ISAIAH CHAPTER 1 - 6

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH

The grand prophetic voice that faithfully
Reflects the state of the eighth century
Is now by many scholars thought to be
Synchronic whole to study in a spree.
The earlier text critical approach
Is now left in the dust by horse and coach.
Beloved, methinks the whole of industry
In Scripture could be viewed so merrily.
Who knows what is fact in reality
About the authors and the texts that come
Down through both hands and minds to conundrum?
It’s relevant today only that such
Writings hold common themes for men to touch,
And common threads women have woven much.

According to the order of LX
X Isaiah’s the first book in complex
Of prophecy. But in the scheme of things
I see, it is but the continuings
Of those books that rely upon the stings
Of David who remains the king of kings.
The books of Moses and et cetera
Propound the beginnings as well as law.
The books of David show how on the earth
The reign of YHWH may appear in both dearth
And in the rare and glorious days where rule
The princes that have passed the divine school.
The prophecy itself is not the fat
That people think in the darkness they’ve sat,
A picture and prediction of the stark
That’s waiting for those put out of the park.
Prophecy is to take a harp in hand
And like King David on the Dead Sea’s strand
Below En Gedi lift a skilful hand
And in the exaltation of the sound
Of royally divine across the bound
Of set and tuned strings speak upon the ground
In syllables inspired, inspiring found.
Isaiah was a man who lived to see
The glow of Judah’s final century
Before the great wound of captivity.
His singing started in the year that King
Uzziah died, or seven forty-thing,
And the concern upon his heart to ring
To the sound of the harp was the falling
Of Israel and Judah for their sin.
Judah lived under threat and under din
Of the Assyrian forces come to win,
And king and people turned their face to find
Salvation of the military kind.
Isaiah came resisting putting faith
In horse and chariot as well as wraith;
He achieved fame prophetic when the hosts
Of the Assyrians fell from their boasts
Without a battle at Jerusalem,
Caught dead upon the sand in purple hem.
Exulting to be right inspired the songs
Recorded in this book of foreign prongs.
He trusts the nation yet may fall, but sees,
Beyond all failure of the folk on knees
Before the conqueror, the restoration
Of David’s throne and kingdom and his station.
So good Isaiah just continues here
Showing the models defined cloud and clear
Of how and why to be faithful to God
While living in a body on the sod.

It seems the book contains some writings too
That were provided later by the crew
Of good Isaiah’s disciples in view.
Even in the first part of the book there
Are words reflecting captivity’s share,
A century after good Isaiah:
The oracles against Babylon’s claw
In chapters thirteen and fourteen in awe,
And the apocalypse in twenty-four
To twenty-seven, and poems in store
Of chapters thirty-three to thirty-five.
Toward the end of the Exile’s contrive
An unnamed harpist with deep thoughts alive
Looks forward to the coming time when God
Would comfort His folk and restore the prod
Of life in fair Jerusalem, and thus
Proclaim the way to live amid the fuss
Of empires is to hope in age to come,
The Messianic time when every bum
Of wicked government shall fail and fall
And righteousness stand high upon the wall.
This book of consolation comes to be
In chapters forty up to the lovely
Chapter fifty-five, in which rise to sing
The four great songs of YHWH’s Servant on wing,
The son once called from Egypt to atone
In suffering for the sins of folk and throne.
The recapitulation at the end,
Chapters fifty-six to sixty-six wend
Among the former themes both great and small
And reaffirm each one as divine call.

ISAIAH 1

1 The vision of Isaiah son
Of Amoz, that he saw begun
On Judah and Jerusalem
In days of Uzziah, Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings
Of Judah. 2 Hear therefore, O wings
Of heaven, and give ear, O earth!
For YHWH has spoken things of worth,
“I have nourished children brought up
Who have rebelled against My cup,
3 The ox knows its master, the donkey
Its master’s crib and without honkey,
But Israel does not know, My folk
Do not consider what I spoke.”
4 Alas, a sinful nation, and
A people laden foot and hand
With iniquity, and a brood
Of evildoers, children who’d
Be corrupters! They have forsaken
YHWH, and they have in loss mistaken
To provoke to anger the Holy
One of Israel, they’ve become lowly
And turned away backward. 5 Why should
You be stricken again? Why would
You revolt more and more? The whole
Head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
6 From sole of foot without restraint
Even to the head, no soundness
In it, wounds, bruises and a mess
Of putrefying sores, they’ve not
Been closed or bound up on the spot,
Or soothed with ointment. 7 Your country
Is desolate, every city
Burned with fire, strangers come devour
Your land in your presence an hour,
And it’s desolate, overthrown
By strangers you had not foreknown.
8 The daughter of the fortress left
As a booth in vineyard bereft,
As a hut in cucumber garden
A besieged city without pardon,
9 Unless YHWH of hosts had left us
A very small remnant in truss,
We would have been like Sodom, and
Gomorrah-like in our sins stand.

Beloved, I do not criticize the people
You favoured by Your hand, their church and steeple,
The synagogue or mosque: Your judgment stands.
I strike not Israel nor other lands.
I only pray that You will do for me
What You did not do for the family
Of Abraham. Lord, make me like the ass,
Let me eat morning oats and hay and grass,
And recognize the barn and crib that’s mine.
Like Ishmael, to be an ass is fine,
If I can be a wild ass running free.
And so I freely turn from all that’s me
To find my Self and master where You are.
I hitch my donkeycart to one bright star.

10 Hear the word of YHWH, you rulers
Of Sodom, give ear what law stirs
From our God, you people that scuff
Gomorrah, 11 “To what purpose is
The number of sacrifices
To Me?” Says YHWH. “I’ve had enough
Of burnt offerings of rams and stuff,
And the fat of fed cattle, I
Do not delight in blood of bull,
Or of lamb or goat going by.
12 “When you come before Me and full,
Who has required this from your hand,
To trample My courts in My land?
13 Bring no more futile sacrifice,
Incense to Me does not smell nice,
The first day of the months, the days
Of Sabbaths, calling assemblies,
I cannot stand iniquity
And the sacred meeting fully.
14 Your first day of the months and your
Appointed feasts I do abhor,
They are a trouble to My soul,
I’m weary of bearing their toll.
15 When you spread out your hands, I’ll hide
My eyes from you, though you abide
In prayer, I will not hear the flood.
Your unclean hands are full of blood.

The blood of sheep and goats You have accepted
When brought with pure heart never intercepted
By motives to buy off Your wrath or cover
The secret sin by some transgression lover.
The new moon and the Sabbath You appointed
And loved when they were not sometime anointed
With brave iniquity. The insincere
And sinful, wicked heart it is I fear
That spoils the sacrifice and spoils the day.
I bring no sacrifice but living action,
Remembrance of Your name for satisfaction,
And sanctify both gift and hour that way.
The living human sacrifice please take
As I observe the rest in You awake.

16 “Then wash yourselves and make you clean,
Put out the evil I have seen
You doing. Cease to do the wrong,
17 “Learn to do good, seek justice’ song,
Rebuke oppressor, defend those
Who have no father, plead the close
Of widow. 18 “Come now, let us reason
Together,” Says YHWH, “Though in season
Your sins are like scarlet, they’ll be
As white as snow, though crimsonly
They shine red, they shall be as wool.
19 “If you are willing at the pull,
Obedient, then you shall eat
The good of the land for a treat,
20 “But if you refuse and rebel,
You’ll be devoured by a scalpel”,
For the mouth of YHWH’s spoken it,
And gives you warning as is fit.

To cease to do the evil only needs
The will response to Your command, it feeds
On grace embedded in that word once spoken.
Cease to do wrong, leave the command unbroken.
It can be done with one moment’s decision.
But doing well requires a greater vision.
It must be learned and justice must be sought.
It needs rebuking the oppressor caught
Oppressing fatherless and widow too.
To do good thus requires the force to do.
Will and obey, You say, and offer meal,
Refuse, rebel and be oneself devoured.
Let me turn from the evil thing to real,
Stand for the right and be no faltering coward.

21 How the faithful city’s become
A harlot! It was full in sum
Of justice, righteousness lodged in it,
But now the murderers begin it.
22 Your silver has turned into dross,
Your wine mixed with water for loss.
23 Your princes are rebellious, and
Companions of thieves in their band,
Everyone loves bribes, and follows
After rewards. They don’t impose
Defence of fatherless, nor does
The widow’s cause arise for them.
24 So the Lord says in stratagem,
YHWH of hosts, Israel’s Mighty One,
“Ah, I will rid Myself of foes,
And take vengeance on My foes done.
25 “I shall turn My hand against you,
And thoroughly clean like the dew
Your dross, and take away alloy
From all your ways and every joy.
26 “I’ll restore your judges as first,
And your counsellors as they durst
At the beginning. Afterward
You shall be called city preferred
For righteousness, the faithful city.”
27 The fortress shall be redeemed skitty
With justice, and her penitents
With righteousness and righteous fence.
28 Destruction of transgressors and
Of sinners shall be jointly fanned,
And those who forsake YHWH shall be
Consumed. 29 For ashamed they shall be
Of the terebinth trees which you’ve
Desired, and you shall surely prove
Embarrassed because of the parks
Which you have chosen in the darks.
30 You’ll be like terebinth whose leaf
Fades, and as a garden for grief
That has no water. 31 The strong shall
Be as the tinder prodigal,
And the work of it as a spark,
Both will burn together in dark,
And no one shall quench them at all
Till they are gone beyond the wall.

I offer, my Beloved, no offering here
Upon this gallows floor but this one dear
Myself, this booth in vineyard, garden of
Cucumbers, city mine besieged with love.
I offer pewter coins for silver plate,
And dross to catch Your love and void Your hate.
I offer bribes of all things empty and
Forlorn, the tinsel wealth of barren hand.
I offer bribes of what I have to You
And give the little empty self in change
For Self on Self resounding in the Huu
From coast to blessed coast and range to range.
Set all the strong as tinder with Your spark
And quench not anything inside the park.

ISAIAH 2

1 The word Isaiah Amoz son
Saw about Judah and when done
Jerusalem under the sun.
2 And it shall come to pass at last
The mountain of YHWH’s house shall cast
Its shadow on the mountain top,
Exalted above where hills stop,
And all nations shall flow to it.
3 And many folk shall say when fit,
”Come, let’s go to YHWH’s mountain and
To the house of Jacob’s God’s stand,
And He will teach us of His ways,
And we’ll walk in His paths to praise,
For out of the fortress shall go
The law, word of YHWH from the show
Of Jerusalem in a row.
4 And He shall judge among the nations,
And shall rebuke many folk’s rations:
And they shall beat their swords into
Ploughshares, and their spears too in view
Of pruninghooks, till no folk lift
Up sword against a nation’s rift,
Nor learn war any more for rue.
5 O house of Jacob, come and let
Us walk in YHWH’s light where we’ve met.

The One who reigns alone upon the hill
Of Zion, You Beloved, whose sovereign will
Alone I seek, is God of all the earth
And of all nations, and of all they’re worth,
Not of the Jew alone, nor of the seat
Of Gerizim, but of both chaff and wheat.
You stand above the quarrel of each cast
And arbitrate all born before the mast.
You are alone the captain, Your rebuke
Has weight above both Czar and over duke.
Jerusalem is where the dome of peace
Shall rein in violence and make it cease.
Beneath that golden dome I stop to bow
And turn my sword and spear into a plough.

6 That’s why You’ve forsaken Your folk,
The house of Jacob to a bloke,
Because they’ve taken from the east,
And are soothsayers and increased
Like the Philistines, and they please
Themselves in strangers’ spawn with slease.
7 Their land’s full of silver and gold,
Nor do their treasures end when sold,
Their land is filled with horses too,
No end of their chariots in view.
8 Their land is filled with idols’ crew,
They worship the work of their hands,
What their own fingers made in strands.
9 The least man bows and the great too
Humbles himself before that crew,
So don’t forgive unfaithful pew.

There are four gates of right and four of wrong.
The first false gate is the gate of the east,
The dualistic magic that so long
Has called all faiths in people to the feast.
The second false gate is the silver, gold
That is no value despite how it’s sold.
It does not feed nor heal nor quench one’s thirst,
But just seduces souls to buy the worst.
The third false gate is chariot and horse,
Depending on the military force.
The fourth false gate is idols in the land,
False gods confected by mind and by hand.
Beloved, keep me away from all false gates,
But let me find in You all glory waits.

10 Enter the rock, and hide in dust,
From the terror of YHWH, you must,
And from His majesty’s glory.
11 The proud looks of a man shall be
Humbled, the haughtiness of men
Shall be bowed down to earth, and then
YHWH alone shall be exalted
On that day. 12 For the day and grid
Of YHWH of hosts shall come upon
Everything proud and lofty drawn,
On everything lifted up, and
It shall be brought low every hand
13 On all the cedars that expand
Upon the Lebanon high and
Lifted up, and on all the oaks
Of Bashan, 14 On all the high smokes
Of the mountains, on all the hills
That are lifted up, 15 on the sills
Of every tall tower, and on
Every strengthened wall, 16 and upon
All the ships of Tarshish, and on
All the fine vessels. 17 Human pride
Shall be bowed down, and haughtiness
Of men shall be laid low, confess
YHWH only will upon that day
Be exalted against the fray,
18 But the idols He shall destroy,
Utterly abolish with joy.
19 They shall then go into the holes
Of the rocks, and moving like moles
In caves of the earth, before great
Terror of YHWH, His glory’s state
And majesty, when He’ll arise
To shake the earth greatly and skies.
20 On that day a man will throw out
His idols of silver and grout
And his idols of gold, which they
Made, each for himself in parade
To worship, to the moles and bats,
21 To go into the clefts of mats
And rocks, and into rugged crags
Before the terror of YHWH’s flags
And glory of His majesty,
When He rises to shake greatly
The earth. 22 Cut yourselves off from such
A man, whose breath is hardly much
In his nostrils, for of what account
Is he, and to what does amount?

The trees and towers and ships it seems are those
Above all things that shall come down in rows,
And then the proud and mighty shall be caught
And brought low with the idols they have bought.
The idols You will utterly abolish,
The gold cast down, the silver without polish.
For the first time the motionless and mute
Of idols shall with one cry of dispute
Get up and walk into the holes and caves
To hide themselves from lightning and the waves.
Unable to change then at last their course
Their worshippers will follow, no remorse
For voiding finely gold and silver’s worth,
The first thing out of character on earth.

Should I cut myself off from ministry
Of the cleric whose shop is bishoply
In synagogue and mosque or in the church?
Should I leave their bright idols in the lurch?
Beg me not, O Beloved, to flee from face
Of the benign clergyman and his race.
Where can I go but to You? But Your pace
Is too quick for my wandering without grace.
Should I not bow before the feet of men
Indeed whose breath comes in nostril again?
Then what of gold and oil, which does not breathe?
Cannot I have some god from those that seethe
About the ecumenical retreat?
I bow before Your invisible feet.

ISAIAH 3

1 Behold now, the Lord, YHWH of hosts,
Takes away Jerusalem’s boasts,
And from Judah the stay and staff,
And all the bread, water to quaff,
2 The mighty man, and man of war,
The judge and prophet, on the shore
The prudent and the elder’s door,
3 The captain over fifty men,
Aristocrat, counsellor’s den,
The artizan and orator.
4 And I’ll set children to rule them,
And foolish ones to guard their gem.
5 And the people shall be oppressed,
Each by the other, and addressed
One by his neighbour, and the child
Shall be insolent and as wild
Against his elder, and the mean
Against the honoured man for spleen.

When the great Master of this Age began
To reign he was a babe and not a man,
He was a child and this the prophet knew
And so he wrote the thing beforehand true.
You, O Beloved, gave then a child to lead,
But times were hard and he had to take heed
And keep himself in hiding from the foe.
So to this day, that child become adult
Is Your appointed everywhere men go,
In peaceful cloister and in huge tumult.
Now in his day and reign I see the base
Is insolent to good men to the face,
And skill and counsel disappear before
His hoped return to hide himself no more.

6 When a man takes hold of his brother
In the house of father and mother,
And says “Be our ruler since you
Have change of clothing, let this rue
Be under your hand, so reign true:”
7 In that time he shall swear and say
”I shall not take a healer’s way,
For in my house I have no bread
Nor is their clothing for me spread,
Don’t make me chief of the folk led.”
8 Jerusalem is spoiled, the land
Of Judah’s fallen on the sand,
Because their tongue and actions strike
Against YHWH to provoke the like
Before His eyes in glory’s band.
9 Their very face is witness cast
Against them, and they declare fast
Their sin as Sodom, they don’t hide.
Woe to their soul! They’ve come to bide
In wickedness before the mast.
10 Say to the righteous, it is well,
They’ll eat their doings’ fruit a spell.
11 Woe to the wicked! it shall be
Ill with him: for the reward’s free
Of his hands shall be given him.
12 As for my folk, children oppress,
And women rule on their address.
O my folk, those who lead you make
You err and destroy in mistake
The way of your paths in their wake.

The women ruling over Allah’s folk
This day are neither women nor a joke,
But men transgendered by the verdicts made
In vicious and unrighteous ambuscade,
The harlots sculpted by the surgeon’s knife
To give the clergy temporary wife
And pleasure sans responsibility.
You see their limousines go riding free
Through Tehran’s streets, yet time will quickly come
When wickedness will fully make a sum,
And You, Beloved, will ride in punishment
By tank and missile of ungodly sent
Upon those once established for the good.
Ah, if those once good men did as they should!

13 YHWH stands to plead, He stands to judge
The people caught in any smudge.
14 YHWH’ll enter into judgement met
With elders of His people set,
And princes of His folk, for you
Have eaten up the vineyard’s due,
The spoil of the poor’s in your pew.
15 ”What do you mean to beat my folk
And punch their faces at a stroke,
The faces of the poor?” Says YHWH
The Lord of hosts come into view.

You ask the question, my Beloved, and so
You do deserve an answer, You should know.
Why is the plunder of the poor now found
In every Christian kind of bank around
And in the moneyed Jewish counting house,
As well as in the Arab’s sleeve and blouse?
Why do they grind the faces of the poor
From Philippines to Haiti, plain and moor?
You who have all power in the universe
Cannot feel how the pain grows worse and worse
Day after day that power is so divided
Where presidents and princes are resided.
It feels so good to crush the child and weak,
The power surge for such is most unique.

16 Therefore YHWH says “Because the girls
Of Zion are proud of their curls,
And strut with their necks up and eyes
As wanton, walking mincing guise
As they go tinkling with their feet,”
17 So YHWH will strike them for a treat
With a scab on top of the head
Of Zion’s daughters, YHWH will spread
Uncovered their bareness in bed.
18 In that day YHWH will take away
The courage of their tinkling sway
Of ornaments, their cauls and round
Tires like the moon without a sound,
19 The chains and bracelets and the veils,
20 The tiaras and leg ornaments,
The bands and tablets in their trails,
The earrings, finger rings and nose
Rings, 22 and the suits to change in rows,
The shawls and purses, 23 looking glasses,
And the fine linen on their vents,
And hoods and gauze to cover passes.
24 And it shall happen that instead
Of sweet scents their shall be stink’s dread,
Instead of a belt just a rent,
Instead of hair with permanent
Bald head, instead of girdle fine
A rope of sackcloth, and the brine
Of burning for beauty on vine.
25 Your men shall fall dead by the sword,
Your mighty ones in battle scored.
26 And her gates shall lament and mourn,
Desolate she will sit in scorn.

Put on wool now, and lay aside the chain
Of gold and silver crescent, face the rain
With bare cheeks and unpainted, take the wool!
The wool is not for those who feel the pull
Of ever higher flights of fancy prayer.
All that is only gate of empty air.
The wool alone can calm the false self’s cry,
And does so through the oneness by and by.
O my Beloved, let me subvert the will
That strives in human heart, and striving still
Would take the rank illusion for the true.
Let me not be at all, but only You
In every hope and help I try to find.
Let me put on the wool and not be blind.

ISAIAH 4

1 And on that day seven women take
Hold of one man, saying at stake,
“We’ll eat our own bread and wear our
Own clothing, only let our power
Be called by your name to remove
The reproach of our maiden’s groove.”

I’m not sure that I see reproach in that
A woman has no husband, some are fat
For being gluttons, some are worse.
The husbandless is just not always curse.
I’m not sure that I see a better thing
In seven wives than one or even four.
Unless one has the grateful state of king
One is enough and one does not need more.
The lamentation of the day is sure
For one who turns away from true and pure,
And yet polygamy gives comfort small
When there is hardly answer to the call.
Let me lament in no case that I find
Since good and bad with You are of a kind.

2 In that day shall the branch of YHWH
Be beautiful in gloried view,
And the fruit of the earth shall be
Excellent and fine where they see
Escape for Israel’s degree.
3 And it shall happen that the one
That’s left in Zion, and the one
Who stays in Jerusalem shall
Be called holy, and every pal
That’s written with the living in
Jerusalem for peace or din.
4 When the Lord’s washed away the sin
Of Zion’s daughters, and shall clean
The blood from Jerusalem’s sheen
By judgement’s spirit and fire’s dean,
5 Then YHWH will make on every place
Of dwelling in Mount Zion’s trace,
Upon her congregations yet
A cloud and smoke by the day met,
And shining of a fire by night,
For on all glory shall be might.
6 And there shall be a tent for shade
In the daytime from heat’s parade,
And for a place of refuge and
For cover from storm and rain scanned.

I flee to You, Beloved, for refuge in
The time of storm and rain, both rain within
And storm without, and seek the cooling shade
The tabernacle of Your presence made.
For over all the glory there is covering,
And on the hidden mount the cloud is hovering,
So that my eyes see only trade and trick,
Instead of justice, marble halls and brick.
I flee to You, Beloved, for shelter from
The din within, and without dreary drum
That belts the clash and clang of heathen prayer
In church and mosque and synagogue, beware.
I strike the flaming cloud that comes by night
And drink its fiery draughts with keen delight.

ISAIAH 5

1 I’ll sing my well-beloved a song
About my beloved’s vineyard fair.
My well-beloved has vineyards there
Upon a hill fruitful and strong.
2 He hedged it round, picked up each stone,
And planted with best vines alone,
And built a watchtower in it there,
And also made a winepress share,
And then expected it to yield
Grapes but it bore upon the field
Wild grapes as though it had been bare.
3 Jerusalem’s inhabitants,
And men of Judah, judge who prance
Between me and my vineyard’s care.
4 What could I have done more in flare
To my vineyard that I’ve not done?
Why then, when I inspected it
To see if it brought forth grapes fit,
I found it bore wild grapes with pit?
5 Now then, sirs, I shall let you know
What I’ll do to my vineyard’s row,
To turn aside its hedge in show
Of fire’s devouring, to break down
Its wall to tread under the town.
6 And I will make it a wasteland,
It shall not be pruned, dug nor manned,
But filled with bramble briers and thorns;
And thick clouds I’ll set in watch bourns
To rain no rain on it as planned.
7 For see the vineyard plot of YHWH
Of hosts is house of Israel’s crew,
And men of Judah are the plant
Pleasant to His eye, and in grant
He looked for justice, and behold
Oppression, and for righteous gold,
But see a cry and shout unfold.

O my Beloved, I am a grape divided
Into not sevens but forties here provided,
A single grape one moment at Your lip,
A thing of little note by plane and ship.
If Noah found a sweet grape from his vine,
I pray You too might joy in what is mine
For purple sweetness momentary there
Upon Your tongue. There is no one to share
The morsel feast, I wait beneath Your fate
In hope You will find justice or its mate
And not oppression in my act and will.
I wait, a grape, one sweet or sour, but still.
Dig up Your vineyard and cast out the me,
Let only You and Youness find the tree.

8 Woe to those who pile property
On property and field in spree
Till there’s no room for neighbourly,
But they live in a land lonely.
9 By the weapons of YHWH of hosts,
Don’t many houses in their boasts
Become a desolation’s toasts,
Great and good but empty of roasts?
10 For ten acres of vineyard yield
Just one bath, and the planted field
With seed in homer is unpealed
To bare only an ephah sealed.
11 Woe to those who get up at dawn
To drink strong drink and fawn upon
Till nightfall, till they’re drunk and drawn!
12 And harp and viol, tabret and pipe
Mix with the wine in their feasts ripe,
But YHWH’s acts they do not behold,
His hands’ work always leaves them cold.
13 That’s why my people take the path
Into captivity, the wrath
Of no knowledge is in their wake,
And their honoured men die for sake
Of hunger and their multitude
Dries up for thirst and without food.
14 Therefore hell has enlarged herself,
Opened her mouth beyond her shelf,
Their gloried crowds with all their pomp
With joyous riot fill the swamp.
15 The low is brought down lower still,
The mighty man humbled on hill,
The eyes of the proud shall be cast
Down also before troubled mast.

The prophet of ancient times at the fore
Speaks not only of Israel and its store.
Not only men of Judah take their place
Before his pulpit to hear lack of grace.
The gathering of wealth I see around
Me in the global stealth, I hear the sound
Of rock and roil that beer drinkers propound,
And know the prophet did not guess and trace.
Beloved, I hate the thing and I abhor
The man who gathers on his plate and store
More than a man can eat, and I detest
The liquor that dribbles down on the vest.
Bring once again a new captivity,
Fill Babylon with multitudes in spree.

16 But YHWH of hosts in judgement rises,
And El the Holy One in guises
Shall be sanctified in the way
Of righteousness come down to stay.
17 Then shall the lambs graze in their way,
And the fat ones’ deserts in sway
Shall be consumed in strangers’ pay.
18 Woe for drawing iniquity
Out with the cords of vanity,
And sin as with a cart’s thick rope.
19 They say “Let him make haste in hope
And hurry up his work in scope,
So we may see it, and so let
The counsel of Holy One met
Of Israel come near to see
And we will know it faithfully!”
20 Woe to those who call evil good
And good call evil, in the wood
Put darkness for a light, and light
For darkness, and the bitter bite
For sweet, and sweet where bitter stood!
21 Woe to those wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight’s guise!
22 Woe to one great to drink wine, and
Men strong to mix liquor in band,
23 Who justify the wicked stand
For a reward, and take away
The righteousness from righteous sway!

I too, Beloved, say that You might make haste
And turn these companies’ roll into paste,
These presidents and ministers to baste.
But I say that word not in scorn that You
Do not exist to judge the earthly crew,
But rather in my anger at the view
Of high oppression in the park and pew.
I beg You hurry in my vengeance lust
To make the world once drowned a place of dust.
I tire of mercy that gives up the just
To gone injustice. Still I plant a foot
Upon the mountain and dream of the root
Of Sinai where Your mercy and Your grace
Once shone upon dear Moses face to face.

24 Therefore as fire devours the straw,
And flame consumes the chaff in craw,
So their root shall be rottenness,
And their blossom in dust’s address,
Because they’ve cast away the law
Of YHWH of hosts, despised the spell
Of Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the wrath of YHWH is kindled
Against His people and unswindled,
And He has stretched His hand on high
Against them and struck them thereby,
The hills were shaken, bodies torn
And left upon the streets forlorn.
And yet after all this His wrath
Is not appeased and turned from path,
But His hand’s still stretched out in scorn.
26 And He will raise a flag to be
In nations far across the sea,
And hiss at them around the world,
And they shall come swiftly as hurled.
27 None shall be weary, none shall stumble
Among them, none shall slumber humble,
Neither shall their belt come loose nor
The latchet of their shoes break sore,
28 Whose arrows sharp with bows all bent,
Their horses’ hoofs like flint sparks sent,
Their chariot wheels like whirlwind lent:
29 Their roaring like a lion’s voice,
They’ll roar like young lions rejoice,
Indeed, they’ll roar and take the prey,
And safely carry it away
And none deliver from the fray.
30 In that day they shall roar indeed
Like roaring of the sea in speed,
And if one looks into the land,
See there is dark and sorrow’s band,
And light is dark in skies unfreed.

I shudder at the picture prophecy
Of Judah’s fall before the cavalry
Of Babylon. I shudder at the stroke
And take back all my prayers against the bloke
Who carries on such wickedness today,
That deserves judgement for reward and pay.
The tongue that cannot sway a multitude
With such words may seem unworthy and crude,
But truth is hearts are hard before appeal
Of justice at the hearth as well as wheel.
Come in Your time, Beloved, and break the mast
Without my prayers that time should end or last,
And I shall meet Your coming on the path
With joy in grace as well as in Your wrath.

ISAIAH 6

1 The year that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord sitting aside
On a throne, high and lifted up,
And His train filled the temple cup.
2 Above it stood the seraphim,
Each one had six wings stuck to him:
With two he covered up his face,
With two he covered feet in place,
And with two flew about in space.
3 They called out each to each and said
“Holy, holy, holy is YHWH
Of hosts: and all His glory spread
Throughout the whole earth old and new.”
4 And the posts of the door were shaken
By the voice of him overtaken
Who cried out, and the house was filled
With smoke of all the incense spilled.

How was the year that King Uzziah died
A different time from all the times before
And all the after years, the years of gore,
The year when Jesus Christ was crucified,
The third year of Jehoiakim the king,
Or any other year when Messias
Was sawn in two or eased away by gas?
Was that a different kind of time, a thing
Unknown before, unknown from then till now
To see You, Lord, sit high upon a throne?
A great invention like the telephone
Can hardly keep You well-informed on how
Many tons of child died on earth today
And whether it would matter anyway.

There was a time when I too thought the earth
Was filled with glory, glazed with gold and song,
When I too thought the right of every wrong
Was just as soon and sure as death and birth.
And yet each further morning from my pain
(Small to be sure beside the comfortless
Deceptions of such ways I cannot guess)
I never cease to wonder how the rain
Can fall so gently, how the sun can shine
While all the world so filled with glory God
Goes on across some bleeding soul rough-shod,
And spills without apology the wine.
Was all the earth for one day filled alone,
Or can I find a glory of my own?

5 Then said I, ”Woe is me! for I
Am unwrought, and because that I
Am a man of unclean lips to spy,
And I live with a folk unclean
Of lip, for my eyes now have seen
The King, YHWH of hosts in the sky.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew
To me with a live coal in view,
Which he had taken with the tongs
From off the altar and the thongs.
7 He laid it on my mouth and said
”See, this has touched your lips instead,
And your iniquity is gone,
And your sin is purged and withdrawn.”
8 Also I heard the Lord’s voice say
”Whom shall I send, who in the way
Will go for us?” Then I said ”Here
Am I, send me and do not fear.”
9 And He said “Go and tell this folk,
'Hear you indeed, but not a stroke
To understand, and see the bat,
But yet perceiving none of that.’
10 “Make the heart of this people fat,
And make their ears heavy, and shut
Their eyes, lest they see all the glut,
And hear with their ears and gain sight
Of understanding in heart white,
And turn and be healed from their spite.”
11 Then I said ”Lord, how long?” and He
Replied, ”Until the cities be
Wasted without inhabitant,
And the houses without an ant,
And the land utterly left scant,
12 ”And YHWH remove men far away,
And great forsaking of land’s sway.
13 ”But if a tenth remain, then it
Shall be devoured both house and kit,
Like terebinth and oak with trunk
After their leaves have turned to bunk,
Like an acorn from its husk sunk.”

I’ve seen the live-oak peer behind the veil
Of morning mist, and hugely scan the pale
New light in calm delight or scorn or mirth.
I’ve seen the live-oak rearing from the earth.
It casts its leaves indeed, but never leaves
A trunk in desolate against the breeze
Of winter. It binds up its mossy sleeves
And turns tough green against the centuries.
Beloved, though mammoth great, the live-oak stands,
It drops the acorn brown from many hands.
I’ve seen the husk grow black and damp with musk,
I’ve seen the live-oak still beneath the dusk.
The life may end indeed for that one tree,
But from the acorn dead rises one free.

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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