WISDOM CHAPTER 10 - 19

WISDOM 10

1 Wisdom guarded the father first
Formed in the world before the cursed.
When he alone had been created,
And she saved him from sin instated,
2 And gave him strength to rule all things.
3 But when a wicked man for stings
Departed from her in his wrath,
He perished because in the path
He raging killed his brother staff.
4 When the earth was flooded because
Of him, wisdom once more her paws
Showed in salvation, steering man
Righteous by a bit of wood’s span.
5 Wisdom also, when nations in
Wicked pact’s agreement had been
Confounded, knew the upright man
And saving him innocent by
Ælohim, and kept him to vie
Before his compassion to try
For his child. 6 Wisdom rescued then
A righteous man when wicked men
Were perishing, he fled the fire
That came down on five cities’ ire.
7 The evidence of their sin’s still,
A smoking wasteland without hill,
Plants bearing fruit that’s never ripe,
An image of salt standing stripe
In memory of soul’s unbelief
Where the woman came to her grief.

The sweet Christian wishes now to deny
That wisdom saved Adam there on the sly,
But will have all men thrust out into shame
Because of that one slip up done in fame.
In truth Your wisdom guides aright the ones
Who are Your elect to live without guns.
The wisdom of Your deep commandment let
Abraham know that You will never get
A human sacrifice in pleasure drawn.
Wisdom corrects the heathen king and pawn.
Beloved, I see the radiant fruit abroad
That wicked bombs created on the sod,
And so affirm Your wisdom in the nod.

8 For because they passed wisdom by,
They not only were hindered dry
From recognizing the good, but
Also left for humankind glut
Reminder of their folly, so
That their failures could never go
Unnoticed. 9 Wisdom rescued from
Troubles those who served her to come.
10 When a righteous man fled out from
His brother’s wrath, she guided him
On straight paths, she showed him undim
The kingdom of Ælohim, and
Gave him knowledge of angels’ hand,
She prospered him in all his tasks,
And multiplied where his hand asks.
11 Those who oppressed him envied him,
But she gave wealth to rescue him.
12 She guarded him from all his foes,
And kept him safe from all of those
Who lay in ambush for his toes.
In his great struggle she gave him
The victory, and one not dim,
So he would learn that godliness
Is of greater power in the guess.
13 When an upright man had been sold,
Wisdom did not leave him out cold,
But saved him from sin of the bold.
She went down with him to the pit
Of prison, 14 and when he did sit
In gaol, she did not leave him there,
But brought him kingdom’s sceptre’s share,
And rulership over his masters.
Those who accused him and outcasters
She showed to be false, made for him
Everlasting honour and trim.

Surely the false witness against the man
Joseph did not believe the fatal plan.
Wisdom has more to do than just enlighten,
She must shake wicked people, come to frighten
The lordly wife as well and king on throne,
The president of company for loan.
The victory that was not dim for father
Arose at last to save him from his bother.
And yet like millions more upon the earth,
Joseph went through a decade without mirth.
If You sold one into glory and fame,
There are left millions more without a claim,
Who languish in the prison gates and groan
With only wisdom to cherish their bone.

15 A holy people and blameless
Race wisdom saved from their disgrace.
16 She entered soul of YHWH’s servant,
Withstanding dread kings in her cant
With signs and wonders on the slant.
17 She gave holy men the reward
Of their toil, she guided and scored
Along a marvelled way with sword,
To shelter them by day, by night
A starry flame guided outright.
18 She brought them over the Red Sea,
And led them through waters’ degree,
19 But she drowned every enemy,
And threw them in depth of the sea.
20 Therefore the upright plundered then
The ungodly and wicked men,
They sang hymns to YHWH’s holy name,
And all together praised the fame
Of Your defending hand in flame,
21 Since wisdom opened mouth of dumb,
And made babes speak clear words in sum.

They say that Moses since he was a child,
A very babe in arms, though once when wild,
Touched tongue to burning coal and so became
Slow of speech and halting in word to blame.
But on a day and year when Pharaoh’s claim
Over the folk had run out and was lame,
Wisdom entered the man and he then rode
Both strong and eloquent to praise Your name.
Beloved, my throat is kin to that of toad,
And I have no words great or small that stowed
The back of fame and popularity,
But I pray that I may in clarity
Also praise You above the desert sea.
I take Your promises and leave my load.

WISDOM 11

1 Wisdom prospered their works by hand
Of a holy prophet to stand.
2 They journeyed through a desert land,
And pitched their tents where none had trod.
3 They withstood enemies with rod
And fought off their foes with the prod.
4 When they thirsted they called on You,
You gave water from a rock’s due,
And quenched their thirst by hard stone’s hue.
5 The very things that made foes bleed
Were benefits to them in need.
6 For bloody river water sent
7 For babies killed in punishment,
You have abundant springs of fresh
Water in unexpected mesh
8 Showing by their thirst at that time
What foes suffered in punished crime.

Thirst is a lovely thing, as it reveals
Intensity of pain upon the heels
Of those who’re punished for the way they killed
The babies of the Hebrews that they billed.
So Husseyn and his friends laughed for the joy
To know the lash that You at last employ
Upon the wicked earth. Comfort gave them
A vision of both paradise and gem.
Beloved, I thirst for You here in the den
Of lion and in pillared furnace when
The fires of love flame up around my soul.
I greedily drink from the tempered toll
Of Kauthar, where a lovely hand extends
The alabaster bowl Your mercy sends.

9 For when they were tried in the crux
Of discipline, mercy was flux,
They learned how the ungodly sucks,
Tormented when judged in wrath’s trucks.
10 For You did test them as a dad
Does in warning a little lad,
But You examined wicked men
As a harsh king in sentence then.
11 Whether abroad or left at home,
They were always distressed in comb
12 Of a two-pronged grief, and a groan
When they remembered the harsh tone.
13 For when they heard that through their own
Punishment the upright were blessed,
They knew it was YHWH’s act, or guessed.
14 For though they had come to reject
In mocking him whom they had pecked,
In the end they marvelled at him,
For their thirst was not of like whim
As that of the righteous undim.

The Maccabean thought that You request
A tender punishment upon the best
To call them to repentance, after which
You lift the loved ones up out of the ditch,
But by contrast when judgement comes to fall
Upon the Gentile pushed against the wall,
It’s only for destruction and not call
To repent of the wicked wail and pall,
Is here reiterated and exposed.
Beloved, both wicked and upright have dozed.
No matter what my past and punishment,
No matter what reward on me is spent,
Let me turn from the glory and the shame
To praise You and Your throne and lovely name.
The rest may pass into obscurity,
The fading light of hope and history.

15 In return for their foolish thoughts
Of wickedness, which led their plots
Astray to worship mindless snakes
And worthless animals in wakes,
You sent on them a multitude
Of mindless creatures in a brood
To sting them since they had been rude,
16 So they might see that one gets back
The stinging pain from very stack
Of things for which he sins a crack.
17 For your all-powerful hand, which
Created the world out of stitch
Of formless matter, did not lack
The means to send upon them rack
Of bears, or bold lions, 18 or just
Newly created unknown fussed
Beasts, or such as breathe fiery breath,
Or belch forth thick black smoke of death,
Or send sparks’ terror from their eyes,
19 Not only could their work devise
To liquidate men, but the sight
Alone could kill men by the fright.

The writer of the book of Wisdom thinks
The legendary dragons at the brinks
Of darkened pools with scaly tail that slinks
And fiery snout that lowers when he drinks
Is not a myth at all, but punishment
Divine on those who failed obedient.
That’s fine with me, my scientific mind
Is not offended by belief resigned.
It’s possible that some beast in the past
Now merely bones in quarry and upcast
Is really dragonly in every way.
Both views I trow can stand the light of day.
What’s still to find proof in experiment
Is whether You tread down the wicked dent.

20 Even apart from these, men could
Fall at a single breath when stood
Up by justice and scattered by
The breath of Your power on the sly.
But You’ve arranged all things in sort
By measure, number and weight’s sport.
21 For it is always in Your power
To show great strength, and hour by hour
Who can withstand Your mighty arm?
22 The whole world before Your alarm
Is like a mote that tips the scales,
And like a drop of dew that fails
Not to appear in morning pales
To drop upon the ground in bales.
23 But You are merciful to all,
For You can do all things, and tall
You overlook men’s sins, that they
May repent on another day.
24 For You love all things that exist,
And have loathing for none You missed
Not to have made, for You would not
Have made anything of the lot
If You had hated it for rot.
25 How would anything have endured
If You had not willed it inured?
Or how would anything not called
Forth by You have been saved and walled?
26 You spare all things, for they are yours,
O YHWH, You love the living stores.

But You are merciful to all. I say,
Your mercy seems to have selective way.
Your mercy keeps the guilty on the throne,
Your mercy turns the heart of poor to stone.
Come down in mercy on the side of those
Who lie beneath the crushing weight and throes
Of the oppressing elite hand of gold.
Come down in mercy and destroy the bold.
Beloved, the law of jungle is the fare
We eat who ride upon the rushing air.
I know You gave a Decalogue as sweet,
I know You speak to each man on the street.
Put teeth in Your speech, then I’ll know the great
Mercy of God has fallen on the state.

WISDOM 12

1 For Your immortal spirit’s in
All things. 2 Therefore You come to win
Correction step by step in those
Who transgress, and remind with woes
Them of the things wherein they sin,
So they may be set free from stew
Of wickedness and trust in You
O YHWH…

O YHWH indeed! Bless You to say I’m right
That man alone is not Your image bright,
But all things here created day and night.
The inescapable awareness of
The “I” within that fits soul like a glove,
The YHWH-shaped emptiness arising from
Each act of evil, is the proof in sum
That there’s no I but You, Beloved, and no
Reality except the hands that go
Creating universes on the show
Screen of néant. Beloved, I am not slow
To react to the pricks within my heart,
The inner chamber where You start and start,
And step by step correct transgression’s part.

3 Those who lived in ancient times in
Your holy land, 4 You hate for sin,
Their works of sorcery and rites
Unholy, 6 their slaughter on sites
Without mercy, their sacrifice
To feast on human flesh and blood.
These initiates from the splice
Of heathen cult come in a flood,
6 These parents who took innocent
Lives, You did well in Your contrives
To destroy them and all their hives
By hands of our ancestors sent,
7 That the land most precious of all
To You might receive worthy call
In colony of servants true
Of Ælohim, servants of YHWH.

The ancient faith of Canaan that appears
Was destroyed by the hand of Hebrew seers
Is simply that which takes place in arrears
And sanitized by altar in the church.
They work the sorcery when come to perch
With bread and wine, and feast on sacrifice
Of human flesh and blood. But it is nice
They offer to the fire not their sons now
But Your son, my Beloved, for bleeding brow.
In ancient times the righteous pagan held
His own and precious to the knife that spelled
Death, now degeneration of the path
Is criminals are treated with the wrath
Of Methodist and Baptist paralleled.

8 But even these You came to spare,
Recognizing their blood and chair,
And sent before Your army’s run
Wasps to destroy them for Your fun
A little at a time to stun,
9 Since You could not give wicked up
To be destroyed by righteous tup
In battle and all at a blow
By dreadful beasts or Your word’s show.
10 But judging them in sleight of time
You gave them a chance in their clime
To repent, since You knew that they
Had started in the evil way
And had been born to wickedness,
And that their thinking in address
Would never change but in duress.
11 For they were an accursèd race
From the beginning, without trace
Of fear of anyone You left
Them unpunished for sins in cleft.
12 For who will say, “What have You done?”
Or will resist Your judgment won?
Who will accuse You for destruction
Of nations You made for obstruction?
Or who’ll come before You to plead
As advocate for wicked seed?
13 For neither is there any god
Besides You, whose care on the sod
Is for all men, to whom You proved
That You were not unjustly moved,
14 Nor can any king or monarch
Oppose You for the punished stark.

Thank You once more that You spell out the true:
There is no other god to come in view
To die on crosses and rise from the pew
An advocate for sinners in the stew.
No other god come in to intervene,
To plead the cause of those who scatter bean
Against Your good commandments and then wean
Others away from Your obedience keen.
It’s all a heathen myth, the advocate
Who justifies both sinners in his rate
And condemns You, Beloved, for Your judgement
Against oppression on the poor once sent.
You do not hesitate today for fear
Of criticism coming to Your ear.

15 You are righteous and rule all things
In righteousness, in Your dealings
You do not condemn innocent
To punishment.16 For Your strength’s bent
To uprightness, Your sovereignty
Over all makes You set all free.
17 For You show Your strength when men doubt
Your power to rule, and You are stout
To rebuke any insolence
Among those who regard Your fence.
18 You who are sovereign in power judge
With mildness and forbearance smudge,
For You can do all as You choose.
19 Through such works You have taught Your folk
That the upright man must not bruise,
And You’ve filled your sons at a stroke
With good hope, because You bring out
Repentance for sins all about.
20 For if You did punish with such
Great care and kindness the foes’ crutch
Of Your servants and those who came
Deserving of a death in flame,
And granting them time and a chance
To relinquish their wicked dance,
21 With what severity have You
Judged Your sons, to whose fathers You
Swore and made promises in pact
That for good only You would act.

I had not thought of that before! I faint
In shame that I so often make complaint
That You do not destroy the wicked from
The face of the whole earth, the dreadful scum.
Forebearance that You show to those who must
Go into the oblivion of dust
With guilt upon both hands and bloody rust
On soul, without a slight redeeming crust,
Is but the gauge of how much patience You
Have in store always for the upright crew,
Those who lay hold of Decalogue in view,
Repenting when they fail to meet the due.
I now rejoice in all the patience spent
On every salesman, every president.

22 So while You punish us You scourge
Our enemies and all named George
Ten thousand times more at the forge,
So we may meditate on your
Goodness when we judge on that score,
And when we are judged we may find
Expectation of mercy kind.
23 Therefore those who are in life’s folly
Living unrighteously, by golly,
You torment through the way of their
Abominations in their share.
24 For they went far astray on paths
Of error, accepting the wraths
Of beasts as gods which even their
Enemies despised, were deceived
Like foolish babes when they are thieved.
25 Therefore, as to such mindless youth,
You sent Your judgement without ruth
To mock them. 26 But those who have not
Heeded the warning of light plot,
Will feel deserved judgement of God.
27 For when in their suffering in pod
They became angry with those beasts
Which they had thought gods at their feasts,
Since they were punished by them, they
Saw and knew true Ælohim’s way,
Whom before they refused in sway.
That’s why the utmost condemnation
Came on them, both on root and nation.

The evil that men do returns to bite
The bass, as says contemporary wight.
The very gods of gold and oil come down
Upon the heads of those who gave the frown
To You and Your commandments in the town.
The ships spew out the blackened waste to make
A hell of punishment in the sins’ wake
That would destroy the earth by burning lake.
A century of hell that men have made
Bears witness to the faith at once displayed.
The proof of hell is clear for all to see.
Now let them show us for eternity
The paradise of their technology.
It’s only fair turn and about in trade.

WISDOM 13

1 For all men who were ignorant
Of Ælohim were foolish slant
By nature, and they could not know
Him from the good things in the show,
How He exists, nor recognize
A craftsman by his work in guise,
2 But they supposed that either fire
Or wind or air, or constellations,
Or running water or the lights
Of heaven were the gods in their rights
Who rule the world and all the nations.

The grasping at the four gates in their power
Is also an idolatrous mind’s hour.
The four gates are but pedestals of grief
Where the inspired soul rests to find relief.
If I stop whirling for a moment’s sound,
I fall upon the heathen slaughter ground,
And grasp in dizzy faint at what I’ve found,
Relying on the railing, iron bar,
The silver slant, the glistening golden star.
Beloved, let me whirl on, whirl on past all
The gates and idols where the veilings fall
And live in Your heart only for a stall,
Where no wind and no water touch my frame,
No earth and yet no fire feed on love’s flame.

3 If delight in the beauty of
These things inspired men to bring love
To them as gods, then be aware
How much more beautiful in stare
Is their Lord, for the source of such
Beauty created them to touch.
4 And if men were amazed at their
Power and function, let them compare
To how much greater in power He
Must be who formed them and set free.
5 For from the greatness and beauty
Of things created comes degree
Of perception of Maker’s spree.

The great apostle Paul can rarely quote
A passage from the Bible as was wrote,
But draws conclusions from the text that seem
Most fanciful to reason on the beam.
But when he wrote to Romans for their share
That all creation in sight comes to bear
A witness of the deity to wear,
He quoted Wisdom right and got down pat
The concept that idolatry is flat,
A surface looking at created things
And catching all their beauty in its wings.
Not only all creation but the faith
In idol and in artificial wraith
Come bearing witness of their divine springs.

6 These men are little to be blamed,
For perhaps they’re astray as claimed
While seeking Ælohim with thirst
To find Him above all things cursed.
7 For as they live among his works
They keep searching, and without shirks
They trust in what they see, because
The things they see follow the laws
Of beauty that everywhere lurks.
8 And yet they cannot be excused,
9 For if they had the power and used
It to know so much that they could
Investigate the world for good,
How did they fail to find more quick
The Lord of these things at a lick?
10 But miserable, with their hopes set
On dead things, are the men who met
The works of men’s hands and to name
Them “gods”, gold and silver in frame
Of skill, and beastly image too,
A useless stone made by a crew.

Instead of looking to the source behind
The beauty on the surface of the rind,
The human will set up ideal thought
In place of You, Beloved, and so is taught
To make of beauty in ideal set
The god of every kind of thing he’s met.
Trajectory of beauty in the thing
Should have led to Creator and the King.
Instead it inspired men to inventing
Expression of his delight in the ring.
The self-expression in place of the sight
Of cause and effect leads into the night
Of heathen worship, whether sung before
In ancient times or on technical floor.

11 A skilled woodcutter may saw down
A tree easy to draw to town
And with skill strip away the bark,
Then with pleasing workmanship park
And useful thing that serve’s life’s need,
12 And burn the extra wood to feed
Himself, and eat his fill with greed.
13 But a cast-off piece from the lots,
Useful for nothing, crooked, knots
Abounding, that he takes and carves
With care at leisure at the wharves
With skill born from his idleness,
He forms it like a man’s address,
14 Or makes it like some worthless beast,
Puts on some crimson paint at least
To cover every fault increased
With paint, 15 then makes for it a niche
To set it off on wall with leash
Attached to iron. 16 So he takes thought
So it won’t fall, it can’t be taught
To help itself, for it is just
An image to be raised from dust.
17 When he prays about wealth and more,
His marriage and offspring in store,
He has no shame to give a name
Addressing a lifeless thing’s claim.
18 For health he begs something that’s weak,
For life then he will come to seek
From a dead thing, for aid entreat
A thing that’s never done a feat,
To bless his journey make appeal
To one without a step or heel,
19 For profit, work, success of hand
He asks strength of a thing whose hand
Has no strength or any strength planned.

Aesthetic delight is presented here
As both the source of love and wisdom’s fear
Of the Creator, and the source in fact
Of heathen thought that gives way to the act.
The complaint of the wise neglects to see
The weight of delight in psychology,
But only focuses on surface fuel,
Utilitarian in carving duel.
Beloved, the argument denies the weight
Of beauty on the human heart and pate,
Despite the good beginning that the eye
On beauty could find out its Maker’s cry.
Almost, Beloved, mankind attains the true,
But then falls back to darkness or to You.

WISDOM 14

1 Again, one setting out to sail
Across the raging waves in gale,
Prays to a fragile piece of wood
Much weaker than the ship that stood
To carry him. 2 Desire for gain
Prompted the plan to ship the main,
And wisdom was the craftsman who
Built it, 3 but Your providence’ view,
O Father, steers its course, because
You’ve given it a path that draws
Across the sea, and a safe way
Through the waves, 4 showing that Your way
Can save from the danger’s delay,
So that even if a man lacks
Skill, he may put to sea in tracks.
5 You will Your wisdom to prevail,
Therefore men trust their lives in sail,
Even to the smallest piece of wood,
And pass through billows as they should,
On a raft come safely to land,
And guided always by Your hand.
6 For even at the start and when
Prideful giants fell among men,
The hope of the world took refuge
Upon a raft, even if huge,
And guided by Your hand remained
Seed of a new spawn on earth gained.
7 So blessed is the wood by which right
Comes to the world dispelling night.

Although the wood of which is built the ship
Is much a better aid than image slipped
In carved out of the self-same tree to be
A god and guide to both the bond and free,
It is wood too. And yet from early times
The wood alone did not create the rhymes.
It matters not perhaps how strong the oar,
Or strength of arm in those set from the shore.
What keeps all nature, not just human race,
On course and in the right and lawful place,
And in successful mode under Your grace,
Is rather guidance from Your blessèd face.
I do not break my compass and yard-arm,
And still I trust You in the face of harm.

The baba sat and smoked in peace his pipe
While all the passengers with fear made ripe
By storm and grief set up a wail and prayer
To beg of You salvation from the blare.
When the ship came to harbour safe and bound,
They asked him where his calm hope had been found,
Did he not know and inch of rotting wood
Alone stayed certain death among the good?
He only said now that we’re on the dock,
There is no longer even that in stock,
But I walk here with certain death beside
Me everywhere I turn to walk or ride.
Beloved, take every veil between my way
And death and keep me only in Your stay.

8 But idol made with hands is cursed,
And so is he who made it worst,
Because he did the work and it,
A perishable thing unfit,
Was named a god by a nitwit.
9 For equally hateful to God
Are ungodly men and the rod
Of their ungodliness on sod.
10 For what was done will be at last
Punished together with outcast
Who perpetrated the repast.

The sweet Christian that hates my gut replies
That ‘hate the sin but love the sinful guys’
Is the sure way of Christ, and yet Your word
Is clear upon this matter and unblurred.
At least You Yourself hate the sinful man
As much as You despise his wicked plan.
O my Beloved, I have received such tale
Of teaching that I love both heart and hale,
Both wicked and the righteous in the camp.
Beloved, teach me to hate aright the scamp.
By contrast, may I choose a heart to keep
My love of the most righteous high and deep.
For just as You love what the good man does,
You also love the man, straight hair or fuzz.

11 So judgement falls on pagan gods,
Because, though part upon the sods
Of Ælohim’s creation here,
They became abomination,
And became snares for men’s souls near,
And pits for foolish foot and bun.
12 The thought to make idols was start
Of fornication, and their dart
Was the corruption of men’s life,
In house and home and child and wife.
13 They did not exist from the start,
Nor will they stay when they depart.
14 For through the vanity of men
They entered in the worldly den,
And quickly will they in their time
Disappear from both space and clime.

Idolatry, the false belief about
You, my Beloved, as God, is start of rout
In evil, in all wickedness at hand.
Those who say it does not matter when planned
What men believe about You on the stand,
Since You are great and above human thought,
It only matters here what men have wrought,
Are here to perpetrate the evil score.
The bad theology is nothing more
Than spring of evil act upon the shore.
Beloved, keep me in worship of the One
Who has been here before things were begun,
Who is alone my Sovereign and my God,
The One who spoke upon Sinai’s hard sod.

15 A father, consumed with his grief
In bereavement’s time for relief,
Made an image of his own child,
Who had been taken unbeguiled
From him in suddenness, and he
Now honoured as a god to be
What once was dead humanity,
And handed down to those that came
After of his dependents’ fame
The secret rites initiate.
16 Then the ungodly custom late
Grown strong with time as law of state
Till at command of kings it came
Carved images worshipped in shame.
17 When men could not honour their kings
In their presence, for distancings,
They kept in mind how they looked where
They were, and made visible share
In image of the king so they
Might honour him in the right way,
By their zeal flattering the one
Though absent as though present gun.
18 Then the ambition of the man
Of skill inspired by beauty’s plan
Even the ones who did not know
The king to greatly worship so.
19 For he, perhaps indeed to please
His ruler skilful in his slease
Fudged in the likeness to be more
Beautiful in image than store.
20 And so the crowd charmed by his art,
Looked on it as object in part
For worship, though of one they had
Before honoured as a man sad.

The theory of the origin of sin
In worshipping idols in wicked bin
Is the beginning of the art I stay
To practice in the academic way.
Comparative religion once set out
To find the origins of faith about
The ghosts that haunted tale and dwelling place,
Or to define what high god’s ancient race
Degenerated in to many ways
That people come about to pray and praise.
We have not yet surpassed Wisdom in that
Fell theory to describe religion pat.
Who knows and who explains the evil claw
That usurps love and faith from Your first law?

21 And this became a hidden trap
For humankind, because men’s rap,
In bondage to misfortune or
To royal authority’s bore,
Bestowed on wooden objects or
Of stone the name not to have score.
22 After that it was not enough
For them to err about the stuff
Of Ælohim, but they would live
In great strife through ignorance’ sieve,
And they call such great evils peace,
Though a burden without release.

Each time a king has ordered all the realm
To worship at one altar by his helm,
The result is that men and women too
Are beaten to submission by the crew
Of priests elected and paid with the bread
From widows’ mouths and orphans to be fed.
Each time a king has ordered heathen grace
To fill the churches and the temples’ space
The result is that peace proclaimed aloud
Is really just oppression of the crowd.
Beloved, Islam’s hypocrisy I fear,
I flee the name and its oppressive gear,
And take the peace that comes from You alone,
Bowed and repentant at Your sovereign throne.

23 For whether they kill children in
Initiations, or begin
To celebrate secret mysteries,
Or hold frenzied revels with slease,
24 They no longer keep either lives
Or marriages pure in their hives,
But they as traitors either kill
Each other, or grieve each one still
By their adultery on the hill.
25 All is a rage and riot of
Blood and murder, theft and false love,
Corruption, faithlessness, tumult,
And perjury to an insult,
26 Confusion over what is good,
Forgetfulness of favours stood,
Pollution of souls, sex perversion,
Disorder in marriage, immersion
In adultery’s debauchery.
27 For the worship of idols’ spree
Not to be named is the early
Cause and end of every sad fee.
28 For their worshippers either rave
In exultation, or engrave
A prophecy of lies, or live
Unrighteously, or readily
Commit perjury like a sieve,
29 Since they trust in lifeless idols
They swear wicked oaths for their souls
Expecting no harm in the tolls.
30 But penalties in justice will
Overtake them on two counts’ bill:
Because they thought wickedly of
Ælohim in devoting love
To idols, and since in deceit
They swore unrighteously through meet
Contempt for holiness in feat.
31 For it is not the power of things
By which men swear, but the just stings
For those who sin, that will pursue
Always wrong of the wicked crew.

The faith of state that’s claimed to be of peace,
But is in fact the source of all release
Of evil on the world, is perpetrated
For ever as a vehicle instated
To keep the power of kings, the status quo
Through controlled violence and on the go.
Beloved, the government of Decalogue,
That law forsaken by all in the bog,
Is what I wish above all things to see,
That law of faith and freedom on the free.
Roll in the day of justice on the mass,
And as it takes root in the heart of lass
And laddie everywhere the sound is heard,
I trow in righteousness Your world is stirred.

WISDOM 15

1 But You, our God, are kind and true,
Patient, and ruling all things due
In mercy. 2 For even if we sin
We are Yours, know Your powers begin,
But we will not sin, because we
Know we’re accounted Yours freely.
3 To know You is full righteousness,
And to know Your power and confess
Is root of immortality.

Eternal life according to the word
Of Jesus Christ in John seventeen stirred
Is to know You the only True God. I
Suspect that Jesus quoted on the sly
The grand Apocrypha and Wisdom’s book
Despite the fact he as a Baptist shook
In fear to quote a Catholic verse and chapter.
Maybe he thought no one would see the mapter.
Beloved, I quote You anywhere I find
Your word established in spirit and kind,
In Mad or Donald Duck, but please remind
Me to keep to the Decalogue and so
Interpret comics in the proper glow.
My eyesight’s failing and my reading’s slow.

4 Neither has human art’s intent
Of evil misled us in vent,
Nor fruitless toil of painters spent,
A figure dyed with hues for rent,
5 Whose likeness rouses up in fools
The yearning to desire from tools
The lifeless form of image dead.
6 Lovers of evil things are fed
And fit for such objects of hope,
And they are those who come to cope
By making or worshipping slope
Of artificial forms in dope.
7 For when a potter kneads soft clay
And with effort moulds each cup’s way,
He makes out of the same lump both
The clean pots and chamber pot’s oath
With the same technique, he decides
For which use each one here abides.
8 With vain actions he forms a vain
And futile god from the same grain,
This man who was himself just made
From earth and after his parade
Goes down to the earth from which he
Was taken, when he has to see
His soul return to Him who lent.
9 But he is not concerned that he
Is destined to die or his spent
Life is brief, but instead competes
With workers in the craftsman’s feats
In gold and silver, copperware,
And he considers it his share
Of fame that he moulds counterfeit
Gods by his imitation’s wit,
And considers his name of fame
For making idols without shame.
10 His heart is ashes, his hope’s cheap,
More so than dirt, his life to keep
Less worth than clay, 11 because he failed
To know the One who formed him flailed
And inspired him with active soul
And breathed in him living breath’s toll.
12 But he considered our existence
An idle game, and life’s consistence
A festival for profit’s gain,
For he says one must get insane
Money however one can, yet
By dishonest means when need’s met.

The basics of today’s philosophy
Are just the same as in that ancient spree:
The game of life is just to make a pound
If it takes making idols from the ground.
Indeed, there’s hardly anything to buy
In all the market places of this sty
But idols, idols made of gold and brass,
Of plastic, papier mache and such crass.
Beloved, I’m grateful that I do not starve
Upon this planet where the most men carve
Out idols or if not fall in the wake
From hunger before all the market’s stake.
As though by special grace here one, there two
Are saved from pretty profits that accrue.

13 For this man of all men must know
He sins when he makes from the show
Of earthy matter vessels’ row
And graven images to go.
14 But foolish and in misery
More than an infant on the tee
Are each and every enemy
Who has oppressed your folk in spree.
15 For they thought all their heathen props
Were gods, though these have neither flops
From their eyes to see with, nor nose
With which to draw a breath in pose,
Nor ears with which to hear, nor yet
Fingers to feel with, and their set
Feet cannot walk when they are let.
16 For a man made them, and one whose
Spirit is borrowed formed their clues,
For no man yet can form a god
Which is like himself on the sod.
17 He’s mortal, and what he can make
With lawless hands is a dead stake,
For he is better than the things
He worships, since his life has wings,
But they have no life in their springs.
18 The foes of your folk worship most
Hateful of animals in boast,
And are worse than all others, when
Judged by their lack of judgement then,
19 And even as animals they
Are not so beautiful to stay
In looks as one would hope, but they
Have escaped both Ælohim’s praise
And His blessing out from the maze.

The centuries in which Wisdom’s book saw
The light are those when pagans in false awe
Developed in a flash idols to stand
In temples round the world, where in the scanned
Days before that, no images were found
Upon the eastern lays and morning’s ground.
Proliferation of idolatry
Circled the globe when Hellenizing fee
Was set upon the land of Palestine,
And with the spread, also the bread and wine.
Beloved, I turn back to the books before
The images entered into the store
To find the closer values of respect
For parents and for Creator’s elect.

WISDOM 16

1 Therefore those men got their deserts
Through such creatures and to their hurts
Tormented by a crowd of such.
2 By contrast I see Your kind touch
To Your folk, and You gave them quail
To eat, delicacy’s avail
To satisfy the appetite,
3 While those men when they wanted bite
Might lose the least part of desire
Because of those creatures of ire
Sent to them, while Your folk in want
A short time might last come to haunt
The halls of delicate cuisine.
4 For it was needed on the scene
That those oppressors should feel heat,
While to these others it was meet
That they should see their foes’ retreat
In torment. 5 For when the great rage
Of wild beasts came on Your folk sage
And they were in destruction’s wave
Bitten by writhing serpents’ crave,
Your anger did not stay to grave,
6 For they were troubled for a while
To warn them, received without guile
A token of salvation’s smile
Reminding them of law’s command.
7 For he who turned toward the stand
Was saved, not by what he saw, but
By You, the Saviour of all cut.

I trust the giving of the quail was meant
To show Your mercy and the grace You sent
Among the people who came up to stand
Against the face of Egypt and the grand.
And yet the story goes on to reveal
How Your grace can be turned on ear and heel,
When lust and greed impale the hopeful slant
And meat between the teeth slays those who can’t.
Beloved, I take a toothpick on my score
And carefully extract the stringy gore,
And turn again to grace from my own store
Of lust and grasping at the heavenly door.
Instead I whirl a tune upon the floor
And rise again against the sky and rant.

8 And by this also You convinced
Our foes You saved all those who winced
From every evil on the strut.
9 For they were killed by locusts’ bites
And flies, without healing in sights,
Because they deserved punishment
By such things on them as were sent,
10 But your sons were not done away
By even poisoned serpents’ day,
For Your mercy came down to stay
In help and healing in array.
11 To turn them back to what You said
They were bitten, and as they bled
They were saved quickly, lest they fall
Under deep forgetfulness’ pall,
And fail to respond to Your call.
12 For neither herb nor poultice cured
Them, but it was, O Lord, Your word,
Which heals all men when they are stirred.

The fiery serpents in the desert way
Provide the metaphors in decades’ sway
And in the centuries that ponder time
The vipers still wriggle, and squirm and climb.
I’d rather feel the bite of locust than
The asp’s tongue flicking on the skin of man,
And yet I mind my own grandfather’s wail
At age of two, when he sat down to flail
The pet blacksnake that lived behind the stove.
It bit him on the arm, the scar where drove
The snake’s teeth could be seen in my own day.
He let go of the churn and paddle quick.
My own thoughts rise and I have bell to pay,
As I meet serpents if not forms of stick.

13 For You have power of life and death,
You lead men down to the gates’ breath
Of Hades and bring back again.
14 A man in his wickedness’ den
May kill another, but he can’t
Bring back departed spirit’s haunt,
Nor set free the imprisoned soul.
15 To escape from Your hand in toll
Cannot be done. 16 The ungodly,
Refusing to know You and see,
Were beaten by strength of Your arm,
Pursued by strange rains, hail and harm
Of storms, and utterly consumed
By fire. 17 For strangely though once doomed
To water, which quenches all things,
The fire was still greater in stings,
For so defends the universe
The upright and from every curse.

Beloved, I speak to You as though You were
A personage beloved, such as occur
In sight and bound of earth, and such as stir
By form and grace love and awe beneath fur.
I know the Gecian thought that makes abstract
And spirit what should be both form and act,
And know that the sophisticated hacked
Naiveté for all the things it slacked.
And still I speak to You, Beloved, though You
Are thought when thought to be behind the crew
Of all things made, silent, spirit in lieu
Of lover. If You are the universe,
All in all, One, and not a loving curse,
I still embrace You in my love and true.

18 At one time the flame was restrained,
So it might not consume the trained
Creatures sent against wicked ones,
So that the sight might show their tons
That they were objects of judgement
From Ælohim in what was meant,
19 And at another time right in
The middle of the water’s din
It burned more strongly than the fire,
To destroy the crops in its ire
In the land of unrighteous bin.
20 Instead of these things You did give
Your folk food on which angels live,
And without toil You did supply
Them with bread ready from the sky,
Providing every pleasure and
Suited to every taste at hand.
21 Your providence showed how sweet You
Were toward Your children and for brew
And bread You served the one who took
It to make suited every look.

The manna too is subject of the tale
That’s drawn from centuries in heart and hale
To be the metaphor of all things good
Drawn from Your hand of providence as could.
The mystic and the true believer come
To taste of Your blessed harvest and in sum
To find celestial bread in flesh and blood
Of god-men resurrected from the flood.
My doubting Thomas’ heart turns back to find
The desert way and looks across the blind
To know that You accept no human gift,
No sacrifice, nor even love to lift
Untainted in the pews. For sacrifice
Is just a man’s attempt not to suffice.

22 Snow and ice withstood fire without
Melting, so that they might no doubt
Know their foes’ farms failed at the root
Under the blaze of fire and soot
In the hail and the showers of rain,
23 Whereas the fire, in ordered bane
Came that the righteous might be fed,
Even forgetting its power bred.
24 For the creation, serving You
Who have made it, exerts the true
To punish the unrighteous crew,
And in kindness relaxes hand
In behalf of the righteous band
Who trust in You there where they stand.

The stars that in their courses came to trap
Good Sisera who merely hoped to nap,
Reflect the universe spread out with cap
To trip the wicked and give upright rap
To those who love Your name and keep Your law.
Such an idea seems insane in my craw.
And yet I act accordingly in awe
And still expect obedience in paw
To be the best way to meet nature’s theft,
The best way to avoid being bereft.
After the crusades of the church and state,
When I have barely gear and cabbage left,
I still believe there’s something beyond fate,
A glory and a lifting at the gate.

25 Therefore at that time also, changed
Into all forms, it served as ranged
Your providential bounty by
The desire of those needing cry,
26 So that Your children tenderly,
O Lord, might learn that it’s not free
Productions of the fields that feed
Humankind, but Your word indeed
Preserves those who trust in Your creed.
27 For what was not destroyed by fire
Was melted when warmed by the ire
Of a fleeting ray of the sun,
28 To make it known that anyone
Must rise before the sun to give
You thanks, and must pray as to live
To You at the dawning of light,
29 For the hope of ungrateful men
Will melt like winter’s frost again,
And flow away like water waste,
Darkly and too muddy to taste.

You set, Beloved, the time of morning prayer
While darkness still touches the sudden air,
And fail to give the hopes of men who stay
Asleep in their ungrateful given way
A light and glimmer of the golden ray.
I see the mighty rivers of the lost,
The detritus of heathen hopes out-tossed,
Move in majestic awfulness toward
The sea of blackened oil instead of sword.
Beloved, in winter’s claw I too rise up
To find my prayers recited and the cup
Of nectar waiting after the night’s sup.
In summer, though, there is no dark nor dawn.
And still I wait for You, a frozen fawn.

WISDOM 17

1 Great are Your judgments and beyond
Description, that’s why the undawned
Have gone astray. 2 When lawless men
Thought they held the holy in den
Of their power, they themselves were laid
As captives, because they had strayed
In darkness, slaves of the long night,
Shut in under their domes in plight,
Exiles from the eternal right.
3 For thinking that their secret sins
Were not seen behind their veils skins
Forgetful, they were scattered out,
Alarmed in terror, and in rout
Appalled by spectres of redoubt.
4 For not even the inner room
That held them protected from doom
Of fear, but terrifying sounds
Rang out around them, and the rounds
Of dismal phantoms gloomy faced
Appeared there everywhere they traced.
5 And no power of fire could give light,
Nor did the brilliant flames at night
Of the stars suffice to light up
That hateful night drawn in their cup.
6 Nothing was shining through to them
Except a dreadful sort of gem,
Self-kindled fire, and in their fright
They thought the things rose in their sight
Worse than the unseen in its spite.
7 The delusions of magic art
Lay humbled, and their boasted part
Of wisdom scornfully rebuked
Where vain hearts had been darkly spooked.

The very heathen powers that stretch abroad
Their wicked wings to ploy upon the sod
Oppression of the righteous and the poor,
Also have inner temples to be sure.
The inner chamber is a thing of men
That cannot be fled, for it is a den
Of light wherein the candle of Your life
Burns bright, or else the darkness of the strife
Creates illusions of illumination
For kings and generals to keep their station.
Beloved, I live in empires of the dust,
And yet my inner chamber knows no rust,
And always there I find the carven crust
That feeds my body and my soul’s elation.

8 For those who promised to drive off
The fears and disorders to scoff
At a sick soul were sick themselves
With ridiculous fears of elves.
9 For even if nothing at all
Disturbing frightened them in stall,
Still frightened by the passing sound
Of beasts or serpents on the ground,
10 They perished in their trembling fear,
Refusing to look at the bound,
Though everything there must appear.
11 For wickedness is cowardly,
Condemned by its testimony,
Distressed by conscience, always it
Exaggerated the hardship.
12 For fear is nothing but surrender
Of the aid come from reason’s splendour,
13 And the hope inside, being weak,
Prefers to ignore what laws seek
The torment. 14 But throughout the night,
Which was indeed without power slight,
And pressed upon them from the deep
Of Hades powerless to keep,
They all slept in a common sleep,
15 And now were driven by monstrous ghosts,
And now were paralysed from boasts
By their souls’ surrender, for soon
An unexpected fear aswoon
Came over them. 16 Whoever there
Was fell down, and was kept in care
Of prison not made of iron, 17 for
Whether he was a farmer or
A shepherd or a workman who
Toiled in the wilderness, in due
He was seized, and endured the fate
Not to be escaped any rate,
For with one chain of darkness they
Were all bound and then put away.

The life and death of the unrighteous makes
A subject for contemplations’ mistakes:
But through the fog on unknown brass and claw
One thing appears in psychologic law.
Fear is the state of all who come to take
The share undue from widowed, orphaned cake,
And fright maintains its hegemony clear
On those who first refused to shed a tear.
The sycophantic scare of superstition,
The magical, the mythical ignition,
That frightened our ancestors from the roof
Now treads upon our hearts with the same spoof
In fear of all disasters both aquatic
And atmospheric pollutants exotic.

18 Whether there came a soughing wind,
Or sound of melody unpinned
Of birds in a wide-spreading tree,
Or gurgle of water run free,
19 Or the harsh crash of rocks hurled down,
Or the running of beast or clown
Unseen, or the beast’s savage roar,
An echo thrown back from the store
Of mountains, it freezes with fright.
20 For the whole world lit up with light
Was engaged in unhindered work,
21 While over those men alone dirk
Of heavy night was spread, in dark
Shadows and where they come to park,
But still beyond the weight of shade
Were they to themselves in charade.

The heavy night creeps on both those who wield
The power of electronic saving shield
And those who in their symbiotic field
Live on the refuse from that wealthy store.
The heavy night enters man to the core.
Beloved, I set a single candle glow
Upon the barren niche within the stow
Of inner chamber, and find the heat there
Enough to shade my soul from fear and care.
The darkness of the woods that once rose up
In horror of the twitter and the lup
Of night sounds now becomes a warm retreat,
And blanket of my comfort, for my feet
A safe path and a haven on my street.

WISDOM 18

1 But for your holy ones there came
Very great light. Their foes in shame
Heard voices but did not see form,
Happy not to pass through the storm
Of suffering, 2 and were grateful too
For Your holy ones in their pew,
Though wronged before, did not avenge
Themselves, and they begged for revenge
Pardon for their differing in view.
3 That’s why You sent a flame of fire
To guide Your people from the mire,
And cloud to cover up the sun
From burning them when they’d begun.
4 Their foes deserved to have no light
And be locked in darkness from sight,
Those who’d kept your sons in the store
Of prison, through whom open door
Of uncorrupted light’s law came
To be given a world of blame.
5 When they’d decided they would kill
The new born of Your holy hill,
And one child had been left to float
And was rescued from his reed boat,
You took a multitude away
Of the children as though in sway
Of punishment, and did destroy
Them in a mighty flood with joy.
6 That night was made known beforehand
To our ancestors, so in band
They might rejoice in certain sight
Of the oaths they trusted aright.
7 The saving of the righteous and
Destruction of the wicked band
Of foes was awaited and long
By Your people under the wrong.

What was the great light that in Egypt came
To blind the eyes of the oppressor’s blame
And fill with hope and knowledge those who stood
In guise of slaves to represent the good?
It could not be the plagues of blood and fire,
It could not be flies and frogs of desire,
It must not be the rod and serpent cast
Upon the sandstone floors with eyes aghast.
The light You sent, Beloved, was that the call
To sacrifice in wilderness from stall
Was prefaced first by Sabbath in the field
Of Pharaoh and rebellion of its yield.
The boycott and the strike of Sabbath day
Is light indeed, task-masters lose their way.

8 For by the same means by which You
Did punish our enemies’ crew
You called us to Yourself to be
Your glory in eternity.
9 In secret holy children of
Good men offered offerings above,
And with one mind agreed to keep
The divine law, that saints would reap
The same things, both blessings and dangers,
And already they were as rangers
Singing the praises of ancestors.
10 But the discordant cry of questers
To the attack echoes around
Their children’s lament’s pitied sound.
11 The slave was punished with the same
Penalty as the master’s blame,
And common man suffered the same
Loss as the king, 12 and all together,
By the one form of deathly feather,
Had corpses too many to count.
The living were too few to mount
Their burying, since in one stroke
Their favoured sons fell as they broke.
13 Though they had doubted because they
Engaged in magic arts for play,
Yet when their first-born were destroyed,
They admitted Your folk employed
To be son of Ælohim there.
14 For while the silence covered all,
And night in its swift course to fall
Was half gone, 15 Your great word leaped down
From heaven upon the royal crown,
Into the land that then was doomed,
A stern warrior bearing the gloomed
Sword sharpened by Your true command,
And rose and filled all in the land
With death and touched the sky on high
While standing on the earth to try.

Your word, Beloved, is not an echoing
Of nothingness upon the vibrant string,
But when it falls, leaps up to bare the sword
And shine upon the firmament like Lord.
Your word, Beloved, is not a breath unseen
Like that of humankind fleeting and lean,
But when it rises, its eternity
Fails not to lighten earth and sky and sea.
The one called the Messiah took a dirk
Or two and said the sword should do his work
Dividing fathers from their sons and all
Scattered beneath Your burning law’s appal.
Your word, Beloved, though still and small in time
Becomes a flaming power before its rhyme.

17 At once phantoms in dreadful dreams
Greatly troubled them, and it seems
Fears fell on them, 18 one here, one there
Fell down half dead, made known the scare
Of why they died, 19 for the dreams share
Predicted the disturbing care,
So they might not die without knowing
Why they suffered for all their showing.
20 The plague of death touched also those
Who were righteous and on them rose
The plague on the multitudes in
The desert, but the wrath for sin
Did not continue long in din.
21 A blameless man was quick to rise
A saviour, in his office’ guise
Brought shield of prayer and atonement
By incense, he withstood the sent
Anger and put an end to that
Disaster, as Your serving cat.
22 He conquered the wrath not by strength
Of body, and not by arms’ length,
But by his word he conquered fear
Of the plague, and made to appear
The oaths and covenants You gave
To our ancestors before slave.
23 The dead already fell in heaps
Upon each other and in leaps,
But he came in between and held
Back wrath and cut off its way spelled
To the living. 24 For on his robe
Was pictured the whole world in globe,
And glories of ancestors were
Engraved on the four rows in stir
Of stones, and Your majesty fell
Upon the crown of his head well.
25 To these things the destroyer gave
Way, these he feared, for merely grave
Test of the wrath sufficed to stave.

The same act of grace that destroys the weak,
The sinful, beastly army out to seek
The upright with destruction, is the hand
That brings salvation to the upright band.
The end of one is just a warning set
To others on the right path when they met.
The plague of death and scorching turns aside
Before the bright robes of the priest to bide,
The flashing of the gems upon his chest,
The righteousness that clothes him in his best.
Beloved, I seek the four rows of the clear
And sweet gems set upon the breastplate near,
And know the sword raised at my head is just
The warning to pass before me in dust.

WISDOM 19

1 But the ungodly were assailed
To the end by anger unveiled
Without pity, for Ælohim
Knew beforehand the future beam
Of all their acts, 2 so that, though they
Themselves had led Your folk astray
And sent them quickly out, they would
Change their minds from the way they should
And pursue them. 3 While they were still
In busy mourning, and lamenting
At the graves of their dead preventing,
They took another foolish thought
And went after the fugitives,
Those they had begged, as their king lives,
To leave. 4 For the fate they deserved
Drew them on to this end unswerved,
And made them forget what occurred,
So they might incur punishment,
Which their torments still lacked inferred,
Upon the path that they were spent,
5 And that Your folk might take the road
To an incredible trip slowed,
But they themselves might meet strange death.
6 For all creation in its breath
Was formed anew by Your commands,
To keep Your children in their bands
Unharmed by any evil hands.

The plagues on Egypt it seems sufficed not,
But there was need for greater torment’s lot.
The bloody river of the Nile in flood
Was added to the Red Sea and its mud.
I send my slaves out from my sight and find
That without their help I’m no longer blind,
And so I stand amazed that any might
Upon a day and year go out to fight.
Beloved, the waters of baptism failed,
The darkness of the cloud, the folk that wailed,
Bring to my sight the fleeing, hope-tossed folk
Saved from their impasse by Your mighty stroke.
I walk amid the reeds between the two
And take a view of both hands in their crew.

7 The cloud was seen in shadow on
The camp, the dry land rose upon
The water that had stood before,
An open way through Red Sea’s shore,
A grassy plain from raging waves,
8 Where those protected by Your staves
Passed through as one nation to gaze
On all the marvels of Your maze.
9 Cavorting like horses, they leaped
Like lambs, praising You, Lord, who heaped
Deliverance on them. 10 For they
Recalled the events of their stay,
When earth produced gnats and not beasts,
And instead of fish for their feasts
The river spewed out throngs of frogs.
11 After these wondered dialogues
They saw a new species of bird,
When desire for food their heart stirred,
12 To their relief quails from the sea
Came up. 13 The punishments to be
Came on sinners not without signs
Beforehand in thunder’s designs,
For they in justice suffered for
Their wicked actions. They did more
In bitter hatred on the score
Of foreigners. 14 Others in spite
Refused to receive strangers right
When they came to them, but these made
Slaves of guest benefactors’ trade.

The awfulness that’s stated in repayment
To benefactors come in goodly raiment
May be true. But two things now come to mind
To mitigate the statement in its kind.
The first is that we’re talking about those
Who were descended from principle rows.
The one’s who gave the benefit You chose
Were honoured in their time and place with fame.
The second point is that good Joseph came
Up with a plan that enslaved those of blame
In Egypt, who sold body and soul to
The king in slavery. Policy in view
From Joseph was the root that slavery drew.
Your word is biased to the last slave crew.

15 Not only so, but punishment
Will come upon the former tent
By lack of hospitality
To strangers, 16 but those latterly,
After receiving them with joy,
Afflicted by horrors’ employ
Those who had shared in the same right.
17 They were stricken with loss of sight,
Just as those at the door of Lot.
That righteous man in Sodom’s plot,
When lost in darkness’ cave around,
Each tried to find his own door’s bound.
18 For elements changed places then
With one another, and as when
On a harp the sounds change in way
Of rhythm, while the same notes stay.
We know that clearly from events.
19 For land beasts were changed in presence
Of water creatures, and the sea
Creatures that swam came up to be
Upon the land. 20 And even fire
Kept in water its normal ire,
And water forgot how to quench
The fire when it came up to drench.
21 Flames, by contrast, failed to consume
The flesh of mortal creature’s bloom
That walked among them, nor did they
Melt glass as in their wonted way.
22 For in all things, O Lord, You make
Height and glory for Your folk’s sake,
And You have not failed in Your time
To keep them in all things from crime.

There have been those occasions when the file
Of what I had expected of the mile
Was changed in fire and water and in earth:
In times of plenty I have seen the dearth,
And when the water flowed, I saw the dry
Come rushing from the wall into the sky.
There have been those occasions on the fair
And on the wicked too, no doubt, beware,
For on the just and on the unjust You
Spare neither pains nor rains nor even dew.
Beloved, the fish of the reed sea who came
To walk upon the desert sand in flame
Can find an explanation in the book
Of science if we only look and look.

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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