ISAIAH CHAPTER 13 - 20

ISAIAH 13

1 The prophecy of Babylon
Which saw Isaiah Amoz’ son.
2 Lift up a flag on the high hill,
Lift up the voice to them and still
Wave to them to go in the gates
Of the aristocratic rates.
3 I’ve ordered out my holy ones,
I summoned in my wrath the sons
Of might as well, and those who raise
A cry of joy in My high praise.
4 The tumult of a crowd on high
As of a great people come nigh,
The clamour and the noise of kings
Gathered with their nations in rings:
YHWH of hosts calls His own to fight.
5 They’ve come from the far land of light,
From furthest heaven, YHWH and His wrath
To destroy the land in His path.

Celestial saints come out to battle ground
To fight along with the invaders’ found
Before the water gates of Babylon.
The raider comes in stealth before the dawn.
The tumult of the armies that surround
The greatest of all cities with the sound
Of frightful war receives the seal of fate,
The approbation of You, strong and great.
Beloved, I too see how Your armies ride
Upon the clouds, winged spectres dark to hide,
And swift to dart among the arboured ways
Of my own hill where birch bows and pine prays.
The chatter of your armies comes to rest
And strips the mountain ash of berries best.

6 Howl then, for YHWH’s day is at hand,
As spoil come from Almighty’s band.
7 Therefore shall every hand be faint,
And every heart melt in complaint.
8 And they shall fear: sorrows and pains
Shall take hold of them without gains
Of a woman in labour: they
Shall be amazed and on that day
Their faces in flames shall give way.
9 See how YHWH’s day comes, in His wrath
Cruel and fierce in His anger’s bath,
To make the country desolate,
And spoil the sinners for their fate.

The Jew and Christian and the Muslim wait
For day of judgement, day of awful fate.
But truth is Your great day is never late,
And comes and comes again in measured rate.
The rise of kings, the fall of kings’ grandsons,
Come in the rhythm of rocks on their buns.
My week too is cut short and by surprise
When sixth day evening paints the pattered skies
With crimson, then with opal on the down,
With one great blanket on the quiet town
Of Eilat or with wakened brawl and din
In every European town of sin.
The dawn of Sabbath is a darkness run,
The hope and joy of the judgement begun.

10 The heavenly stars, Orion too,
Shall not bring their own light to view,
The sun shall be dark when it rises,
The moon shall not shine in the crisis.
11 I’ll punish the world for its sin,
The wicked for their wicked din;
And I’ll cause the proud then to end
Their arrogant ways and will bend
The haughtiness that rulers spend.
12 I’ll make a man more precious than
Fine gold; even a man in scan
Than golden wedge of Ophir’s span.
13 I’ll shake the sky, remove the earth
Out of her place and from her berth,
In the wrath of YHWH of hosts’ worth,
In the day of His fierce wrath’s mirth.
14 And it shall be like a chased deer,
And like a sheep of no man’s gear,
And every man shall flee to his
Own people and turn to his biz.

In Babylon the scientists of old
Gazed on the stars to find the future bold.
No doubt that’s why You want to cast them down,
And make the stars a laughing stock in town,
A darkness on the fields, and treasured way
Opened up to the spoiler on a day.
The craze of life determined by the speck
Of light that trembles on telescope’s deck
Diminishes the value of all men:
But when You penetrate the magic den,
Then every soul will return to its own,
The chased deer find its rest, the sheep its bone
Fatigued by grazing on the hill and stone
Folded at last beneath the breast again.

15 Every one found shall be thrust through;
And all the crowd fall by sword’s due.
16 Their children too shall be dashed down
In broken pieces in their frown,
Their houses shall be spoiled and their
Wives raped by the invaders’ share.
17 See, I will stir up the Medes too,
Who care not for silver in due,
Nor for gold in delighted view.

What detail in the prophecy that spoke
Of Babylon’s demise under the stroke
Of the invader! How did the man know
That the Medes would be foremost in the show?
The explanation must be that the text
Was written later than we thought perplexed,
After the fact, and then brought in to show
To the king where his name golden will glow.
Beloved, the evidence that men best find
Is made to fool the foolish and the blind,
But I cling to You in Your knowledge and
In the grace that You scatter on the land,
Invisible in time, and slow to view,
A tinkle on the eardrum of the shrew.

18 Their bows shall sever the young men,
They’ll have no pity on the den
Of the womb, their eye shall not spare
Even the children in their care.
19 And Babylon of kingdoms’ prize,
The beauty of the Chaldees’ eyes,
Shall be as when Ælohim cast
Sodom and Gomorrah out fast.
20 It shall not be inhabited,
Nor dwelt in from the ages’ bid,
Neither shall Arab pitch his tent,
Nor shepherds make their fold prevent.
21 But wild beasts of the desert way
Shall take refuge in the town’s sway,
The ruins shall be full of sound
Of doleful creatures on the ground,
And owls shall perch above, below
Shall satyrs dance around and slow.
22 The wild beasts of the islands crow
In their desolate houses’ show,
And dragons in their palaces;
And her time’s near ready to fizz,
And her days shall not fail to go.

While prophecy and preacher make the claim
That Babylon is desolate of fame,
The dwelling of the beast and doleful bird,
I find the opposite in kind’s occurred.
I’ve met three men of Babylon and found
That they remember streets and shops around,
And houses and some gardens filled with trees,
Or else with date palms stiff against the breeze.
Of course the centre that they pine for’s not
Exactly on the ancient glory’s spot.
That place is where the tourists come to trot,
Or did so before war again in plot
Came in with rush and push and tinny lot
To smother what was left in store to please.

ISAIAH 14

1 For YHWH will have mercy on Jacob,
And choose Israel and make them wake up
In their own land, and strangers shall
Be joined with them, and so they shall
Stick to the house of Jacob well.
2 The folk shall take them, they shall bring
Them to their place, and to their spring,
And Israel’s house shall keep them in
The land of YHWH for servants’ bin
And handmaids; they shall take captive
Those whose captives they’d had to live,
And they shall rule their oppressors.
3 It will happen the day that YHWH
Give you rest from sorrow and rue,
And from your fear, and from hard work
From which you could not stop nor shirk,
4 You’ll take up this proverb for scores
Against the king of Babylon,
And say ”How have the oppressors
Been turned aside, the bosses gone!”
5 YHWH’s broken the wicked one’s staff,
The sceptre of the rulers’ gaff.
6 The one who struck the folk in wrath,
Kept beating them down in their path,
The one who in anger ruled such
Nations is down without a touch.

As I review the mass under the dome,
It seems to me that factions done in Rome
Are indicating that Babylon’s fall
Extends beyond the Middle Eastern pall.
When Cyrus came to burrow under wall,
It was just the beginning of the squall.
The faith of Babylon is weak indeed,
It bends before the wind like fragile reed,
It blows before the gale and winging seed.
And yet it still remains alternative
To keeping of Your law, live and let live.
The bosses are a broken crucifix,
But still they mutter, peep, and show their tricks.
Beloved, I turn to You and what You give.

7 The whole earth is at rest and peace,
They burst in song never to cease.
8 Even the cypresses rejoice
Cedars of Lebanon lift voice,
Since you’re laid down no woodsman comes
Up against us with axe and hums.
9 Sheol beneath is moved for you
To meet you at your coming too,
It wakens up the dead for you,
All the chief ones that on earth grew,
It’s raised up from their thrones all kings
Of all the nations in their rings.
10 They shall all speak and say to you,
”Have you also become weak too
As we are? Have you joined our crew?”

In allegory Isaiah returns
To make the very dead speak from their urns.
Who thinks this text makes souls immortal earns
The foolishness he finds upon the burns.
I’ve seen the urns of dead and stayed to hear
What messages they whisper in the ear,
And testify now once and for all time:
The dead speak not in prose nor yet in rhyme.
Beloved, I wait for that day when the living
Of earth find rest, the very rest You’re giving,
In judgement now and in the future clime,
In Sabbath week by week and in the way
That rest from evil deeds shall once bear sway.
The meanwhile I whirl and dance on a dime.

11 Your pomp is brought down to the grave,
The sound of your viols for knave,
The worms are spread out under you,
And worms cover you from the view.
12 How you’ve fallen from heaven, bright star,
Son of the morning! How you are
Cut to the ground, you who came to
Conquer the nations weakened through!
14 ”I’ll rise above the heights of cloud,
I’ll be like the most High allowed.”
15 Yet you’ll be brought down to sheol,
To the sides of the pit for goal.
16 Those who see you shall closely look
On you, consider like a book,
”Is this the man that made earth shake,
The troubled kingdoms in his wake;
17 That made the world a wilderness,
Destroying cities at a guess,
Did not open prisons’ address?”
18 All kings of nations, all of them,
Lie in glory, in his own gem.
19 But you’re thrown out of your grave like
Abominable branch or spike,
Like the clothing of those who’re slain
In battle of the sword in vain,
That go down to stones of the pit,
A carcase trodden down unfit.
20 You’ll not join them in burial,
Because you destroyed your landfall,
And killed your people, wicked spawn
Shall never be renowned when gone.
21 Prepare the slaughter for his sons,
For wicked deeds their fathers’ runs,
So they do not rise nor possess
The land, nor fill up world’s address
With cities glowing in their mess.

I’m not sure by these words which king is meant,
The king of Babylon and those he sent
To conquer the fair city, or the one
Who held sweet Babylon under the sun,
Saddam Husseyn, to take a name in vain
That represents a man beside the main
Of the Euphrates that was Yours and true.
Anyway, when I saw bedraggled view
Of Saddam I could not believe the man
Was he who had killed so many by plan.
Dragged out of his hole in the earth and span
By those as sinister or more than he,
He was untidy and forlorn to see.
It does not pay to be Babylon’s brew.

22 “For I will rise up against them,”
Says YHWH of hosts, “and cut of gem
Of Babylon, and all the rest,
The son and nephew with the best,”
Says YHWH. 23 I’ll give it to possess
Unto the bittern, water pools;
I’ll sweep it with destruction’s tools,”
Says YHWH of hosts. 24 For YHWH has sworn
Saying “Surely as my thought’s born,
So shall it come to pass, I warn,
As I’ve decided it shall stand.
25 “I’ll break Assyrian in My land,
And on My mountains tread him down,
Then shall his yoke fall with a frown,
His weight from their shoulders in span.”
26 This is the purpose that’s decided
On the whole earth, hand underided
Stretched out on all nations presided.
27 For YHWH of hosts has purposed it,
And who shall abrogate His fit?
And His hand is stretched out in claim,
And who shall quench His fiery flame?

True it is that Assyrian chiefs are gone,
Cut down before the budding of the dawn.
Both Babylon and Nineveh retain
A place where travellers may come not in vain
To contemplate how human power and wealth
Diminish in a year and as by stealth.
The yoke of the oppressor always falls
And tumbles from the city and its walls.
None can keep up the ragged wrath of kings,
None can remain in power when power swings.
Beloved, You only rule and that’s because
As Sovereign and Creator, it’s Your laws
That sway the universe, not those whose paws
Come raging for a share of empty flaws.

28 In the year that king Ahaz died,
This vision rose up by my side.
29 Rejoice not, all of Palestine,
Because the rod that struck your mine
Is broken, for out of the root
Of the serpent shall come the boot
Of cockatrice, and so his fruit
Is fiery flying dragon soot.
30 The firstborn of the poor shall eat,
The needy lie down for a treat,
And I will destroy your root by
The famine, and he shall come nigh
To slay what’s left of your spawn’s sty.
31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; you,
The whole of Palestinian crew,
Are melted, for there shall come down
From the north a smoke on your crown,
And none shall be left standing in
The times appointed for his din.
32 What’s to be said then to the men
Sent by the nation from their den?
“That YHWH has set the fortress fast,
And His folk’s poor shall trust at last.”

The prophecy upon the Gaza strip
Tells of the fire of dragons and the grip
Of famine and the pestilence that tries
To redden already darkened sea skies.
I care not which poor come to eat at noon,
Whether the Jew or Arab with a spoon
Of silver or of pewter or of plate.
I care not for the coming of the state.
Beloved, my poor anarchist soul shrinks back
From every form of violence in slack
And prays that all might live on the right track,
And keep the commandments You once proclaimed
On Sinai in Arabia the famed.
Beloved, look on Philistia’s new lack.

ISAIAH 15

1 The weight of sight in Moab’s wake.
Because in one night was laid waste
Ar of Moab, and brought to lake
Of silence, because in the haste
Of one night Kir of Moab fell,
Laid in the silence of a well,
2 He’s gone up to Bajith, and to
Dibon, the high places on cue
To weep; Moab shall howl upon
Nebo, and on Medeba drawn;
On all their heads is baldness set,
And every beard cut off that’s met.
3 In their streets they shall wear sackcloth,
On their house-tops and in the trough
Of their streets every one shall howl,
Weeping with furrowed face and scowl.
4 Heshbon shall cry and Elealeh:
Their voice shall be heard to the lea
Of Jahaz; therefore the armed men
Of Moab shall cry out again,
Their life a grief to them in den.
5 My heart shall cry out for Moab;
His fugitives to Zoar’s tab,
A heifer three years old with flab:
For by ascent of Luhith they
Shall go up in weeping to sway;
For in the way of Horonaim,
They shall raise up a cry in rhyme
Of its destruction in its time.
6 Nimrim’s waters are desolate:
The hay is in a withered state,
The grass fails, there is no green thing.
7 Therefore their gear’s abounding,
And what they’ve laid up under pillows
They’ll bear off to the brook of willows.
8 The cry is raised on Moab’s borders,
The howling unto Eglaim’s hoarders,
Its howling up to Beerelim.
9 Dimon’s waters are full of blood,
I’ll bring on Dimon like a flood
Lions escaped from Moab’s band,
Upon the remnant of the land.

I’ve ridden not far from the well of gods
And seen the dried and grey bush pods
That wait the coming of the latter rain
To bring them from their withering and pain.
The centuries lie heavy on the land
Of Moab just across the Dead Sea’s sand,
And all the azurine above its green
Reflects the furnace burning on the scene.
The hills of Dibon peer above the stream
Of Arnon and reach northward to the dream
Of Medeba from where I gaze upon
Them from Engedi’s sunset overdrawn,
A blaze of colour, fire and purple gauze,
That witness still the glory of Your laws.

ISAIAH 16

1 Send a lamb to chief of the land,
From the sea to the burning sand
Of wilderness, and to the mount
Of Zion’s daughter in account.
2 It shall be as a wandering bird
Forced from the nest, the daughters stirred
From Moab come to Arnon ford.
3 Bring counsel and make judgement right,
Make as night your shadow in light
Of noon, hide outcasts, wandering ones
Do not reveal before the guns.
4 My refugees abide in you,
O Moab, be a secret pew
To hide them, from destroyer’s face,
For ceased is the oppressor’s race,
Come to an end destroyer’s mace,
Devoured the spoilers of land’s due.
5 Set up in kindness is the throne,
And sat down on it is truth’s own,
In David’s tabernacle sent,
Judging and searching out judgement,
Swift doing righteousness alone.
6 We’ve heard of Moab’s pride, so proud,
His proudful arrogance and loud
Wrath, wrong are the ways he’s allowed.
7 So Moab shall lament Moab,
Howling over all its confab,
For grape-cakes of Kir-Hareseth
It murmurs, they are struck to death.

While Moab may lament the sun and dross,
The desert and the barren lands in loss,
The throne of David, that eternal thing,
Is still deserted of a reigning king
In sight upon the earth. I trow the weight
Of rulership and burden of the state
Lies on the living shoulders of some man,
But that is rule of faith and not the span
Of sight. My eyes have not found to relate
A vision of that blessèd face and eye.
I once in Makkah searched as I could try
To find appointed master under sky,
But no voice that I heard admitted such,
And I found no face that could tell as much.

8 Because the fields of Heshbon wait
In fallow, the vine in the gate
Of Sibmah, lords of nations beat
Her chosen vines, to Jazer’s street
They’ve come, wandered a wilderness,
Her plants have spread from their duress,
And gone over the sea’s retreat.
9 So I’ll join Jazer’s lamentation,
Sibmah’s vine, I’ll give you a ration
Of my tears, Heshbon and the ray
Of Elealeh, because the day
Of Your summer fruits and harvest,
The sound of joy’s failed in the west.
10 And gladness and rejoicing are
Removed out from the vineyards’ car;
And they shall not at all tread wine
Into the vats, I’ve made rejoin
Their joy with stillness of the vine.
11 That’s why my belly shall make sound
Like a harp for Moab when downed,
My insides for Kir-Haresh bound.
12 It will happen, when it is seen
That Moab is tired of the scene
Of the high place, that he shall come
To his holy house in prayer’s hum,
But he shall never intervene.
13 This is the vision’s word that YHWH
Has spoken about Moab due
Since that time that had been in view.
14 But now YHWH’s spoken and He’s said
“Within three years, as the years bled
Of a hired worker, and the shine
Of Moab shall be despised vine
With all that great crowd, and the rest
Shall be but small and weak at best.”

The din of raucous rock let none despise
Who chorus with the hawk upon the skies
Of music classical today that peaks
In horrid decibel musicians’ cheeks.
There may be difference in cultural
That hears the blatant voice unmusical
Of what in the king’s English is the growl
Of stomach of no creature on the prowl.
The penetrating sound is very slight,
And yet was once compared to harps so light
That those who live after Beethoven’s ear
Cannot imagine sounds so soft to hear.
The still small voice, and not the storm at noon,
Is the word that’s divine when it’s in tune.

ISAIAH 17

1 The vision of Damascus. See,
Damascus now has ceased to be
A city, it shall be a heap
Of ruin. 2 Aroer in keep
Of its towns is forsaken, they
Shall be for flocks that come each day
To lie there and none drive away.
3 The fortress of Ephraim shall cease,
The reign of Damascus decrease,
The rest of Aram, they shall be
Like children of Israel’s glory,
Says YHWH of hosts and says plainly.
4 It shall come to pass in that day,
The honour of Jacob give way,
His body fat shall fall away.
5 It shall be as when reaper takes
The standing corn and with his shakes
Pulls down the ears, and it shall be
As one that harvests in valley
Of Rephaim. 6 Still gleaning grapes
Shall be left in it, as the drapes
Of olive trees, two or three fruits
In the top of the twigs from roots,
Four or five on the outmost twig,
Says YHWH Israel’s Ælohim big.

Three things arise in songs of hope and fear
That prophesy the loss of land and gear:
Three staffs that are like sisters Iroquoian,
The maize, the squash, the bean are not a toy one;
Three healers and providers of all men
And women that inhabit dell and glen
Of the land that was once promised to those
Who followed Abraham in gallant rows.
The barley and the wheat are first in line,
And then the grape from which comes out the wine
In sweetness of the winepress, and the late
And ancient olive tree to be their mate.
Three sisters everywhere are gifts divine
To nourish all the world of small and great.

7 That day a man looks to his Maker,
His eyes turned with respect of faqir
To the Saint of Israel and shaker.
8 He’ll not regard the altars set
Up by his hands, nor shall regret
Respecting what fingers have made,
Nor groves nor images’ parade.
9 In that day shall his strong towns be
Like a forsaken bough on tree,
And like an uppermost branch they
Left for children of Israel’s sway:
There shall be desolation’s way.
10 Since you’ve forgotten Ælohim
Of your salvation, did not dream
Of the rock of your strength, therefore
You’ll plant abundant plants in store,
With a strange slip sowed in the score.
11 The light of day you’ll make plants grow,
And morning light your seeds to show,
But harvest is a heap of clay
In hopeless sorrow and grief’s day.
12 Woe to the multitude of folk
Who make noise like the sea-waves’ stroke,
And to the rushing nations who
Pour out like mighty waters’ view!
13 The nations shall rush like the sound
Of many waters on the ground,
But God shall rebuke them and they
Shall flee and shall be chased away
Like mountain’s chaff before the wind,
Like tumbleweed before whirlwind.
See how at evening horrors rise,
By morning he’s gone before eyes.
This is the future of those who
Spoil us, and of the robber crew.

The robber is known not by what he takes
From bin and store, or from the field, or shakes
From apple tree upon the night he wakes.
The robber is not known by what is found
As stolen in his hand or on his ground,
Because he knows to use darkness and stealth
When he acquires his neighbour’s stock and wealth.
The robber is best known instead by sound
Of what he makes called music on the round.
The greater din he spreads through walls and roof
Heard at a distance like washer or hoof,
The more his hand has been sunk in deceit:
His music proclaims guilt in his retreat.
Beloved, I plug my ears and keep aloof.

ISAIAH 18

1 Ho, land under shadow of wings,
Beyond the Ethiopian springs:
2 That sends ambassadors by sea,
Boats of bulrushes on the sea,
“Go swiftly, messengers to that
Nation scattered and peeled of fat,
To a folk terrible to see
From their beginning of the spree
To this day, a nation in line
And trodden down, whose land and vine
The rivers have spoiled in decline.”
3 All you dwellers upon the earth,
Inhabitants of the world’s berth,
See when the flag is lifted up,
Hear trumpet’s blowing like a tup.
4 For so YHWH has spoken to me:
“I rest and look out on My place,
As a clear heat on the herb’s face,
As a thick cloud upon the dew
With the day of harvest in view.
5 “For before harvest, when the bloom
Is full, and the blossom gives room
To unripe fruit, then someone’s cut
The sprigs with pruning shears, the strut
Of branches turned aside from rut.
6 “They shall be left abandoned there
To the fowls of mountains and air,
And to the beasts upon the earth;
And the birds shall find summer berth
Upon them and all earthly beasts
Shall spend the winter on their feasts.”
7 At that time find a present brought
To YHWH of hosts, a nation’s lot
Drawn out and peeled, even a folk
Afraid from the start of the stroke,
A nation measured out by line,
And trodden down, with lowlands spoiled,
Into the place where they have toiled
In name of YHWH of hosts’ account,
The fortress of Zion and mount.

Beloved, when humankind is cut down bare,
And life and land and water in their share
Refuse to nourish man’s society,
I praise You that the birds and beasts go free.
Where fields no longer grow the staff and turn
Supporting soldier and merchant to earn,
The spring finds something rising from the waste,
A new creation without hope or haste.
I’ve seen the desolation pour upon
The church and state from midnight without dawn,
I’ve seen the fall of Rome and Babylon.
But in my seeing where the cups lie broken
I find a new prayer and a lively token
In sprigs of trees some birchen and some oaken.

ISAIAH 19

1 The vision against Egypt. See,
YHWH rides upon a swift cloud and
Shall come down into Egypt’s land:
The idols of Egypt shall be
Moved at His presence, and the heart
Of Egypt shall melt at His dart.
2 I’ll set Egyptian against brother,
And they shall fight against each other,
And every one against his neighbour,
Town against town with vim and labour.
3The spirit of Egypt shall fail
In the middle, and I’ll prevail
Against its plans, and they shall seek
Their idols and charmers to peek
By their familiar spirits, and
To wizards spread across the land.
4 And the Egyptians will I give
Over to a cruel lord to live,
A fierce king shall rule over them,
Says the Lord YHWH of hosts to them.
5 The waters shall fail from the sea,
The river waste, dried in degree.
6 They’ll turn the rivers far away,
Brooks of defence emptied to stay,
The reeds and flags withered in clay.
7 Papyrus by the brooks and at
The mouth of streams, all things that sat
There shall wither and blow away.
8 The fishermen also shall mourn,
And all that cast a rod forlorn
Into the brooks, and they that spread
Nets on the waters shall see dread.

Egypt through all her history has found
The greatest disaster upon the ground
Is when the river did not rise to feed
The land with muck and truck, black soil in greed.
The water is the mainstay of the land,
The hope, the history, the divine hand
That moulded once the civilized to stand.
The river is the greatest god of need.
You always strike the heart of staff and bread,
You always appeal to both cart and head,
And make the human eye see what with dread
You threaten on both goal and body wed.
And yet acquaintance and admission bought
At violence fails when the time is caught.

9 They also that work in fine flax,
That weave their gauzy cloth in stacks,
Shall be confounded in their lacks.
10 Its foundations shall be struck down,
The wage-earner troubled with frown.
11 The princes of Zoan are fools,
The counsels of the wise men’s schools
To Pharaoh just make beastly sense.
How do you tell Pharaoh from hence,
”I am the son of a wise clan,
Of ancient kings under the ban?”
12 Where are they, where are your wise men?
And let them inform you again,
And let them know what YHWH of hosts
Has planned for Egypt and its boasts.
13 Such fools princes of Zoan are,
Princes of Noph raised to a star,
They also have seduced Egypt,
The stay of the tribes in their crypt!
14 YHWH’s mixed a perverse spirit there,
And they have caused Egypt to err
In every action, like a drunk
Staggering, in his vomit sunk.
15 There shall be no work for Egypt,
No matter what it tries, it’s slipped.
16 In that day Egypt shall be like
Women to tremble at the strike,
The shaking hand of YHWH of hosts,
Which He raises against its boasts.

I too take honour and fame from the past,
My grand ancestors, fleeting ghosts outcast
Upon the western shores of Carrick and
Upon the hills of Appalachian stand.
I too look back to some, whether as kings,
Still as the influential in the rings,
And praise them for their wisdom and their thought,
Their actions on the land, the cows they bought.
Whatever unsent ghost perverse in me,
As I follow Your great command to be
In honour of parent and ancestry,
I beg You cast out on the tundra free
To wander far never more to be caught.

17 And the land of Judah shall be
A terror to Egypt’s degree,
Every one who remembers it
Shall fear in heart and have a fit,
For the counsel of YHWH of hosts,
Which He has raised against its boasts.
18 In that day shall five cities in
Egypt’s land speak Canaan’s tongue and
Swear to YHWH of hosts in their sin,
And one be called destruction’s band.

Whatever’s said of Assyria, I find
The Coptic tongue is lost to every mind
That walks in Egypt now, instead I hear
Something so like the Canaanite a tear
Of far nostalgia dampens me resigned.
Egyptians all today speak the rough speech
Of Canaan and the Arabic to preach
Upon the tops of minbars where the stone
Still witnesses that Allah’s God alone,
Muhammad is Your prophet and Ali
Is still Your friend and comfort and wali.
Whatever reinforcements man may take
From history to the Egyptian stake,
Today the prophecy’s true in its wake.

19 In that day an altar to YHWH
Shall be raised before Egypt’s crew,
A pillar of witness shall rear
To YHWH beside it’s border dear.
20 And it shall be there for a sign
And for a witness of design
To YHWH of hosts in Egypt’s land,
For they shall cry to YHWH and stand
Before oppressors, and He’ll send
To them a saviour and one great
Who will deliver them in state.
21 And YHWH shall be known to Egypt,
The Egyptians that day unclipped
Shall know YHWH and make sacrifice
And oblation; they’ll in a trice
Vow a vow to YHWH, make it nice.
22 YHWH shall attack Egypt, He’ll smite
And heal it, and they’ll come to light
Before YHWH, and He’ll hear their plaint
And He shall heal them from constraint.
23 In that day there’ll be a highway
From Egypt to Assyria,
And the Assyrian shall come
Into Egypt and at the drum
Egyptians to Assyria,
And the Egyptians, they shall serve
Assyrians as they deserve.
24 In that day shall Israel be third
With Egypt and Assyrian herd,
A blessing in the middle of
The continents with faith and love,
25 Whom YHWH of hosts shall bless and say,
“Blessed by Egypt My folk to stay,
Assyria the work of My hands,
And Israel My heritage bands.”

The pillar raised in Elephantine bears
Witness to You, Beloved, though unawares
Perhaps that You remain hidden, unseen,
Even upon Egyptian’s burning screen.
There was an altar and there was a house
Built in Your honour, as though nibbling mouse
Had torn the temple of Jerusalem
Out of the earth, both branch and root and stem.
Beloved, though I am not Egyptian nor
Arab nor even Israelite in score,
I find the altar on the desert sand,
I find Your name and Your oblation stand
Still witness beneath crescent moon and where
The people come in pilgrimage to share.

ISAIAH 20

1 The year Tartan came to Ashdod,
Sent by Sargon Assyrian king,
And fought with and conquered Ashdod,
2 At the same time YHWH said a thing
By Isaiah son of Amoz,
Saying “Go out now and make loose
The sackcloth from your waist and put
Again your shoe from off your foot.”
And so he did, and walked around
Naked and barefoot on the ground.
3 And YHWH said “As My servant true
Isaiah has walked nude in view
And barefoot for three years to be
A sign and wonder for to see
In Egypt and Ethiopia,
4 “So shall the king of Assyria
Lead captive the Egyptians sold,
And Ethiopians young and old,
Naked and barefoot in the cold,
Even with bare backsides unshipped
And to the shame of all Egypt.
5 “And they shall be afraid and shamed
Let down by Ethiopia blamed,
And by Egypt their glory claimed.
6 The dweller on this coast shall say
In that day, “See our confidence,
Where shall we flee for help in tents
From the Assyrian king and how
Shall we escape the broken bough?

Your prophet, my Beloved, went out to show
His bare ass in the street and in the glow
Of market in the biggest town I know
Of ancient times, and he is still revered
By Christian and by Jew and all such steered.
When Quakers stuck a butt out into view,
When Doukhobors took to the streets bare too,
The people pointed fingers then and laughed
At the insanity that they had quaffed.
That only shows, Beloved, that people now
Are worse than any pagans in the row
That they disdain and condemn with a look
Of arrogance. Beloved, I cannot brook
The infidelity around my nook.

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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