain while lasted.
So they were satisfied to live and die
In the land of the stranger and to lie
In comfort rather than rise up and vie
For desert fortresses, and I know why.
And yet they came when summoned, no complaint,
So bless the memory of them though faint,
And bless those today who awake a spell
To love and then return to sleep as well.

21 And then I proclaimed a fast there
At the river of Ahava,
So we might afflict us before
Our Ælohim and seek the store
Of a right way from Him for us
And for our little ones in fuss,
And for our wealth in omnibus.
22 For I was ashamed to require
From the king army band in hire
And cavalry to help us in
The way against enemy sin,
Because we’d spoken to the king
Saying “The power of our God’s ring
Is on all those for good who seek
Him but His power and His wrath peek
At all those that forsake His weak.”
23 And so we fasted and besought
Our Ælohim for this in lot,
And He heard us in what we got.

There are two ways it seems to protect life,
One is to get an army and a knife
That’s sharp enough to wield with little skill
And long enough to meet the foe and kill.
The other is to fast instead of fight.
I wonder if this latter way is right.
I know the commandment says not to slay,
And yet that also must mean in its way
To protect the life I am most involved
In keeping safe and so my problem’s solved,
That I may kill intruder if at point
There’s no other way to protect the joint.
Will You come intervene for those just fasting
Who have no martial arts in their back casting?

24 Then I set aside twelve in chief
Of the priests, Sherebiah’s fief
And Hashabiah and ten more
Of their brothers with them in store.
25 And weighed to them silver and gold
And the vessels in which to hold
The offering of the house of God
Which the king and his council prod
And his lords and all Israel there
Had offered given in their care.
26 I weighed into their hand the weight
Of six hundred and fifty great
Talents of silver and in pots
Of silver one hundred in lots,
A hundred talents yet of gold.
27 And twenty gold basins all told
Of each a thousand drams, and two
Vessels of fine copper in view
As precious as gold to accrue.
28 And I told them, “Holy are you
To YHWH, so are the vessels too,
The silver and the gold, they are
A freewill offering to the God
Of your fathers YHWH and His rod.
29 “So watch and keep them safe until
You weigh them before the chief bill
Of the priests and the Levites and
The chief of Israel’s dads in band,
At Jerusalem in the rooms
Of the house of YHWH or for dooms.”

The last folk I would choose to keep my sums
Are clerics, they’re the most dishonest bums.
Perhaps the priests and Levites of that date
Were better than the ones here in this state
Where the tradition is to steal the last
Cow of the widow and preach with bombast
The blessings of the widow’s might when You
Sent Your messiah to relieve the crew.
Beloved, I carry little in the way
Of offering either free-will or for pay,
In gold or silver or the blood of lambs,
Or in the tasty roast of slaughtered rams.
And yet the priesthood of the firstborn lies
Upon me as my little family tries.

30 The priests and Levites took the weight
Of silver and gold and the great
Pots to bring to Jerusalem
Into the house of Ælohim.
31 Then we set out from the stream there
At Ahava on the twelfth share
Of the first month to go up to
Jerusalem, and our God’s true
Hand was on us, and He delivered
Us from the hand of foe unslivered,
And of such as lay in ambush
By the way in both shove and push.
32 And we came to Jerusalem
And stayed there three days as pro tem.
33 Now on the fourth day there was weighed
The silver and gold and parade
Of pots in house of Ælohim
By the hand of Meremoth grim
The son of Uriah the priest,
And with him Eleazar increased
The son of Phinehas, and with
Them was Jozabad son and myth
Of Jeshua, and Niadiah
The son of Binnui, Levites nigh you.
34 By number and by weight each one,
And all the weight writ down when done.
35 The children of the captives taken
That had come out of prison shaken,
Offered burnt offerings to the God
Of Israel, twelve bullocks plod
For all Israel, and ninety-six
Rams, and seventy-seven of tricks
Of lambs, and twelve male goats in all
For a sin offering at the wall,
All this was holocaust unto
Our Ælohim and the Lord YHWH.
36 And they delivered up commissions
Of the king to the king’s tacticians,
And to the governors on this
Side of the river not to miss,
And they favoured the people and
The house of Ælohim to stand.

Faith makes an institution and in numbers
Rises from its indolence and its slumbers
To make a state within a state and share
The favour of the rulers everywhere.
This gross reality has been the way
Your faith, Beloved, has always seen the day,
And rarely is it in position sought
To hold the sceptre and the Torah taught.
Despite the many stories of the grand
Development of kingdom and the manned
Fortresses at Jerusalem and where
Samaria rose as the kind and fair,
In most times and most places faith has found
A humble dwelling on usurper’s ground.

EZRA 9

1 Now when these things were done there came
To me the chiefs saying “The shame
Is Israel’s folk, priests and Levites
Have not separated from heights
Of the people of the lands yet,
But do abominations set
By Canaanites and the Hittites,
The Perizzites and Jebusites,
The Ammonites and Moabites,
The Egyptians and Amorites.
2 “For they have taken for themselves
And for their sons daughters of elves
So that the holy seed is mixed
With the folk of these lands and fixed,
Indeed the hand of prince and ruler
Has been the foremost in such fooler.”
3 And when I heard this thing I tore
My clothes and coat and I forebore
Not to pull out my hair from my
Head and my beard and with a sigh
Sat down astonished on the shore.
4 Then were assembled unto me
Every one that trembled to see
The things of Israel’s Ælohim,
Because of the sins of their dream
That had been taken captive, and
I sat astonished on the land
Till evening sacrifice at hand.

Genetics are a contemplation still
Fraught with an importance beyond the bill
That traces the lines of descent at will.
The fact is mother’s tendencies reveal
In what the toddler comes to think and feel.
Who knows what my ancestry tries to show
In the map of the past and in its glow,
And yet I find the cantillation of
Your word has some attraction and some love
That draws me with seductions from the rate
That my ancestry ought to give in fate.
Is there no hope for heathen wife and child
Reduced to hearing the melodies wild
Of Your law cantillated soon and late?

6 I said “O my Ælohim, I
Am ashamed and blush to raise high
My face to You, my God, for our
Iniquities now have the power
Over our head, and our trespass
Has risen up to the skies’ brass.
7 “From the time of our fathers we
Are in great sin until the spree
Of this day, and iniquity
Has brought us, our kings and our priests
Into the hand of the kings’ feasts
Of the lands, to the sword and to
Captivity and spoil and to
Confusion of face as this day.
8 “And now for just a little ray
Grace has come from YHWH our God’s way
To leave us a remnant escaped,
To fix us in His place unscraped,
That our Ælohim might make light
Our eyes and give a small respite
In the darkness of bondage night.

How rarely does the faithful seed prevail
To find a place to live without the pale
Of the usurper and the judgement spent
In illegal taxation and to vent
The wicked rule of king and priest unmeant!
The times of Ezra were of uncouth sail,
So rare such things happen on earth and yet
The prayer that acknowledges the fine set
Also repents of wedding and the joy
Of reproduction and the true employ
Of humankind to keep a family fed.
The prayer is one with butter on the bread
On both sides, which may mean a foolish note
Or else for greed event the prophet wrote.

9 “For we were servants, yet our God
Has not forsaken us to plod
In our bondage, but has extended
Mercy to us, and so defended
Us in the sight of Persia’s kings,
To give us yet some revivings,
To set up house of Ælohim,
And to repair the destroyed scheme,
And to give us Gadeer in land
Of Judah, Jerusalem’s hand.
10 “Now our Ælohim, what shall we
Say after this? For we now see
Have broken Your commandments here,
11 “Which You commanded by the fear
Of Your servants the prophets, saying,
‘The land into which you are straying
To keep it is an unclean land
With filthiness of folk in band
With their abominations which
Have filled it from one end to ditch
Of the other with unclean pitch.
12 “So do not give your daughters to
Their sons, neither take in your crew
Their daughters for your sons, nor seek
Their peace or their wealth for the peak,
So you may be strong and not weak
And eat good things from the land and
Leave it as heritage to stand
To your children as time demand.’
13 “After all that’s come on us for
Our wicked acts and for the store
Of trespass, since You Ælohim
Have punished us less than the scheme
Of our iniquities deserves,
And given such salvation’s curves,
14 “Should we again break Your command,
And join together in a band
With the folk of abominations?
Would You not be angry in rations
With us till You’d consumed us all
Till none remain safe in the stall?
15 “O YHWH and Israel’s Ælohim,
You are righteous, and it would seem
We remain here and have escaped
Today, and see, we are unscraped
Before You in our sins, for we
Cannot stand before You to see
Because we’ve done unfaithfully.”

It’s true You gave command the population
Of Canaan should not become of Your nation.
The fact is genocide was chosen way
You had to clear the population’s sway,
And Your folk were reluctant in their grace
To wipe them out and never leave a trace.
It’s true You said that they were left to try
Your folk to see if they would not comply
With Your law, and to punish with the sword,
Captivity to be its own reward.
It’s also true that where ladies exist
Some men will always take them if by fist.
You should have thought of that Yourself, you missed
A law of nature of Your own to twist.

EZRA 10

1 Now when Ezra had prayed and when
He had confessed, weeping and then
Prostrating himself down before
The house of Ælohim on floor,
There gathered by him out of all
Of Israel a crowd to call
Of men and women, children all,
For the people wept much in thrall.
2 And Shechaniah who was son
Of Jehiel and once begun
Of the sons of Elam, replied
And said to Ezra on the side,
“We’ve sinned against our Ælohim
And taken wives of those who seem
To be folk of the land, yet now
There’s hope in Israel somehow.
3 “Let’s now make a promise to God
To put away all wives of pod
And such as are born of them by
The counsel of my lord come nigh,
And of those who tremble before
The commandment of our God’s store,
And let it be done at law’s score.
4 “Get up, for the word is with you,
And we shall also do so too,
So be of good courage and do.”
5 Then Ezra got up and he made
The chief priests, the Levites and stayed
All Israel to swear that they
Should do according to this way.
And so they swore all on that day.

I think the fact these men were willing to
Divorce their wives to make the thing come true
To save Jerusalem and build the town
And temple not to increase their God’s frown
Shows an appalling sense of duty and
A shocking sense to obey Your command.
There’s nothing here that I must give up to
Keep Your law and to live the life that’s true.
None force me to do evil and none make
Me relinquish the banner for Your sake.
Beloved, I greet the peaceful morning and
Pray for the poor and oppressed in the land
That You may give them courage still to stand,
Obey You while the state’s ruled by a rake.

6 Then Ezra got up from before
The house of Ælohim and door,
And went into the chamber of
Johanan the son and scab of
Eliashib, and when he came
There, he ate no food in his shame
Nor drank water, because he sighed
For the sins of those who abide
Carried away as captive side.

It’s interesting that soon as they came back
From Babylon and even before lack
Of coming to Jerusalem they prayed
Always with fasting for the thing they made.
The Torah speaks of fasting on parade
Only on rare occasions such as when
Moses went up Sinai to serve all men.
Proliferation of fasting’s a thing
That’s close to innovation on the wing,
And yet it serves a greater purpose than
The slaughter of beasts in sacrifice can.
The shift from slaughter to the sacrifice
Of fasting’s really innovation nice.
There’s faith in food and faith without’s a spice.

7 They made a proclamation through
Judah and Jerusalem to
All the captive people that they
Should gather together one day
Into Jerusalem to pray.
8 And whoever would not come in
Three days according to the grin
Of the chiefs and elders then all
His property should be the call
Of forfeiture, and he himself
Be separated like an elf
From congregation of those who
Were carried captive of the true.
9 Then all the men of Judah and
Benjamin gathered in a band
Together to Jerusalem
Within three days, none to condemn.

What is the basis of this legislation,
This verdict that would deprive a whole nation
Of the inheritance of promised land?
Those who fail to appear to lend a hand
To divorce will have confiscated all
That their ancestors received from Your stall.
The verdict is a harsh one and a brave,
It makes Ezra seem very like to crave
Example of Khumeini in his grave.
I guess the law is meant to give to those
Who are Israelites all the land they chose,
But not to those who are not Israelites
By their descent, no matter what their rights.
The merciful perhaps left when this rose.

10 And Ezra the priest stood and said
To them, “You have sinned and been led
To marry foreign wives, and so
Increase the sin of Israel’s row.
11 So now confess the thing to YHWH
Ælohim of your fathers, do
His pleasure and divorce yourselves
From the land’s people and such elves,
And from the foreign wives in crew.
12 All the assembly answered and
Said with a loud voice, “Your command
Is what we must do out of hand.
13 “But the folk are many and it
Is a time of much rain unfit,
And we’re not able to be out
Neither is this a job about
One day or two, for we are many
Who have sinned in this matter any.
14 “So let our rulers of all folk
In the assembly stand in yoke,
And let all those who have done such
In taking foreign wives as much
In our towns come at set times and
With them the elders of each band
Of every city come and stand
With the judges of it until
The fierce wrath of our God to fill
In this matter is turned from bill.

The list of those who divorced wife and son
Follows hard on. I wonder what was one
By those who refused and thus gained no place
In the Scriptures of Ezra, not a trace.
Is there some family now in disgrace
More than two thousand years beyond the place,
Who have preserved a knowledge of Your law
And still hold Your name and Sabbaths in awe?
Can faith be retained by the simple way
Of family priest acknowledging the ray
Of revelation from Sinai sent down?
Or must all ways and means be under frown
Of greater institutions? Let me price
The way of Abraham and sacrifice.

15 Only Jonathan who was son
Of Asahel and also one
Jahaziah son of Tikvah
Were busy in this thing of law:
And Meshullam and Shabbethai
The Levite helped them on the sly.
16 The children of captivity
Did so. And Ezra the priest wee
With certain of the fathers’ chiefs,
After their fathers’ house reliefs
And all of them and by their names
Were separated for their claims
And sat down on the first day of
The tenth month to see to the shove.
17 And they finished with all the men
Who’d married foreigners again
By the first month on the first day,
And after that they went their way.
18 Among the sons of priests there were
Found who had married foreigner,
Of the sons of Jeshua son
Of Jozadak, his brothers won:
Maaseiah, Eliezer and
Jarib, Gedaliah in band.
19 They gave their hands in promise that
They would divorce their wives and scat,
And being guilty they would offer
A ram of the flock for sin’s proffer.

The law of divorce is well sought and taught
Throughout Your revelation to be bought.
The sweet Christian denies validity
Of divorce without infidelity.
But Your law does not require divorce then,
Rather it strips the guilty of life’s yen.
The Gospel seems to say divorce must rise
When it comes out the spouse is one in guise
Of the forbidden spouses for their kin.
Your word never speaks of divorce as sin.
But here’s a fancy, here’s divorce made plain
To be a duty for the holy, sane.
Beloved, Your Scripture is surprising now
And often is, that’s something I allow.

20 And of the sons of Immer too,
Hanani, Zebediah too.
21 And of the sons of Harim there
Were Maaseiah and for his share
Elijah and Shemaiah and
Jehiel and Uzziah stand.
22 And of the sons of Pashur done:
Elioenai, Maaseiah won
And Ishmael and Nethaneel,
Jozabad and Elasah well.
23 Also of the Levites there were
Jozabad and Shimei concur
With Kelaiah who’s also called
Kelita, Pethahiah bald,
And Judah and Eliezer stalled.
24 Of singers too Eliashib,
And of the porters none to fib,
Shallum and Telem and Uri.
25 Of Israel of the sons to see
Of Parosh, Ramiah and free
Jeziah, and Machiah and
Miamin and Eleazar stand,
And Machijah and Benaiah.
26 Of Elam’s sons to stand in awe
Were Mattaniah and some more,
Zechariah and at the door
Jehiel and Abdi, and yet
Jeremoth and Eliah met.
27 And of the sons of Zattu these:
Eloenai, Eliashib’s ease,
Mattaniah and Jeremoth,
And Zabad and Aziza both.
28 Of the sons also of Bebai,
Jehohanan and not to lie
Hananiah, Zabbai, Athlai.
29 And of the sons of Bani such
As Meshullan, also Malluch,
And Adaiah, Jashub and Sheal
And Ramoth who was not a heel.
30 And of sons of Pahathmoab,
Adna and Chelal, Beaiah,
Maaeiah, and Mattaniah,
Bezaleel, Binnui, Manasseh.
31 And of the sons of Harim’s way
Eliezer, Ishijah in sway,
Machiah, Shemaiah Simeon,
32 Benjamin, Malluch, Shemariah.
33 Of the sons of Hashum alone:
Mattenai, Matthatha, Zabad,
Eliphelet, Jeremai sad,
Manasse and Shimei, both glad.
34 Of the sons of Bani, Maadai,
Amram and Uel by the by.
35 Benaiah, Bedeiah, Chelluh,
36 Vaniah, Meremoth for two
And Eliashib to be true,
37 Mattaniah, Mattenai and
Jaasau the last one in the band,
38 And Bani and Binnui set
And Shimei as one with regret,
39 And Shelemiah and Nathan,
And Adaiah down to a man,
40 Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai,
41 Azareel, and to come by
Shelemiah, Shemariah,
42 Shallum, also Amariah,
And Joseph. 43 And of Nebo’s sons
Jeiel, Mattithiah and tons
Of Zabad, Zebina, Jadau,
And Joel, Benaiah and how.
44 All these had taken foreign wives,
And some of them, bless hearts and lives,
Had children by those foreign wives.

By foreign I suppose the prophet means
That such wives were heathen in all their scenes
Refusing to accept Your oneness and
The law of Moses as the law of land.
I’d think a lady that had taught her sons
And daughter to worship You by their tons
Would be a better wife than Israelite
Who worshipped Baal and Ashtaroth on sight.
And yet the word compels me to relate
That foreign wives were divorced by the mate
That wished to be true to Your throne and state.
I find that harsh, but so is harshness set
In those who refuse Your commandments met
And use marriage to confirm that last bet.

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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