ISAIAH CHAPTER 42 - 52

ISAIAH 42

1 Look at My servant I uphold,
My chosen one My soul is bold
To favour, I have put My mind
On him, he shall bring forth the sign
Of justice to nations’ incline.
2 He’ll not cry or lift up his voice,
Nor make himself heard as by choice
In the street. 3 A bruised reed he’ll not
Break, nor quench dimly burning knot,
But bring out judgement in truth’s plot.
4 He shall not fail nor be dismayed
Till he achieve the judgement made
On earth, and borderlands shall wait
For his teaching to consummate.

The teaching that You send by word and speech
Of angel to Your prophets, servants each
Of You in majesty, Beloved, I wait
To hear and follow at my path and gate.
The teaching of the Decalogue I know
From the great and the thundering public show.
The teaching of the Torah and the Psalms
I hear in melodies that fall as balms.
The teaching of the Gospel too resounds
In ears ready to obey divine bounds.
And last the teaching of noble Qur’an
Echoes upon a dark world for its dawn.
Beloved, I thank You for each servant sent
To kindle love and lighten up my tent.

5 So says Al YHWH creating skies
And stretching them out, to devise
The expanse of the earth and what
Grows out of it, and gives unshut
Breath to the people on it and
Their respiration as they stand.
6 I YHWH cantillate you with justice,
Take due hold of your hand who trust us,
And keep you and give as a pact
Of the folk, for a light in fact
To the nations. 7 To cure the blind
Eyes, to restore those in the bind
Of prison, those that sit in dark
Out of the prison house and stark.

Some say the servant here is the Messiah
But that itself hardly lifts the mind higher,
Since the word follows that Cyrus the Great
Is Your Messiah, My Beloved, in state.
Some say the servant here is Christ the king
Who came in humble form to teach a thing.
But Jesus was a preacher on the street,
So some words here defy the faithful bleat.
Some say the servant here’s the one You sent
Upon the southern desert where You spent
Your last in revelation to the world.
But he was not a healer where he whirled.
Beloved, I doubt not You meant all of them
Whom You sent to the world as precious gem.

8 I am YHWH Huu’s My name, and My
Glory I’ll not give to a spy,
Nor My praise to idols cut sly.
9 See, the prediction’s come to pass,
New things I bring under the glass,
Before they appear I am sure
To tell you about them secure.
10 Sing to YHWH a new song, His praise
From the end of the earth to raise
You who go down to the sea and
All that is in it, island strand
And those who live there in the land.

The argument is not so much whom You,
Beloved, sent to take on the human crew,
Whether Cyrus, Messiah or the one
Called Jesus, or Muhammad on the run,
But rather of importance is that none
May have the praise and glory due from wombs
To the Creator, Judge, Raiser from tombs
To stand before Your face to hear the true.
Who make of prophet a divinity
Of light or flesh or other trinity
Despise Your word and name, Beloved, and lay
A stumbling-block before the sinners way.
Let me give no praise to an idol made
Of stone or human concepts on parade.

11 Let the desert and its towns lift,
Kedar’s villages praise the gift,
Let the dwellers of the rock sing,
Let their shouts on mountaintops ring.
12 Let them ascribe glory to YHWH,
Declare His praise in islands too.
13 YHWH shall go out like a strong man,
Stirring to jealousy in span
Like a warrior; and He shall shout
Indeed and roar and set to rout
His foes. 14 I’ve kept quiet so long;
I’ve been still and refrained my song;
Now I’ll cry like one giving birth;
I’ll consume everything of worth.
15 I’ll make waste mountains and hills, and
Dry up all their herbs on the sand;
And I’ll make rivers islands and
I’ll dry up the pools in their dearth.
16 And I’ll bring the blind by a way
They did not know there where they stray;
I’ll lead them in paths they’ve not known;
I’ll make darkness light to be shown,
And crooked things I’ll make straight, so
These things I do to keep their show.
17 They shall be turned back and ashamed,
Those who trust in carved idols’ famed,
Who say to molten images,
“You are our gods, so start to fizz.”

The only Jesuses I’ve ever seen
Are football players on the Latin green,
Or images carved well in stone and sheen
Of marble or dressed on the plate or cloth
With oils and pigments. Beloved, are You wroth?
The only Jesuses that make appearance
Are those set up in stony chapels clearance.
Perhaps when You promise You’ll make things straight
That were once crooked, You meant to instate
The molten and the carven to bow down
In worship to such idols on the town.
Or then You meant that those who take the shame
Of imaged Jesuses for worshipped name
Will be turned back from everything they claim.

18 Hear, you deaf ones, and look, you blind,
So you may see what I’ve designed.
19 Who’s blind, but My servant? Who’s deaf
As the messenger I sent reffed?
Who’s blind as the perfect, who’s blind
As YHWH’s own servant on the bind?
20 You see many things, yet do not
Observe the import of the taught;
You open up your ears but fail
To hear the very bill of sale.
21 YHWH’s well pleased for His righteousness;
He’ll magnify the law’s address,
And make it honoured by the hale.
22 But this is a folk robbed and spoiled,
All snared in holes, in prisons coiled,
They’re a prey without an escape,
A spoil with none to move the scrape.
23 Who of you will listen to this?
Who’ll give their ignorance a miss?
24 Who gave Jacob up for the prey,
And Israel into robbers’ way?
Did not YHWH against whom we’ve sinned?
Because they would not walk when pinned
In His ways, nor did they obey
His law, but always went astray.
25 So He’s poured on him all the wrath
Of His anger, the strength and lath
Of war, and set him all around
On fire, and yet he knew not sound;
It burned him while he did not stay
To keep it in his heart to pray.

The words seem to suggest that You come out
In anger when the sinful sing and shout.
Methinks the text is rather meant to say
Destruction is the state of things to stay
In disobedience: it’s not result
But the cloud of the sinful way’s tumult.
One can imagine that You do not grieve
Men in their punishment for what’s up sleeve,
Because the human mind is so constructed
It’s capable of seeing the deducted
In syllogisms vain as well as right.
Beloved, let me walk in the law and light,
Obedient to Your word, though I am not
One of the sons of Jacob perfect wrought.

ISAIAH 43

1 And now so speaks YHWH your Creator,
O Jacob, and the One that later
Formed you, O Israel, do not
Be afraid, for I have redeemed
You, and I’ve called you to the spot;
And you are Mine for all that’s seemed.
2 When you pass through the waters, I
Will be with you, and under sky
Through rivers, they shall not rise high
Over your head; when you walk through
The fire, you shall not be burned too;
Neither shall the flame catch on you.
3 For I am YHWH your Ælohim,
The Holy One of Israel’s dream,
Your Saviour: I gave Egypt for
Your ransom, and the greater store
Of Ethiopian and Seba
For you to keep you in My awe.
4 Since you were precious in My sight,
You have been honoured for the right,
And I have loved you day and night.
5 Do not be afraid, I’m with you:
I’ll bring your children from the dew
Of the east and gather you from
The west in the way you should come.
6 I’ll say to the north, “Give them up.”
And to the south I’ll say like tup
“Do not keep back; bring My sons here
From far away, My daughters’ dear
From the ends of the earth for fear.”
7 Every one who’s called by My name;
For I’ve created him for fame,
I’ve formed him and created frame.

I guess this passage beautied with delight
Is meant for sacred few before Your sight,
For I have seen the many drown beneath
The flood and I have touched the lily wreath.
The precious in Your sight are very few:
The others fail before the flash of dew,
And crumple in the flame like a moth caught
In lantern light in unexpected lot.
Beloved, I leave the lovely and the true
To Your salvation. I pick up the rue
Of those discarded like the falling chips
From sculptor’s art, and while with hands on hips
You see with satisfaction image bright,
I kiss the broken shards in humbler plight.

8 Bring out the blind folk that have eyes
And the deaf with ears to despise.
9 Let all the nations gathered be,
And let the folk in assembly,
Who among them can declare this,
And show the former things we miss?
Let them bring out their witnesses,
That they may be justified whiz,
Or let them hear and say it’s true.
10 “You are My witnesses,” says YHWH,
“And My servant I’ve chosen too,
So you may know and believe Me,
And understand that I am He:
Before me there was no El formed,
Neither shall after Me be stormed.
11 “I, I am YHWH, and beside Me
There is no Saviour come to be.
12 “I have declared and I have saved,
And I have shown when no strange braved
Among you, so you have been staved
As My witnesses,” so says YHWH,
“That I am El and I am true.
13 “See before day was I am He;
There is none to save from My spree:
I’ll work and who’ll not let it be?”

You are the only Saviour, I suppose
The avatars of east and west arose
In vain to die on crosses that oppose
Their resurrections in the tales they chose.
You are the only Saviour, I’ll not look
To human hand and heart to beat the crook,
For none come to the rescue of a rook
Like me who reads from nature and a book.
Beloved, You are the Saviour, there’s no more
To find or seek upon the rocky shore
Bound tightly by the ice that came so late
To help the greying sky to avoid fate.
Beloved, You are the Saviour from all things
That haunt the ways of Bedouins and kings.

14 So says YHWH, your Redeemer, He
The Holy One of Israel’s tree;
“For your sake I have sent to see
In Babylon, and have brought down
All their nobles, Chaldeans’ crown,
Whose cry is in the ships from town.
15 “I am YHWH and your Holy One,
Creator of Israel when done
Your King for everything you’ve won.”
16 So says YHWH, who makes in the sea
A path, and a trail in the lea
Of mighty waters in degree;
17 Who brings out chariot and horse,
The army and its power in course,
They shall lie down together, they
Shall not rise up, they’ve passed away,
Quenched as the flax the smoked to stay.
18 “Do not remember former things,
Ancient events’ considerings.
19 “See, I will do a new thing, now
It shall rise up, shall not your brow
Know it? I’ll even make a way
In the desert, and rivers stay
Across the wilderness to stray.
20 “The meadow beast shall honour Me,
The dragons and the owls to see;
Because I give waters to be
Upon the wilderness, and yet
Rivers in the desert to get,
To give drink to My chosen pet.
21 “This folk have I formed for Myself,
They’ll bring out My praise from their shelf.”

The story is You brought a chosen folk
Out of Egypt and with a mighty stroke
Brought water from the rock to quench their thirst
Before the desert well had come to burst.
The horse and chariot in that fateful day
Lay down together in the water’s way,
And lie there still beneath the Red Sea’s sway,
And so the power of Pharaoh came and broke.
Beloved, do You mean here that Babylon
Is also stricken before the bright dawn
Of Your salvation without a sword drawn?
The fallen city gleams before my sight,
The sight of my imagination bright,
Kindled by syllables of prophet’s light.

22 But you have not called upon Me,
O Jacob; you’ve been tired of Me,
O Israel. 23 You’ve not brought me
The little flocks of burnt offering,
Nor have you honoured Me with spring
Of sacrifices. I have not
Made you serve lot with offerings bought,
Nor tired you with incense in plot.
24 You’ve not bought for Me with good coin
Sweet cane, by the fat to enjoin
Of your offerings you’ve not filled Me,
Only you’ve made Me serve to be
An excuse for iniquity,
You’ve tired Me with your wickedness,
Bound up in your own small address.
25 I, I am He who comes to blot
Out your transgressions for My bout,
I’ll not remember more your sins.
26 Put Me in your remembrance wins,
Let us come into judgement dins,
Declare your case so you may be
Justified by the things I see.
27 Your first father has sinned, and your
Teachers transgressed against My store.
28 So I’ve profaned the temple chiefs,
And given Jacob curse’s briefs,
And Israel to reproaches’ griefs.

Beloved, it’s kind of You to come to say
That You will blot out sins erased away.
The people in my church hope not for that,
They’d rather keep their sins and so get fat.
It’s not the blotting out of sins we love,
But just forgiveness when bush comes to shove.
I put You in remembrance as I whirl
About the slaughter ground of grace to curl
A hope and prayer that You’ll not brush away
The sinful crumbs that are my plaint and prey.
If you will promise just to cancel debt,
And forgive failures in the way I’ve met
Your laws of love and help, then I will sing
A sinful ditty to Your golden ring.

ISAIAH 44

1 And now hear, O Jacob My servant;
And Israel, whom I chose observant.
2 So says YHWH that made you and formed
You from the uterus well-warmed,
A God to help you, so fear not,
O Jacob, My servant in plot,
And you, Jeshurun, whom I’ve got.

Say right now if I’m wrong, Beloved, to note
That when You speak of “My servant” by rote
In this part of Isaiah, You define
“My servant” as Your Israel on the vine.
I ask You to strike me dead if I fail
To understand this message of blackmail.
Your servant is clearly and simply just
Israel poured out to see upon the dust.
I ask You to make this clear as I feel
Temptation to find secret sense appeal:
Some say Your servant is just Cyrus met
Upon the throne, some say Your servant set
Is Jesus Christ, and I could well invent
Your servant to be one Muhammad sent.

3 For I’ll pour water on the thirsty,
And floods on the dry ground for bursty,
I’ll pour My spirit on your seed,
My blessing on your spawn decreed.
4 They’ll spring up as among the grass,
Like willows by waters that pass.
5 One shall say “I am YHWH’s” and one
Shall call himself by Jacob’s run;
One shall submit his hand to YHWH,
And one take name of Israel’s crew.

Your way of satisfying thirst reminds
Me of the giant who for thirsty minds
Pours out a thimbleful of water on
His little friend and nearly drowns the don.
It’s better to be like the willow set
Beside the quiet streams where it can get
The silent flood by all the roots in town,
And so keep safe and dry the weeping crown.
But blessing is a blessing, so I take
Both kinds and call them blessèd for Your sake:
Both those whose name is Israel on a spree,
And those who drink Your blessing quietly,
With only Your name for their comfort here,
And only Your presence about the ear.

6 So says YHWH King of Israel,
And his redeemer for a spell
YHWH of armies arrayed to tell;
I am the first, I am the last;
Beside me there’s no Allah's blast.

The bastard Jew in messianic place
Who tried to tell me two figures of grace
Are mentioned in Isaiah for a trace,
Is fool as well as bastard of his race.
The YHWH that’s King and the YHWH who redeems
Is just one figure, not nightmarish dreams
Of three or four or nine hung from the beams.
He said the word redeemer here can prove
That Jesus Christ died on the cross to move
Guilt from both Israel and those who groove.
Beloved, give me a faith with some good sense,
No nonsense faith, that when it comes, prevents
Me from falling for tales of mythic store,
And keeps my hand obedient, foot on floor.

The proof that king and redeemer are One
Is in the sentence that ends where begun.
He says I am the first, He says not we.
The same is last, so blast the Trinity.
That speaker who names Himself YHWH alone
Is God, there is no God of flesh and bone.
Beloved, I take You at Your word and see
The glory of the universe to me
The gauge of hope and light for all set free
From bondage of nonsense in faith’s degree.
I take Your word and cantillate today,
And every day, and on the Sabbath pray
That You alone will be my sovereign King,
Redeemer and Allah of whom I sing.

7 And who, as I, shall call, and who
Shall declare it and set in view,
Since I appointed ancient crew?
And coming things shall all come true
And let them show them what’s to do.

Indeed, Beloved, there is no one to stand
And lift a voice like Yours, in words so grand.
Your song from the first could create the light
And everything upon which light may smite.
Your word reveals the past, the future too,
And Your word tells humans what they must do.
Indeed, Beloved, the pitiful of crew
Who stand to claim the right to speak for You
Are dastardly ridiculous to see,
They’re gold and silver covered poverty.
Beloved, You have appointed from old time
A folk to hold Your revelation’s rhyme
Up to the world in witness. Now I hear
They recite Your commandments twice a year.

8 Fear not and do not be afraid,
Have I not told you from times stayed
Declaring it in vast parade?
You are My witnesses. Is there
A God beside me anywhere?
Indeed there is no Allah such,
I know not even one to touch.

There’s no Allah but You was well said by
The mouth of Isaiah, while others try.
But You reveal a blush of humour here
When You note that at least it would appear
That You know not of any such around,
Though men and women, even young are found
Who may know better than the One who made
The universe and set it on parade.
Beloved, I do not join the loud guffaw
That You suppressed a while, then hid by paw,
As it’s unseemly for a man like me
To laugh out loud in Your eternity.
But I just smile to hear the little joke
You cracked before You disappeared in smoke.

9 Idols that idol-makers make
Are all a vanity in stake;
Their sweet things have no profit there,
They testify to their own share,
They do not see, they do not know
To be ashamed of their own show.

The reason idols are so blind to see
The shame of their claims on the scenery
Is simply that they are made in the image
Of their creators running out to scrimmage.
I know a lot of people without wit
To see how stupid they’ve become in fit
To pretend to such wisdom where they sit,
And yet ignore the true, the great and fair.
Beloved, I find the true when come to share
The words of Your commandments with the air,
I find the great to overcome all kings,
I find Your law is fairer than all things.
And so I turn from pop and pocket rings
And join the cantillation of Your care.

10 Who has formed a god or a molten
And graven image worth a dolten?
11 See, all his playmates are ashamed,
And craftsmen turn out to be men:
Let them assemble for the blamed
And stand up, for they’ve come again
To fear and be shamed in their den.

I see the fear about me every time
Controllers have a summit meeting climb,
And see the lengths they go to hide themselves
Behind security of arms and elves.
I see the fear, but do not see the shame.
So far they wallow in their glory game,
The empty file and figments of their rhyme,
The desperate attempt to control all
Who breathe and buy a share of golden doll.
Beloved, I see the makers of the great
And hollow idols sitting in estate,
And know that shame covers the shining pate,
Though all unknown in the proud victims rate.
A pigeon poops above the royal stall.

12 The smith with tongs works in the coals,
And fashions it with hammers’ roles,
And works it with strength of his arms.
The smith gets hungry from the charms
And his strength weakens, when he drinks
No water, he gets faint in blinks.
13 The carpenter stretches a rule,
He marks it with a line for tool,
He fits it with planes and he marks
It with the compass set in arcs,
And so produces human form,
According his beauty’s norm,
And keeps it in his house unshorn.
14 He cuts down cedars, and he takes
The cypress and the oak for stakes,
Which he strengthens among the trees
Of the forest, he plants in breeze
An ash and the rain does not freeze.
15 Then it becomes a thing to burn
For a man to take and to learn
To warm himself with it and light
It kindles and bakes bread’s delight,
Or if he will to make a god
And worship it upon the sod
A graven image to fall down
In obeisance upon his crown.
16 Half of it he burns in the fire,
By half of it he eats desire,
He roasts a pot roast, does not tire,
Is warm indeed, and so exclaims
“Aha, I’m warm enjoying flames.”
17 And with the rest a god he makes,
His graven image after cakes,
And falls down to it and he prays
In worship before it and says
“Save me, for you’re my god in games.”
18 They do not know or understand,
For He has shut their eyes in band,
They cannot see, their hearts remand.
19 None ponders in his heart to know,
Neither is knowledge there to show,
“I’ve burned part in the fire to go,
And baked bread on the coals that glow,
And roasted meat to eat the treat,
And shall I make the rest a feat
Of an abomination’s street?
Shall I fall down to pray a bit
To a piece of wood hardly fit?”
20 He feeds on ashes: deceived heart
Has turned him away from his part,
He cannot save his soul nor say
“Deceit’s in my right hand to stay.”

If humankind can hardly understand
That gods made of base metal on the sand
Are not gods, but imagination’s band,
Then how can people stop to think that what
They have imagined in religion’s rut,
The god defined by human heart and mind,
And trimmed and trained to keep human hearts blind,
Is not as much the work of human will,
The fading of the light upon the hill?
The Trinity is fashioned by the thought
Of theologian in pagan trap caught,
The hope and help that God can be shaped to
The needs perceived by human sanctions’ view,
The egotism of this place and pew.

21 Remember these, Israel and Jacob,
For you are My servant to wake up.
I’ve formed you, and you are My slave,
O Israel, you’ll not meet the grave
Forgotten by Me bold and brave.
22 I’ve blotted out, as a thick cloud,
Your transgressions, and as a cloud,
Your sins; and so return to Me
For I’ve redeemed you faithfully.
23 So, O you heavens; for YHWH has worked,
Shout, lower parts of earth unperked,
Break into singing, mountains and
The forest, every tree in band,
For YHWH has redeemed Jacob, and
Honoured Himself by Israel’s stand.
24 So says YHWH, your redeemer and
The One who formed you from womb’s clanned,
I’m YHWH that makes all things to be,
That stretches out the sky to see,
That spreads abroad the earth by Me.
25 I make void tokens of deceit
With their divining spirits meet,
And prophecies from heart of man,
Making their wisdom foolish span.
26 Affirming the word of His slave,
Performing His messengers’ plot,
He says to Jerusalem grave,
“You’ll be an inhabited lot,”
And to Judah’s cities, “You’ll be
Built up and I’ll repair wholly
The decayed places that you see.”
27 He says to the deep, “Be you dry,
And I’ll dry up the rivers nigh;”
28 He says of Cyrus, “He is My
Shepherd, and shall work My will high,
To tell Jerusalem, ‘You’ll be
Built’ and to the temple to see
‘Your foundations shall be set down,’”
And so will rise again the town.

The sequence of blessing is well spread out:
The first thing that is done and without doubt
Is the remembrance, service of the stout.
Only then do You say that You have come
To blot out all transgressions in their sum.
For this I am faithful to whirl and call
Down on this faded flower in earthly stall
The blessings of the stars and universe
To blot out every wickedness and curse.
Only then do I find at last that I
Unconsciously rise up from where I vie
And so return to You on earth and sky.
Let Cyrus rise or fall, the temple’s built
Of things far greater than the stone and silt.

ISAIAH 45

1 So says YHWH to His own anointed,
To Cyrus whose right hand appointed
I have held up and to subdue
The nations before Cyrus’ view,
And I will loose the loins of kings,
To open before him the wings
Of the two-leaved gates, and the gates
Shall not be shut from where he waits;
2 I’ll go before you, and make straight
The crooked places, and the gate
Of brass I’ll shatter and I’ll cut
In two the bars of iron that shut.
3 I’ll give you treasures of the dark,
And hidden riches in the park,
So you may know that I am YHWH,
The one to call by your name true,
I’m Ælohim of Israel’s crew.
4 For My servant, for Jacob’s sake,
And Israel My chosen in stake,
I’ve even called you by your name,
I have surnamed you for the game
Though you knew nothing of My fame.

Pretence or not, no scholar can be sure
To what extent the text and words are pure.
But Cyrus will be amazed and turned by
The prophecy not to fail to comply.
There is a sense by which the Persians made
Invention of Judaism’s parade.
It was a ploy political to keep
The far-flung populations on the reap.
Beloved, the quarrels of the Jew and those
Who claim to be Your Christians on their toes
Are vain indeed. Cyrus is Your Messiah,
And any come to follow are pariah.
The only hope for future is that men
Will choose to keep commandments once again.

5 I am YHWH, and there is no other,
There is no god besides Me, brother.
I will gird you and set you free,
Despite you’re having not known me.
6 That they may know Me from the rising
Of the sun, from the west surprising,
That there is none beside me. I
Am YHWH, and there’s none else to try.
7 I form the light, create the dark,
I make peace, make the evil park,
I YHWH do all this on the sly.

Are You the Lord, and is there none but You,
No other god to whom the loved cries Huu?
What proofs You give, Beloved, for Deity,
That though I knew You not You come to Me
To wash and change the diaper that I wear
Unknown to me, an infant needing care!
I thought I was an independent scholar,
Not in a mother’s care and prone to call her.
You gird me though I do not see Your hand
And do not have the strength to understand.
I have not known though I keep finding You
Each place I turn, in all the things You do.
Beloved, who change the diapers of my flesh,
Let soul with soul and flesh with flesh enmesh.

8 Drop down, you heavens, from above,
And let the skies pour down and shove
With righteousness, and let the earth
Open and let them bring from dearth
Salvation, and let righteousness
Spring up together, I confess,
That I YHWH created the mess.
9 Woe to the one who lives to strive
With his own Maker. Then let strive
The potsherd with the potsherd’s earth.
Shall the clay say to one whose berth
Is to fashion it, “What are you
Intending to make? What you do,
Will you make it with some hands too?”
10 Woe to him who says to his dad,
“What did you sire?” or to the glad
Woman, ”What did you come to bear?”
Such is unheard of everywhere.
11 So says YHWH, Saint of Israel,
And his Maker, “Ask of Me well
Things to come concerning My sons,
And of My hands’ work in its tons
Inquire of Me and ask a spell.
12 “I’ve made the earth, created there
Humankind upon it to share,
My hands have stretched the skies in sight,
And all their host I’ve brought to light.
13 “I’ve raised him up in righteousness,
And I’ll direct his ways’ address,
He’ll build my city and he’ll let
My captives go, not for the net
Of price or reward he might get,”
Says YHWH of hosts in His witness.

You claim that You’ve made every man and son,
And every mother to bear them in tonne,
And so You also made Cyrus for fun,
To rebuild Your town, temple, and begun
To let Your people go back on the run.
If You raise Mede and Persian from their hill
In righteousness to do and fit the bill,
Then You made me also with time to kill,
And ready to obey with steady will.
If I may ask of You the course events
Of Cyrus and his filling of the tents,
Then I may ask that You guide me aright,
Though my purpose on earth under the sight
Of sun is not as great as his in might.

14 So says YHWH, “Egypt’s labour set,
The marketing of Ethiopia,
And of the Sabeans when met
As men of stature, shall come raw
Over to you and they’ll be yours;
They’ll follow you in chains and chores,
And they shall fall prostrated down
To you, and supplicate your crown,
Surely El is with you and there
Is no other Ælohim’s share,
No other God round anywhere.’”
15 Truly You’re an El to be hidden,
Ælohim of Israel unbidden
The Saviour of all in Your town.
16 They’ll be ashamed, they’ll be surprised,
All of them, they go undisguised
Into confusion, those who make
Idols in pagan, wicked wake.
17 But Israel shall be saved in YHWH
With everlasting saving too,
You’ll not be ashamed of the view,
Nor surprised in endless world too.
18 For so says YHWH Creator of
The heavens and the skies above,
Ælohim Himself who formed earth
And made it, established its worth,
He did not create it in vain,
But formed it to live on again,
I am YHWH, there’s no other here.
19 I’ve not spoken a secret fear,
In a dark place of the earth near,
I did not say to Jacob’s seed,
”You look for Me in a vain need;”
I YHWH speak righteousness indeed,
I declare the right things decreed.
20 Assemble yourselves and come near,
Draw together, you without fear
Who have escaped from the nations.
They have no knowledge in their buns,
Who carry the wood of their carved
Image, and pray to a god starved
That cannot save. 21 Tell and bring out
Your argument, yes, without doubt
Let them take counsel in their numbers.
Who has declared this without slumbers
From ancient time? Who has told it
From that time? Have not I, YHWH fit?
And there’s no other Ælohim
Besides Me, a just Ælohim
And Saviour, none beside Me sit.

Is there no just God and a Saviour but
This One, this You beloved, who tell me what
Is counsel from most ancient time? Have they
Searched high and low to find a god at bay
And failed to find any but You? Perhaps
These modern days have filled our ample laps
With technicalities of deep research
And with a microscope we’ll find the perch
Where sits another god. Or if You’d rather,
I’ll take a telescope, worked to a lather,
And find behind some distant star Your mate
In hiding, call her so she won’t be late.
Till then my soul is satisfied to find
Her eye for other gods continues blind.

22 Look to Me for salvation, all
The ends of the terrestrial ball,
For I am El, there’s not at all
Besides Me on which you may call.
23 I’ve sworn by Myself, the word’s gone
Out of My mouth in righteous spawn,
And it shall not return back there,
That every knee shall bow, and swear
Shall every tongue to Me outdrawn.
24 Only in YHWH, shall a man say,
“Have I righteousness and the lay
Of strength,” to Him such a one comes
But ashamed are all those in sums
Displeased with Him upon their bums.
25 In YHWH shall all of Israel’s seed
Be justified, gloried indeed.

I guess they guess that You are Jesus when
You say to look to You for saving then,
Since Jesus is so often called by name
Of El and so achieved the greater fame.
Beloved, only in YHWH, in You alone
Shall a man stay to say that You atone,
And that he has the righteousness and power
To worship at Your throne a day and hour.
Beloved, cast shame on all who look to man
For their salvation and strategic plan,
On all who have a saviour in the guile
Of church and government and club and smile.
In You alone let Israel justified
Rise up in glory to sit at Your side.

ISAIAH 46

1 Bowed down is Bel, stooped is Nebo,
Their idols for the beast and show
Of cattle, burdens loaded mired,
A weary burden for the tired.
2 They slouch and then collapse, they could
Not save the one that carried wood,
And they go to captivity.
3 Listen to me now, Jacob’s tree,
And all that’s left of Israel’s house,
Borne from the belly under blouse,
And carried from the womb’s degree.
4 Even to ancient days I’m He,
And to grey hairs I carry, made
And still I bear, bring on parade.

Babylon was called great for many things:
The rise of warlike and of noble kings,
The building of walls high and thick and round
A city state that filled surrounding ground,
The planting of such gardens that amazed
The world of heathen worship come half-crazed.
The greatness and success attributed
To Babylon’s gods and goddesses hid
Before the coming of Cyrus too great
To set up on its throne another state.
Beloved, both gods and men collapse to see
Penetrating rays of eternity,
You only stay immovable and sane,
You and the law on Sinai always reign.

5 “To whom will you liken Me and
Make me an equal one to stand,
Compare Me so we’re of one band?
6 “They lavish gold out of the bag,
And weigh the silver down to sag,
And hire a goldsmith so he’ll make
Of it a god: such just falls down,
And yet they worship it with crown.
7 “They bear him on the shoulder, they
Carry him and set in array,
And there he stays, not to remove
From the place where he’s set to prove,
Indeed one may cry out to him,
Yet he cannot answer for trim,
Nor save him from his trouble dim.
8 “Remember this and stand like men,
Bring it to mind, sinners, again.
9 “Remember former things of old,
For I am El, there’s none else told,
I’m Ælohim, there’s none like me,
10 “Declaring the end from the start,
And from old times still to depart,
Saying ‘My counsel here shall stand,
I’ll do all My pleasures demand.’
11 “Summoning from the east a fowl
Of ravenous hunger like owl,
From a far land the man of My
Counsel, indeed, I’ve spoken why,
I bring it in, formed to comply.
12 “Listen to Me, stout-hearted men,
Far from righteousness in your den.
13 “I shall bring near My righteousness,
It will not be cut from address,
And My salvation shall not wait,
I’ll put salvation in the gate
Of Israel’s fortress for My state.”

There is none like You, no, not one to be
A God with You to die on Calvary.
Although You send salvation by the hand
Of human power, great Cyrus come to stand,
There’s none to be compared like grain of sand
To the mountain of Your being’s command.
There’s none like You, Beloved, You only are
God reigning over sun and moon and star
Relentlessly obeying divine will:
It’s only man chooses rebellion still,
And in that choosing loses faith and fame,
Loses the right to liberty’s bright flame.
Salvation does not wait for future years,
But comes the morning Cyrus once appears.

ISAIAH 47

1 Come down then and sit in the dust,
Virgin daughter of Babel’s crust,
Sit on the ground, there is no throne,
Daughter of the Chaldeans’ bone:
For you shall no more have the name
Of tender and delicate frame.
2 Take millstones and grind flour in bed,
Uncover hair, make bare unwed
Leg, and uncover the thigh too,
Pass through the rapine floods to do.
3 Your nakedness is brought to light,
Your shame revealed to all men’s sight:
I’ll take revenge and I’ll not meet
You as a man upon the street.
4 For our redeemer, YHWH of hosts
Is His name, Saint of Israel’s boasts.
5 Sit in silence, hide in the dark,
Daughter of the Chaldeans’ lark,
For you shall no longer be called
The lady of kingdoms installed.
6 “I was angry with My folk and
I have polluted My own land,
And given them into your hand:
You did not show them mercy then,
But set hard yokes on the old men.”

Though Babylon is long gone on a day,
And Cyrus lies within his grave for pay,
The spirit and the act oppressing men
Is still crushing the earth, crushing again.
Salvation brought by Cyrus has been seen
To wallow after time upon the green,
And in his stead arose a king and queen
Without the mandate of Your righteous mien.
Beloved, You did not promise any more
Salvation from the saviours on Your shore,
And maybe that is best, since each one turns
Into the despot for the grace he earns.
The Decalogue You implement alone
By the small voice that nothing can atone.

7 You said “I’ll always be a queen,”
So you did not with serious mien
Take this to heart and so to mind
The end of the grossly unkind.
8 So now hear this, in pleasures sunk,
Living a careless life and drunk,
You who say in your heart “I’m great
And there’s no other of such state
Beside me; I shall never sit
A widow, neither know the grit
Of losing children to the pit.”
9 But these two shall come on you fast
In one day, loss of offspring cast,
And widowhood; they’ll come on you
Fully for all the crowd in view
Of sorceries, enchantments due.
10 For you’ve trusted in wickedness;
You’ve said “No one sees my address.”
Your wisdom and your knowledge, it
Perverts you, so you say in fit,
“I’m great, and there’s no one beside
Me to rule sun and turn the tide.”
11 That’s why evil shall come on you,
You’ll not know whence it came in view:
11 Catastrophe shall fall on you;
You’ll not be able to put off
The desolation come to scoff
As suddenly as you have clue.
12 So stand with your enchantments and
The crowd of sorceries you’ve manned,
In which you’ve laboured from your youth,
And see if you have profit proof
Or if you can prevail to stand.
13 You’re tired of making all your plans.
So now let astrologers’ scans,
The stargazers’ in monthly view,
Stand up and save you from the due
That rushes in to conquer you.
14 See, they shall be as stubble straw,
The fire shall burn them in its maw,
They’ll not deliver themselves from
The power of the flame to come:
It’s not a coal to warm beside,
A fire to sit before and bide.
15 So shall they be to you with whom
You’ve worked and marketed in room
From your youth up, they’ll wander each
One to his quarter, none shall reach
Out to save you from fire and leech.

Chaldean wisdom studied how the stars
Move round the sky and rule both men and gars.
That science was set up to profit state,
The ruler in his palace not come late.
The wisdom of old Babel is still here
In dress of science to profit with gear
To global pontiffs and the marketeer
Not limited by either bolds or bars.
Beloved, I see catastrophe come down
As sudden on the modern market town
As on the ancient city of renown.
The scientists have sold their knowledge well,
Subjected it to statistics and spell,
And so they wonder at the coming knell.

ISAIAH 48

1 Hear this, O house of Jacob, which
Are called by name of Israel switch,
And have come out of Judah’s pool,
Who swear by YHWH’s name as a rule,
And cantillate Ælohim’s name
Of Israel, but not in flame
Of truth or righteousness in school.
2 They say they’re of the holy city,
And trust in Israel’s Ælohim,
YHWH of hosts is His name in beam.
3 I have declared and without pity
The former things from the start gritty,
And they went out of my mouth’s ditty,
And I showed them, and suddenly
I made them happen visibly.
4 Since I knew you were stubborn and
Your neck is like an iron band,
Your forehead like a brass lampstand,
5 I’ve from the start declared to you,
Before it happened come in view
I showed you the thing I would do,
Lest you should say “My idol true
Has done these things, image of mine
Graven and molten come to dine
Commanded what should be as due.”
6 You have heard it, now see it’s true;
And will you not admit the view?
I’ve showed you new things from this time,
The hidden things of prose and rhyme,
And you did not know them a dime.
7 They are created now, and not
From the beginning of the slot,
Even before the day when you
Did not hear them, lest by their cue
You might say “See, I knew them too.”
8 Indeed you did not hear or know,
Indeed from that time your ear’s stow
Was not opened: because I knew
That you would deal a treacherous view,
And were called a transgressor’s name
From the womb, and so is your fame.

Prediction of the future is a mark
To prove that You are unique in the park
Of gods and goddesses left in the dark.
You tell the prophet what will come to pass
So that when things take place the human mass
Will have to admit that You’re God not gas.
We have a way to get around the fact
By saying that prediction has been packed,
And Cyrus’ name was added to impose
Upon the tyrant in imperial rows
When competition with the other nations
Required ethnic groups to improve their stations
In any way they could. Court machinations
Produced it and not divine inspirations.

9 For my name’s sake I will relent
From My wrath, and for My praise lent
I will refrain from you, so I
Will not cut you off under sky.
10 See, I’ve refined you, not with siller;
I’ve chosen you from trouble’s pillar.
11 For My own sake, and for My own
I will perform the thing alone,
So I shall never be blasphemed,
To give My glory to unseemed.
12 Listen to Me, O Jacob and
Israel, the ones I’ve called in band;
I’m He I am the first and last.
13 My hand also has laid and cast
Foundation of the earth, and My
Right hand has laid span on the sky:
And when I call to summon them,
They stand together at My hem.
14 Gather together all and hear;
Which of them has proclaimed this gear?
YHWH loved him and so He will do
His pleasure on Babylon’s crew,
And His arm on Chaldean’s too.
15 I, it is I who’ve spoken true;
I’ve called him; I have brought him too,
And he shall prosper in My view.

If Israel or Babylon had kept
Your ten commandments, they’d never have wept,
But lived on in peace all eternity.
Now all have sinned and Your choice is the spree
Of fell destruction on all human tree,
Or then to save a few in Your mercy.
Beloved, My advice is to kill the lot
And start afresh with some other in plot.
At least have mercy on my favourite king.
For Your own sake alone You keep the ring
Of life in motion, for Your entertainment,
You gather all before Your throne’s arraignment,
And blow Your breath to cool Your cup of tea
As You gaze on Your game of strategy.

16 “Come near to Me, hear what I say;
I don’t talk in a secret way
From the start; from the time long past,
There am I: Now Lord YHWH has cast
His spirit to send me to stay.”
17 So says YHWH, your Redeemer, He
The Holy One of Israel’s tree;
“I’m YHWH your Ælohim to be
Your teacher to profit in fee,
Who leads you by the way to go.
18 “O that you’d followed all the show
Of My commandments! Then your peace
Had been like a river’s release,
Your justice like sea-waves’ increase.
19 “Your spawn too had been like the sand,
The offspring of your loins to stand
Like gravel there, his name should not
Have been cut off before My plot.
20 “Go out to Babylon and flee
From the Chaldeans, with the spree
Of singing declare this and say
It to the end of the earth’s day;
Say ‘YHWH’s redeemed Jacob His slave.’”
21 If they are thirsty for the wave,
He’ll lead them through the desert land;
He’ll bring out water from the rock,
Split the rock, waters burst the lock.
22 “No peace,” says YHWH, “for wicked stock.”

The world still talks of peace despite the head
Of war greater than anything instead,
The poisoned bombs the USA has spread
Across the Middle East to show how led
By crucifixion people find solutions
Irrational instead of revolutions.
The world still talks of peace and of Islam
But never seeks to keep commandments’ balm.
Beloved, I grasp the ten commandments now
And write them on my hand and heart and brow.
I seek the way that You pointed out when
You spoke from Mount Sinai to chosen men
From every tribe and nation in the glen.
And so I receive peace from sheep and cow.

ISAIAH 49

1 Listen now, islands, to me, hear,
Nations from far off, lend an ear,
YHWH from the womb has called me clear,
From mother’s belly my name’s dear.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
In His hand’s shadow is my ward,
He fashioned me a polished shaft,
And in His quiver hid me chaffed.
3 He said to me, “You are My slave,
O Israel, in whom the wave
Of My glory kindles the sward.”
4 Then I said “I’ve laboured in vain,
I’ve spent my strength in empty pain,
Surely my judgement is with YHWH,
And my work in Ælohim’s view.”
5 And now says YHWH that fashioned me
From the womb His servant to be,
To bring Jacob again to Him,
Though Israel’s not gathered and trim,
Still I’ll be glorious in the eyes
Of YHWH, and my Ælohim’s prize
Shall be my strength in every guise.
6 And He said “It’s an easy thing
To be My servant to the wing
Of Jacob’s tribes and to restore
The saved of Israel by the score:
I’ll also set you for a light
To the Gentiles, so you’ll have right
To be My salvation to all
The ends of the earth by the call.”

Some say the Jewish people are Your own
To save themselves and stay for You alone.
Some say they are Your chosen to present
The true faith to the world by what You meant.
Some say they are Your loved since they produced
An innocent to kill upon the cruced
In sacrifice vicarious and human
In an atonement sought for sins’ acumen.
But I say, my Beloved, they are a light
To the world for preserving in words right
The ten commandments once addressed to all
The mix of nations who came from the stall
Of Egypt and stood by the mount in thrall.
They serve You who make Your commandments bright.

7 So says YHWH, the Redeemer of
Israel, his Holy One above,
To him that man despises and
To him whom the nation has banned,
To rulers’ servant, kings shall see
And stand up, princes also flee
To worship, because Israel’s Saint
YHWH’s faithful choosing to acquaint
You from among earth’s progeny.
8 So says YHWH, “In appointed time
Acceptable to Me in rhyme
I’ve heard you, in salvation’s day
I’ve helped you, and I’ll keep your way,
And give you for a covenant
Of the folk for establishment
Of the earth to bring back the lot
Inherited but fallow brought.
9 “So you may say to prisoners,
‘Go free,’ to those that darkness stirs,
‘Appear.’ They’ll feed around the town
In pastures cast up by the crown.
10 “They shall not hunger, no, nor thirst;
Neither shall the heat on them burst,
Nor the sun strike them, for the One
Who has mercy on them’s begun
To lead them, even by the springs
Of water shall be His guidings.
11 “I’ll make all My mountains a way,
And My highways lifted to stay.
12 “See, these shall come from far, and watch
How these from north and west for notch,
And these from land of Sinim’s pay.”
13 O heavens, sing! Be joyful, earth!
And break out in singing and mirth,
O mountains! For YHWH’s comforted
His folk, pardoned His afflicted.

Beloved, You were Redeemer long before
The councils of the church gathered in score
To find a way to save the Roman state:
You were Redeemer of the Jewish mate
Who came back from Babylon to create
A blossom in the desert and a star
Of righteousness in the Judean bar.
I’ve seen the highways lifted toward the hill
Jerusalem marks out beyond the still
Dawn and leave at my back that Jericho
That through millennia has come to glow.
In silence my heart turns toward the brief
Almost inaudible song of new leaf,
The mountain singing, heaven and earth leave grief.

14 But Zion said, “YHWH has forsaken,
I’m in His forgetfulness taken.”
15 “Can a woman forget her child,
The one that she is nursing mild
And not have compassion upon
Son of her uterus and spawn?
Surely they may forget, yet I
Will not forget you, though I try.
16 “See, I have inscribed you upon
The palms of My hands, your walls drawn
Are always here before My face.
17 “Your sons shall make haste from this place,
Your spoilers and those who laid waste
Shall go away from you in haste.
18 “Lift up your eyes, and look around
And see, all these gathered in bound
To you. As I live,” says YHWH, “You
Shall surely clothe yourselves in due
With them all as an ornament,
And bind them as a bride intent.
For your waste and your desolate
Places, and the land of your rate
Of destruction, shall even now
Be too narrow where dwellers cow,
And those who swallow up somehow
Will be sequestered far and late.
20 “The offspring to replace the lost
Shall say again in your ears tossed,
‘There is no room to spread out here,
Give me more land to live with gear.’
21 “Then you shall ponder in your heart,
‘Who has engendered me this part,
Seeing that I have lost my spawn,
Am desolate, a captive drawn,
Removing to and fro by dawn?
And who has brought up these? And see
I was left all alone to be,
And these where had they come like dart?’”

Beloved, no doubt the promise made was kept,
And the land spawned the children of the wept,
But soon as numbers rose, new heathens swept
Across the land with sword and plague to kill
The measure of the children who would fill
That tiny country. Times are always ill.
Moments of joy, moments of sure reprieve
May punctuate the hills of timely sleeve,
But Hellenistic rule is followed by
The Roman steel pretending from the sky
To be one more wave of salvation’s ply
Till Arab and Crusader make their nest
Upon the fortress of the chosen best.
Your hands are sore with all the names that test.

22 So says the Lord YHWH, “See, I’ll lift
Up My hand to the Gentiles’ rift,
And set up My flag to the folk,
And they shall bring your sons from yoke,
Your daughters on shoulders like gift.
23 “And kings shall be nurturing dads,
And their queens nursing mothers’ pads,
They shall bow down to you with face
Toward the earth, and lick the trace
Of dust from your feet, and you’ll know
That I am YHWH: for they’ll not show
A face of shame who trust My grace.
24 “Shall prey be taken from the strong,
Or lawful captive freed for wrong?”
25 But so says YHWH, “The captives true
Of the strong shall be snatched out too,
And the prey of the tyrant saved,
For I’ll contend with him that braved
You, and I’ll save your offspring’s crew.
26 “And I will feed those who oppress
You with their own flesh in a mess,
And they shall be drunk with their own
Blood as with sweet wine to atone,
And all flesh shall know I am YHWH
Your Saviour and Redeemer too,
The mighty One of Jacob’s crew.”

I do not know the name of one to save
The world from sin and its transgression’s grave,
But I know that the name of Judah’s king,
Her saviour and redeemer on the wing,
Is not Josh, Jack or John or anything
That human tongue has marshalled for a sting,
But YHWH. You are the Saviour, You alone,
No other joins You on celestial throne,
And You are the Redeemer of those men
Whose ancestors marched back from Babel’s den.
The one who brings another saviour near
Is a usurper and an idol’s fear,
One to drink blood indeed and eat the flesh
Upon the altar always white and fresh.

ISAIAH 50

1 So says YHWH, “Where then is the writ
Of your mother’s divorce in bit,
Whom I have put away in fit?
Or which of My creditors due
Is it that I have sold you to?
See, for your sins you’ve sold yourselves,
For your transgressions on your shelves
Is your mother cast out from view.
2 “Why was there no one when I came?
Why did no one answer My claim
When I called? Is My hand so short
That it cannot redeem in sort?
Have I no power to save? Behold,
At My rebuke I dry the sea,
I make the rivers desert-shoaled,
Their fish stink without water doled,
They all die because they’re thirsty.
3 “I cloak the skies with blackness’ veil,
And make sackcloth their covering scale.”

So many people tell me when I ache
That You are punishing me at the stake
For leaving such and such a church or yet
Because You have some purpose I have met.
I’m glad to know that You do not profile
The coming of oppressor in his guile,
And You are not the cause of destitution
Cast on the righteous for a retribution.
Beloved, I accept that the evils come
From disobedience to law and rum.
The result of commandment-breaking here
Along with drunkenness is more than tear.
So I shall not blame You for acts of God,
Catastrophes upon the sea and sod.

4 The Lord YHWH’s given me the tongue
Of the most educated rung
So I might know how to speak sung
A word in the right time to those
Who are weary without repose;
He wakes me up from morning light,
And tunes my ear to hear aright.
5 The Lord YHWH has opened my ear,
I did not rebel not to hear.
6 I gave my back to those who smite,
My cheeks to pluck off hair with spite;
I did not hide my face from shame
And from the spitting of their game.
7 The Lord YHWH will come to my aid,
Therefore I shall not be afraid,
Therefore my face is set like flint,
I shall not be ashamed by dint.
8 He’s near to justify my way,
So who will quarrel with my stay?
Let’s stand together: who’s my foe?
Let him come near and have a go.
9 See, the Lord YHWH comes to my aid;
Who’s here to condemn my charade?
They all grow old like a skirt worn,
The moth consumes them hat and horn.
11 See, all you who kindle a fire,
Surrounded with the sparks of ire:
So walk in your fire’s light you’ve made,
And in the sparks of your parade.
This shall you have borne from My hand;
You shall lie down in sorrow’s band.

Isaiah makes an issue of the tongue
He has in capable for prose and sung.
It’s true that rhetoric is power to flail,
And well-turned phrases top the daily mail.
But fact is truth once spoken in fine words
Or in the angry chattering of birds
Is still a thing unpalatable here
Where lawlessness is the law of the cheer.
Beloved, I fly up in the sparks that rise
From Your own sacrifice of my life’s prize
And wait in whirling at Your throne to see
The justice that You promise faithfully.
Let those who stand when darkness overtakes
Find their reward when the new morning wakes.

ISAIAH 51

1 Hear me, seekers of righteousness,
Who follow YHWH in His address:
Look to the rock from which you’re cut,
To the quarry-bed of the glut
From which you were taken to bless.
2 Look to your father Abraham,
To Sarah who bore you, a lamb:
For I called him alone and blessed
Him and increased above the rest.
3 For YHWH shall comfort the fortress,
He’ll comfort her place of distress,
He’ll prepare from her wilderness
The like of Eden, and the land
Of desert a garden for YHWH;
Joy and gladness shall be in view,
Thanksgiving and song in a band.

Look to the reed bed where the noble reed
Grew up to hear the wind like rushing stead
Invisibly course through the humble air,
And long with loving anguish to be there.
Write on my heart, Beloved, the simple lay
That wandered through the generations’ play
That gave birth to my own vision and day:
The eye of beauty turned on all things fair.
Beloved, I slink on quiet step among
The garish trees in desert garden slung,
The purple and chartreuse of poison vine
Bewitching me from childhood with the wine
Of Your own presence like the far off wind
That swallows all the courses that have sinned.
I patter still about the bottom rung.

4 “Listen to Me, My people, and
Give ear to Me, My nation grand:
For law will proceed from Me, and
I shall make My justice rest like
A light for the nations to strike.
5 “My righteousness is near, and My
Salvation has gone forth, and My
Arms will judge the nations: their coasts
Will wait on Me, and on My boasts
They’ll trust. 6 “Raise your eyes to the sky,
And look upon the earth go by.
For the skies will vanish away
Like smoke, the earth will age a day
Like clothing, and those who live there
Will die the same way, but salvation
Mine will have an eternal station,
And My righteousness will not be
Abolished and eternally.
7 “Listen to Me, all you who know
Righteousness, you folk on the go
In whose heart is My law, do not
Fear the reproach of men unsought,
Nor be afraid of their insults.
8 “For the moth will eat their results
Consuming like a garment, and
The worm will eat them like a hand
Of wool, but My righteousness will
Be forever, eternally,
And My salvation shall go out
From generation without doubt
To generations round about.”
9 Awake, awake, and put on strength,
O arm of YHWH! Awake at length
As in the ancient days, as in
The generations without sin
Of ancient time. Did You not cut
Rahab apart, and wound the rut
Of the serpent? 10 Are You not He
Who once dried up the barrier sea,
The waters of the raging deep,
Who turned the sea depths to a road
For the redeemed and where they strode?
11 The ransomed of YHWH shall return,
And come to the fortress to learn
With singing, with eternal joy
Upon their heads. They’ll obtain joy
And gladness, while sorrow and sighing
Shall flee away from where they’re lying.
12 “I, I, am He who comforts you.
Who are you that you should take view
In fear of a man who will die,
And of the son of a man gone by
Made like the grass? 13 “And you forget
YHWH your Maker, who stretched the net
Of the heavens and laid the stone
Foundations of the earth alone,
You’ve feared continually every day
Because oppressor’s furious way
Prepares to destroy. Now where is
Oppression and fury of his?
14 “The captive exile hurries, that
He may be loosed from where he sat,
That he should not die in the pit,
And that his bread should not omit.
15 “But I am YHWH your God, who set
The sea whose waves roared in the wet,
YHWH of hosts is His name indeed.
16 “And I have put My words and creed
In your mouth, I have covered you
With My hand’s shadow, that I may
Plant the heavens, foundations lay
For the earth, and say to renew
The fortress, ‘You’re My people too.’”

The wealth for which men kill and others die
Is just a flick of banker’s signature.
More substance lies beneath the empty sky,
Free comer on the dragonfly’s allure.
No moth shall touch my treasures hook and fly
Where I’m the moth myself ready to ply
The hazards of the flame to find the fire
Of Decalogue on Sinai’s brewed desire.
Beloved, I seek the gold of righteousness
Portrayed in script of filigree’s address,
And bind it in my heart never to pass
Until my spark of life from the dry grass
Flies up into the darkness and impasse
Of spaces infinite by Your throne’s lyre.

17 Awake, wake, stand, Jerusalem,
Who’ve drunk at hand of YHWH the dem
From His wrath’s cup, you’ve drunk the dregs
Of trembling goblet to last drop.
18 There is no one to guide her legs
Amongst all the sons in her prop,
Nor is there anyone to take
Her by the hand in all the wake
Of children she has raised in crop.
19 These two things have come upon you;
And who will be sorry for you?
Such desolation and destruction,
Famine and sword, in what production
Shall I find ways to comfort you?
20 Your sons have fainted and they lie
At intersections under sky,
Like a wild bull caught in a net,
Full of YHWH’s wrath from the outset,
The rebuke of your Ælohim.
21 Therefore now hear this, you afflicted,
You drunk, but not with wine addicted.
22 So says your Lord YHWH and your God
Who pleads His people’s cause with prod,
“See, I have taken from your hand
The cup of trembling, and the stand
Of My wrath’s goblet, you shall not
Drink any more of what you bought.
23 “But I’ll put it into the hand
Of those who torment you in band,
Who said to you, ‘Bow down so we
May walk on you,’ so in degree
You lay down on the ground to be
A street for them instead of sand.”

I strike the rude rabbis who say the word
Of Noah’s covenant is worth a turd,
That Gentiles have the duty and the power
To set up systems of justice an hour.
I’ve seen those legislations in their street,
The trampling of the crushing Gentile feet
Pretending right and law grow up and meet
In what they do and say to those who cower.
Beloved, permission from the rabbi horde
To break Your Sabbath lays men to the sword
Of paw of jungle. Give me yet a sip
From trembling cup of Decalogue, then slip
The dagger in my loving heart and hip.
Let fall the heathen pumpkin and the gourd.

ISAIAH 52

1 Awake, awake! Put on your strength,
O fortress, and put on at length
Your beautiful garments, O city
Of holiness, Jerusalem!
O city on whom none have pity!
For the uncircumcised and hem
Of the unclean shall no more come
To you. 2 Shake yourself from the dumb
Dust, arise, sit, Jerusalem!
Loose yourself from all your neck’s bonds
O captive of the citadel
And daughter of the fortress fronds,
Loose yourself from your bonds that fell!
3 For so says YHWH, “Since you have sold
Yourselves for nothing, from the cold
You shall be redeemed without money.”
4 For so says the Lord YHWH, “My honey
Went down at first into Egypt
To live there a while, and then slipped
Assyrian and without cause
To oppress them beyond all laws.
5 Now therefore, and what have I here,”
Says YHWH, “My folk stolen away?
Those who reign over them make way
To wail,” says YHWH, “and therefore My
Name is blasphemed each day for aye.
6 “Therefore My folk shall know My name,
Therefore shall know in that day’s shame
That I’m who speaks, ‘Indeed, it’s I.’”

There are so many names beneath the sky
By which men must be saved and wonder why,
But there is only one name that will last
Beyond the tempting powers of the blast.
The names of gods and goddesses still fill
The eyes and ears and heart climbing the hill
To entertainments temenos to find
Lush treatment of the well-whiskeyed and dined.
Uncircumcised now pay a tribute fare
And enter on the temple mount to swear,
While many that love Your name wait beside
The wailing wall to hear the summons cried.
I enter at the other door and late
With Muslims in that temenos prostrate.

7 How beautiful upon the hills
Are the feet of him who fulfils
Good news, who proclaims Islam [peace], who
Brings glad tidings of good things too,
Proclaims deliverance, who says
To the fortress, “Your God reigns true!”
8 Your watchmen shall lift up their stays,
With their voices they’ll sing together,
For they shall see face to face whether
YHWH brings back the fortress to power.
9 Break forth in joy, and sing together,
Waste places of Jerusalem!
For YHWH has comforted an hour
His folk, redeemed Jerusalem.
10 YHWH has made bare His holy arm
In the eyes of nations’ alarm,
And all the ends of earth shall see
Salvation of our God set free.

As soon as the name Jew became the sound
Of righteousness, the enemy was bound
To turn it to corruption, so the way
Branches in true Jews and a falser ray.
As soon as the name Christian rose to fame,
The evil heart blew on the bitter flame
Till Christian was a byword in the claim
Or Roman empire stricken in its day.
Beloved, the word Islam means peace with You,
But it too is wrung out by snide in crew,
And while the righteous bore to hide in hue,
The tried and true in secret bridle grew.
My poor faith clutches at the noble creeds
But turns to You away from all their deeds.

11 Depart! Depart! Go out from there,
Touch no unclean, go out from where
She is, be clean, all you who bear
The vessels of YHWH. 12 For you shall
Not go out with haste, prodigal,
Nor go by flight, for YHWH will go
Before you, and Israel’s God show
Your rear guard in the way you go.
13 Indeed, My servant shall deal well
And prudently, from where he fell
He shall be exalted, extolled
And become very high and bold.
14 Just as many astonished were
At you, so his visage demure
Was marred more than of any man,
And his form more than men’s sons can,
15 So shall He sprinkle many nations.
Kings shut their mouths from their elations
At him, for what had not been told
Them they shall see and they shall hold,
And those things they had never heard
They shall consider in a word.

Your servant does not touch the unclean thing,
No, not from the days when Maccabees’ king
Struck up the cleansing temple with a song,
Your servant Israel turns from the wrong.
Your servant Jesus Christ, in hour of life
If not in legend, turned upon the strife
Of unwashed cup and spoke a fresh word rife
And then succumbed before the Roman knife.
Your servant on the riverbank to fail,
The waters of Euphrates dried in pail,
Did never hesitate, but met the gale
With calm peace and upheld the nations’ wail.
Marred is the visage in each day and clime
Your servant comes to read the righteous rhyme.

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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