ISAIAH CHAPTER 32 - 41

ISAIAH 32

1 See how a king shall reign upright,
And princes rule in judgement’s light.
2 And each be like a hiding place
From the wind, a cover of grace
From the storm, as rivers that flow
With waters in a desert show,
As the shade of a great rock in
A land of weariness and din;
3 Not dazzling to the eye of those
Who watch, while hearers’ ear bestows
Attendance from their head to toes.
4 The rash heart too shall become wise,
And stuttering tongue to despise
Shall be ready to speak out clear,
5 The vile man no longer appear
Generous, nor the knave be said
To be bountiful in his spread.
6 The vile person speaks villainy,
His heart will work iniquity,
And he’ll practise hypocrisy,
And utter error against YHWH,
To make the soul as hungry too,
And cause the drink to fail from lip
Of the thirsty in his lordship.
7 Wicked are the ways of the knave,
He invents hard things to enslave
The poor with lying words to crave
When the oppressed speak right and hip.
8 The generous invents good things,
In generosity’s his wings.

I’m not sure which heart of the politicians
Both Israeli and Palestine’s ignitions
Can be the one that’s rash in the words here.
So many fit the parable and ear.
I’m not sure which man of the lot is vile
Within Israeli and Philistine pile,
As every other one could fit the bill,
And hypocrite and knave are standing still.
The oppressed are near every site and wall,
And some are Jewish, and others appal,
But generous there be and hope is near
That peace and fond prosperity may reign,
At least when Middle Eastern oil in drain
Is finished and men turn back to regain.

9 Rise up, you women, from your ease,
Hear my voice, careless daughters, please,
Give ear to my speech’s trapeze.
10 Many days and years shall you be
In trouble, careless women free,
For the vintage shall fail and yet
The harvest day has not been set.
11 Tremble, women at ease, for doubt
Cry, careless ones, and so set out
Your clothing and make your flesh bare,
And take up sackcloth then to wear.
12 For udders they lament, for fields
Of Muhammad, for the vine’s yields.
13 Upon the land of my folk rise
Up thorns and briers, and to despise
The joyful palaces in guise
Of the joyful city and wise.
14 Surely the palace has been left,
The crowd of the city bereft,
Fort and watch-tower become a den
For ever, and wild donkey’s glen,
A pasture of herds in the cleft,
15 Until the spirit be poured out
Upon us from on high for stout,
Wilderness be a fruitful field,
And fruitful field be counted yield
Of a forest stayed round about.

The fact is both the Jew and Arab are
The sons of Abraham and so they star
Both to live in the peace of faith beneath
The cloudless sky of Jerusalem’s heath.
Some yearn for fields of Ahmed in the toil
Of watering the orchards on the soil,
Some yearn for David’s kingdom in relief,
Some yearn and some joy, others in their grief
Are driven to such acts beyond belief.
Pour out Your spirit, my Beloved, and see
Prosperity and peace drown out melee,
And let the Trinitarian oil man be
A relict of the past, dead, cold and gone
Before the coming of another dawn.

16 Then judgement shall stay on the sand
Of wilderness and upright stand
In the gardens of all the land.
17 The righteous work shall be Islam,
The effect of justice in calm
And surety for ever manned.
18 My folk shall live in peace and in
Sure dwellings without battle’s din,
And in the quiet resting place;
19 When it shall hail upon the wood,
And the town bow as low as could.
20 Blessed are you who sow beside all
Waters, that send forth feet from stall
Of ox and donkey to the wall.

Prediction of the faith of peace so far
Has not developed into any star
That leads humankind to the waters far
That stay for ever thirst and make the state
Of the messiah true over all hate.
Prediction is a thing not to be stunned:
There is no fate that proves the thing when gunned.
Prediction is no promise come in view
That things must someday turn to right and true.
Prediction is the promise of good will
That at any moment men on the hill
May turn from evil and do right until
The course of history is changed and all
Find their place in peace on the earthly ball.

ISAIAH 33

1 Woe to you who spoil and were not
Spoiled, and act in a traitor’s plot
With those who have not been to you
Traitors in what they say and do!
When you have finished spoiling, then
You shall be spoiled, and when your den
Of treachery is broken up,
They’ll take with treachery your cup.
2 O YHWH, be merciful to us,
For we have waited for Your bus,
Be their arm in the mornings and
Salvation in a troubled land.
3 From the voice of a crowd have fled
The people, from Your raising spread
The nations round about as led.
4 Gathered is your spoil in a pile
Of caterpillars running while
The locusts run about in style.
5 YHWH is exalted, He is set
On high, He fills the fortress yet
With judgement and righteousness met.
6 The steadfastness of your times here
Is the strength of salvation near,
Wisdom and knowledge, and the fear
Of YHWH, it is His treasure dear.
7 Hear “Their lion of God” they cry,
Messengers of Islam come by
With bitter weeping where they steer.
8 Desolate are highways so that
The traffic ceases on the path,
He has broken the covenant,
He’s despised enemies in slant,
Esteeming no man in his wrath.
9 The earth mourns and withers in frown,
Shamed Lebanon’s trees are cut down,
Sharon is like a wilderness,
Bashan and Carmel shake distress.

Isaiah prophesies the falling down
Of the Assyrian of golden crown,
And at the same time looks down through the years
To coming of Islam and all the tears
That coming makes, not just the spreading place
Of desert and of wilderness in trace
Of cedars of Lebanon failing grace,
But for the tears when that great lion of God
Exalted was stricken down to the sod
Of prayer by sword. All things are noted well
In ancient Scripture, as oracle’s spell.
Beloved, I beat my breast and weep to tell
The story of the fateful locust horde
That in Muhammad’s name raised up a sword.

10 “Now I’ll rise,” says YHWH, “I’ll sit high,
Now I’ll lift Myself to the sky.
11 You shall conceive chaff and bring forth
Stubble, your breath like fire for worth
Shall consume all of you thereby.
12 The folk shall be like burning lime,
Like thorns cut up to burn in time
Of fire. 13 Hear, you who sit far off,
What I have done, and you nearby,
Acknowledge the might of My try.
14 Sinners in Zion are afraid,
Fear grasps the hypocrites’ parade.
Who of us shall survive the fire
Consuming, who unholy pyre
For ever and ever unstayed?
15 He who has acted righteously,
And who utters things uprightly,
The one who despised all the gain
Of oppressions, and shakes the stain
Of bribes from his hands, and stops ears
From plans of shedding blood, whose eyes
Are shut from seeing evil guise.
16 He’ll dwell exalted from his fears,
His redoubt is the rocky rears,
Bread shall be given him and sure
And steadfast are his waters pure.

I’ve seen the feet go calmly through the blast
Of coals red hot and flames that had been cast,
But did not know that those whose test was there
Were of the band who obey You with care.
The fire consuming that such men survive
Who keep Your law whether dead or alive
Must not be the one kindled with the share
Of walking on the coals with the feet bare.
Indeed, Beloved, I cling in my retreat
To Your commandments only, while my feet
Walk only in the paths commanded by
Your law that was once spoken on Sinai.
I find my fortress in the wilderness
And eat my bread and drink water You bless.

17 A king of glory your eyes see,
A land far off in its beauty.
18 Your heart shall contemplate the fate
Of terror, where is the scribe’s mate,
Where the receiver, where is he
Who counted the towers in melee?
19 You shall not see a fierce folk rise,
A people of deeper in guise
Of speech than you can yet devise,
Of a tongue that stutters so you
Cannot understand word nor cue.
20 Look on the fortress and the town
Of our solemn assemblies down;
Your eyes shall see Jerusalem
A quiet habitation’s hem,
A tent not to be taken down;
Not one of its stakes pulled from place,
Nor any cord broken in trace.
21 But there mighty is YHWH for us,
A place of rivers glorious,
Streams of broad banks where no ship comes,
No oars creep over it with drums.
22 For YHWH’s our judge, and YHWH is our
Lawgiver, YHWH’s our king of power,
He will save us by mighty tower.
23 Left are your ropes, they fail to hold
Their mast, they could not spread the cold
Sail, so’s divided the great spoil,
Even the lame receive for toil.
24 Inhabitants shall not say “I
Am sick,” the folk who dwell nearby
Shall be forgiven iniquity.

The city and the temple that surround
The ark of covenant and blessing found
About the tables of the law resound
With praise to You, Beloved, for what You do,
And what you have commanded Your own crew.
The tattered tent of wilderness is made
Anew in the Jerusalem parade,
The covering of Kaaba in the night
Protects the law of righteousness and light.
Not only Jew and son of Abraham
Enjoy the blessings of the goat and ram,
But every Gentile that will take a look
Into the heavenly Scriptures and good book
Is contemplated by the angels there
As worthy as the high priest on the stair.

ISAIAH 34

1 Come near, you nations, come and hear;
And listen, you folk, let earth hear,
And all who live on it appear,
The world and every bit of gear.
2 For the wrath of YHWH’s on all folk,
And His fury on armies’ stroke,
He shall fully destroy them, He
Has brought them into slaughter’s fee.
3 Their slain also shall be cast out,
And their stench from their corpses rout,
And mountains dissolve in their blood.
4 And all the host of heaven in flood,
The skies roll together like scroll,
And all their host fall from the toll,
As the leaf scatters from the vine,
As fruits from the fig tree entwine.
5 Soaked in the sky was My sword, see,
On Edom it comes down in spree,
On the folk of My curse to be
In judgement. 6 YHWH’s sword’s filled with blood,
It glistens with the fat and mud,
As with the blood of lamb and goat,
With kidney fat of rams to gloat,
For YHWH’s made Bozrah’s sacrifice,
A great slaughter at Edom’s price.
7 And unicorns come down with them,
The bullocks with the bulls in hem,
And their land shall be soaked with blood,
And their dust made fat in the mud.
8 For it’s YHWH’s vengeance day, the year
Of recompenses for the fear
On Zion coming like a flood.

The day and year of recompense I fear
Not, for I am not of the crowd to spear
The righteous poor with profit and with claim.
I am the back-hand of this world in blame.
When I worked for my fame and for career,
My actions were applauded and I had
The glory and the praise of good and bad.
But when I turned my hand to touch Your word,
Beloved, the gleaming crowds that had been spurred
Turned from my voice and song, and from my writ
And left me all alone on the mount fit.
And so I wait the day of vengeance with
No trembling in the temple where I sit
To ravel and unravel earthly myth.

9 It’s streams shall be turned into pitch,
Its dust into brimstone in ditch,
The land shall become burning pitch.
10 It shall not be quenched night nor day;
Its smoke forever makes its way:
For generations it lies waste;
None pass through it for ever chased.
11 The cormorant and bittern stay;
The owl too and the raven’s bay:
He’ll stretch out on it the line of
Confusion, stones empty above.
12 To the kingdom her nobles call
But none arrive to stand in stall,
Her princes are nothing all.
13 Covered her palaces with thorns,
Nettle and bramble are her bourns.
It shall be dragons’ hiding place,
A court for ostriches to race.
14 Meet there the desert beasts the wild
Dog, and the satyr cries there styled
Where the night owl finds resting space.
15 There made her nest the bittern, there
She laid her eggs and hatched with care,
Gathered under her wing to spare
From vultures coupled and unguiled.
16 Seek out the book of YHWH and read,
No one of these shall fail indeed,
None shall be lacking of her mate,
For my mouth’s commanded the rate,
And His spirit comes to impede.
17 And He has cast the lot for them,
His hand divided gem by gem,
They shall possess it always for
All generations’ living store.

The satyrs or the goats, the owls or spooks
Inhabiting the palaces of dukes
And kings, hardly ever lift voice in song
Or wings, or shake a shaggy beard along
The tumbling wall climbed, whether right or wrong,
There to devour the sprig of tender leaf
That always reappears in worlds of grief.
Beloved, I read the book and still compare
The murmuring of Psalms and Torahs there
To twittering of beak around my share.
The difference between my solitude
And beastly sounds that make the lively mood
Of forest is the punctuation where
Your prophets’ rantings come to rend the air.

ISAIAH 35

1 The desert and the wilderness
Shall be happy at their address,
The desert shall rejoice and bloom
Like roses in a fancy room.
2 It shall blossom abundantly,
Rejoice with joy and singing free,
The glory of Lebanon be
Granted it, the excellency
Of Carmel and Sharon, they’ll see
YHWH’s glory and excellency
Of our Ælohim without gloom.
3 Strengthen the weak hands and confirm
The feeble knees. 4 Say to the term
Of fearful, ”Be strong, do not fear:
See your Ælohim will come near
Revenging, Ælohim Huu comes
With a reward to do His sums
And save you with your near and dear.”

It’s not just Jews can make the desert bloom
(Although my heart returns into the room
Of En Gedi from the tundra and doom
That I inhabit like a ptarmigan),
For I have seen the fossil water in
The sands of Egypt glitter and rise up
To fill the gardens of the figs like cup,
Plantations of the olive with a din.
There is no soul aware of being I
Who cannot take a desert wing and fly
Into the heights of Carmel with a cry,
Into the bowers of Sharon where the rose
Is mingled with the poppies’ painted toes,
And know that You are here to satisfy.

5 Then blind eyes shall be opened, and
The deaf ears unstopped, 6 lame men leap
Like a deer, and the dumb tongue keep
A song: for on the desert sand
Shall waters break out, on the land
Of barrenness streams rise and seep.
7 The parched ground shall become a pool,
The dry land springs of water drool,
In dragons’ lairs, where each one lay,
The reeds and rushes bend and sway.
8 A highway shall be there, a way,
And it shall be called Sacred Way;
The unclean pass not over it,
But it’s for those wayfaring fit,
Though fools, they shall not miss the ray.
9 No lion is there, no raging beast
Shall wander in it, not the least,
But the redeemed shall walk and stay.
10 The ransomed of YHWH shall return,
And come to Zion with songs and learn
Joy unrelenting on their heads,
They’ll get joy and gladness in spreads,
And sorrow and sighs flee away.

Dear Jesus says to call no man a fool,
But that was after Isaiah in school
Used the word for the one who cannot read
The map while following the sacred creed
Of motorways instead of wandering steed.
Such ones are fools indeed, just ask the mate
Who’s driving in and out of the lost gate.
Jesus had disremembered future fate.
But Jesus and Isaiah are agreed
By word of the apocalyptic speed
That sorrows and sighs must go and recede
Before the joys that You, Beloved, instate
Upon the street of gold, the tree not late
To blossom and bear figs and olives’ rate.

ISAIAH 36

1 It happened in the fourteenth year
Of Hezekiah, king to fear,
Sennacherib, Assyrian king,
Came to attack the defencing
Of Judah’s towns and took their gear.
2 The king of Assyria sent
Rabshakeh from Lachish and bent
On getting to Jerusalem
To Hezekiah king of them
With a great army. And he stood
By the conduit to the good
Upper pool in the highway left
To the fuller’s field that it cleft.
3 When they to the king had appealed,
There came out to them stocked and steeled
Eliakim son of Hilkiah,
Who was over household and by her,
And Shebna the scribe and Joah
Son of Asaph, recording paw.
4 And Rabshakeh said to them, “Speak
Now to Hezekiah, he’s weak,
So says the great king, who is king
Of Assyria, ‘What faith you bring?
5 “You speak vainly to have a plan
And strength to battle as you can.
In whom do you trust and rebel
Against me, think now and do tell?
6 “See now, you trust in the lone staff
Of this bruised reed at which they laugh,
In Egypt, on which if a man
Leans, it will surely, spick and span,
Go in his hand and pierce it through.
So is Pharaoh of Egypt to
All who trust him. 7 “But if you say
To me, “We trust in YHWH today
Our Ælohim,” is that not He
Whose high places and altars’ fee
Hezekiah’s taken away,
And told Judah in all their sway,
Jerusalem ‘You’ll worship here,
Jerusalem’s altar with fear?’”

Beloved, I cling to a state that is weak
Beyond pallor of Hezekiah’s cheek,
Weaker than failing Egypt and the bell
Of river Nile singing sweetly a knell.
I follow Peter Chamberlin whose dad
Was careful to keep at home all the sad
Traditions of the Huguenots who sang
The Psalms of David and without a clang
In secret kept the covenant of law,
The ten commandments. The son took the chance
To found Mill Yard, but learned to sorrow’s dance
That churches always turn upon and prance.
Conventicle in secret in the home
Can only oppose the fancies of Rome.

8 “Now then, I pray, give pledges to
My lord the Assyrian king due,
And I’ll give you two thousand horse,
If you can set riders in course.
9 “How then will you turn back the face
Of even one captain in chase
Of the least of my master’s men,
And put your trust on Egypt then
For chariots and for horsemen?
10 “Have I now come to the attack
Without YHWH’s aid against the back
Of this place to destroy it now?
YHWH said to me ‘Go up and plough
This land to its destruction now.’”

When just six women were left of the crowd
That had sat in Mill Yard to sing aloud,
The Baptists sent their courtiers to present
Their claims that they should own the land and rent.
The moneys that were set in sacred trust
Went to idolaters to polish rust,
And Your assembly went back to the true
Of staying by the hearth instead of pew.
The land is all destroyed, but after years
Of cantillating Psalms beneath the fears
Of Your commandments ten, we’re still a few
To guard walls of heavenly Jerusalem,
Reciting Your law’s Sabbath stratagem,
Remembering forefathers’ gracious crew.

11 Then said Eliakim the son
Of Holkiah and Shebna won,
And Joah to Rabshakeh, “Speak
Please to your servants in the reek
Of Syrian language, for we know
It and do not talk with the show
Of the Jews’ language in the ears
Of the people that mind the tiers.”
12 But Rabshakeh said to them, “Did
My master send me to the bid
Of your master and to you here
To speak these words? Should I appear
To the men on the wall so they
May eat their own shit and then stay
To drink their own piss in your way?”

Idolaters curse now as then in tongue
Of liturgies to idols in their rung.
It may have felt a barb, it may have stung,
In Hezekiah’s day, but all grief’s set
In grand parades beyond what can be met.
Please to speak in the Syrian tongue I pray,
And hear the scoffing at the Sabbath day
On tongue of priest and bishop and of pope.
They all continue in the blessed hope
Of sacred tongues in curses. Give them rope,
Beloved, and let them hang themselves in scope.
Slay all in me too, my Beloved, that stands
Against the truth of Your commandments’ bands,
And I shall live in more resplendent ray.

13 Then Rabshakeh stood up and cried
With a loud voice on the Jews’ side
And spoke in the Jews’ tongue and said
“Hear the word of the great king spread
Over Assyria, be led.
14 “So says the king, ‘Do not believe
Hezekiah, he’ll not relieve
You and save you out of his hand.
15 “Neither let Hezekiah stand
To make you trust in YHWH, and say
“YHWH will deliver us today,
And this town shall not under sway
Of the king of Assyria.”’
16 “Do not listen to Hezekiah,
For so says the king and pariah
Of Assyria, ‘Make with me
A treaty by a present, see,
And come out to me, and then eat
Every man of his own vine’s treat,
And every one of his fig tree,
And drink every one of the sea
Of his own cisterns at his feet,
17 “Until I come and I take you
Away to a land like your view,
A land of corn and wine and dew,
A land of bread and vineyards too,
A land of oil, olive and honey,
Where you may live with house and money
And not die, and take no heed now
To Hezekiah when his brow
Persuades you saying “YHWH will save.”

The pulpits all around me resonate
With scoffing at Your law, Beloved, and state
That none can keep Your word, that You were scoffing
When You spoke that one time on Sinai doffing
The silence of the universe to make
The only sermon that You ever spake.
The Rabshakehs fail not to wear a crown,
They stride in pomp around the Roman town,
In greed around Genevan horse and gate,
In their deceit in London risen late.
Beloved, I see the corn and wine flow out
And wallow in the oil of their redoubt,
And wait in quiet, clean obedience
To Your ten laws in my own humble tents.

18 “Have any gods of nations down
Saved their lands from beneath the frown
Of the Assyrian king? 19 “Where are
The gods of Hamath and the star
Of Arpad? And where are the gods
Of Sepharvaim, flung to the clods,
Hena and Ivah? Did they come
Deliver Samaria and hum?
20 “What gods are there among all gods
Of all countries that with their prods
Saved their country out of my hand,
That YHWH should deliver the land
Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
21 But the people said not a word,
They held their peace as though not stirred,
For the king’s command was to say
Nothing in answer to his spray.
22 Then came Eliakim the son
Of Hilkiah of the housedom,
And Shebna the scribe and Joah
The son of Asaph in whose paw
Was the recording, with clothes torn
To Hezekiah, told the scorn
Of Rabshakeh in what he’d sworn.

Have any gods delivered, truly said.
The cannibal opens his sack to spread
A sacred meal on altar and on town
That lies beneath the godly sun and crown.
Have any gods delivered, no indeed.
The legend is that You broke Pharaoh’s steed
In ages past, but what I see amiss
Is more of reproach than justice to kiss.
The forest bears the gash, the road is plain,
The scars are seen upon the land in vain,
For every human soul bears in the breast
The knowledge of Your oneness and confessed
In I-nesses that cannot be escaped,
Despite the countries that lie dry and raped.

ISAIAH 37 (SEE 2 KINGS 19)

1 It happened when king Hezekiah
Heard it, he tore his clothes to sigh it,
And dressed himself up in sackcloth,
And went into YHWH’s house of wrath.
2 He sent Eliakim who was
Over the household and the claws
Of Shebna the scribe and the elders
Of the priests clothed in sackcloth felders
To prophet Isaiah the son
Of Amoz, who was worth a ton.

When Hezekiah sends his servants to
Isaiah, who’s a prophet, for a clue,
He does a good deed, for few kings await
The word of prophet or of God in state.
Bless Hezekiah for his humble deed,
And bless those who follow him on his steed
Rushing to find Your will, Beloved, in need.
Few find Your will, despite its open share
Proclaimed in ten commandments everywhere,
Even upon the stone the Anglican
Set up in early churches under ban
Of Vatican. Few find the shining truth
Despite the help and hope of hearth in youth,
Despite the care of years to show what can.

3 They told him, “So says Hezekiah,
‘Today’s a day of great pariah,
And of rebuke and blasphemy,
Because the time of birthing be,
And there’s not strength to birth a flea.
4 “It may be YHWH your Ælohim
Will hear all the words sans esteem
Of Rabshakeh Assyria’s king
His master has sent with a thing
Of reproach to the living God,
And will reprove those words of clod
YHWH your Ælohim has heard, so
Pray for the ones left in the show.’”
5 King Hezekiah’s servants came
To Isaiah, prophet by name.
6 And Isaiah said to them, “So
Shall you say to your master, ‘So
Says the blest YHWH, “Don’t be afraid
Of the words which you have heard laid
By the servants Assyrian king
Has sent to blaspheme Me a thing.
7 “See, I’ll send upon him a blast,
And he will hear a rumour cast,
And will return to his own land,
And I will cause him not to stand
Before the sword in his own land.”’”
8 And Rabshakeh returned and found
The king of Assyria bound
In battle against Libnah round,
Though he had heard that he had gone
Up from Lachish before the dawn.
9 And when he heard say of the king
Of Ethiopia a thing,
And of Tirhakah, “See now he
Has come out to fight against you,”
He sent messengers back to see
Hezekiah saying in view,
10 “So you shall speak to Hezekiah
King of Judah and all that’s nigh her,
Saying ‘Let not your God in whom
You trust deceive you of your doom,
Saying “Jerusalem shall not
Be delivered into the plot
Of the king of Assyria.”
11 “See, you have heard and heard with awe
What the kings of Assyria
Have done to all lands by destroying
Them wholly, shall you be enjoying
Deliverance? 12 “Have nations’ gods
Delivered them from any prods
Of my ancestors destroying,
As Gozen, Haran, and the spring
Of Rezeph, and folk of Eden
Who were in Thelasar like men?
13 “Where is the king of Hamath and
The king of Arpad, and the land
Of the king of Sepharvaim’s town,
Of Hena and Ivah for crown?’”

Rebshakeh fails to see the sign of wind
Crossing the plains of how his king has sinned.
Insensitive to cry of earth in weal,
The conqueror is always at the heel,
And rides rough-shod across the ropes of steel.
That’s why they all at last perish and fail.
Their works are forced and forced once to prevail,
And force is artificial in the gale,
It does not last because it turns a tail
Against the laws of nature under sail.
The lust of conquest is perversion and
Runs in a dead-end on the desert sand.
The boasting of a general is heard,
But fails at last down to the latest word.

14 And Hezekiah got the brief
From the messengers in relief
And read it. Hezekiah went
Up to YHWH’s house and spread the sent
Before YHWH. 15 Hezekiah prayed
Before YHWH and said where he stayed,
16 “YHWH that is Israel’s Ælohim,
Who stays between cherubim’s beam,
You are the Ælohim and You
Alone, of all kingdoms of earth,
And You have made both heaven and earth.
17 “YHWH, bow down Your ear now, and hear,
Open, YHWH, Your eyes, see and hear
The words Sennacherib has sent
The living God reproach to vent.
18 “Truly, YHWH, the Assyrian kings
Have destroyed nations and their things.
19 “They have thrown their idols in fire,
For they were not gods to desire,
But the work of men’s hands, and wood
And stone, that’s why destruction could.
20 “So that’s why, YHWH our Ælohim,
I pray to You, save from the scheme
Of his hand, so all earthly kings
May know that You above all things
Are YHWH Ælohim, only You.
To You alone worship is due”

I too have letters I’ve received for grief,
And spread them before Your eye for relief,
And find the words there disappear and fail
Before the scintillating grace and grail
Of Psalm and loved commandments I recite
Before the coming of the morning light.
I too have letters sometimes got for pain,
I too have spread them out to view in vain
Until the comfort of Your law appear
And turn away my sorrow and my tear.
Not vain is the loved word that You once told
The fleeing shepherds looking for a fold
Beyond the Red Sea’s march out of the cold.
Not vain is Your word to vanquish my fear.

21 Isaiah the son of Amoz
Sent to Hezekiah what shows,
Saying “So says YHWH Ælohim
Of Israel, ‘What you would deem
To pray to Me against the king
Sennacherib of Assyria,
I’ve truly listened to the thing.’
22 “This is the thing that YHWH for awe
Has spoken about him: ‘Virgin
Daughter of Zion despised your skin,
Laughed you to scorn, the daughter of
Jerusalem shakes head and glove.
23 “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
Against whom have you cast and beamed
Your voice and lifted up your eyes
Up high? Against the holy rise
Of Israel. 24 “By messenger
Have you reproached the Lord to stir
Saying ‘With crowds of chariots
I have come up the mountain lots,
To the sides of Lebanon, and
Will cut down the tall and the grand
Cedar trees from it and the choice
Fir trees from it, and I’ll rejoice
To enter in his borders’ place,
The forest of his Carmel’s grace.
25 “I’ve dug and drunk strange waters and
With the sole of my feet I’ve fanned
Dry all the rivers of the manned.’
26 “Have you not heard how long ago
I accomplished great things of woe,
And formed it all in ancient time?
Now I have brought to pass the crime
That you should be here to lay waste
Fortified cities for a taste.
27 “That’s why their people lacked the power,
Dismayed and confounded an hour,
They were like the grass of the field,
And as the green herb without yield,
The grass on the housetops to wilt
Before the wind and the wind’s silt.
28 “Yet I know where you’re coming from,
Your advance and your retreat’s sum
And your rage against Me like bum.
29 “Because your rage against Me and
Your tumult has come up to stand
In My ears, therefore I’ll put hook
In your nose and bridle to brook
Your lips and I will turn you back
In the way you came up to track.
30 “And this shall be a sign to you,
You’ll eat this year such things as grew
Of themselves, in the second year
The same such things as so appear,
And in the third year you shall sow
And reap and plant vineyards to grow
And eat the fruit of what you know.
31 “What has escaped of Judah’s house
Shall once again take root and spouse,
And bear fruit upward once to grow.

The little girls that run the streets with shout
Around Jerusalem and all about
Make ditties to sing at their games in scorn
That Sennacherib ever had been born.
I wonder if the king learned of their play,
I wonder if he heard what lasses say
About him and his might, his gods and all
The deeds of valour he struck on the wall.
Beloved, I scorn the mountain and estate
Of those who have led armies round of late
And tell their names derided for their fate
To bird and beast I meet upon my hill.
Not one of them’s impressed as I relate
How many came about today to kill.

32 “Out of Jerusalem shall go
A remnant, and those who escape
Out of the mountain fortress shape
Up in the zeal of YHWH agape.”
33 “Therefore so says YHWH of the king
Of Assyria, ‘He’ll not bring
Himself to this city, nor shoot
An arrow there, neither shall boot
Or his shield come, not throw a mound
Of earthworks against it on ground.
34 “By the way which he comes, he’ll go
Back and shall not enter the row,’
Says YHWH. 35 ‘For I’ll defend this town
To save it for My own renown,
And for my servant David’s sake.’”
36 It happened that night that came out
The angel of YHWH, put to rout
The camp of the Assyrians
And killed as many in their cans
As hundred eighty-five thousand,
So when they got up dawn at hand,
See, all dead bodies on the sand.
37 Sennacherib Assyrian king
Turned back and left and then took wing
Back to live by Nineveh’s spring.
38 It happened as he bowed before
Nisroch his god in temple store,
That Adrammelech and Sharezer
His sons attacked and killed the geezer
With a sword, and they both escaped
Into Armenia’s land well graped.
And Esarhaddon his son reigned
In his place since he was unfaned.

That’s what a king gets for his bowing down
Before the idols of his sodden crown.
Nisroch is sure to be a disappointment
To those who serve before him in their ointment.
Sons kill their fathers in the growing tale
Of competition for the right of sale.
Competing is the fastest way to fail
Is something every wise man’s come to know.
How few seek out their wisdom in the show.
Art is the greater part of human breath,
All else just hurries on the coming death.
Beloved, I turn to You in sound and song
And flee away from every thing that’s wrong,
Until I find Your throne’s eternal glow.

ISAIAH 38

1 In those times Hezekiah fell
Ill like to die. And come to tell
Him was the prophet Isaiah
The son of Amoz, with éclat
Said to him, “So says YHWH, ‘Set now
Your house in order, and your brow,
For you’ll die, not live anyhow.’”
2 Then he turned his face to the wall,
And prayed to YHWH, began to bawl,
3 “I pray You, YHWH, remember now
How I have acted by Your face
In truth and with a perfect race
Of heart and have done good before
Your eyes.” Hezekiah wept sore.
4 A word of YHWH to Isaiah
Said 5 “Go say to Hezekiah,
'So says YHWH David’s Ælohim,
Your father, I have heard your scream,
And I have seen your tears, just see,
I’ll add to your days fifteen years.
6 “And I’ll deliver you from fears,
And this town from the power’s spree
Of the king of Assyria:
And I’ll defend this city’s paw.
7 “This is the sign I’ll give to you
From YHWH, to prove that YHWH will do
This thing that He has promised to.
8 “See, I’ll bring back again the shade
Of the degrees which have been laid
On the sun dial of Ahaz ten
Degrees backward,’” and so again
The sun returned ten degrees, by
Which degrees it had run the sky.

If Ahaz was inventor of the trick
To catch time by the sun dial with a flick,
Then I approve his symmetry, and yet
This miracle smacks of ignorance’ set.
I know how it is possible, I think,
To raise the dead up from the ghastly brink,
And how to turn the water into wine
As do the man-gods here and there and fine,
And how to curse a fig-tree lost in leaves,
But turning back the earth on axis grieves
My sore incredulity, unless forbid,
It means the sun’s a ball of fire that hid
A few miles above the earth where it rid
A chariot around the mortal sleeves.

9 Writing of Hezekiah king
Of Judah, when he took the sting
And was recovered from the fling.
10 I said in cutting off my days,
I shall go to grave’s gates in praise,
I am deprived of what is left
Of my years lying here bereft.
11 I said I shall not see YHWH more,
YHWH in the land of living shore,
I shall look on the face of man
No more with dwellers in world’s span.
12 My pilgrimage is finished here,
Been taken from me like the gear
Of a shepherd’s tent, I have drawn
Together like a weaver’s pawn
My life: in weakness I’m cut off,
From day to night You come to scoff
At me. 13 I worry till morn’s light,
That like a lion my bones He’ll blight,
From day to night that You will make
An end of me without a wake.
14 And like a crane and swallow I
Did chatter, mourning like a dove,
And so I raised on high my eye,
O YHWH, oppression and not love
Is on me, be my surety.

King Hezekiah may have been the first
To take the image of the crane uncursed
For the soul crying in its last complaint,
And longing for the martyred, blood-soaked saint.
The voice of the crane in my heart resounds
Across the universe, across its bounds
In search of that far mountain where the stakes
Are planted in the bosom of earth’s lakes.
Beloved, the day is fraught with sorrow’s speech,
The night is heavy with the words You preach,
And yet I raise my eyes to find Your way,
Your throne and Your salvation and the ray
Of knowledge that no I can bear the groan,
Because there is no I but You alone.

15 What shall I say? He spoke to me,
He Himself has gone on the spree:
I shall go timidly my years,
And feed my soul with bitter tears.
16 O Lord, by these things men must live,
And all of these life’s spirit give:
So heal me then and make me live.
17 Instead of peace see bitterness:
By You to my soul love confess
To take it from the pit’s address
Of such corruption, You have cast
All my sins at Your back at last.
18 For the grave never shall praise You,
Nor can death celebrate Your view,
Those who go down into the pit,
Cannot hope for Your truth in wit.
19 The living truly shall praise You,
As I do this day; fathers too
To their offspring make known the true.
20 YHWH’s there to save me, therefore we
Will sing my songs to melody
Of stringed harps all days of our life
In the house of YHWH without strife.

The king believes his eyes and ears to say
The dead do not arise in tomb to pray,
Nor sing the praises of the heavenly way.
Let that be my path to the truth and right:
The witness of the senses and the bright
Focus of human reason for delight.
Did You not form the human mind to seek
And rely on the syllogistic peek?
Yet with his reasoned argument the king
Turns to You to remind You of a thing:
The dead give no praise on the loving wing,
And so it’s in Your interest to give life
As long as You would hear praise lifted rife.
Beloved, does interest in all things have sting?

21 Isaiah had said “Let them take
A lump of figs, and place the stake
For a compress upon the boil,
And he shall get well from his spoil.”
And Hezekiah also said
“What is the sign by which I’m led
To go up to YHWH’s house instead?”

If the physician now relied upon
The lump of figs instead of pills withdrawn,
No doubt a king or too could be kept fresh
And out of the coils of death’s early mesh.
If the physician now relied in brief
Upon the remedies of nature’s thief,
No doubt the body that bends down in grief
Might rise again to whirl one more round gone.
Beloved, I take the fig as fresh and fair,
Filled with its gleaming seeds and pinkish ware,
And mind the days when my grandfather bore
The brunt of cultivating figly shore.
The memory of sunlight that is past
Is healing to the heart shot at half-mast.

ISAIAH 39

1 At that time Marodach-Baladan,
Baladan’s son, king of Babylon,
Sent letters and a present to
Hezekiah, for he had cue
That he had been sick and at last
Had been healed from the illness cast.
2 And Hezekiah overjoyed
Showed them the house of his employed:
The silver and the gold and spice,
The precious perfumes to suffice,
And all his armoury and all
The treasures found there in their stall;
And there was nothing under roof
Of his dominion that was proof
Against the showing of the king,
Hezekiah showed everything.
3 Isaiah the prophet came in
To Hezekiah king with din
And said to him, “What said these men
And where have they come from again?”
And Hezekiah said “From far,
They’ve come from Babylon’s land’s star.”
4 Then he said “What did they see here
In your house of your wealth and gear?”
And Hezekiah said “All things
In my house they have seen in rings;
There has not been a thing that I
Did not show them when they came by
To see my treasures and to spy.”
5 Isaiah said to Hezekiah,
“Hear the message of YHWH’s pariah:
6 “‘See, the days come that all that’s in
Your house, what your fathers in bin
Have saved up till this very day
Is borne to Babylon away,
And nothing shall be left,” says YHWH.
7 “And of your sons come from your ewe,
Whom you beget, they’ll take, and they
Shall be eunuchs and there they’ll stay
In palaces of Babylon
To serve the king from dawn to dawn.’”
8 Then said Hezekiah unto
Isaiah, “Good’s the word of YHWH
That you have spoken in my view.”
He said in explanation too,
“For there shall be peace, it is true,
In all my days and without rue.”

Perhaps You meant to take the grand theme of
The history of Your folk from above,
Perhaps Isaiah too saw boding fear
Of what should happen in another year,
But Hezekiah took the view of wise
And local man, a view not to despise.
Prosperity and peace do not last long
In any day and clime, in any song,
And so the message that it shall be well
For all my lifetime is a welcome spell.
Kings must be down to earth, see the concrete,
If they are to survive and so compete
With forces that destroy the house and home:
Eternity’s the case only of Rome.

ISAIAH 40

1 “Give comfort, comfort to My folk,”
Says your Ælohim at the stroke.
2 “Speak comfortingly to the town
Jerusalem, cry down her frown,
Her battle is accomplished and
Iniquity pardoned to stand;
For she has received at YHWH’s hand
The double for all her sins planned.”

The concept of atonement for the sin
The people have committed comes to win.
The double in the punishment abroad
Suffices to forgiveness from their God.
What use then is the sacrifice on crosses
To satisfy Jewish and Roman bosses?
If the captivity makes all things right
Then human sacrifice is just a blight.
Beloved, I find no comfort in the way
Of Babylon, nor ease in the king’s pay.
Let evil fail and fall before Your stroke,
While You have mercy on Your wayward folk.
Isaiah’s comfort is too hard to bear
By any people foundered anywhere.

3 The voice of one to cry aloud
In desert places for a crowd,
“Prepare the way of YHWH and make
Straight in the wilderness a wake
For our Ælohim and His sake.”
4 Every low place must be filled in,
And every bump and lump in bin
Scraped clear, and the crooked made straight,
And the rough places smooth in rate:
5 And YHWH’s glory shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it unsealed;
For YHWH’s mouth has come to relate.
6 The voice said “Shout!” He answered then,
“What shall I shout? For among men
All are grass and the beauty there
Is like the flower on a field bare.”
7 The grass shall wither and the flower
Shall fade before the breath in power
Of YHWH, the folk are just grass there.
8 The grass shall wither, the flower fade,
But the word of our God is made
To stand for ever in parade.

How many quote these words for centuries
In view of John the Baptist in the breeze,
In view of Jesus Christ bent to his knees
Three times beneath the muddy Jordan’s wave
As though in a prediction of the grave?
And yet the truth remaining after all
Have raised a hallelujah with the call
Of Haendel rushing through the well-filled hall,
Is that the people are as the grown grass,
Tough to the teeth and stubborn in the mass,
But ready now to wither and to take
The faded blossom smoothly in the wake.
The highway is set high and packed and spent,
But You remain ensconced in Your own tent.

9 O Zion, who bring good news, go
Up on the high mountain and show;
Jerusalem, who bring good news,
Lift up your voice aloud in cues,
Proclaim and do not be afraid,
Say to the cities of the stayed
Judah, “Your Ælohim’s arrayed!”
10 See the Lord YHWH will come in power,
His arm shall rule for Him the hour;
See His reward is with Him too,
And His work before Him in view.
11 He’ll feed His flock like shepherd true;
He’ll gather the lambs in His arm,
And bear them on His breast from harm,
And gently lead the suckling dam.
12 Who’s measured the palm of His hand
To find the waters in their stand?
The heavens by span, who’s meted out,
And comprehended without doubt
The dust of the earth, and has weighed
In scales the mountains and the stayed
Hills in a balance of redoubt?
13 Who’s guided the spirit of YHWH,
Or counselled Him to teach a cue?
14 Whom did He consult for advice,
To teach him ways of judgement nice,
To give Him knowledge and to share
With Him understanding with care?

The measure of the hollow of Your hand,
Beloved, is just the shape of human spanned,
The clay once moulded to receive the breath
Of life from You, who hold him back from death
With the waters and dust that You create
A haven for the soul of human mate.
The measure is well taken in the slight
And sweet body of humankind in sight,
The last thing in Your dream and song that might
Arise upon the sixth day of the bourn
To find in all creation making’s morn.
The measure, my Beloved, is truly great,
Though not for wealth and wisdom in the state,
But that the measure’s Your hand not forlorn.

15 See how the nations are a drop
In the bucket, and counted fop
Of dust in the scales; see, He takes
Up continents as mere tent stakes.
16 Lebanon’s not enough to burn,
Its beasts for a burnt offering spurn.
17 All nations before Him are naught,
And counted less than nothing wrought,
And vanity on a breeze sought.

Indeed, the nations are a vanity,
And continents a dribble on the sea,
While the soul living from Your power and breath
Is the great measure of defying death.
The nation is a nothing, but the man
And woman that comes from Your hand by plan
Is the infinitude of Your own brood,
The brook of Your creation and the mood
That tales the majesties of universe,
And shakes Your blessings on it for the curse.
Beloved, the state is small and powerless
Before the image of Your form’s address,
Before the will to live and love and do,
Before the praise that one can give to You.

18 To whom will you compare then El?
Or what likeness in image spell?
19 The craftsman melts an image well,
The goldsmith covers it with gold,
Surrounds with silver chains to hold.
20 One too poor for such treasure wrought
Chooses a tree that will not rot,
And finds a carpenter of skill
To make a graven image bought
And such a one to fit the bill.
21 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Was it not told you from start stirred?
Have you not understood the deep
Foundations of the earth to keep?
22 The one who sits on the earth’s globe,
Above its dwellers as in drove
Of grasshoppers, that stretches out
The skies like a curtain or robe
And pitches like a tent in grove,
23 That brings the princes into rout,
He makes earth’s judges vanity.
24 They shall not be planted, and see,
They shall not be sown, their stock free
Shall not take root in the earth’s grout,
And He shall blow upon them too,
And they shall wither without dew,
And the whirlwind shall blow away
Their glory like the stubble grey.
25 To whom then will you compare Me,
With whom shall I an equal be?
Says the Holy. 26 Raise up your eyes
Above and see who can devise
These things, that brings out all the pack
By number, and calls without lack
Their names by the power of His might,
For He is strong in power and right
Not to fail in the loaming track.

Though that image that You created when
You brought forth on the earth the world of men
Cannot be compared to Your span and ken,
It is a grace as infinite and true
As anything divine that You may do.
The only way that humankind can take
The way to diminished state in the wake
Of majesty is to create a god
Made of the gold and silver and the sod,
And then sit down upon an ivory throne
Pretending that his own hand has been shown
In glory of the universe. The bone
And blood relinquish then the glory past
And wallow in the mire of honoured blast.

27 Why do you speak, Jacob, and you
Israel peep saying “My way’s view
Is hidden from the sight of YHWH,
And my judgement is passed in dream
Before the view of Ælohim?”
28 Have you not known, have you not heard,
The Ælohim of all things stirred,
YHWH the Creator of the wings
Of the earth, does not faint for stings
And is not weary in searchings
Of His knowledge of deed and word?
29 He’s giving power to the faint,
And to those not strong for complaint
He multiplies the undergird.
30 Even young men are tired and weary,
And youths may stumble seeing bleary,
31 But those who trust in YHWH renew
Their strength, and they shall mount in view
Of eagles’ wings, and they shall run
And not get tired for what they’ve done,
And they shall walk and not be faint.

I trust in You, Beloved, and do not raise
A hand, a word or prayer of plaint to faze
My enemy, because I do not know
With certainty who is my mortal foe.
The veils of knowledge in the earthly life
Prevent the knowing when to raise the strife.
For danger that I might punish a friend
I leave my enemy for You to fend.
Beloved, I beg that You will ruthless be
Eradicating all iniquity
And casting in the dust each soul that takes
A part in slicing me with evil shakes.
From my heart too remove what I lay bare
Of disobedience before Your share.

ISAIAH 41

1 Keep silence before Me, O isles,
Let the folk renew strength and smiles,
Let them come near, then let them speak,
Let’s come near to judgement and peak.
2 Who raised the righteous from the east,
Called him to his foot, gave the feast
Of nations before him and made
Him to rule over kings’ parade?
He gave them as dust to his sword,
As driven stubble to bow’s cord.
3 He pursued them, passed in safety,
By the way his feet did not see.
4 Who’s made and done it from the start
Of generations in their part?
I YHWH, the first and with the last,
I am Huu. 5 The isles saw the blast
For fear, the ends of earth in fright
Drew near and came before the sight.
6 They helped each one his neighbour and
Said to his brother “Bravely stand.”
7 The carpenter encourages
The goldsmith and the one who’s biz
Is smoothing with a hammer him
Who beats the anvil, saying trim
”For joining it is good,” and he
Fastened it with nails and strongly.

Beloved, You come declare Your name and show
That You are first and last and all the row,
That there is none but You with power and strength,
That all things are created and at length
Sustained by You alone, and yet the crew
Of humankind has always things in view
To substitute for worship and respect
While they turn from Your glory and neglect
The right, the just commandment of Your law
And keep the gold and silver thing in awe.
Beloved, You come declare Your name to me,
And I turn from distractions on my wee
Wheel of life for a moment, and I see
A glimpse of truth before I eat the raw.

8 But you, Israel, are My servant,
Jacob whom I chose where to plant
The seed of Abraham My friend,
9 Whom I have taken from the end
Of the earth, and called you among
The chief men of it to be sung
To you, “You are My servant, I
Chose you not to throw in the sty.”
10 Don’t be afraid, for I’m with you,
Don’t be dismayed, I’m your God true:
I’ll strengthen you and I’ll help you;
Indeed, I’ll uphold you in crew
By My righteousness’ strong hand too.
11 See all those who held Me in wrath
Shall be shamed and lost on the path;
They shall be as naught, all who strive
With you shall perish from the hive.
12 You’ll look for them and not find them,
The ones who argued on your hem,
Those who war against you shall be
As nothing but an empty spree.
13 For I YHWH your Ælohim keep
Your right hand, telling you what creep,
”Don’t be afraid, and I’ll help you.
14 ”Don’t be afraid now, Jacob’s worm,
Men of Israel come out to squirm,
I’ll help you,” says YHWH and the one
Who will redeem you, Holy One
Of Israel, the One to stun.

Beloved, You chose our father Abraham,
Who likely’s no progenitor in sham
Of my poor soul, to be Your friend and lover.
You chose the good Jacob beneath the cover
Of Leah unaware to be Your slave.
And so You have both friend and lover grave,
And servant to provide what You may crave.
But what am I to You, Beloved, who take
The friend and lover and the servant’s cake?
Though You’re Beloved to me, I have no ware
Seducing You to look on me with care.
Though I’m not worthy to be slave or friend,
Nor lover yet, I cower and I bend
Before the pearl and ruby that You spend.

15 See, I will make for you a new
Sharp threshing tool with teeth on too,
And you shall thresh the mountains down
And beat them small, and make the brown
Hills like the chaff before your town.
16 You’ll fan them, and the wind shall bear
Them off, the whirlwind scatter there,
And you shall rejoin then in YHWH,
And glory in Israel’s Saint true.
17 The poor and needy look for drink,
None for their tongue failing at brink
Of thirst, I YHWH will hear their cry,
I Israel’s God will keep their sigh.
18 I’ll open rivers up on high,
And fountains in the valleys low;
I’ll make the desert land to flow
And dry land springs of water nigh.
19 I’ll cover desert lands with trees:
The cedar, the shittah, to please
The myrtle and the olive tree;
I’ll set desert with the fir tree,
The pine and box together free.
20 So they may see and know and think
And understand the mass and link,
How YHWH’s power has accomplished this,
Israel’s Holy created this.

From Eilat to En-Gedi I looked round
The desert ways to see what trees are found:
The cedar and the myrtle on the bound
Behind Jerusalem grew on the ground.
The olive tree stood there before the town,
The pine and box together were not brown,
But everywhere I looked in joy or grief,
I could not see the shittah for relief.
Beloved, I must admit that I don’t know
What shittah trees look like beneath the glow
Of sunset toward the great sea and its show.
Perhaps the trees whose names I only guess
Are among shittah’s most blessèd address.
Line up Your trees and bring them in a row.

21 Bring near your cause, says YHWH, bring out
Your arguments, says the King stout
Of Jacob. 11 Let them bring them up
And show us what is in the cup,
To let them show the former things,
What they are so we may take wings
Of thought and know what their end is;
Or declare to us future whiz.
23 Show things to come hereafter, so
We may know that you’re gods to grow;
Do good or evil so we’ll be
Dismayed before the things we see.
24 See, you are nothing, and your work
An empty plate, and evil quirk
Has chosen you to stand and shirk.
25 I’ve raised up from the north to come
One, from the rising of the sun
To call upon My name in sum,
And he shall raging come upon
Princes like a brick and like those
Who tread on the clay with their toes.
26 Who’s declared from the start so we
Might know? And beforetimes to be,
So we might say that he is just?
Indeed no one shows from the trust
Declaring it, none hears your dust.
27 The first says to the fortress, “See,
Look at them, and I’ll give freely
Jerusalem one who brings in
Good news to hear above the din.”
28 I saw that there was no one there,
Even among them to give fair
Advice, and when I asked a thing
They could not answer anything.
29 See, they’re all just a vanity,
Their works are nothing in degree;
Their molten images are wind
And mere confusion where they’ve sinned.

Whether the tools of vengeance in the wake
Of sinful works upon the city’s stake,
Or whether kings given the chance to show
Their evil hearts in what they do in tow,
They’re all a vanity because they know
The worship of their molten idols’ glow.
Whether wise in the things of nature’s path,
Or stupid in the ways they rise in wrath,
They’re empty all because they reap a swath
Of images for gods to bow and scrape.
Beloved, I decorate my house with crepe
And enter in the chamber where I find
Your feast goes on though I have whined and dined.

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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