JUDITH CHAPTER 1 - 8

JUDITH

Much has been made of the a-historicity of the book of Judith, which is conceived as fiction by many. Others see remnants and reflections of historical situations outside those of “the twelfth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign over the Assyrians in Nineveh.” History of course knows of no such convergence of time, place and character, although the book logically follows on the fall of Nineveh mentioned in the preceding Tobit.

What is especially of value, besides the exciting plot, is the affirmation of divine law. For this reason, as well as the fact that the book has historically appealed to canonicity, it deserves its place here.

But as a contemplation of how to meet hostile imperialism, the book of Judith is unsurpassed. The deceitful seduction of the general and the traitorous action of Judith is hardly original and hardly difficult to invent. But in the catalogue of anarchical systems that post-exilic literature represents, there is simply no way it could be excluded. The brave woman who keeps her chastety while cunningly coming to deceive and murder the general contrasts with the degradation of the following story, where Esther gives up her chastety for the opportunity of court intrigue. That too is one of the ways that faith, burning ever so dimly, may meet imperial despotism.

JUDITH 1

1 When Nebuchadnezzar had reigned
Twelve years over Assyrian
In the great city Nineveh
In days of Arphaxad’s bold sway
Over the Medes, woman and man,
In Ecbatane undisdained,
2 He is the king who built the wall
About Ecbatane, with tall
Hewn stones three cubits thick and six
Cubits long, he made, without tricks,
The walls seventy cubits high
And fifty cubits wide foreby,
3 At the gates he built towers to
A hundred cubits high in view
And sixty cubits wide at base,
4 And he made the gates of the place,
Which measured seventy cubits high
And forty cubits wide and dry,
So that his armies could march out
In force and form their ranks about,
5 It was in those days that the King
Nebuchadnezzar found a thing
To make war against Arphaxad
King in the great plain which was had
Upon the borders of Ragae.
6 He was joined by all who held sway
In the hill country and all those
Who lived along Euphrates’ close
And Tigris and the Hydaspes
And in the plain where it may please
That Arioch ruled the Elymaeans.
Many nations joined the Chaldeans.

Despite the fact the names and figures show
A different view of history on the go,
And what ways people then referred to kings,
The book of Judith’s filled with many things
Of use and righteousness, with golden wings
Of faith and fantasy, of prayers and springs
Inspiring heart and mind always to share
The hope of surviving oppression where
It creeps out in all nations in the glare
Of fast fuel. My Beloved, I read the words
And rally to the charms of lady birds
Out to save independent folk from those
Who globalize the world with words they chose
To back benignly arms and terms of woes.

7 Then Nebuchadnezzar king of
Assyrians sent to all to shove
Who lived in Persia and to all
Who lived in the west to recall,
Those who lived in Cilicia and
Damascus and Lebanon and
Antilebanon and all who
Lived on the seacoast, 8 and those who
Lived with the nations of Carmel
And Gilead, and in the swell
Of Galilee and the great plain
Of Esdraelon, 9 and all the train
Around Samaria and towns,
And beyond the Jordan, the downs
As far’s Jerusalem and sand
Of Bethany and Chelous and
Kadesh and river of Egypt,
And Tahpanhes and Raamses clipped
And the whole land of Goshen slipped,
10 Even to Tanis and Memphis,
And all who lived in Egypt’s bliss
Down to Cush where its borders miss.
11 But all who lived in all the land
Ignored the orders and command
Of Nebuchadnezzar the king
Of the Assyrians to string
Along with him in the war, for
They were not afraid of him more,
Considering him only one man,
And they sent back his men by plan
With nothing gained but shame to fan.

The way men treat each other’s always by
Perception of the power to wield the sky.
One man alone’s disdained by dun and all
Who willingly submit to altar call
And to the yoke of one committee set
With troves enough of plunder they could get.
The mistake was evaluating what
Power Nebuchadnezzar had in his gut
As well as in the chance to command men
To move in his own interests from his den.
Beloved, I do not calculate Your power,
I do not trust in rise and fall an hour,
But set aside both bait and small and trust
In You alone, although I bite the dust.

12 Then Nebuchadnezzar was wroth
With this whole land and swore by troth
Of his throne and kingdom that he
Would have revenge on the country
Of Cilicia and Damascus
And Syria, that he would fuss
And kill them by the sword, and all
The dwellers of Moab in stall,
And Ammon’s folk, Judea too,
And everyone in Egypt’s crew,
As far as the shore of two seas.
13 In the seventeenth year to please
He brought his armies to attack
King Arphaxad, and beat him back
In battle, and conquered the whole
Army of Arphaxad, and stole
His cavalry and chariots all.
14 So he took his cities in thrall,
And came to Ecbatane too,
Captured its towers, plundered its few
Markets, turned its beauty to shame.
15 He captured Arphaxad of fame
In the mountains of Ragae and
Killed him with hunting spears, and fanned
Him to destruction to this day.
16 Then he went back with all his prey
To Nineveh, he and all his
Armies together, what a whiz
Of soldiers, and they rested there
To celebrate twenty days’ fare.

No wonder Nineveh’s a name to take
Unwary by its brazen, wicked stake.
Jonah the prophet ranted for its sake
And tried to get You to break oath and make
Repentance a thing not replete to save
The wicked from a deep, untimely grave.
The critic of the names of cities sits
Congratulating himself for his wits,
But does he rise to Nineveh’s grand style
In the repentance of a little while?
Your mercy now’s the product of Your plan
And not the function of repentant man.
Beloved, though repentance seems not to give
A benefit here, I repentant live.

JUDITH 2

1 In the eighteenth year, on the day
Twenty-two of the first month’s sway,
They took counsel in the king’s house,
Of Nebuchadnezzar the grouse
Of the Assyrians about
His vengeance on the lands throughout,
Just as he said in rant and shout.

There’s not a ruler set in times past nor
In latter days on any clime or shore
But thinks about his vengeance on the crew
That questions anything he thinks to do.
Sooner or late the police rise to help
The president’s and prime minister’s whelp.
It’s in the bone of rulership to take
Bare vengeance for the living being’s sake.
Beloved, I see the benign case around
The table where applauses may resound
For lip-service to justice on the ground,
But know that neither justice nor the thought
Of mercy’s anything such folk are taught
While filling purses from the common pot.

2 He called together all his chiefs
And all his nobles in reliefs
Revealing them his secret plan
Spoken in full by his own lips,
All the evil of the land’s span,
3 And they decided for their slips
All the rebellious be destroyed.
4 When he’d finished what he’d employed
To show the plan Nebuchadnezzer
King of the Assyrians, geezer
Called Holofernes, army chief
Second only to his own brief,
And said to him for his relief,
5 “So says the great king and the lord
Of the whole world: when you’ve out doored,
Take strong men with you to the number
Of one hundred twenty thousand
Infantrymen and not to slumber
Twelve thousand more of cavalry.
6 “Go and attack the whole country
To the west, since they’ve disobeyed
My orders. 7 “Tell them on parade
To get ready earth, water stayed,
Because I attack in my wrath
And shall cover the whole earth’s path
With the tread of my armies’ bath,
And shall give them to plunder by
My troops as they will thunder by,
8 “Until their wounded shall entrench
Filling their valleys with the stench,
And every stream and river be
Overflowed with the dead like sea,
9 “And I shall take them captive where
The ends of the world are laid bare.

Some think Napoleon invented room
For armies stretching on and on to doom,
But in the past there’ve been those who could find
A place for hundred thousands in a bind
To march on villages and cities too
And bury them with all their living crew.
Some think disaster man-made is a thing
Of one era alone in human spring.
And yet there have been places on the earth
Where peace has been given a chance and birth,
And arms were there as a forgotten art,
When warfare no longer had any part.
Beloved, you give society a choice,
And individual cause to rejoice.

10 “You’ll go and take away their lands
For me before their feet and hands.
They will surrender at your view
And you’ll keep them for me to screw
Till reckoning day shall incrue.
11 “If they refuse, you shall not spare,
But hand them over to the bare
Slaughter and ravage all their share.

Land is the thing that rulers always seek,
Although at times some rulers take a peek
At what it might cost to restore the city,
And refrain then from taking any pity.
So Finland did not take back when she might
Carelia from the Russian lads in sight,
For fear a penny might be spent in vain
Upon Viborg to someone’s wealth and pain.
But mostly rulers try to take the land,
And offer for resistance plunders’ hand,
And slaughter and the ravage of the coast
That does not kneel before the strong man’s boast,
Or even the weak man who holds the gun
Up to the head of everywhere and one.

12 “For as I live, and by the hand
Of the kingdom under command,
That I have promised so my hand
Will carry out on all the land.
13 “But you, take care not to transgress
Any of your sovereign’s address,
But surely fulfil each command
As I have ordered statute and
Do not delay and do not stand.”

Just wait and see if the king’s captain tells
The conquered ones the orders and the spells
The king boasts on the people at each shore.
Just wait and see what words he has in store
To cover with a pretence of a heart
Of mercy and justice instead of dart.
Who take by force both lands and wealth refrain
From evil words and wicked sounds for gain.
They have no need to rant to wield the sword,
And sweet words grace the lips of those who poured
The pestilence upon the widow’s head
And met the orphan with a whip outspread.
Beloved, just wait and hear Holophernes
Speak honey and great promises to please.

14 So Holofernes went out from
The face of his master not dumb
But summoned all the chiefs and all
The generals’ and leaders’ pall
Of the Assyrian army’s thrall,
15 And chose the best troops by their lot
As his king commanded and taught
Him to do, one hundred and twenty
Thousand footmen and with them plenty
Of cavalry, archers that rode,
Twelve thousand strong in such a mode,
16 And he arranged them as a large
Army to go out, fight, and charge.

The best of men are chosen by the lot
Who make war on the greenest pleasure plot
And take away the wealth that others tried
With hand and labour to preserve aside.
The best of men are needed by the task
Of killing to make room for those who bask,
The best of men, the best leave poetry,
And song and dance, and love for infantry,
And withering of heart and eye to find
“The captains and the kings” they presumed kind
Had hearts of dust, and haunts filled with the dark,
Had eyes for underfoot instead of lark.
Beloved, give me back all the best of men,
The ones with hearth and plough and ink and pen.

17 He gathered a great number more
Of camels, donkeys on the shore,
And mules for transport, lots of sheep,
Oxen and goats for board and keep,
18 And food aplenty for each man,
And lots of gold and silver van
From the king’s palace to outspan.

How much in cattle lives is spent to go
Out to meet either friend or newly foe!
The sheep and cattle, gold and silver flow
In dark parade until the battle show,
And then they disappear in throat thrown wide
To catch the wealth of widow and the hide
Of orphan caught beneath the glowing gun,
Beneath the grating track of things that stun.
Beloved, I see all gathered at the gate
To serve with muscle, sinew and the rate
Of skin and wool and flesh, until the eye
Is glazed and there is nothing left to die.
The gold and silver stand within the vault,
Collected and in silence from assault.

19 So he set out with his whole band,
Led King Nebuchadnezzar and
To cover the whole surface of
The world to westward like a glove
With chariots, horsemen, chosen troops
Of infantrymen in their groups.
20 Along with them a mixed crowd went
Like a swarm of locusts unspent,
Like the dust of the earth, a crowd
Not to be counted, though allowed.

When armies march and tanks move in formation,
The buzzards always arrive for their ration.
The hangers on out there to make a buck
Rush in with every con game in their truck.
I knew one in the north who thought the time
The US attacked Iraq for the crime
Of Mr S was just the chance he needed
To buy a lorry and filled unimpeded
With junk, to go to Iraq and sell all
At an inflated price upon the wall.
He’d lost his brothers to the vapid knife,
And yet he knew no sacredness of life.
Nobility’s not born in suffering here,
But by the taking of Your word in ear.

21 They marched for three days from the town
Of Nineveh to the plain down
By Bectileth, and camped across
From Bectileth near mountain toss
That’s to the north of higher land
Of Cilicia, all in the band.
22 From there Holofernes took his
Whole army, his infantry, his
Cavalry, and chariots to whiz,
And went up to the hill country
23 And ravaged Put and Lud, and see
He plundered all the folk that be
In Rassis and the Ishmaelites
Who lived along the desert plights,
South of Chelleans’ land in sights.
24 He followed then the Euphrates
And passed Mesopotamian breeze
Destroying all hilltop cities
Along the brook Abron, as far
As the sea. 25 He with scimitar
Also grabbed the Cilician land,
Killed each and all resisting hand,
And entered in the southern way
Of Japheth towards Arabia.

It’s no new thing the powers that be go out
To put the Arab Ishmaelite to rout,
Though famous for the horse and battle cry,
More often it’s the Arab left to die.
The desert makes a harsh life and a law
Of loyalty and honour at the claw,
And whips the breath to strength, and yet the man
Is too good with his honour in the span
Of what the urban ruler thinks is right
In slinking to attack in dead of night.
Beloved, the hopeful villagers, though poor,
Are places where in ignorance Your sure
Word echoes still on ear and woollen tent.
I hear it sound and fail at last when spent.

26 He surrounded all Midianites,
And burned their tents and plundered sites
Where they kept their sheep for the nights.
27 Then he went down into the plain
Of Damascus during the reign
Of wheat harvest, and burned all their
Fields and made their flocks and herds bare
And sacked their cities, ravaged lands
And put to death all their young hands
With the mouth of the sword in bands.
28 So fear and terror of him fell
Upon all the people who dwell
Along the seacoast, at Sidon
And Tyre, and those who lived upon
Sur and Ocina and all who
Lived in Jamnia, and those who
Lived in Azotus, Ascalon
Were frightened of his shadow drawn.

O brave war lords! How often is their hand
Turned not in sparring with the bright command
Of warrior lapping up the praise and power
Of loyalty and honour on the hour?
No, no, it’s more the brigandry to burn
A field of hay, of corn, of wheat, to spurn
The children’s cries, the tortured women’s wail,
These are the deeds heroic without tale.
The sheepfold glutted once and set on fire
In the retelling’s a great castle higher
Than pyramid, and fortified in state.
The tale is turned in telling by the great.
Someone, Beloved, just let out in a word
It was the sheep, not soldiers, who were stirred.

JUDITH 3

1 So they sent messengers to pray
For peace, and said, 2 “Indeed, we may
Be slaves of Nebuchadnezzar,
The great king, see now, here we are
Lying prostrate before your car.
Do with us whatever you wish.
3 Our buildings, every field and dish,
All our grain fields, our flocks and herds,
Our sheep pens and our tents here lie
In front of you, do as you try.
4 Our towns too and inhabitants
Are your slaves, come, look not askance,
But deal with them as best makes sense.”

The words of conquered men are always thus,
After the conqueror has made his fuss.
They give up field and flock with house and bin
And only sue for life and breath to sin.
The conquered are those who still plough the fields
And turn the wheels of factories for their yields,
And thank the murderer for chance to get
A penny and a loaf to place a bet.
Beloved, I turn in scorn to see who shakes
The polity and investments and makes
The speeches about how things are still tight
Since workers no longer work day and night.
The final breach comes like the lightning found
Out of the summer sky cloudless and sound.

5 The men came to Holofernes
And told him all these things to please.
6 Then he went down to the seacoast
With his army, stationed the host
In forts in the mountaintop towns,
Took chosen men for their renowns.
7 And these folks and all the land round
Welcomed him with fronds, dancing, sound
Of tambourines. 8 And he tore down
All their temples, cut with a frown
Their sacred groves, since he received
Power to destroy what they believed
As gods of the land, so that all
Nations should worship in one stall
Nebuchadnezzar only, and
All their tongues and kin, and each land
Should call on him as god at hand.
9 Then he came to the border of
Esdraelon, near Dothan, above
The large ridge of Judea, 10 there
He camped between Geba to share
With Scythopolis, and stayed there
A full month to replenish stores
For his army to count their scores.

The story gives unlikely plot when it
Pretends the heathen fail to have a fit
That temple and grove are cut down to make
Way for monotheistic in faith’s wake.
The worshippers of one God only stand
Against the monotheistical band.
I somehow doubt the story as it goes,
But be that as it may, I think the foes
Are hardly different from the ones today
Who legislate the faith and the right way.
It’s not that I think faith is democratic
Or personal or anything aquatic.
The faith I find is sent for one and all
And imposed by the love of one in stall.

JUDITH 4

1 Now Israel’s folk who lived and dwelt
In Judea heard hearts to melt
Of all that Holofernes did,
That general and slimy squid
Nebuchadnezzar who was king
Of the Assyrians on wing
Sent to do to the nations there,
And how he plundered and destroyed
All their temples, 2 they were employed
In great fear at his coming near,
Alarmed both for city for fear
For the temple of YHWH their God.

They were right to fear for the house of God
And time has shown them right beyond the prod
Of fear alone. The house has since been felled
By Hellene and by Roman who compelled
The worship to relate to humanism
Rather than create such a Jewish schism,
Or to relate to Caesar on the wall
For fear some false messiah once grown tall
Might cause rebellion against lord and state
Ensconced in Italy for the world’s fate.
I’ve been upon the spot, and even prayed
Where the temple of holiness once stayed,
And say that danger still makes fear arise
On marbled earth beneath repentant skies.

3 For they’d just returned to the sod
From their captivity, and all
The people of Judea’s stall
Had just come together and brought
The sacred vessels and had got
The altar and the temple lot
Consecrated from their despoiling.
4 So they sent to every place roiling
Samaria, Kona, Beth-horon,
And Belmain, Jericho and more on
To Choba and Aesora and
The valley of Salem, 5 and manned
Immediately all the high hills
And fortified the towns and rills
And stored up provisions for war,
Since their field had been cut before.
6 And Joakim, the high priest, who
Was in Jerusalem in view
Then wrote to the folk of Bethulia
And Teomesthaim not to fool you
Which stands against Esdraelon on
The plain not far from town Dothan,
7 Commanding them to seize the pass
Up into the hills and in mass
Since that’s the way Judea could
Be entered by both friend and hood,
And it was easy there to block
The way of those who walked the rock
To come near since the way was narrow
Room enough only for an arrow
And two men at most to go through.

Take note, men of Jerusalem today
That the pass is still prevalent to sway.
The foresight necessary to subsist
In Palestine is meal enough for grist.
Command to seize the pass, the word goes out
And ought to often more times without doubt
Since the world still looks to the reigning king
Of wealth and market rather than the thing
That’s right or good or true or even pretty.
The world looks to the ghastly, frozen city,
The frozen heart, the play-act of good sense
And love for all mankind in heathen tents.
Beloved, I turn to You, I have no pass
To guard me from the foes on my morass.

8 The Israelites then did so too
As Joakim the high priest as well
As the assembled Israel
Met in Jerusalem to tell.
9 And every man of Israel
Cried out to Ælohim with great
Fervour, and they humbled each mate
With fasting before empty plate.
10 They and their wives and their sons too,
Children and cattle and the crew
Of strangers and hired workers too
And boughten slave, they all prepared
Themselves with sackcloth, since they cared.

I’ve prayed and fasted, largely no avail,
And always thought the fault was I was pale.
Perhaps the reason my prayers never seem
To make a crack in the gross armour’s beam
Is simply that I have not found sackcloth
Enough to attract any evening moth.
I’ve prayed and fasted, who’s to say if that
Has had any effect on thin or fat.
It may be that my humble dervish prayer
Has saved the world, if even by a hair.
It’s not for me to mark the progress made
By heaven on the earthen shore and glade.
It’s mine to whirl and in my whirling give
The channel whereby good and just may live.

11 And all the men and women of
Israel, and their children for love,
Living there in Jerusalem,
Prostrated before temple hem
And put ashes upon their head
And taking their sackcloth they spread
It out before YHWH each one led.
12 They even put around the altar
Such sackcloth and cried not to falter
Together praying earnestly
To Ælohim of Israel’s fee
Not to deliver up as prey
Their wives and children on that day
Nor let be destroyed the towns they
Inherited, nor let sustained
The holy place be once profaned
And desecrated by the joy
Malicious Gentiles might employ.

I’ve seen the cloth wrapped round the chair and altar
At Muharrem and other times in halter
Of sorrow, but the cloth was cotton black
Rather than sackcloth wrapped around a snack.
The Ashurah of some drink brought out with
The twelve ingredients of hope and myth
Leaves no room for the sackcloth though the smell
Of walnut and of raison cast their spell.
Beloved, if sackcloth’s what You want, then tell,
And I’ll be brave and quick to cut the load
And wrap not only feet but hand and node
With every rough and scratchy theme that vies
To catch Your countenance as well as eyes.
Beloved, who knows how far this ocean lies?

13 So YHWH heard their prayers and looked on
Their affliction, for the folk drawn
To fast there fasted many days
Throughout Judea and the ways
Before the holy place of YHWH
Almighty in Jerusalem.
14 And Joakim the high priest due
And all the priests who stood by hem
Of YHWH and served YHWH, with their waist
Tied with sackcloth, offered to baste
Continued burnt offerings and vows
And freewill offerings the folk rouse.
15 With ashes on their turbans, they
Cried out to YHWH with all their sway
To look with favour upon all
The house of Israel in their thrall.

I have no turban, my Beloved, upon
Which I might scatter ashes in the dawn.
I saw the turban wound when as a child
I visited my granddad’s house untiled.
But I was young and failed to learn the turn
Of how to put a turban on the burn.
But perhaps only priest and ruler must
Sprinkle the turban with ashes and dust.
It may be that a dervish dog can pray
By chasing tail around in canine way
And You will hear and shrive the eager soul
That lifts a head to bay from the scrap bowl.
If so, I howl and let You do Your own
Actions of intervention from Your throne.

JUDITH 5

1 When Holofernes, general
Of the Assyrian army stall,
Heard that the folk of Israel
Prepared for war and prepared well
And closed the passes in the hills
And fortified all the high rills
And set up roadblocks on the plains,
2 He was enraged for all their pains.
He called together every princed
Of Moab and the chiefs convinced
Of Ammon, all the overseers
Of regions round among their peers,
3 And asked them, “Tell me, Canaanites,
What folk’s this that lives on the heights?
What cities do they inhabit?
How large is their army and fit,
And in what does their power or strength
Lie? Who rules over them as king,
Leading their army? 4 And at length
Why have they done this wicked thing
Alone, of all there in the west,
Refused to meet me as the best?”

Quiet resistance in the hills may draw
Attention from the evil men of law
Usurping Your place on the earth to draw
Wealth to themselves and to the ones who sit
In power in Washington, New York or fit
In palace of some third world country where
An elite represents democracy,
The interests of big business of the free.
Almost unheard of to be found in West
That any oppose those who will invest.
Beloved, I take my place upon the hill
And look out on the city fit to bill
And figure I am safe from chief and bank
And yet You only have I here to thank.

5 Then Achior, the chief of all
The Ammonites, answered his call,
“Let my lord now hear from the mouth
Of your servant a word for drouth,
And I shall tell you but the truth
About this people without ruth
Who live upon the mountaintops.
Your servant will not in the flops
Speak falsely to you or the cops.
6 “This folk’s descended from Chaldeans.
7 “At one time and before their fleeings
They lived in Mesopotamia,
Because they would not follow awe
Of the gods of their fathers who
Were in their homeland Chaldea.
8 “For they had left the ways of their
Ancestors, and they worshiped fair
The God of heaven, the God they’d come
To know, so that’s why they in sum
Drove them out from their gods’ presence,
To flee to Mesopotamia,
And lived there long and in good sense.
9 “Their God then commanded them to
Leave the place where they were in crew
And go into the land of Canaan.
There they settled, prospered unwaning,
With lots of gold and silver and
Very much cattle on the land.
10 “When famine hit Canaan they went
Down to Egypt and lived there spent
As long as they had enough food,
And there became a multitude
Beyond the counting of the rude.
11 “So Egypt’s king did not like them,
But enslaved them and set them to
Making bricks, and humbled them too
And kept them for a working crew.
12 “Then they cried out to their God, and
He persecuted the whole land
Of Egypt with amazing plagues,
So the Egyptians to the dregs
Drove them out of their sight and view.

An Ammonitic view of Israel’s story
Is not far from the true in all it’s glory.
So far he does not mention that his own
Folk are descended from those he is prone
To criticize in implication’s drone
That they forsook the gods they once had known.
That raises up the question, should a man
Leave his ancestors’ ways and follow plan
Of other folk? Or should a codger scan
The sky for truth and take it where he can?
Truth is if one look back along the line
Of his descent beneath both palm and pine
He’s sure to find an honest one among
The lot to teach him truth of heart and tongue.

13 “Then Ælohim dried up the dew
Of the Red Sea before them, 14 “and
He led them by Sinai’s hot strand
And Kadesh-barnea, and drove
Out all the desert folk that throve.
15 So they lived in Amorites’ land,
And destroyed by their mighty hand
All the inhabitants that stood
In Heshbon, and crossing for good
Over the Jordan they took hold
Of all the hill country and cold.
16 And they drove out the Canaanites
Before them and the Perizzites
And Jebusites and Shechemites
And all the Gergesites, and stayed
There a long time where they had strayed.
17 And as long as they did not sin
Against their Ælohim in bin
They prospered, for Ælohim who
Hates iniquity’s with their crew.

The Ammonite that spoke to the king’s chief
Spoke truth and spoke it to the world’s relief.
The Bible focuses on Israel
And on her fate before the great and fell,
But not all follow in the trailing wake
Of Israel, who sometimes comes to take
The right and true and sometimes comes to bow
Before the idol of a graven how.
Some are like Ammon, where through all the years
They follow You, Beloved, in joys and tears,
In witness that Allah is one and all
Should worship only Him and at His call,
In witness that You stand to reign above
All things in sovereignty as well as love.

18 “But when they left the way that He
Had appointed for their journey,
They were completely routed in
Many battles and led away
As captives to a foreign prey,
The temple of their God pulled down
To the ground, and village and town
Captured by enemies with frown.
19 “But now they have returned to their
Ælohim, and have come to share
From the places to which they were
Scattered, to occupy the hem
Of their dear old Jerusalem,
Where their sanctuary is set,
And have settled the uplands yet,
Because it was a desert place.
20 “Now therefore, master of my face,
If there is any sin unknown
To this folk against their God shown
And we find out of their offence,
Then we shall go up and commence
To defeat them in house and tents.
21 “But if there’s no transgression there
In their nation, then let my fair
Lord pass them by, for their Lord will
Defend them, and Ælohim will
Protect them, and we’ll be in shame
Before the whole world of acclaim.”

The man Achior has the faith to see
That faithfulness to You’s an armoury
Not to be penetrated by the loss
Nor broken down by pride of earthly boss.
Even before the chiefs of armies sent
Out to destroy the Middle East there went
Men in witness that You, Beloved, are true,
That You are one obeyed by every crew
That takes the right and just always in view.
Beloved, I stand by Achior to bear
Witness with and against the great and fair
That Your command is what there is in air
To lead all men into their rightful share.
Bless me and him, Beloved, with hope and care.

22 When Achior finished saying this,
All the men standing not to miss
Around the tent began to hiss,
Holofernes’ officers and
All the men from the seacoast strand
And from Moab wanted to put
The man to death, both head and foot.
23 “For,” they said, “we’ll not be afraid
Of Israelites, though on parade,
They are a people of no strength
Or will for making war at length.
24 “Therefore let us go up, O lord
Holofernes, and with the sword
Consume them all with your vast horde.”

Who witness to You and Your faithful Word,
Beloved, may never leave princes unstirred,
But also risk their lives when they are heard.
So bless Ammon then and today and still
In every day when he comes to fulfil
His witness of You and Your sovereignty,
Beloved, God of now and eternity.
Guard, guard, Beloved, the witness of Your throne
Before the powers that turn to rise and own
The world by grasping and by grading store.
Open to Your witness the closing door
And bring him in Your safety and Your room
While those who hear his call rush on to doom
To disappear within the biding gloom.

JUDITH 6

1 When the riot made by the men
Outside the council was quelled then
Holofernes the army chief
Of the Assyrians, said in brief
To Achior and all the wights
Of the folk of the Moabites
Before the representatives
Of all the foreigners, he gives:
2 “And who are you, Achior, and you
Paid supporters of Ephraim’s crew,
To make predictions among us
As you’ve done today for a fuss
To tell us not to go in battle
Against Israel’s people like cattle
Because their God will help them well?
Who is god exalted but swell
Nebuchanezzar keen and snell?

Gods many there be now as then to see
The battles fought and won or then to be
Epitome of fine catastrophe.
When things go well the winner always thinks
That God is on his side, while loser slinks
Away humbled with such divine disgrace.
Beloved, the thing’s a shame before Your face.
Truth is that all men stand before Your throne,
Whether they know or not You’re God alone,
While war tears earth as long as men prevail
To think that every tribe’s god hard and hale
Commands contingent out against the other,
As though all men had not come from one mother.
With one God only all warfare would fail.

3 “He’ll send his hosts and destroy them
From off the face of the earth’s hem,
And their Ælohim will not save
Them, but we’ll send them to their grave
As one man, we the king’s servants.
They cannot bear the swift advance
Of our horsemen, without a chance.
4 “We’ll burn them up and their hills shall
Be drunk with their blood prodigal,
And their fields filled up with their dead.
They cannot withstand us, instead
They’ll fail completely from the bed.
So says King Nebuchadnezzar,
The lord of the whole world and star.
Since he has spoken, what he speaks
Will not fall vainly on their cheeks.
5 “But you, Achior, you Ammonite
Paid servant, who have said in spite
These words on the day of your ill,
You will not see my face or gill
Again from this time and until
I take vengeance on this folk come
Out of Egypt and full of rum.
6 “Then my army’s sword and the spear
Of my servants will pierce you clear,
And you shall fall among the stricken,
When I return to see plot thicken.
7 “Now my servant will take you back
Into the hills and set you slack
In one of the cities beside
The mountain passes where they hide,
8 “And you will not die till the day
You perish with them in their way.
9 “If you think truly in your heart
That they will not fall for their part,
Then don’t look sad! I’ve said my piece,
And none of my words fail or cease.”

The error of Achior was trying to
Save the army of the established view
By giving sound advice. Few men have learned
That giving sound advice when it’s not earned
Or asked for is the straightest way to hell.
Experience calls, let it ring its bell.
I take myself a smarter lad when I
Refrain from telling kings the what and why.
Let every sovereign make his own mistakes
And rub horse liniment on all his aches.
Beloved, I see that even You know better
Than to speak to the human and go-getter.
You learned on Sinai that no heart seeks what
You have to say in public, only shut.

10 So commanded Holofernes
His servants who waited at ease
On him in his tent then to seize
Achior and take him out to
Bethulia and hand to the crew
Of Israel. 11 So the slaves took
Him and led him out of the nook
Into the plain and from the plain
Then went up in the mountain chain
And arrived at the springs below
The town of Bethulia to show.
12 When the townsmen saw them, they took
Their weapons from town to the look-
Out on the hill, and all the slingers
Kept them from coming up as stringers
By throwing stones at them to brook.
13 But when they came to shelter in
The hillside, they tied Achior shin
And arm and left him lying there
At the foot of the hillside bare,
And went back to their master’s share.

Amazement for the lot of Achior
Confines me to my own plot and my store.
I should have thought that they would smite the bloke
And kill him at the tentdoor at a stroke.
Instead they tie him hand and foot and set
Him at the side of enemy well met.
No doubt they thought a day or two would show
Them in their power again for heel and woe,
And one day of reprieve would only slow
The enemy by taking water and
More food for his refuge upon the land.
Beloved, the wranglings of Your crews of men
Amuse me more than anything again
I see in nature’s grasp and greed and fen.

14 Then the men of Israel came down
From their city and found him brown
And they untied him and brought back
Into Bethulia to the rack
Before the rulers of the town,
15 Who at the time were Uzziah
The son and pride of one Micah
Of the tribe of Simeon, and
Chabris Gothoniel’s son and hand,
And Charmis son of Melchiel.
16 They summoned all the old and fell
Men of the city and as well
All their young men and women too
Ran to the assembly in crew
And they set Achior to stand there
In midst of all the people fair,
And Uzziah had him relate
What had happened to him in fate.
17 He answered in reply and told
Them what happened in council bold
With Holofernes, and all he
Had said before the assembly
Of the Assyrian leaders and
Everything that came from the hand
Of Holofernes in his boast
Against the house of Israel’s host.
18 And the folk fell prostrate and prayed
To Ælohim in worship stayed
And cried aloud to Him and said
19 “O YHWH Ælohim of the skies,
See now their pride and realize
Pity on the abasement of
Our people and look now in love
This day upon the faces of
Those who are set apart for You.”
20 And they comforted Achior too
And praised him greatly as his due.
21 And Uzziah took him away
From the assembly and to stay
At his own house and gave a feast
For the elders, all night at least
They call on Israel’s Ælohim
For help before the things that seem.

Along the ways that I have trod in glory
Coming in and out of each folly’s story,
Has anything like Achior’s comfort come
Into my heart to warm and burn like rum?
Only the one who’s travelled place to place
Remembers hospitality in race
Secure but foreign to one’s childhood farm,
Comforted for the fear of any harm.
Only the one who’s given a false alarm
Meant for the saving of ungrateful men
Forgets to raise a tear for home again
Out where the common rangers bet their due.
Remember me, Beloved, and comfort me
That I have spoken of You so freely.

JUDITH 7

1 The next day Holofernes had
His whole army and allies bad
Joined with him set out to attack
Bethulia and to seize the track
Into the mountain lands and wage
War on the Israelites a stage.
2 So all their soldiers struck their tents
That day and their entire presence
Was one hundred and seventy
Thousand of men in infantry
And twelve thousand in cavalry,
Together with the baggage and
The foot soldiers of its command,
A very great crowd in the band.
3 They settled in the valley near
Bethulia with all their gear
Beside the spring and they spread out
As far as Dothan on the route
To Balnaim and as well in length
From Bethulia to Cyamon’s strength
Across the way from Esdraelon.
4 And when the Israelites saw their
Great numbers they fell under share
Of terror and each one then said
To his neighbour, “These men now bred
Will consume the face of the land,
And neither high mountains in stand
Nor valleys nor the hills’ command
Will bear their weight of foot and hand.”
5 Then every man took up in hand
His weapons and they kindled fires
On their towers and they stayed in hires
To watch all that night and in band.
6 The second day Holofernes
Led out all in his cavalries
For all the Israelites in awe
To see in front of Bethulia.
7 He checked the ways into the town,
And visited the springs’ renown
That gave them water and took these
And set guards of soldiers at ease
Over them, returned in armies.

The evil men who would parade on earth
As rulers and guides for the human girth
Always make sure of water first of all,
And guard the springs from other human call.
This is the law of jungle: see the set
Of beast of prey about waterhole met
To catch the thirsty crew that comes to drink.
Holofernes is dumber than you’d think.
He’s just a beast of prey in instinct’s thrall.
The same is true of many at the call
Of fashion and of honour that presumes
To be the rate of art, and yet consumes
The hope and sustenance of those who starred
In every playground of the free unbarred.

8 Then all the chiefs of Esau’s folk
And leaders of Moabites’ yoke
And captains of surrounding lands
Came to him saying in their bands,
9 “Let our lord hear a word from us,
So your hosts be victorious.
10 “For these folk of Israel do not
Rely upon their spears when taught,
But on the height of hills where they
Live where it’s not easy in sway
To reach the tops. 11 “Therefore, my lord,
Do not fight against them in sword
Arrayed, and not a single man
Of your army will fall in scan.
12 “Stay in your tents and keep your men
All in your bands with you again,
Just let your servants take in hand
The spring of water from the stand
Of the mountain that flows in land.
13 “For this is where all the folk of
Bethulia get water above.
So thirst will destroy them and they
Will surrender their town away.
We and our folk will go up to
The tops of the nearby in view
And stay there to keep watch so none
Of them gets out of town for fun.
14 “They and their wives and every son
Will be consumed by famine’s run
And before any sword comes by
They will be scattered round and lie
Dead in the streets of their own sty.
15 “So you’ll avenge them of the ill
Because they rebelled on the hill
And did not receive you with bill.”

Though I’m surrounded by the many who
Keep church and steeple and the filling pew
Out of my reach, and think to drink me dry
And wait for famine to come make me die,
I have a secret spring unknown to all
Who wait upon the painted parish hall.
I find the living waters in the Word
Once spoken on Sinai, and in the bird
That once flitted upon Jesus to turn
The stones to bread and make the desert burn
A paradise far from the temple spire.
I have a secret garden of desire
For four rivers come from one head to make
My life refreshed despite the heavy stake.

16 These words were pleasant to the man
Holofernes and so by plan
Of all his servants he gave out
Command as they had told about.
17 And the army of Ammonites
Moved forward together in sights
With five thousand Assyrians,
And they tented in valley bans
And captured the water supplies
And the springs of Israelite guys.
18 The bairns of Esau and the bairns
Of Ammon went up to the cairns
And stayed on the hills opposite
Dothan, and sent of their men fit
Toward the south and toward the east
Toward Acraba, which is increased
Near Chusi there beside the brook
Mochmur, just go and take a look.
The rest of the Assyrian host
Tented in the plain for a boast
On the whole surface of the land,
And their tents’ supplies caravanned
Spread out in great number, and they
Were a great crowd along the way.
19 The folk of Israel cried to YHWH
Their Ælohim, for what to do,
Their courage failed, because all their
Enemies surrounded them there
Without a way of escape fair.
20 The whole Assyrian army, their
Foot soldiers, chariots, cavalry,
Set all about them for thirty
Four days, until the storage pots
Of water in the dwelling plots
Of each inhabitant in town
Of Bethulia were empty brown.

I look out on the brown democracy
That fills the free world with hypocrisy
Where heads are counted instead of the brain
That lies within the head, instead of will
To follow You, Beloved, upon the hill
And on the fertile, budding, blooming plain.
I look upon the gathered army where
The Middle East is harboured for the fair,
And say that You should send another one
Named Judith and then see the battle done.
Beloved, my heart is stolen from the first
By Judith who looks out upon the cursed,
And in the memory of buried love,
Goes out a hawk though dressed as humble dove.

21 Their cisterns too were going dry,
And they did not put water by
To quench their thirst a single day,
Because they rationed it to stay.
22 Their children were discouraged and
The women and young men at hand
Fainted from thirst and so fell down
In the streets of the very town,
And in the passage through the gate,
There was no power to dislocate.
23 Then all the people, the young men,
The women, and children again,
Gathered about Uzziah and
The rulers of the city and
Cried out with a loud voice, and said
Before all the elders instead,
24 “Ælohim be judge between you
And us! For you have done our crew
A great wrong in not making peace
With the Assyrians’ increase.
25 “For now we have no one to help
Us, Ælohim has sold our whelp
Into their power, to scatter us
On the soil before them to truss
With thirst and death of omnibus.
26 “So summon them and let’s surrender
The whole city now to the bender
Army of Holofernes and
To all his soldier plunder band.
27 “For it would be better for us
To be captured by them, for us
To be slaves, but our lives be spared,
And we shall not see the death bared
Upon our babes before our eyes,
Or see our wives and children take
Their last breath of life at this stake.
28 “We call to witness against you
The heaven and earth and our God, YHWH
Of our fathers, who punishes
According to our sins, that is,
The sins of our fathers. Let Him
Not do today all these things grim.”

It is no small thing to see children die
Of thirst because the armies come to vie,
But that is what I see from day to day
As my mind’s eye looks out upon the prey
To southward from the seat of ice and snow
Upon the shores and forests that I know.
In all the centuries that come and go,
It seems the mills of history are slow
To change for better or for worse below,
But the same evil threat of progeny
Of Babylon walks about the earth free.
Beloved, if giving cup of water is
Enough in judgement to raise up a fizz,
I see the wisdom in that good decree.

29 Then there arose great lamentation
Throughout the entire congregation,
They cried out to YHWH Ælohim
With a loud voice for things that seem.
30 And Uzziah said to them, “Take
Courage, my brothers! Let us make
Firm for five more days, by that time
YHWH our Ælohim and sublime
Will turn in mercy once again,
Not to forsake us to these men.
31 “But if these days pass by, and no
Help arrives to save the last show,
I’ll do what you say on the go.”
32 Then he sent all the people back
To their guard-post, they were not slack
To go upon the walls and towers
Of their city to spend their hours.
He sent home the women and kids.
And they grieved for the town on skids.

Five days are hardly time to make a dent
In the great silent halls that here prevent
Hope that a miracle might change the row.
Fact is Your intervention is so slow
And non-existent is why we below
Say miracle. A miracle’s a thing
That drops in unexpected on the wing
Of phoenix. Faced with undepleted thirst
We either find some water or die cursed.
The one who says five days at the rope’s end
Is hopeless. Hopelessness now to defend
Is easier than anything in course.
Hopelessness is the freedom from perforce,
Exhilarating beneath stars that wend.

JUDITH 8

1 Then Judith heard about these things.
She was the daughter, not of kings,
But Merari the son of Ox,
The son of Joseph, of such stocks
As son of Oziel, the son
Of Elkiah, who was the son
Of Ananias, Gideon,
The son of Raphaim, the son
Of Ahitub, Elijah’s son,
The son of Hilkiah, the son
Of Eliab, Nathanael’s son,
Who was the son of Salamiel,
Sarasadai’s son for a spell
The very son of Israel.
2 Her husband Manasseh belonged
To her tribe and family unwronged,
Had died in barley harvest past.
3 For as he stood in oversight
Of the men binding sheaves in light
Of the field, he was overcome
By scorching heat’s opprobrium,
And went to bed and there he died
In Bethulia where he’d reside.
They buried him in his dads’ room
In the field between Dothan’s tomb
And Balamon in heavy gloom.
4 Judith remained home as a widow
For three years and four months now kiddo.
5 She pitched her a tent on the roof
Of her house, put on sackcloth proof
Around her waist and clad in weeds
Of widowhood did her good deeds.
6 She fasted all her sorrowed days,
Except the day before the praise
Of Sabbath and Sabbath itself,
The day before the month’s first day,
And on the month’s first day itself,
And on the feasts, days of rejoicing
Of the house of Israel invoicing.
7 She was fair in appearance, and
Had a fine figure of face, and
Her husband Manasseh had left
Her gold and silver, unbereft
Of men and women slaves, and cattle,
And fields, estate enough to rattle.
8 No one spoke ill of her, for she
Feared Ælohim, a devotee.

I see, Beloved, that in those olden times
There were not conflicts between golden rimes,
And Friday was a day of celebration
Preparing for the lovely exaltation
Of Sabbath. Now the Jews retire alone
Into the Sabbath and the Muslims drone
On Friday and forget the Sabbath day,
Despite the many words and lovely way
The Sabbath is brought out in the Qur’an.
Beloved, I make no false distinctions drawn
Between one prophet and another here,
But follow all of them in love and fear,
From Moses to Muhammad with a tear,
Refusing to be any bishop’s pawn.

9 When Judith heard the wicked things
Spoken by the folk’s sorrowings
Against the ruler, being faint
For lack of water as complaint,
And when she heard of everything
Uzziah said about the king
And how he promised under oath
To surrender the town though loath
To the Assyrians in five
Days, 10 then she sent her maid alive,
Who was in charge of all she owned,
To call Chabris and Charmis toned
With all the elders of her zoned.
11 They came to her, she said to them,
“Listen to me, rulers of gem
Folk of Bethulia! What you
Have promised the people in view
Today is not right, you have sworn
Pronouncing oath between the born
And Ælohim to give the town
To enemies unless YHWH’s crown
Turns to our part in aid within
So many days, this is a sin.
12 “Who are you to put Ælohim
To the test on this day and deem
To set yourselves up in God’s place
Among the sons of human race?
13 “You tempt YHWH the Almighty, yet
You know nothing of how to get.
14 “You know not depths of human heart
To find out what is thinking art,
How then do you expect to find
Out Ælohim who made in kind
All things and search His depth of mind
Or understand His thought divined?
Nay brothers, do not provoke YHWH
Our Ælohim to anger’s view.

Perhaps the time element comes to stand
In for the fact that this lady’s command
Of reason speaks to my reason as well.
But then I fail to follow in the swell
The logic of dear brother Paul, so time
Cannot be relevant to mental clime.
In any case, this Judith says a word
That’s wiser than the latest conference bird.
If human hearts are too deep to be sounded,
Than what can be said of Allah that’s grounded?
Beloved, I hold my tongue, fail to present
The accusations against You I meant
In act of God and in the questioning
Of why coffee and oil are such a spring.

15 “For if he does not choose to aid
Us within these five days you’ve paid,
Yet He has might to keep us in
The time He pleases without sin,
Or even to destroy us in
The presence of our foes for sin.
16 “Don’t force the hand of YHWH our God,
For Ælohim is not a clod
Like humankind, to answer threat,
Nor like a human being yet,
To be moved by cajoling rod.
17 “So while we wait His salvation,
Let us call on His aid to run,
And He will hear our voice, if it
Pleases Him and He shall see fit.
18 “For never in our generation,
Nor in these present days of ration,
Has there been any tribe or clan
Or folk or city in our scan
Who worshiped gods made with hands sly,
As was done in the days gone by,
19 “And that was why our fathers fell
Beneath the sword, plundered as well,
And suffered great catastrophe
Before our foe and enemy.
20 “But we worship no other god
But Him, and so our hope in pod
Is that He’ll not disdain our station
Or any of us in our nation.
21 “For if we are destroyed then all
Judea too will also fall,
Our sanctuary plundered, and
He will require it of our hand
In punishment for desecration.

I worship You, Beloved, and I ignore
The other gods that crowd upon the shore
Of science and democracy and more
Of business and of everlasting war.
I worship You, Beloved, do what You will
To widow and to infant on the hill
Of poverty created by the choice
Of business lobby out to make rejoice
Investor in both stocks and bonds and land,
In precious metals and wheat out of hand.
Beloved, I worship You and still I find
No dearth of treasure in infinite mind,
Nor need to seek another of Your kind,
In You is satisfied a roving band.

22 “The slaughter of our brothers and
The captivity of the land
And desolation of our plot,
All this He’ll bring upon our lot
Among the Gentiles, where we serve
As slaves, and we shall never swerve
From being an offence and more
Reproach in eyes of conqueror.
23 “Our slavery will not bring us weight
Of favour, but YHWH our God late
Will turn it to dishonour’s state.
24 “Now therefore, brothers, let us set
Example to our brothers yet,
For their lives depend on us, and
The sanctuary and the stand
Of temple and the altar rest
Upon us. 25 “Despite us oppressed
Let us give thanks to YHWH our God,
Who tests us as He did with rod
Our ancestors upon the sod.
26 “Mind how He tested Abraham,
And how he tested Isaac’s ram,
And what happened to Jacob in
Mesopotamia and in
Syria, while he kept the sheep
Of Laban, his mom’s brother’s keep.
27 “For He has not tried us with fire,
As he did them, to search desire
Of their hearts, nor taken revenge
On us, but YHWH as in Stonehenge
Scourges those who draw near to Him,
In order to admonish them.”

I am tried true, but yet without the fire
That tried the generations in the pyre
Before my days, I am tried with the froth
Of culture and the civilized in wrath.
I am tried too, Beloved, but take a hold
Upon the promises of Judith bold,
And lift a prayer of praise, a Psalm of old,
And touch the lyre-strings of my heart grown cold
With songs to raise a melody of gold.
Beloved, I take the scourge that You have shown
In love beneath the false usurping throne
Of earthly fire and wait You to the bone
When toil of pride shall give way to the stone
Upon which shines the Decalogue alone.

28 Then Uzziah said to her, “All
That you say’s spoken from the pall
Of a true heart, and there is none
Who can deny your words begun.
29 “Today is not the first time your
Wisdom has come upon the shore,
But from the start of life all folk
Have recognized your wisdom’s stroke,
For your heart’s disposition’s right.
30 But the folk were thirsty last night,
And they forced us to do for them
What we’ve promised in stratagem,
And made swear what cannot be broken.
31 So pray for us, since you’re a token
Of righteousness, and YHWH will send
Us rain to fill our cisterns’ end
And we will no longer be faint.”
32 Judith said to them, “Don’t be quaint,
Listen to me. I am about
To do a thing which will no doubt
Go down through generations of
Our descendants for faith and love.
33 “Stand at the city gate tonight,
And I will go with my maid slight,
And within the days after which
You’ve promised to surrender stitch
To our enemies, YHWH remand
All Israel safely in my hand.
34 “Only, do not try to find out
What I plan, I’ll not tell about
It till I’ve finished what I do.”
35 Uzziah and the rulers too
Said to her, “Go in peace, and may
YHWH Ælohim give you the sway
To take revenge upon our foes.”
36 So they returned from the tent rows
And went to their posts right away.

When evil promises are made by those
Who rule the masses of the ones who chose,
Then prayer is not enough to tide the woes.
It takes a plan and courage on the toes
To counter evil set by ruler and
The hungry and the thirsty in the land.
Beloved, I pray indeed to little scope,
And with my prayer hold up but little hope,
Because the curse is set in fatal oath,
And all the world is turned against us both.
I drown my soul in You, Beloved, and find
The hidden heart within of all mankind,
And raise a wail to wind and wolf and tree
That You alone rule all eternity.

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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