PROVERBS CHAPTER 26 -31

PROVERBS 26

1 As snow in summer, harvest rain,
So honour to a fool is vain.
2 As the bird flees, sparrows escape,
So every curse without right drape
Has no effect on any nape.
3 A whip for every horse, and goad
For every ass, so is the load
Of a rod on fools’ back in mode.
4 Do not reply to any fool
According to his folly’s drool,
And so avoid being his tool.
5 Answer a fool and show his fit,
Lest he imagine he has wit.
6 The one who sends his message by
A fool is lame of feet and sly
To drink up his iniquity.
7 As a lame man has pretty legs
Of no use, so’s the speech’s pegs
In the mouth of a fool to be.

The fool is the one who in government
Listens to the word of the lobby’s vent,
And lays a stack of stock against the right,
Pretending that he’s keeping in his sight
The load of justice. With a flick of pen
He joins the civilized among the men.
Beloved, the pretty leg, the stand for state,
The well-cut suit, the talent to relate,
The finer taste in art or then the belt
For rock music that hits him with a welt,
All are the cover of vain speech and way
That turns to artificial in the bay
And must in time fail of the greater pay.
I watch the springtime come and see snow melt.

8 The one who ties the stone inside
The sling is just as like to bide
As glory at a fool man’s side.
9 Like a thorn piercing a drunk’s hand
Is a proverb that a fool’s planned.
10 Like an archer who shoots at all
Is guarantor of a fool’s stall.
11 As a dog turns to what he’s heaved,
So a fool takes what he’s received.
There is a shame that brings on sin:
And shame with grace and glory in.
12 Have you seen one who thinks he’s wise?
There’s more hope for a fool in guise.
13 The lazy man says “On the road
There is a lion, and the goad
Of lioness guards every load.”
14 As the door turns on hinges set,
A slothful man’s on his bed met.

I reckon hinges have more than one use,
The one to set the moving parts obtuse
In working order and the other one
To illustrate how close the lazy bun
Swings in the bed to avoid work in sun.
My hinges swung this morning before four,
But still I took a nap till the sun’s store
Had met the pines above my house with light,
And stirred the darkened firs beyond that site.
Beloved, there is a brash growth that turns on
The undergrowth of leafy brush at dawn,
While the pines fail to plant their progeny
Among the foliage, firs creep in to see
Their future once assured by seedlings drawn.

15 The lazy man reaches the plate,
But is too lazy at that rate
To put food in his mouth too late.
16 The sluggard’s wiser in conceit
Than seven men set at reason’s feet.

When the good tinker set in Bedford gaol
Spun reason’s seven good parables and hale,
He knew that coxcombs could be wiser still
In their retreat to St. Paul’s on the hill.
The reason that the prelates reach the plate
And never put a morsel of Your rate
Into their bellies, is because they find
The golden spoon more delicately tined
Than faith in its simplicity well-wined.
Beloved, though I’m a coxcomb in my chair
Of carven oak along the quire in share,
I take the sweetly sung of word in truth
And lay aside the collects of my youth,
And taste the syllables that are not bare.

17 As one who takes hold of dog’s ears
Is he who meddles in the gears
Of others’ quarrels to his tears.
18 Like raving ones shooting out flames
And lances to destroy in claims,
19 Is the man who deceives his friend
And claims it was a joke in end.
20 When the wood fails the fire goes out,
And when the gossip’s thrown about,
Contentions cease along the route.
21 As charcoal is to burning coals,
And wood to fire, like angry shoals
A man in wrath stirs of strife’s tolls.
22 The words of a gossip may seem
But simple things, yet in the cream
They reach to the bottom and beam.

I’ve told a tale or two in my lifetime
And lived to see it was mistaken rhyme.
A tale or two has been told on account
Of me and mine drawn from a lying mount,
And I have lived to see it take its toll.
How easy it is to steal from the dole.
The guilty have passed on without reprieve,
Too proud to admit fires when they deceive.
Beloved, account to me no tale untrue,
And pluck from hell the ones who without due
Deceived the world about my actions done
In innocence despite the ready run.
Let no soul be lost in the fading path
Because of vain and tempting songs of wrath.

23 Like argentine on a clay pot
Are burning lips and corrupt heart.
24 A foe is flattering with his lips,
But in his heart his deceit slips.
25 Trust not the simpering voice and sweet,
Seven mischiefs in wicked heart beat.
26 The one who hides hatred behind
Deceit, assembly’ll not be blind.
27 The one who digs a pit shall fall,
A stone rolled shall return like ball.
28 A lying tongue loves not the truth,
A slippery mouth works ruin for ruth.

The base metal and clay are hidden by
The gilding and the silver on the sly.
So pretence of friendship held as polite
Is just a way to take the neighbour’s right.
Would that the words of Solomon were true
That such behaviour always ends in rue.
Some fine deceit committed years ago,
And centuries back has not hit the show.
Beloved, do not gild me with shining ware,
But keep my outside humble as the fare
Within my inner chamber where my crust
Is bitten with the ashes and the dust.
The little flame of truth shines on its walls
Of stone and granite slabs where whisper calls.

PROVERBS 27

1 Don’t boast about tomorrow, for
You do not know what is in store.
2 Let other’s praise you, not yourself
And not your own lips off the shelf.
3 A stone is heavy, sand has weight,
But worse than both’s a fool’s wrath’s state.
4 Anger has no mercy, nor fury
When it breaks out, who’s in a hurry
To bear the violence provoked?
5 Open rebuke is better yoked
Than hidden love that leaves one stirry.
6 Better the sore wounds from a friend
Than lying kisses in foe’s end.
7 A soul that’s satisfied shall tread
Upon the honeycomb and bread,
But a soul that’s hungry shall take
Even the bitter for sweet’s sake.

Beloved, just call me sticky foot and be
Done with the epithets cast upon me.
My soul is satisfied as I sing out
In cantillation all the rounds of shout
That Your word gives me in sweet words and bitter.
So I need no more honey in my litter.
And yet I’m like the hungry in that I
Am satisfied to cantillate or try
Your bitter words as well as what is sweet.
The whole Tanakh to me is just a treat.
Be Psalm and Torah sore wounds from a friend
Or lying kisses in the common trend,
I whirl in fast contentment on the sky,
And doubt not, on You, Beloved, I rely.

8 As a bird wanders from her nest,
So a man leaves his place at best.
9 Ointment and perfumes grace the heart,
Good counsels of a friend to start
Are sweet to the soul for their part.
10 Your own friend and your father’s friend
Do not forsake, do not intend
To go to your brother’s house when
You are afflicted in your den.
Better’s a neighbour that is near
Than a brother far off and drear.

I am no hermit, my Beloved, it’s true,
Although I live with fir and pine in view,
The city lies spread out beneath my feet,
And all the dogs are led past in retreat.
I have occasion, if I like, to speak
To three or four who pass my cabin peak
Each day to take their exercise and seek
A vital place in market, church and pew.
Beloved, I have no brother on the wing,
Nor any kin near me for anything,
So I am forced, whether I like or not
To give the neighbour a chance at the shot.
Four houses grace the fringes of the wood
Where I see neighbour for better or good.

11 Study wisdom, my son, and make
My heart joyful, so you can take
Up a reply to answer him
Who would reproach you with the dim.
12 The prudent man when evil comes
Runs and hides, but the simple bums
Keep on the way and suffer pains
From every president who reigns.
13 Now confiscate the man’s cloak who
As a scorner passing in view
Lays waste another’s goods undue.
14 The one who wakes his neighbour up
Before the sun shines in his cup
With a loud shout of blessing’s praise
Is like one who curses his days.

The damning with faint praise is civilized,
And satisfaction comes when it’s devised,
Especially when the culprit gets his thanks
From the one whose head was hit by his wanks.
No better way to elbow those aside
Who target the same slope in raging pride.
The best way to avoid the managed mess
Is find a profile below the address.
Beloved, my praise to You is faint indeed,
Because my tongue is flat and gone to seed,
Because my heart turns with the pride of sun,
And I have reasons for the things I’ve done.
But when You take me on Your lips to hear
My bones are filled with life, my barns with gear.

16 The north wind, it is biting sharp,
With such a name no one will carp.
17 As iron files the iron, so one
Man polishes his friend’s face spun.
18 The one who plants a fig tree eats
Its fruit, and so the one who treats
His master is honoured in feats.
19 As faces are in pools reflected,
So man’s heart’s by the wise inspected.
20 Hell and destruction don’t fill up,
So man’s eye’s unsated by cup.
The one who sets his eye on gain
Is before YHWH a horrid stain,
And those who are without the light
Of His instructions fail in spite
To restrain their tongue from its bite.

I’d think that in Solomon’s day at least
The mirrors of brass garnished every priest,
But it may be that some looked in the pool
To see the face well-painted like a fool.
Since I stopped cutting off the growing beard
And styling hair in fashions of the weird,
Many days go by that I fail to peer
Into the pool or mirror as a seer.
Beloved, instead I look into Your law
As James says in epistle made of straw
And find the lineaments divine that You
Reveal from deeper places, yet in view.
And in that pool I also wash my ways
And lend my life each day to be Your praise.

21 As silver’s tried in fining-pot,
And gold in the furnace made hot,
So a man’s tried by the mouth of
The one who praises him in love.
The wicked heart seeks evil things,
But righteous hearts seek after wings
Of knowledge after questionings.
The heart of the transgressor seeks
After mischiefs; the upright peeks
Around for knowledge without stings.
22 Though you should pulverize a fool
In mortar with pestle as tool
Among the grains, still foolishness
Will not depart from his address.

Solomon is outraged by foolishness,
The mind covered by dark illusion’s dress.
The wise do not enter in peace of mind
But, irritated by the mien of blind,
Rage and rage on against earth’s faithlessness.
Wisdom is deep, it seems, and yet is just
The realization upon the dust
That every face reflects the divine trust,
Not only mine, but all created crust.
None can escape the knowledge that Your share
Is found within his heart and throne to bear,
But wisdom sees by faith the same soul where
The other man is toiling in the must.
Solomon’s outraged that Your lovely face
Goes here unrecognized from base to base.

23 Be diligent to know the face
Of your cattle and your flocks’ trace.
24 For you’ll not always have the wealth;
The crown is transferred on in stealth.
25 The meadows bloom, green herbs appear,
The hay is gathered from hill’s weir.
26 Lambs for your clothing and kid goats
For the price of the field in oats.
27 Let goats’ milk be enough for food,
And for the needs of house and brood,
And for the keep of handmaids rude.

I too think that the goat’s milk is the best,
But that’s because I live in wealth and rest.
A woman who became so dear to me
Beside the Euphrates’ eternity
When asked what she would choose of all to see
Upon the earth, if she could have it free,
She said in common wisdom of the race,
“I’d like to have a cow in the goat’s place.”
Beloved, some seek the gold, some seek the trace
Of honour and of jewels, some beware
The hopes of power and oil beyond their share.
But some dream of a cow instead of goat,
A lovely cow giving both milk and note
Of lowing melodies in courtyard’s share.

PROVERBS 28

1 The wicked flee when none pursue,
The just, bold as a lion in view
Is without dread of one or two.

When Solomon wrote this, he had not heard
About the Nazi ways and what occurred.
The man of steel had not yet raised a head,
And George and Sam had not divided spread.
Today the just keep profile low and sweet
And make a wise and excellent retreat,
While those who own the companies and thus
The parliaments are those who make a fuss.
Beloved, I flee as bold to You when I
See how the great to least here come to vie,
And when I see You flick away a fly,
I turn and flee to You. Wherever turns
The earth around the meadows and the burns
I find You fail not from the earth and sky.

2 A land revolting has for chiefs
Many, but a man in reliefs
With wisdom and intelligence,
His reign is prolonged in his tents.
3 A poor man oppresses the poor
Like a storm in violence sure
That brings in famine to the door.
4 They who forsake the law will praise
The wicked man for days and days,
Those who keep it in anger rage
Against the one who tore the page.

If those who keep Your law are marked by rage,
Solomon must then have another gauge
Of righteousness than those here in my town.
Before my rage the Baptists pull a frown.
If I rage that men fail to keep Your law,
The first thing is they want to clip my claw.
If I rage that men fail to cut their meat
From foreskin and to take a resting seat
Upon the Sabbath day, they find me quaint
In splitting cares, pretending to be saint.
Beloved, I rage and rage on, though the quire
Of Christians sweet condemn me to the mire,
And in the fire find that Your voice alone
Sustains me where I stand before Your throne.

5 Men in the thrall of evil know
Not what is right and just to show,
But those who search for YHWH are those
Who understand the law that glows.
6 Better’s the poor man when he walks
In his simplicity of stocks,
Than the rich man in crooked ways.
7 The one who keeps in all his ways
The law is a wise son for praise,
But the one who gives gluttons share
Is a shame for father to bear.
8 The one who gathers up wealth by
Interest and loan gathers the shy
For him who keeps poor under eye.

The interest taken on the loan is what
Is in Your law, Beloved, forbidden glut.
I’m not sure what this cryptic proverb here
Means with that thing in memory and gear.
The practice of economy that’s based
On interest while the people spend for waste
Is one that in the end sooner or late
Creates war in both city and in state.
Beloved, I see how well the world today
Contains the violence that keeps the sway
Of wealth based on the industry of fine
Bombs and their missiles while I drink my wine.
Fear is a thing for sale no limits meet,
While sugar and rice in surfeit defeat.

9 The one who turns away his ears
From hearing the law in his fears,
His prayer’s abomination’s tears.

I guess this text means that the ones who wait
To observe Sabbath on a day too late,
Come with prayers that arise before Your throne
As an abomination and a groan.
No doubt this proverb taken at a shout
Means that the one who disrespects in rout
His mother and his father, when he prays
Is humming horrid things for days and days.
Beloved, I dare to pray to You in trash
Of sonnets wakened with the morning’s lash,
As though I kept Your law in board and sum.
Forgive abominations that I hum,
And I shall bend a will to keep Your law,
Not kill, not break the Sabbath, not fail awe.

10 The one who deceives wickedly
The just, shall fall in his own free
Destruction, and the upright shall
Possess his goods, both house and sal.
11 The rich man thinks that he is smart,
The poor man shall search out his art.
12 In joy of the just there’s great glory,
When wicked reign, bad ends the story.
13 The one who hides his sins shall not
Prosper, but one before he’s caught
That shall confess and forsake them,
Shall obtain mercy like a gem.

Beloved, I do thank You that it is easy
To get forgiveness for my actions sleazy.
It is enough to confess and forsake
My sins to bask in mercy and its wake.
I do not have to study out the tales
Of twenty god-men in the eastern vales
Who died on trees and rose again to bring
Health, wealth and some fertility in wing,
To find out which one is the best to sing.
Beloved, I do thank You that I can find
Forgiveness without the atonement’s blind
In phallic crosses set on every hill
And ranged in wood and silver and the drill
Of gold and gems before I get my fill.

14 Blessed is the man who always fears,
But he that is hard in his gears
Shall fall into evil arrears.
15 A roaring lion, hungry bear,
So is a wicked prince to fare
Over poor people sitting there.
16 A prince without prudence oppresses
Many by harsh acts he addresses,
But he who hates the covetous
Shall lengthen his days without fuss.
17 One guilty of another’s blood
Will flee headlong into the mud.
Let no one help him from the flood!
Discipline your son, he’ll love you,
And give honour in your soul’s view,
He’ll not sit in a sinful pew.
18 He who acts upright shall be saved,
But the perverse one shall be waved
And fall suddenly in the graved.

It is upright to keep Your law and such
Receive Your mercy for the things they touch,
Are saved from every ill and circumstance.
But the perverse are those who come to dance
With joy that some god-man came out to prance
Upon a tree and dying thus set free
All people to commit sin in a spree.
Such ones with their gross, vain theology
Shall fall indeed in the mire suddenly.
Beloved, I lay hold of Your law to know
Simplicity of action keeps me low
Before Your throne and Your authority.
Before the sunrise on the holy lake,
I meditate Your law, confession make.

19 The one who tills his ground is fed
And he shall be filled with white bread.
But he who follows idleness,
Shall live in poverty’s address.
20 A faithful man shall be much praised,
But the one who’s by riches dazed
Shall not be innocent, but grazed.

The first million, they say, is never share
Of honesty, the seconds to come there
Are given to philanthropy in fair
Hope that it may make grosser compensation
For evil done in struggling for the ration.
If my wealth shall be based on what my land,
Or that of wife and dad-in-law to stand,
Produces of the flower and bush and root,
I fear my riches are no more than soot.
Beloved, my wealth lies in the golden sun
That hovers on a winter’s day begun
Upon my window sill, where I look out
On aspens that in summer were so stout
In waving, waving little hands about.

21 The one who favours any man
In judgement does not well by plan,
And such a person for the pay
Of a breadcrumb will sell truth’s sway.
22 A man who rushes to be rich
And envy others in the pitch
Does not know he’ll be thrown in ditch.
23 The one who rebukes later finds
Favour with him, but those in binds
Of flattery find no such hitch.
24 The one who steals from dad and mom
And says ”This is no sin in sum”
Is partner of the murdering bum.
25 A greedy man incites to fight,
But one who trusts YHWH to do right
Is satisfied both day and night.
26 The one who trusts his own heart’s dumb,
But trusting YHWH will beat the sum.
27 The one who provides for the poor
Shall not be in need, that is sure,
But he who turns deaf ear upon
The cry of the poor in the dawn
Shall himself suffer poverty.
28 When the wicked rise up to see,
Men shall hide themselves. When they fall
The just shall increase on the ball.

Beloved, I gave away my salary
To the poor and those who asked me freely
Until my wife and daughter put a stop
To such things while we still had store and crop.
They took away my wallet and my pence
And would not let me go out without sense.
It was no virtue, my Beloved, I’m sure,
And yet it was foolish innocence pure.
Beloved, I did indeed give pence and pounds
And I indeed am still upon the grounds
Of wealth in my simplicity and rounds.
My riches are increased and beyond bounds:
The silver of the quartzite on my hill,
The gold and rubies on my morning still.

PROVERBS 29

1 The stubborn man who will despise
The one who instructs him as wise
Shall suddenly meet failure and
Health shall not follow in his hand.
2 When righteous men increase, the folk
Rejoice; when wicked lay the yoke,
The people mourn under the stroke.
3 A man that chose wisdom makes glad
His father, but the one who’s had
To keep harlots spends his wealth bad.
5 Deceitful flattering in a man
Is spreading nets to catch as can.
6 A snare shall trip the feet of those
Wicked ones sinning in their rows,
While the just shall praise and rejoice.
7 The just takes notice of the voice
Of the poor; the wicked one’s vice
Is in lack of knowledge of price.

The one today who parades as the just
Takes notice of the poor whose voice from dust
Reveals what he is willing in great trust
To buy from the just merchant for a crust.
The population’s so increased because
The ones whose wealth creates the running laws
Are teeming in a market for their claws.
No longer do the poor buy axe and saws.
Beloved, I know that You are poor beyond
Relief of praise and prayer under the frond
Of crosier and of blessing on the pond.
Baptism fails to bring Your voice these days
Despite the crinkling of the icy plays
Drawn out beneath the firs just for Your praise.

8 Corrupt men bring a town to spoil,
But wise men turn away wrath’s coil.
9 A wise man arguing with a fool,
Be he angry or laughing cool,
He shall find no rest by the pool.
10 Bloodthirsty men hate the upright,
But just men seek his soul from spite.
11 A fool speaks all that’s in his head,
A wise man defers at the spread,
And saves some knowledge for the dread.
12 A prince that hears lies gladly finds
All his servants have wicked minds.
13 The poor and the oppressor both
Meet under YHWH’s eyes and His oath.
14 Kings truly giving the poor right
Establish their thrones in time’s light.

There’s not a man on earth who does not choose
The crowd with which he comes to browse and bruise.
The one who is served best by flattery
Will find ulterior motive in that glee
That strips him of the things that people crave.
The one who is served best by gall and slave
Will pay the salary it takes for knave.
The one who’s out for laughs returns to find
The floor must still be swept by someone kind.
Beloved, the crowd I choose is one that brings
The silent worship of love to Your rings,
Without the gems and jewels the quire sings,
Without the hems and tools the wire flings.
I too choose something out of sight and mind.

15 Rod and reproof give wisdom’s woof,
The child left to his own will’s goof
Keeps his mom from shame not aloof.
16 The wicked are increased on earth,
So crimes do not appear in dearth,
But the just shall see them all fail
As the unjust bite dust on trail.
17 Instruct your son, he’ll give you rest,
And make your soul delight in best.
18 When prophecy shall fail, the folk
Shall be scattered under the stroke,
But he who keeps the law is blessed
With bounties unheard of, unguessed.

I no doubt fail to keep Your law since I
Am sunken in the mire of lusty cry.
But still I lay hold on prophetic word
Aligned with the great anthem I once heard
In thunder’s sound on Sinai’s crimson cloud
Reverberating over all the crowd.
The prophecy has long since failed and he
Who last held up the word and faithfully
Is washed at Ali’s hand and in the tomb.
I say a prayer within that very room.
But he who keeps the law in hand and heart
Is blessed with all the prophets’ bounties’ part,
And finds among the scattered peoples here
The two or three who worship You in fear.

19 It’s not with words a slave is manned,
He’ll not obey though understand.
20 A man who speaks before he thinks
Has less hope than a fool at brinks.
21 The servant treated softly from
His childhood will think he’s become
A son of the house and not bum.

Today we do not think like Solomon
In terms of treating slaves under the sun
In ways to keep them working a fair share
While beating on their backs when they’re laid bare.
The Torah law for slavery is that when
The seven years are over, then the men
May go free and with property to spare.
That’s why they must be worked to death before
The seven years come rolling at the door.
Beloved, though You’re a slave to me and mine,
To all the pimps and prostitutes in line,
I treat you kindly, till You think at last
That You are of the household not outcast.
Let Solomon keep his proverbs half-mast.

22 A man of passions stirs up strife,
And he that has quick-tempered fife
Is like to sin more than his wife.
23 A man’s abased by his own pride,
Glory’s on humble spirit’s side.
24 The one who takes shares with a thief
Hates his own self without relief;
He hears the hateful word and yet
Is silent while he hedges bet.
25 The one who fears man quickly falls,
But trusting YHWH walks on the walls.
26 Many seek the face of the prince,
But judgement comes from YHWH to wince.
27 The just abhors a wicked man,
The wicked loathe those in the span
Of the right way; the son that keeps
The word, he no destruction weeps.

Everyone hates the wicked man, not just
Those who are righteous on the earthly dust.
No one loves the man who breaks in to steal,
Nor those who murder under robbing heel.
The fact that I hate such, if hate I do,
Proves nothing of my mettle in the pew.
Rather I rage against convention’s choice
That muffles my fast desires and my voice,
And keeps me from the passionate embrace
Of both the just and unjust in this place.
I loathe not any to my hurt and harm,
Who would take each and all upon my arm
To share the kiss of life, the bread and treat
Where nothing of the winter cools my heat.

PROVERBS 30

The words of Agur son of Jakeh,
Unless it’s Gatherer in faker,
The son of Vomiter and staker.
So spoke the man with whom God is,
One strengthen by God in his biz,
Abiding with him, here’s his whiz.
2 I am most foolish of all men,
And human wisdom’s missed my wen.
3 I have not learned wise things, have not
Known holy sciences in plot.
4 Who has gone up into the skies,
And who has come down in like wise,
Who has held the wind in his hands?
Who has wrapped up the waters’ bands?
Who has dominion of all ends
Of the earth? What’s his name and friends?
Or what name to his children bends?
5 Each word of Allah’s fire-tried,
He is their shield when they abide.
6 Add nothing to His words, lest you
Be reproved and found liar in view.

There are men living now who’ve spend a time
Upon the moon itself, above the clime
Of air and sky, so Agur in his rhyme
Has lost the argument set out in prime.
That does not mean that Allah’s word come late
Or soon before the human heart and gate
Is of less value for revealing’s rate.
It merely means the numbing bottom set
In the pew gains relief from being let
Out on the leash a moment, then to get
More carefully in ear the word’s regret.
Beloved, whether I spin about the earth
Or settle in a dry desert of dearth,
I hear the fire-tried temple on my bet.

7 Two things I’ve asked of you, do not
Deny them me before I rot.
8 Remove far from me vanity
And lies. Give me not beggary
Nor riches. Give me only what
I need before my life is shut,
9 For fear that in wealth’s glut I might
Be tempted to deny the right
And say ”Who is YHWH?” or in grasp
Of poverty compelled to rasp
In thievery and so deny
The name of my God set on high.

How few notice that great stupidity
Lies in the hand that grasps at more in fee
Than what the stomach can hold in the spree.
Only the children and fools set on plate
More than they can eat after the first sate.
Give me, Beloved, my daily bread and drink,
A forest lane, and wisdom’s word to think.
Remove me far from idols’ vanity,
And set me in the temple of the free.
These two great bounties Agur asks of You,
And satisfied, he sits down in the pew.
I sit beside the Gatherer and see
What vomit the rich pour out soon and late.

10 Don’t tell a master what his slave
Has done, lest he a curse engrave
Against you and you lose the brave.
11 A wicked generation’s here
That curses father ear to ear
And does not bless mother with fear,
12 A generation innocent
In their own eyes, yet far from vent
Of being washed from filthy rent.
13 A generation with proud eyes,
And eyelids that know to despise.
14 A generation that has swords
For teeth and grinds with the jaw cords
To consume the poor off the earth,
And the needy of men by worth.
15 The horse-leech has two daughters who
Say ”Give, give, give and more is due.”
There are three things unsatisfied,
The fourth never says to abide:
16 Sheol, the barren womb and earth
Not saturated in the dearth,
And fire never says ”Stay” for worth.

Stay, my Beloved! It is enough I say!
I’ve made complaint enough to hear the way
The poor are so oppressed and yet their suit
Is silenced in their own mouths to the root.
I am no daughter of the horse-leech that
I ask for more Scriptures against the spate
Of evil on this earth for justice rate.
I’ve had enough of fight with dog and cat.
I turn and return to Your pearl-drawn gate.
The generations of the past are not
Worse than the one I see before my plot.
The heart of man degenerates no more,
And all things turn about eternal door.
Beloved, look down on what we here have got.

17 The eye that mocks his father’s beam,
That despises his mother’s steam
In bearing him, let ravens come
Up from the brooks pluck from such bum
His eyes and young eagles eat rum.
18 Three things are wonders to my eye,
And four things beyond what I spy:
19 The path of eagles in the sky,
The way of serpent on a rock,
The way of a ship out of dock,
And the way a young man will rock.
20 So too adulterous woman’s way,
Who eats and wipes her mouth to pray
And says ”I have not gone astray.”
21 By three things the earth is disturbed,
The fourth thing of it is not curbed.
22 By a slave when he’s become king,
By a fool filled with everything,
23 By a slob when she’s married and
By a maidservant come to stand
As heiress of her mistress’ land.

The world turns with the fated wheel and so
The first are last and the last come to go,
Just as the dear Messiah said in speech
According to the Gospel that men preach.
I know a woman in adulterous state
Who’s sure that what she’s done could never wait,
But was the product of God-given love,
And so was meant to be, come wish or shove.
I know a young man too, who’s come to rock
And roll about the city without clock,
Until his freedom causes the town’s shock
To have produced so unready a stock.
Beloved, the threes and fours around the moon
Are wonders and familiars late and soon.

24 Four things on earth are very small,
But they are still wisest of all.
25 The ants are without power as folk,
But take their summer fruits in stroke;
26 The rabbit too is weak as people,
But makes house of the stony steeple;
27 The locusts have no king at all,
And yet go out in bands from stall;
28 The lizard goes on all fours where
It may be taken without care,
And yet lives in kings’ houses there.
29 There are three things that will do well
And the fourth walks as if by spell:
30 The lion, strongest of all beasts,
Who fears neither famine nor feasts;
31 A horse with bridle set, a ram,
And a king who claims that I am.
32 If pride would make you act the fool
With evil thoughts in mind as tool,
Lay hand on mouth and cut the drool.
33 The one who squeezes hard the udder
At last makes come from it the butter;
The one who blows his nose too hard
At last gets blood upon his card,
And those who provoke wrath in sight
Produce at last the desired fight.

The lizard is a fine thing on the sash
Of every window where their long tongues clash
With flies who would come trample down the butter
And sandwiches of bread before we cut her.
I say less of the ant, though in its realm
It has a place along the frozen helm
Where every year it seems the mound is higher
And every summer the ants climb the pyre.
With lions and with horses I’m acquainted
A bit less, yet the very ones I’ve sainted
Are locusts with their ears fine-tuned and all,
Ready to hear Your cantillated call,
And then go out without a king or roost
To eat the roof off of the world in boost.

PROVERBS 31

1 The words of King Lemuel, the speech
By which his mother used to preach.
2 What, my son, what, son of my womb,
What, beloved of my vows to doom?
3 Do not give wenches of your pay,
And riches to destroy kings’ way.
4 Do not give to kings, Lemuel,
Do not give to kings the wine’s spell,
Because there’s no secret thing kept
Where drunkenness has the floor swept.
5 Lest they drink and forget the right,
Pervert the cause of poor in sight.
6 Give strong drink to those who are sad,
And wine to those grieved in mind clad;
7 Let them drink and forget their pain,
Remember not sorrow for gain.
8 Open your mouth to help the dumb,
For the cause of children in sum.
9 Open mouth with decree that’s just,
And do right by needy in trust.

The principle is that strong drink is just
A medicine for those who think they must.
It’s not for entertainment set by kings
To give their congressmen laughter in rings.
It’s quite alright to drink fermented stuff
When the law of the land has remained tough
And gives for drunkenness death sentence fair
According to the Torah to beware.
But since no government is styled with power
To carry out such outrage in an hour,
Then alcohol too must go down the drain.
One cannot pick and choose among the sane.
Either death sentence and freedom to swill,
Or else teetotalling to fit the bill.

10 Who finds a woman of virtue?
She’s worth more than her pearls in view.
11 Her husband’s heart trusts in her too,
And he’ll need no spoils in his pew.
12 She’ll do him good and never bad
All the days of the life she’s had.
13 She finds both wool and flax to make
Fine things by her hands’ power in wake.
14 And she is like the merchant’s ship,
She brings her bread from far on hip.
15 She gets up early before light
And provides food for household right,
And sustenance for maidens’ might.
16 She examines a field and buys,
She plans a vineyard in her guise.
17 She gathers up her strength and goes
Out with a strengthened arm in rows.
18 She tastes and finds her produce good,
She keeps her lamp all night in wood.
19 She puts hand to the spinning wheel,
She takes the spindle into heel.
20 She’s generous to needy folk,
Stretches her hands to poor in stroke.
21 She’s not afraid of winter snow,
For all her servants come to glow
With underwear longer than show.
22 She’s made herself good blankets too,
Of fine linen and purple hue
For covering and beauty too.
23 Her husband is known in the gate,
He sits among elders and great.
24 She makes fine linen and for sale,
Set with Canaanite merchant’s pale.
25 Strength and beauty remain her garb,
She laughs to see tomorrow’s barb.
26 She opens mouth with wisdom’s speech,
Her tongue is fine and sweet to teach.
27 She guards the pathways of her house,
Not eating idle bread like mouse.
28 Her children rise and call her blessed,
Her husband praises her unguessed.
29 A crowd of women gather wealth,
But you surpass in gear and health.
30 Favour’s deceitful, beauty vain,
The woman who fears YHWH again,
She shall be praised without a stain.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands,
Her works praise her in the gates’ stands.

This would have been a finer thing to hear,
If Solomon or Lemuel with a tear
Had praised the grace of women as they steer.
Unfortunately the whole piece is made
By Lemuel’s mother speaking in parade.
Men must be taught time to appreciate,
They can’t be trusted to notice their state,
But with instruction from a mother’s tongue,
They’re able sometimes to step up a rung.
Beloved, I take Agur and Solomon
And Lemuel and his mother who’s won
A place in Your word for the wisdom that
Knows how to find the right place on the mat.
Beloved, spare righteous folk under the sun.

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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