II ESDRAS CHAPTER 13 - 16

2 ESDRAS 13

1 After seven days then I dreamed
A dream in the night, 2 and it seemed,
A wind blew coming from the sea
And stirred up all its waves to be.
3 And I looked, and indeed, this wind
Made something like the figure skinned
Of a man come up from the heart
Of the sea there to do his part.
And I looked, and indeed, that man
Flew with the clouds of heaven in span,
And wherever he turned his face
Everything trembled in its place,
4 And whenever his voice was heard,
All melted as wax melts or turd
Before the fire when it occurred.
5 After this I looked, and indeed,
A great crowd of men to take heed
From the four winds of heaven to make
War against the man in the wake
Who came up out of the sea’s lake.
6 And I looked, and indeed, he graved
Out for himself a mountain paved,
And flew up on it for his sake.
7 I tried to see the land or place
From which was carved out mountain face,
But I could not find any trace.

The messianic spirit which abounds
Throughout eternity and in the sounds
Of Your divine law, my Beloved, resounds
In the arising of Bar Kokhba’s great
Attempt to found and lead a Jewish state.
That state in temporal would disappear,
But in the spirit it could know no fear,
And in the waiting brood of song of love
Of Solomon and in the bright Psalms of
His father David, despite all I find
The princedom flourishing still in the mind.
Beloved, You have created humankind
Of such fine stuff that stone and mortar cast
No shadow on the kingdom that must last.

8 After this I looked, and indeed,
All who’d gathered against his creed,
To battle with him, greatly feared,
Yet dared to fight when he appeared.
9 See, when he saw the great attack
Of the crowd coming and not slack,
He did not lift a hand or spear
Or any lethal weapon near.
10 But I saw only how he sent
From his mouth streams of fire that went,
And from his lips a flaming breath,
And from his tongue rushed sparks like death.
11 All these were mingled into one,
The stream of fire and flaming breath
And the great storm when it was done,
And fell upon attacking crowd
Prepared to fight, and burned the proud,
So suddenly not one was seen
Of the great crowd beyond the sheen
Of dusty ashes, smell of smoke.
I saw it amazed at the stroke.
12 After this I saw the same man
Come down from the mountain to scan
And call to him another crowd
Which was one peaceable allowed.
13 Then many people came to him,
Some were joyful and some were grim,
Some were bound, and some were brought there
As offerings among the fair.

From Bar Kokhba’s mouth went out streams of fire
Devouring Roman soldiers in his ire,
Fast speaking in support of Your great law
So generations after stand in awe.
He burned the arguments of pagan wars,
Cut down with words and tongue idols by scores,
And so established forever the state
Of Your law, my Beloved, in place of hate.
But just as Jesus and Sabbetai Zwi
Feel on their heads the curses by decree
Of rabbi and of bishop and at last
The mullah in his cassock going past,
Shimon is also trodden in the blast.
No matter, truth prevails though unseen cast.

Then in great fear I woke up, and
I begged Most High to understand,
And said 14 “From the beginning You
Have shown Your servant wonders true,
And have deemed me worthy to set
My prayer before You and be met,
15 “Now show me also this dream’s due.
16 “As I consider it in mind,
Alas for those once left behind
In those days! And still more, alas
For those who are not left in class!
17 “For those who’re not left will be sad,
18 “Because they understand what’s had
For the last days, but cannot get.
19 “Alas for those too who are met
Remaining, for that very set!
For they shall see great dangers and
Much distress, as these dreams command.
20 “It’s better though to get these things,
Despite the peril in the wings,
Than to pass from earth like a cloud,
And not see the last things allowed.”
He answered me and said aloud,
21 “I’ll tell you the vision’s import,
Explaining what you say in sort.

The revelation comes to the man who
Is bent in prayer before the name of YHWH.
The days and nights of prayer bring out the scene
Shining with truth and justice to be keen.
The future may well be pronounced in word,
But even better is the sense incurred
To understand the present by the veil
Of messianic hope that shall prevail.
Beloved, I see the dangers and distress,
I see the kingdom of Jesus to bless,
I see the arms and armies of the one
Who followed him and set up as Your son,
I see the many messiahs and true,
All claimed to be false for the things they do.

22 “As for what you said about those
Who are left, here’s the meaning rose.
23 “He who brings peril at that time
Will also protect those who climb
Into the peril, who have deeds
And faith in the Almighty’s creeds.
24 “Understand therefore that those who
Are left are more blessed than those who
Have died. 25 “This is the meaning of
The vision sent for faith and love:
As for your seeing a man come
Up from the heart of the sea’s tum,
26 “This is the one the Most High’s kept
For many ages, who unwept
Will save His creation, and he
Will guide those who are left and free.
27 “And as for your seeing the wind
And fire and a storm to rescind
Coming out of his mouth, 28 “so that
He holds no spear or weapon flat,
And yet destroys the multitude
Come out to conquer him though rude,
This is the meaning of the mood.

Bar Kokhba did save Your creation when
He bore arms to defend Your law again.
No matter that Jerusalem was swept
Out from under the feet of those who wept,
No matter that a heathen city rose
To take its name after the awful throes.
No matter that Roman pretended yet
To take the victory that they could get.
There was no honour in senate report,
But only shame for all the deaths in sort.
There was no honour in the horrid name
Of Palestine invented to their shame.
But since that day all men know that Your law
Can be kept even under lion’s paw.

29 “Indeed, the days are coming when
The Most High will deliver men
Upon the earth. 30 “Bewilderment
Of mind shall come over those sent
To live on earth. 31 “And they shall plan
To make war each man against man,
City against city, and place
Against place, people against face
Of other people, and kingdom
Against kingdom as fast as hum.
32 “And when these things shall come to pass
And the signs happen which alas
I showed you before, then my Son
Will be revealed, whom you begun
To see as a man from the sea.
33 “And when all the nations that be
Hear his voice, every man shall leave
His own land and the warfare grieve
That they have against one another,
34 “And a great crowd gather as brother,
As you saw, hoping to repair
And conquer him as sent and fair.
35 “But he’ll stand on Mount Zion’s top.
36 “And Zion will arrive and hop
To be made manifest to all,
Prepared and built from gate to wall,
As you saw the mountain carved out
And coming without hands no doubt.

Am I the only one on earth that’s left
Who still believes Messiah unbereft
And living still in every name that blessed
Judea and Jerusalem confessed?
I here proclaim that Jesus was the one
Promised, and wisely did not jump the gun,
But left to Bar Kokhba the right to bear
Arms against Roman oppression and swear.
I here proclaim that Shimon when he came
Was also sent of You, Beloved, for fame
Eternal. And I am here once more led
To confess Sabbetai Zwi also has fed
In secret wisdom manna to the true,
And all three messiahs point back to You.

37 “And he, my Son, will reprove those
Assembled nations that they chose
Ungodliness (in this arose
The symbol of the storm in rows),
38 “And he’ll chide them to their face for
Their evil thoughts and with the store
Of torments which they’re bound to feel
(Which came in symbol of flames’ heel),
And he’ll destroy them without strain
By the law (figured by fire’s pain).
39 “As for your seeing him take up
To himself a second crowd’s cup
That was peaceful, 40 “these are the ten
Tribes which were led away again
From their own land into the fate
Of captives in the days of late
King Hoshea, whom Shalmaneser
The king of the Assyrian geezer
Took captive, he took them across
The river, and they were at loss
In another land. 41 “But they made
This plan for themselves when waylaid,
That they would leave the multitude
Of nations and go to a rude
More distant region, where mankind
Had never lived, 42 “that there may find
At least a place to keep their law
Which they’d not kept by their own claw
In their own land in righteous awe.

The sent Son did chide evil crowd with faith,
Both Roman guard and Caesar and the wraith
Of heathen gods and every sort of hell
That opened jaws to claim army and dell.
He destroyed their souls by Your burning law
And sent them empty back to Roman craw,
And with the chill of sixty thousand slain
Of the just and holy upon the plain.
Beloved, he woke for peace the trodden way
Set by the ten lost tribes from light of day
Who still invisible, in closet make
Their prayers to You abound and for Your sake.
The peace of Your commandment knows no bound,
Even within the Vatican it’s found.

43 “They went in by the narrow ways
Of the Euphrates river maze.
44 “For at that time the Most High made
Signs for them, and stopped the charade
Of flowing river until they had passed
Over. 45 “Through that region amassed
There was a long way yet to go,
A journey of a year not slow
And half a year, and that land’s called
Arzareth, meadowed, fruited, walled.
46 “They lived there until the last times,
And now, when they have left their crimes
And are about to come again,
47 “The Most High will stop before men
The river channels once again,
So they may pass over them dry.
That’s why you saw the crowd come by,
Gathered in peace under the sky.
48 “But those who are left of your folk,
Who’re found within my holy yoke,
Shall be saved. 49 “Therefore when he lays
Down in destruction all the ways
Of many nations that are bound
Together, he’ll defend the ground
Of folk remaining and the sound.
50 “He’ll show them wonders that abound.”

The messianic hope and promise dressed
In hidden veils and shrouds and hardly guessed
Has grown amuck so that the tanks of all
The armies of the West cannot make fall.
A battle temporal that once was lost
In A.D. one three five and at such cost
Is only pledge that underground we stay
Unbroken and unbeaten by the fray.
Even within the mass of heathen word
The bowed head silently and by none heard
Pledges to You, Beloved, and against Rome
The promise of Jerusalem and home.
Even on Gerizim law keepers wait,
Faithful to You, Beloved, beyond the gate.

51 I said “O sovereign Lord, explain
This to me: Why did I see plain
The man coming up from the sea?”
52 He answered and he said to me,
“Just as no one can sound or know
The depths of the ocean and go,
So no one on earth can see My
Son or those who’re in his employ,
Except on the day of his joy.
53 “This is the meaning of the dream
Which you saw. And you only seem
Enlightened about all this scheme,
54 “Since you’ve forsaken your own ways
And have applied yourself for days
To Mine, and have searched out My law,
55 “For you’ve spent your life in the awe
Of wisdom, and called understanding
Your mother and source of demanding.
56 “Therefore I have shown you all this,
For there’s reward laid up in bliss
With the Most High. And after three
More days I’ll tell you in degree
Other things, and explain weighty
And wondrous matters you will see.”
57 Then I arose and paced the field,
Giving great glory and in yield
Praise to the Most High because of
His wonders, which he did in love
From age to age, 58 because He rules
The times and what things in their pools
And seasons come to pass. And so
I stayed there three days for the show.

The bodies that lay strewn in Massada
Were not lost forever to Roman claw,
But from the very sea again arose
The heavenly kingdom that You straightly chose.
Rome takes her martyrs one and all as though
In martyrdom were victory in row.
But victory is in keeping Your law
Which nothing can overcome in the raw.
You are the Ruler still, though every chime
Of every church tower claim the heathen rhyme
Of baptisms in blood and trinity.
You are still one and make are humans free.
Beloved, I praise Your name without a sound,
Pretending to be here among the bound.

2 ESDRAS 14

1 On the third day, while I was sitting
Under an oak, indeed not knitting,
A voice came from the bush near me
And said, “Ezra, Ezra.” 2 And see
I said, “Here I am, Lord,” and I
Got to my feet as I was spry.
3 Then he said to me, “I revealed
Myself in a bush to the heeled
Moses and spoke to him, when My
Folk were slaves in Egyptian sty,
4 “And I sent him and led My folk
Out of Egypt, and at a stroke
I led him up on Mount Sinai,
Where I kept him beneath the sky
With Me many days there to try,
5 “And I told him many fine things,
And showed him secret reckonings
Of the times and declared to him
The end of the times that were grim.
Then I commanded him, and said
6 ‘These words you shall publish when led
Openly, and these keep instead.’

You spoke to Moses in the burning bush,
And on Mount Sinai You gave him a push
To write the law in blazing letters told
When cantillated sweeter than fine gold.
Many fine things indeed You told the man
Who wrote down everything You said by plan.
The song of the creation and the fall,
The serpent and the tree, the sweet and gall,
Were subjects to his voice. The great Ali
Found in his words his direct prophecy.
Beloved, you spoke to Moses and he wrote.
Since then so many prophets taking note
Have also written and passed to their graves.
I follow them to single out their slaves.

7 “And now I say to you, 8 ‘Lay up
In your heart the signs that in cup
I have shown you, the dreams that you
Have seen, and all their meanings due
That you have heard, 9 “for you shall be
Taken up from human degree,
And after that you’ll come to live
With my Son and with those in sieve
Who are like you, until the times
Are ended and fulfilled the crimes.
10 “Because the age has lost its youth,
And times begin to age forsooth.
11 “The era is divided to
Twelve parts, and nine of its parts due
Have already passed, 12 “as well too
As half the tenth part, and so two
Of its parts remain, besides half
Of the tenth part. 13 “So now, by gaff,
Set your house in order, reprove
Your people, comfort those who move
Lowly among them, and instruct
Those that are wise and still unmucked.
And now renounce corrupted life,
14 “And put away your mortal strife,
And cast away the human load,
Divested of weak nature’s goad,
15 “And lay aside most grievous thought
And haste away from this time’s plot.
16 “For evils worse than those you’ve seen
Will happen soon upon the green.
17 “The weaker the world gets with age,
The more its evils come on stage.
18 “For truth shall go farther away,
And falsehood shall come near to stay.
The eagle that you saw in vision
Is coming quickly with derision.’”

The writing is supposed to meet the air
In Esdras’ time, or father’s to beware,
And yet only two of the twelve are left
To complete the time of the unbereft.
Such verses raise doubt in the solitude
Of hearts steeped both in science and the rude,
And yet I bear with patience all the crude
That hangs doubts on the revelation’s cleft.
Beloved, time’s not the slave of any chance,
Nor does it draw out in a line, but dance
In circles of the twelve until the day
When the soul flies toward the sky away.
I too spend two parts of the time to sway
In whirling round and round, just see me prance.

19 Then I answered and said, “Let me
Speak in your presence, Lord, freely.
20 “For indeed, I will go, as You
Have commanded me, and in view
Of chiding the folk now who do,
But who shall warn those who will be
Born after this time’s roguery?
For the world lies in darkness’ night,
And its dwellers are without light.
21 “For Your law has been burned, and so
No one knows the things in the show
Which have been done or will be done
By you. 22 “If then I have grace won
In Your sight, send the Holy Spirit
To me, and I will write all near it
That has happened in the world from
The start, and all the things that come
Written in Your law, that men may
Find the path and the righteous way,
And that those who desire to live
In the last days may come to live.”

There was a time when Your law had been lost,
And burned and scorched from heart and mind embossed,
A time when only oracles remained,
And people worried that a prophet pained
And might forsake them to the naught when gained.
There was a time when Moses’ writings stood
Only within the heart and brain and wood.
There was no scroll and every temple pot
Had been requisitioned by heathen sot.
The prophet asks You for the remedy,
And knows that it will be the destiny
Of those in the last days to read the book
That Moses wrote, that was burned till it shook
And was rewritten my Ezra in nook.

23 He answered me and said “Go and
Gather the people, tell the band
Not to seek you for forty days.
24 “But make yourself tablets to write,
And take with you Sarea bright,
Dabria, Selemia well,
Ethanus, also Asiel,
These five, because they’re trained to write
Quickly, 25 “and you shall come back here,
And I’ll illuminate your heart
The lamp of understanding’s part,
Which shall not be put out until
What the things you write shall fulfil.
26 “And when you’ve finished, some things you
Shall make public, and some endue
In secret to the wise, tomorrow
At this time you’ll write without sorrow.”

The Bible and Apocrypha were made
In forty days of recitation stayed
Not for the day or night, when five men wrote
What Ezra spoke sitting on creosote.
The heart illuminated by the skill
Of miracle did not stop with its fill,
But sang in ecstasy upon the hill,
Surrounded by the meadow and its flowers.
I long to hear the singing hours and hours,
And so I too take down the lettered scroll
And cantillate the words in roll on roll.
Beloved, I breathe the breath of Ezra now,
Remembered from the breath of Moses’ brow,
Until I meet Your lips and take a bow.

27 So I went as he ordered me,
I gathered all the folk’s degree,
And said, 28 “Hear these words, Israel
29 “At first our fathers lived a spell
As aliens in Egypt’s land,
And they were saved from there in band,
30 “And they received the law of life,
Which they did not keep in their strife,
Which you too transgressed after them.
31 “Then land was given to you in hem
For heritage in Zion’s land,
But you and your ancestors did
Iniquity at every bid
And did not keep the ways of which
The Most High ordered you to pitch.
32 “And since He is a righteous judge,
In time he took from you the sludge
Of what He’d given you to budge.
33 “And now you’re here to stay, and your
Brothers are on a further shore.
34 “So if you’ll control mind and heart,
You’ll stay alive to do your part,
And after death you shall obtain
Mercy over all other gain.
35 “For after death judgement will come,
When we shall live again in sum,
And then the righteous names will be
Apparent for all men to see,
And the deeds of ungodly men
Will be uncovered once again.
36 “But let no one come to me now,
And let no one seek out my brow
For forty days then anyhow.”

If Moses fasted forty days to get
The Torah from Your lips and then well set
Joined Israel to keep the feast of weeks,
I join in eating garlic, bread and leeks.
It was no feat beyond what Ezra did
In cantillating all the books You hid.
The miracles of revelation stand
And awesome require plot of every hand.
Beloved, I too see revelation’s power
To stand upon the day of judgement’s hour
And follow in the law the books require
To keep the soul from burning in the fire.
Instead I choose the fire of Your love now
And frenzied whirl about the great powwow.

37 So I took the five men, as he
Commanded me, and so then we
Went out into the field to stay.
38 And see a voice on the next day
Called out to me and stopped to say
“Ezra, open your mouth and drink
The liquid that I give to drink.”
39 And so I opened up my mouth,
And see, a full cup and not drouth
Was offered to me, it was filled
With something like water distilled,
But its colour was like the fire.
40 I took it and I drank the dire,
And when I had drunk it, my heart
Poured forth in understanding art,
And wisdom increased in my breast,
My spirit kept its memory best,
41 And so my mouth was open, and
Was no longer closed from the band.
42 And the Most High gave understanding
To the five men, by turns in branding
They wrote what was dictated slow,
In characters they did not know.
They sat for forty days, and wrote
During the daytime, and took note
To eat their meals at night by rote.
43 But as for me, I spoke all day
And was not quiet in night’s sway.
44 So during forty days in all
Ninety-four books were written small.

I too drink of the juice of peony,
The bitter dandelion and the tree
Of maple and of birch to find the power
To recite, know and keep the books an hour.
I too drink of the silver nectar flown
From fount of Kauthar there before Your throne
Where Ali comes with both hands on the vial,
And stepping on the checked celestial tile.
Beloved, I too take five in family
Of prophet and the people of degree
Of prophet’s house and prophet’s progeny.
The ninety-four books hidden in my heart
Give me command also to do my part,
Some public and some secret like the dart.

45 And when the forty days were ended,
The Most High spoke to me attended,
Saying, “Make public twenty-four
Books that you wrote first on the score
And let the worthy and those not
Read them both word and phrase and plot,
46 But keep the seventy that were writ
The last, in order to give grit
To the wise men among your folk.
47 For in them is the spring of truth,
The fountain of wisdom, forsooth
The river of knowledge.” 48 And I
Did as commanded by the sky.

I too make public twenty-two or four
Of those books once recited at the door.
But I do not stop there, I also take
A number from the hidden books’ keepsake
And publish them among the public ones
To shine as moons among the sightful suns.
I too make public words of Your commands
Albeit from the humblest of the hands
Of any that resort to take Your word
Reciting on the marketplace what’s heard
In secret and in ecstasy, heart stirred.
I too make an account of mystery,
A counting of the sacred history,
Beyond my penned fingers and blistery.

2 ESDRAS 15

1 The Lord says “Indeed, speak into
The ears of my folk in their pew
The words of prophecy which I
Will put in your mouth by and by,
2 “And cause them to be written down
On paper, for they’re of renown
Trustworthy and true in the town.
3 “Do not fear the plots against you,
And do not be anxious undue
For unbelief who oppose you.
4 Each unbeliever, he shall die
In his unbelief by and by.”
5 “Indeed,” says YHWH, “I bring the world
Evils, the sword and famine swirled
And death and destruction unfurled.
6 “Iniquity has spread throughout
Each land, and their harmful deeds’ doubt
Has reached the limits of their clout.

The post-Bar Kokhba world lies open here
As the prophet’s final chapters appear.
To the faithful You counsel not to fear,
While You bring on the infidel the great
Destruction that is unclenched by the rate
Of Roman legions marching on the land
Of holy memory to fill the sand
With desecration of their bloody feet,
The stench of uncircumcised pecks to beat.
Beloved, I flee to Your hand from the toil
That poisons all the wealth of richest soil,
That makes of Basrah a caldron to boil.
I flee to You from the established church,
I leave the politician in the lurch,
And bide my tongue beneath my fir and birch.

7 Therefore,” says YHWH, 8 “I will keep mum
No more about the deeds they hum
In wickedness, nor will I take
Their evil practices in stake.
Behold the innocent and fair
Blood cries out to Me to beware,
And the souls of the righteous cry
Out to Me for ever and aye.

Six hundred thousand people died the year
That Romans flooded the country with fear.
Hadrian could not say the legions fared
Well to the Senate for the blood he dared
To lose from honoured Roman soldiers’ veins.
The genocide invented on the plains
Has not stopped since that time of Roman gains.
The innocent blood mixes with the gore
Of cannon foddered armies on the shore,
And even Napoleon only spent
His time in mimicry of Roman vent.
In silence You look on catastrophe
That makes up this world’s kingdom in degree,
To listen to the righteous cry’s ascent.

9 “But I shall avenge them indeed,”
Says YHWH, “and will receive decreed
To Myself all innocent blood
From among them poured out in flood.
10 “See My folk are led like a flock
To slaughter, so I’ll stop the clock
On their living in Egypt’s land.
11 “I’ll bring them out with mighty hand
And uplift arm, and I will smite
Egypt with plagues as on that night,
And I will destroy all its land.”
12 “Let Egypt mourn, and its foundations,
For the plague of chastisement’s rations
And punishment that YHWH will bring
Upon it for its bad doing.
13 “Let all the men who work the soil
Mourn, because their seed fails in toil
And their trees ruin by the blight
And hail and storm come on the site.
14 “Alas for the world and for those
Who live in it in rows and rows!
15 “For sword and misery draw near
And nation shall rise up in fear
To fight against nation, with sword
In their hands for plague and reward.

The Exodus from Egypt is the gauge
Of what You will do in the coming age
To take vengeance on Babylon in spe
Trucked out as Rome and Athens in their sway,
And trumpeted as London, Washington,
Paris, Berlin and Moscow on the run.
The nations rise up now for fear and cast
About them for a government to last,
But since they all are evil at the throat
And at the heart, they fail to save the boat.
Beloved, I reside in the craven nest
And see iniquity outdo the best,
And wait till You step in to intervene
In vengeance and at last to vent Your spleen.

16 “There shall be unrest among men,
Growing strong and stronger again,
They’ll in their might have no respect
For king or chief of the elect.
17 “For a man will desire to go
To town, and shall not find the row.
18 “For pride the cities shall be foiled,
And all the houses there be spoiled,
And people there afraid and roiled.
19 “A man shall have no pity on
His neighbours, but shall make at dawn
Assault on their rooms with a sword
And spoil the goods that they adored,
Because of hunger for the bread
And the great trouble around spread.
20 “Indeed,” says Ælohim, “I call
Together all the kings in thrall
Upon the earth for fear of Me,
From rising of the sun’s degree
And from the south, and from the east
And from the Lebanon increased,
To turn and repay what they’ve given.
21 “Just as they have done and have striven
Against My own until this day,
So I will do, and will repay
Into their bosom come the fray.”

There are more hungry people in the world
Today than at any time or age curled.
There are more neighbours coming in to steal
The silver and the plates to get a meal
Than ever in the history of time.
The Roman kingdom is a state of crime.
The strife that comes in every place today
Has common features in the iron and clay:
After the peace accord and dust is down
And settled and the folk come back to town,
The difference between the new and old
Is that the Sabbatarians in fold
That used to live there are out in the cold,
All dead before democracy’s fair crown.

So says YHWH Ælohim, 22 “My right
Hand will not spare sinners from plight,
And My sword will not cease from those
Who shed innocent blood on clothes.”
23 And fire will go forth from his wrath,
And will consume the earth in path
And sinners, like straw’s aftermath.
24 “Woe to those who sin and do not
Observe my commandments in plot,”
Says YHWH, 25 “And I will not spare them.
Depart, you faithless children’s hem!
Do not pollute my sanctuary.”
26 For YHWH knows all who are not wary
Of sinning against Him, so He
Will hand them to destruction’s fee.
27 For now calamities have come
Upon the whole earth, and in sum
You shall remain in them, for God
Will not save you upon the sod,
Because you’ve sinned against His rod.
28 Behold, a terrifying sight,
Appearing from the eastern light!

I should not spare them either, Lord,
Who lift against Your own the sword.
I should not spare, no, not at all,
But put them up against the wall
To give account for those who died
By sword and plague and food denied.
Destruction and pest and calamity
Are products sprouting not of evil fee
In heart and mind of youth and humankind,
But in the system and the grating bind
Of Babylon itself that makes the chart
That educated humans must take part
Unless by act of will and love they seek
Instead Your law, Beloved, Your cheek.

29 The nations of the dragons of
Arabia shall come above
With many chariots, and from
The day that they set out to come,
Their hissing shall spread over earth,
So that all who hear them in their birth
Shall trembling fear for all they’re worth.
30 Also Carmonians, in rage
Shall come like wild boars on the stage
Of woodlands and stampeding power
To meet them at the battle hour
In devastation of the land
In part of the Assyrian band
With ranging teeth above the sand.
31 And then the dragons, so mind where
They have come from, shall strengthen share,
And if they join in power and turn
In their pursuit, 32 then these shall burn
Scattered and silenced by their power,
And turn and flee before the shower.
33 And from land of Assyrians
An enemy in ambush spans
Them to destroy one in their plans,
And fear and trembling fall upon
Their hosts, and their kings wait at dawn.
34 Indeed, clouds from the east, and from
The north down to the south shall come,
With aspect threatening of wrath
And tempest raging on the path.
35 They’ll dash against each other and
Make outpour on the earth and sand
In their own raging, and there’ll be
Blood from the sword to the degree
Of horse’s belly, 36 and man’s thigh
And camel’s hock to measure by.

The wing of Babylon and Rome to take
Jerusalem by its surprise at stake
In six hundred and thirty-five is just
The armies of the Arab making dust.
Clouds form the east and from the south
And from the north opened their mouth
And swallowed up the city bought and fair
Despite the renewed Jewish attempt’s ware
And Christian ruler on the throne to dare.
Beloved, the rise of Araby in state,
With almost truth in every doctrine’s gate
Is very like the Roman creed to stand
And keep its wingèd shadow on the land.
The final claw in beauty scratches band.

37 And there shall be fear and a great
Trembling upon the earth and state,
And those who see that wrath shall be
Dumb with the horror that they see,
And seized with shuddering’s decree.
38 And after that, heavy storm clouds
Shall be stirred up from southern shrouds,
And from the north, and one more part
Up from the west above the mart.
39 And the winds from the east shall blow
Upon the cloud raised in wrath’s show,
And shall dispel it, and the storm
That was to cause destruction warm
By the east wind shall be thrown back
With violence toward the slack
South and the west. 40 And great and sure
Clouds, full of wrath and rage endure,
Shall rise destroying all the earth
And its inhabitants of worth,
And shall pour out on every high
And holy place a ghastly cry,
41 And fire and hail and flying sword
And floods of water, that the sward
Of field and every stream may be
Filled with those waters in degree.
42 And they shall destroy towns and walls,
And mountains and hills and the stalls,
The trees of forests, and the grass
Of meadows, and their grain to pass.

The Umayyad capture of all the world
Is described in the storm-cloud when unfurled
Upon the land and sea. The raging way
Of drunken rulers centuries held sway.
The whole world civilized was in the clutch
Of Umayyad. No one had heard of Dutch.
Beloved, the fire and hail and flying sword
Caught up the Persian and the Hindu lord,
Ran over the pearl of North Africa,
Starred in Andalusia with the awe
Of civilized enthronement of the great.
Then Europe was elsewhere in such a state
Of primitive abuse, of village life
Bucolic and sylvan and without strife.

43 And they shall go on constantly
To Babylon, and cut her plea.
44 They shall come and surround her, they
Shall pour out the tempest in fray
Upon her, then the dust and smoke
Shall rise into the sky a stoke,
And all who are about her too
Shall wail because of her own due.
45 And those who survive shall serve those
Who have destroyed her in their rows.
46 And you, Asia, who share in gloss
Of Babylon and in the toss
Of her form’s glory, 47 woe to you,
You beggared wretch! And as for you
You’ve made yourself like her, and you
Have decked your daughters out in crew
Of whoredom just to please and take
Glory in your lovers, whose stake
Has always been lusting for you.
48 You’ve followed the example set
By that hateful harlot you met
In all her deeds and all her ways,
And that is why Ælohim says,
49 “I will send evils upon you,
Widowhood, poverty, and due
Famine, the sword, and pestilence,
To flatten habitations hence
And bring you in destruction’s fence.

When Tamerlane came in with horde on horde
It was Baghdad that carried on and stored
The claims of Babylon by book and sword.
The holy Qur’an was endowed to gleam
Within the mosque held by ruler to seem,
But whose orgies surpassed Rome’s in the sheen
Of silk and sex and delicacy’s scent.
The widowhood and poverty that went
After the Mongol armies never gave
Way before Ottoman or Mameluk slave.
Beloved, in prophecy I see the dire
Rise and fall of every saintly empire,
While in their hidden closets those who keep
Your faith and law miss history and weep.

50 “The glory of your strength shall fade
Like passing bloom when heat is made.
51 “You shall be weakened like a wretch,
A woman beaten down to fetch,
So that you are no longer able
To welcome your lovers to table.
52 “Would I have treated you with wrath,”
Says YHWH, 53 “If you had chosen path
Not to kill my elect and folk,
Rejoicing and clapping a poke
And toasting their humiliation
And death with whiskey without ration?
55 “Put on your make-up and stand up
To take the retribution’s cup.
56 As you will treat My chosen folk,”
Says YHWH, “so Ælohim will stoke
You, and give you over to foes.

The fall of Babylon that once began
With Tamerlane goes on from man to man
And century and century to find
Itself an institution of the blind.
The call to come out of fair Babylon
Is not a new thing brought under the sun,
But is the gospel in its verity,
Enshrined in the very word ecclesy.
The calling out is not just from the state
Of heathendom, but from the very rate
Of minyan of ten. Jesus lowered beam
And described two or three, not in a dream
Did he promise to sanctify a church
Of greater numbers sitting on their perch.

57 “Your children shall die rows on rows
Of hunger, and you fall by sword,
And your towns wiped out and be gored
All your people out on the land.
58 “Those hiding in the mountains and
The highland shall perish at hand
Of hunger and eat their own flesh
For bread and their own blood poured fresh
They’ll drink for water in the mesh.
59 “Unhappy above all addictions,
You’ll come and suffer fresh afflictions.
60 As they pass they shall wreck the town
And city hated with a frown,
And shall destroy part of your land
And on your trampled glory stand,
As they return from devastation
Of Babylon the state and nation.
61 “And you yourself shall be by them
Like stubble, and they’ll be like hem
Of fire to you in consternation.
62 “And they’ll consume you and your towns,
Your land and mountains under frowns,
They’ll burn your forests with their fire
And all your fruitful trees in ire.
63 “They’ll carry your children away
As slaves, and spoil your treasured pay,
Extinguish from both face and tress
Every mark of your happiness.”

The children of fair Babylon are tossed
Against the wall to death to Psalmist’s cost,
In prophecy and in reality,
The children fair the worst in poverty
And in the battle spent. They come to die
Of hunger and disease so wealth may fly.
The children of fair Babylon are met
In every cattle-car that has been set
To take the refugee to camp and let
Her earn her way to death by smoke and bet.
Beloved, I weep for Babylon who bore
Her children in her iron arms for gore,
And sacrificed them on the golden plate
Of oil gods and of other heads of state.

2 ESDRAS 16

1 Woe, Babylon and Asia! Woe
To you, Egypt and Syria’s row!
2 Put on sackcloth and haircloth too
And sorrow for your children’s due,
Lament for their destruction too,
Which is at hand and almost due.
3 The sword has been sent upon you,
And who’s there to turn it from view?
4 A fire has been sent upon you,
And who is there to quench it’s spew?
5 Calamities have been sent on
You, and who can prevent their dawn?
6 Can one shoo off the hungry beast,
The forest lion from the feast,
Or come extinguish a grass fire
Once it is kindled up to ire?
7 Can one turn back an arrow flight
Shot by an archer with his might?

Beloved, destroy the Babylon in me,
Let it sink in the horrors of the sea
And fail from flight to languish fatally,
And fall into the pit eternally.
Beloved, let sackcloth cover Babylon
Within my heart, let haircloth be undone
Upon the brow forsaken in the run.
Let Babylon diminish under sun.
The prayer may go unheard, the prayer may be
Answered in timely fashion on the dun
Or bright, but sure as hearth and fire return
The sin of Babylon shall burn and burn,
The din of Babylon shall learn to yearn.

8 YHWH Ælohim sends plague and pest,
And who will turn them from their quest?
9 The fire will go forth from His wrath,
And who is there to stop its path?
10 He’ll flash His lightning on parade,
And who will not then be afraid?
He’ll thunder, who’s not terrified?
11 The Lord will threaten, who will bide
In His sight and not run to hide?
12 The earth and its foundations quake,
The sea is churned up from the wake,
Its waves and denizens shall fail
Before the sight of YHWH and wail
Before the glory of His sail.
13 For His right hand that bends the bow
Is mighty, and His arrows throw
Sharp points that will not miss when they
Begin to shadow the earth’s sway.
14 See, these catastrophes are sent
Out and shall not return unbent
Until they cover all the earth.
15 The fire is kindled in the berth,
Not to extinguish till it’s rent
The deep foundations of the earth.

How bright the fires that burn in Babylon,
In Babylon to break the line of dawn
Sunk in the Euphrates away from sight,
Among the water weeds into the night.
Remember, my Beloved, the promise fair,
Remember to destroy the world of care
Out of the light and sight of desert air
Where Babylon sinks down in its despair.
Shrive me upon the shining golden stair
To find Your throne alone in heart laid bare.
How bright the fires that lay my dross away,
Resounding on the quiet of the day.
Open my chambered doors, Beloved, and find
Where marbled walls glisten to You inclined.

16 Just as an arrow shot in strength
By archers turns not back at length,
So the calamities now sent
Upon the earth shall not repent.
17 Alas for me! And woe is me!
Who’ll save me from those days’ decree?
18 The start of sorrows, when there’ll be
Lamentation and famine’s spree,
When many shall perish, the start
Of wars, when the rulers in cart
Shall be horrified by their part,
The start of plagues and pest, when all
Shall tremble and in trembling fall.
What shall they do in these times then
When pestilence comes upon men?
19 Indeed, famine and plague, and spoil
And anguish are sent scourge and toil
For the correction of men’s coil.
20 Yet for all this they will not turn
From their iniquities to learn,
Nor mind the scourges that they spurn.
21 Provision there will be so cheap
On earth that men forget to weep,
Imagining peace is assured
For them, and then pestilence’ word
Shall spring up on the earth: the sword,
Famine, and great troubles’ reward.

Share with me, my Beloved, Your own last joy
Heaving out Babylon from the employ
Of heart and mind and hand into the great
Thunder and lightning flashing on its fate.
I praise You for the sinking of the sod,
No matter where the city falls on clod,
Sever the arteries and break the heart
That beats in Babylon just for a start.
Right is the glory that rises to see
Enclosed in its destruction by decree.
No hour of peace was known in Babylon,
Great was calamity of the town drawn
That made all nations drink the wine of wrath.
How glorious the fall, how bright the path!

22 For many living on the earth
Shall perish by famine and dearth,
And those who survive famine die
By the sword under burning sky.
23 And the dead shall be thrown out like
Manure upon the heaps to strike,
And none shall comfort them because
The earth shall be desert in claws,
Its cities shall be thrown down too
And all removed from blissful view.
24 No one shall be left to turn soil
Or sow the earth with humble toil.
25 The trees shall bear fruit out to win,
But who will gather it in bin?
26 The grapes shall ripen on the vine,
But who will tread them out in wine?
For in all places there shall be
But solitude for company,
27 One man will long to see another,
Or even hear the voice of brother.

Who thrust the sword into the belly of
The men and women who held You in love
Now burn in desolation for the fee
Of mocking at your law’s eternity.
Who trust the word of church and government
To deny living to divinely sent
Now fall into despair for others meant
Into despair born in iniquity.
Beloved I straighten hand toward the tree
And gather of the fruit that faithfully
Appears to comfort those who found delight
In Your law, though they had to live in night.
I leave the grapes to trample on the shore
Of Babylon laid bloody in its gore.

28 Out of a city, ten shall be,
Out of the field, two did not flee
But hid themselves in a thick grove
And in the rocky holes they dove.
29 As in an olive orchard three
Or four olives left on each tree,
30 Or as when a vineyard is done
After the gathering of sun,
Some clusters may be left by those
Who carefully search down the rows.
31 At that time three or four ones left
By the sword in their homes bereft
Will be like branch and field and close.
32 And the earth shall be desolate,
And its fields filled with briers’ hate,
And its roads and all paths with thorns,
And without sheep with heads of horns.

Say not that any shall be left to breathe
Of Babylon, let its caldron still seethe
And boil away iniquity and care
Before the clearing of the righteous air!
Leave only hanging gardens for the just,
Leave only Psalms in sweetness above dust.
Let every field be choked with briers till
The arctic bramble blossom on the hill
And wolves come out to taste the berries left
By every sort of sinner gone bereft.
When You, Beloved, have slain each sinner that
Lies in each human breast and then have sat
Down in the throne of every heart and tower,
Then I shall rise to joy with You an hour.

33 Virgins shall mourn because they find
No bridegrooms, women without kind
Because they have no husbands, and
Their daughters shall mourn with no aid,
Nothing to buy when they are paid.
34 Their bridegrooms shall be killed in war,
Their husbands fail for famine’s gore.
35 Hear now these things and understand,
O servants of YHWH in a band.
36 Behold the word of YHWH, take it,
Do not doubt what YHWH says a bit.
37 Indeed, calamities draw near,
And they are not delayed by fear.
38 Just as is a woman with child,
In the ninth month, when the time wild
Of her delivery draws near,
She has great pains about her gear
For two or three hours before birth,
And when the child comes out and stirreth
There will not be moment’s delay,
39 Calamities now on their way
Will not be stopped in coming out
Upon the earth, and the world stout
Will groan, and pains will seize it there
On every side and so beware.

Are any virgins left in Babylon?
I think not, all have gone the way of pawn
To work the evil deed pronounced by one
And call good though they’re evil under sun.
Men and mermaids create reality
In their own image when they dream in spree,
But when the truth breaks through the scenery,
Your face alone defines the hopeless done.
Beloved, I too groan with the parting sail,
I sigh to hear the telling of the tale,
But when I wake from tardema’s last thrall
I’ll find Your grace and glory at the wall.
Beloved, I too squeak at calamity,
I too weep at the pouring out of tea,
And snuffle in my dreams of unity.

40 “Hear my words, O my folk, prepare
For battle, and in all the troubles
Be like strangers on earthen rubbles.
41 “Let him that sells be like one who
Will flee, and let the buyer be
Like one who’ll lose, 42 “let his degree
That does business be like the one
Who will not make a profit done,
And let him that builds be like one
Who’ll not live in the house when done,
43 “Let him that sows be like one who
Will not reap, so also him who
Prunes the vines, like one who will not
Harvest the grapes grown in his plot,
44 “Them that marry, like those who’ll not
Bear children, and them that do not
Marry, like those widowed in lot.
45 “Because those who labour, they work
In vain, 46 “for strangers who now shirk
Shall gather their fruits, and make spoil
Of the goods and fruit of their toil,
And tear down their houses and take
Their children to be slaves in stake,
For in captivity and wake
Of famine they’ll beget and make.

I’ve been a stranger in my land of birth.
I’ve been a pilgrim in a land of worth.
The hopeless tingle of the foreign hand
Has been familiar to me where I stand.
I’ve been a loner in the crowd that swayed
Beneath the pulpit of purple parade
To find the blossom of the plum in shade
A comfort to the one who strayed and strayed.
Beloved, I am a stranger and I come
To plunder Babylon of every sum,
But there I find the barren hearts alone
And barren government and barren throne.
I cannot eat the gold nor drink the wine
Fermented beyond hope to meet the brine,
But I can joy upon the rubbled line.

47 “Those who conduct their business, do
It only to be spoiled when due,
The more they decorate their towns,
Their houses and possessions, gowns
And persons, 48 “the more angry I
Will be with them for their sins high,”
Says YHWH. 49 “Just as woman sitting
Respectable, in virtue pitting
Despises every whore, 50 “then so
Righteousness shall abhor the flow
Of wickedness, when she is dressed,
Accusing her when unconfessed,
When He comes who will defend him
Who searches out every sin grim
Upon the earth in light and dim.
51 “So don’t be like her or her ways.
52 “Indeed, a little while in maze,
And wickedness shall be removed
From earth, and righteousness approved
Will reign over us and for praise.
53 “Let no sinner say he’s not sinned,
For Ælohim will burn unbinned
The coals of fire on head of him
Who says, ‘I have not sinned though dim
Before Ælohim and His light.’”

Though I aspire to righteousness I think
The whores I’ve seen upon the street or brink
Of darkness are a cut above the dross
That claims its charity is not a loss.
The ladies in the church with jewelled hands
And decked out in both gold and silver bands
Are not as good by far as whores I’ve seen
Tempting the Paris Africans to screen.
The ladies of the night in all their masks
And postures at least show what the man asks,
While the religious whores before the rail
Of altar with their outside garments pale
Are black inside with crass hypocrisy,
Despising Your law with their pious scree.

54 Indeed, YHWH knows all the works bright
Of men, and their imaginations
And their thoughts and their hearts’ inflations.
55 He said “Let the earth come to be,”
And it was made, “Let the sky be,”
And it was made by His decree.
56 At His word too the stars were fixed,
He knows the stars’ number unmixed.
57 It is he who searches the deep
And its treasures, who has the heap
Of the sea measured and its reap,
58 Enclosed the sea where waters creep,
And by His word He’s hung the world
Over the waters where they swirled,
59 Who’s spread out heaven like an arch,
And founded it on waters’ march,
60 Who’s put in deserts water springs,
And pools on mountaintops and things
To send the rivers from the heights
To water earth, 61 and who formed man,
And put a heart in body’s span,
And gave him breath and life and thought
62 And spirit of Almighty God,
Who made all things upon the sod
And searches out the hidden things
In hidden place, and source and springs.

The word that can create when merely sung
Is the very word taken on my tongue
When I come to the cantillation’s store
To read the Law and Psalms upon my shore.
My shore is cut in granite and quartzite,
And pocked with ice and with savage delight,
And when I cry the word all things are bright
With hope and help before the coming night.
Beloved, the word creating light on sight,
And firmament on firmament is here
To resound on the waiting, humble ear.
Let it create in me a throne and stair,
A place of refuge on the shining air,
A slaughter ground of worship I can bear.

63 Surely He knows your secret thoughts
And what you think in inner plots!
So woe to those who sin and try
To hide their sins beneath the sky!
64 Because YHWH will surely find out
All their deeds, and make public shout
Of all of you. 65 And when your sins
Come out before men from their bins,
You shall be put to shame, and your
Own wickedness shall stand at door
As your accusers on that day.
66 What will you do? How to defray
Your sins before Ælohim and
His angels? 67 Indeed, on the stand
Ælohim is the judge, fear Him!
Stop sinning and don’t mind the dim
Iniquity, never commit
Such things again, and such unfit,
So Ælohim will lead you out
And save you from trouble and rout.
68 See flaming wrath of a great crowd
Is kindled over you in cloud,
And they shall carry some of you
Away and feed you things astray
As sacrificed in idols’ way.
69 And those who consent such to eat
Shall be mocked and stamped on by feet.

The message is so simple on the tongue
Of angel come to ring a bell once rung.
The message is simply to stop the race
Of sinning in transgression in this place.
The words are only ten, and more to keep
They are in promises than commands steep.
There’s hardly anything in them a man
Cannot carry out as though with a plan
By merely sitting on his own bed where
He wakens in the morning with a prayer.
Beloved, the flaming ire of every crowd
Is what keeps every soul from standing proud
And sinless before You. You only ask
That we stop sinning and go out and bask.

70 In many places round the land
There shall arise up band on band
Against those who fear YHWH and stand.
71 They shall be like mad men, to spare
No one, but plunder, spoil and dare
Destroying those who continue
To fear Ælohim and fear YHWH.
72 For they’ll destroy and plunder goods,
And drive them out of house to woods.
73 The fineness tried of My elect
Will then be shown to be select,
As gold is tried by fire, not wrecked.
74 “Hear, my elect,” says YHWH. “Indeed,
The days of tribulation speed,
And I’ll save you from them in need.
75 Do not fear or doubt, Ælohim
Will guide you through all things that seem.
76 You who keep My commandments and
Statutes” says YHWH Ælohim grand,
“Do not let your sins pull you down,
Or your iniquities in town
Conquer you and keep under frown.”
77 Woe to those who are choked by sin
And overwhelmed by wicked bin,
As a field may be choked by weeds,
And its path overwhelmed by seeds
Of thorns so that no one can pass!
78 It is closed off and given like grass
To be burned in a fire, alas!

Let me find my place among the elect,
Since I’ve been persecuted, though stiff-necked.
Why should I suffer for the light and brew
Of having kept and taught Your law in view,
If I am not to count among the few
Who rise to stand in glory and select?
Beloved, I see the pathway straight and strong
And chosen simply because in the wrong
There is such crowd that none can hear my song.
I choose the solitary way and find
A sweeter road to travel than the blind.
Though I see none around me in the way
To imitate and help my mind to sway,
At least prophetic footprints lead the day.

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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