ISAIAH CHAPTER 60 - 66

ISAIAH 60

1 Arise and shine, your light has come,
The glory of YHWH’s high to hum.
2 See how darkness covers the earth,
And thick blackness the people’s berth,
But YHWH shall arise upon you,
His glory shall be seen on you.
3 The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings turn to your rising bright.
4 Lift up your eyes and look around,
They’ve gathered all upon the ground,
They come to you, your sons shall come
From far off and your daughters rum
Shall be nursed at your side and sound.
5 You shall see it and become bright,
Your fearful heart swell at the sight,
Turned to you shall be the sea’s crowd,
The strength of the Gentiles aloud.
A camel band shall cover you,
The dromedaries of the crew
Of Midian and Ephah too,
All those from Sheba shall arrive,
They’ll bring gold and incense to thrive,
To show forth the praises of YHWH.
7 The flocks of Kedar all shall be
Gathered together in your fee,
The rams of Nebaioth shall serve
You, they shall come up and not swerve
From My altar, and I’ll bring praise
To the house of My glory’s ways.
8 Who are these flying like a cloud,
Like doves to their windows allowed?

Dear to my heart is Kedar, Abram’s son,
Who was the second-born to Ishmael’s fun,
The one to seed a prophet born of hope
To desert tribes before the world to grope
Toward the light of virtue. Kedar dear
Was faithful when all Israel failed to fear
Your one anointed, David, who gave ear
To Your law and was planted with his gear
The king of earth. The flocks of Kedar move
In disarray and milling in the groove
Of Makkah and Madinah, show the way
To Gentiles of the worship proud and gay
Of You, One God alone, Allah in sway,
YHWH, Ælohim: and show the way to steer.

If Kedar is sweet, what of the first-born,
Of Nebaioth, the hope of Abram’s horn?
The roaming and the carefree ways his dad
Went all about the desert when he had
Before him the hot winds by day, by night
The frosts that made of dawns his first delight
Stuck to his heart and hand. He left the way
Of contemplation in the tents to stay
With Kedar playing by the sheep and goats.
He flew like tempest over sprawling moats
Of sand and stone to find the lonely path
Of justice in the desert without wrath.
Beloved, I love as You Yourself the host
Of Nebaioth, his children in their boast.

9 Surely the isles shall wait for Me,
The ships of Tarshish first to see
And bring your sons from far away,
Their silver and their gold in pay,
To the name of YHWH Ælohim,
To Holy One of Israel’s dream,
Because He’s glorified your day.
10 The sons of foreigners shall build
Your walls and their kings shall be willed
To serve you, because in My wrath
I struck you, but in favour’s path
I’ve had mercy on you and filled.
11 Therefore your gates shall always be
Opened, they’ll not be shut to see
By day or night, so men may bring
To you the strength of Gentiles’ spring,
From them to bring up every king.
12 For the land and kingdom that will
Not serve you shall be struck and still,
Indeed those nations feel the sting.
13 The glory of Lebanon will
Come to you, the fir tree on hill,
The pine tree, and the box tree too,
To beautiful the place in view
Of My holy place, and I’ll make
The place glorious in My feet’s wake.
14 The spawn of those afflicting you
Shall come and bow before your view,
And those who despised you shall bow
Themselves down at your feet’s soles now,
And they shall call you YHWH’s fair town,
The Holy One’s fortress come down
On Israel for each holy brow.

How many peoples in the centuries past
Have come to Quds on horses and to cast
Their foreheads on the paving stones that make
Up churches and mosques in the city’s wake!
The pilgrimages to Jerusalem
Are longer and more diverse than the gem
Of pilgrimage to any place on earth,
Except in latter years the morn of worth,
Sweet Makkah, where dear Ali had his birth.
My soles have trodden on the scattered floor
Between the mosques and bowed down with a score
Prostrating to You where red marbled halls
Now strut above the ancient temple halls.
I’m featured in the prophecy the more.

15 Since you’ve been outcast, held with hate,
So that no man went through your gate,
I’ll make you an eternal show
Of excellence, a joy to go
On many generations’ row.
16 You’ll suck the Gentiles’ milk and suck
The breast of kings, you’ll have the luck
Of knowing that I YHWH am your
Saviour and your Redeemer or
The mighty One of Jacob’s store.

Are You, Beloved, the Saviour and the set
Redeemer, Mighty One that Jacob met
In flight before father and brother’s net?
I had been taught that Jesus was the name
Of the only redeemer in the game,
The only saviour walking on the hill,
The mighty one in such disguise of skill
That none might recognize him for the greed
Of human hearts to cover their own need.
Are You, Beloved, the Saviour? I rejoice
Salvation’s not left to a human voice.
Are You, Beloved, Redeemer? Then let’s keep
The sandals on the feet. Let Jesus weep
Within the garden for his own and reap.

17 Instead of brass I shall bring gold,
Instead of iron, silver bold,
And for wood I’ll bring brass, and for
Stones iron; I will also make
Your officers peace, for the sake
Of your chiefs righteousness in store.
18 No more shall violence be heard
In your land, spoiling nor preferred
Destruction nor such misery
Upon your borders; but your walls
Shall be called Salvation in stalls,
And your gates Praise eternally.

If peace is the faith of Islam and there
Is Judaism in righteousness fair,
Then Christianity is met here too
In the one word of what the Christians do,
The violence, the spoiling and the crew
Of their destruction of Mid-Eastern view.
The prophecy seems that the coat of mail,
The armoured tank, the bomb that makes night pale,
Shall all return and in the end shall fail.
When pagan resurrecting gods are laid
To rest and only Islam’s in parade,
And Judaism keeps Your divine law,
Then shall earth meet two witnesses in awe
To bring peace and justice to a world stayed.

19 The sun shall be no more your light
By day, neither for brightness’ sight
Shall be the moon to you; but YHWH
Shall be always a light to you
And your Ælohim shall renew
Your glory for both day and night.
20 Your sun shall never set again,
Nor shall your moon go in its den,
For YHWH shall be eternal light
To you, and the days of your plight
Shall be ended before all men.
21 All your folk shall be righteous then,
They’ll inherit the land for aye,
The branch of My planting come nigh,
The work of My hands so that I
May be the one they glorify.
22 The least shall be a thousand strong,
A small one a great nation’s prong,
I YHWH will bring the time along.

The Roman sun and Arab moon both pause
Before You, my Beloved, before Your laws,
And all join in the hope and health that cast
Obedience to Your statutes in the blast
Before the raging tempest not to last.
The one or two struck from the churchly roll,
The three or four in Islam’s robe and toll,
Shall multiply and join a thousand strong
Before the ten commandments in a song
Of worship and obedience to You.
The numbers that create historian cue
Shall fail and at last turn around the scale
And make Your word and law once more prevail.
Beloved, I wait the coming of the hail.

ISAIAH 61

1 The spirit of Lord YHWH’s on me,
Because YHWH has anointed me
To preach good tidings to the meek,
He has sent me to bind up sleek
The broken-hearted, to proclaim
Freedom to the captives in claim
And opening the prison doors
To those who are bound in their scores;
2 To declare acceptable year
Of YHWH, and day of vengeance near
Of our Ælohim, and to bring
Comfort to all that mourn in ring;
3 To appoint unto those who mourn
In the fortress, to give them bourn
Of beauty instead of the scorn
Of ashes, and the oil of joy
Instead of mourning for employ,
The cloak of praise instead of heavy
Spirit, that they may be in levee
Called trees of righteousness, the park
Planted by YHWH, so He like lark
Might be glorified by the spark.

Dear Jesus spoke as though this word divine
Were prophesying him line upon line.
Isaiah might slide over on the throne
And give the man a bit of meat or bone.
The happy ending of the prophecy
May be repeated, like the melody
Of Handel on aria’s sophistry.
I’m not so narrow that I cannot think
That words of Scripture spoken on the brink
May not have applications for each one
Who reads them after all is said and done.
I’m willing to believe Jesus healed all
He met who needed help, but history’s call
Shows vengeance still is missing from the pall.

4 And they shall build the old waste places,
The desolations old in faces
They shall raise up again, and so
Renew the desert cities’ show,
Those that had been abandoned by
The generations passing nigh.
5 Strangers have stood to feed your flocks,
The sons of strangers stood their shocks
To be your ploughmen and vinedressers.
6 You shall be named by all confessors
The Priests of YHWH; men shall call you
The servants of our Ælohim,
And you shall eat the Gentiles’ cream,
And in their glory then shall you
Boast yourselves in the things you do.
7 For your shame double recompense,
And for confusion in their tents
They shall rejoice in their repairs;
So in their land you’ll have your shares
In double, everlasting joy
Upon the head of every boy.
8 For I’m the YHWH that loves judgement,
I hate stolen goods in My tent
For a burnt offering, and I’ll make
Their work in truth, and so I’ll take
A covenant’s eternal stake.
9 And their spawn shall be known among
The Gentiles and their offspring sung
By peoples; all who see them know
They’re the seed YHWH’s blessed on the go.

The offering plate that circulates the church
Is often filled with stolen goods that perch
Upon the bank accounts of those in search
Of more impoverished people in the lurch
To take advantage of and call it business.
I call it rather unethical whizness.
The wealth that’s brought to You, Beloved, in glory
To Your name in the temple has a story
That’s often sordid. Some attempt to right
Their wrongs by paying You off in their sight.
Beloved, I enter no tent here at all,
No temple, no, nor mosque nor churchly sprawl,
But only aisles fir-columned and addressed
By pine nuts squirrels have devoured and blessed.

10 I will greatly rejoice in YHWH,
My soul be joyful in my true
Ælohim, for He has clothed me
With clothing of salvation free,
He’s covered me with righteous robes,
As bridegroom decks himself with strobes
Of ornaments, and as a bride
Adorns herself in jewels’ pride.
11 For as the earth brings forth her bud,
And as the garden from the mud
Causes seeds sown in it to sprout,
So the Lord YHWH will cause a shout
Of righteousness and praise to spring
Forth before all nations to sing.

Not many who meet me here on the path
Beyond the aspens and the birches’ swathe
See me dressed in tuxedo like a groom,
Much less adorned in diamonds in my bloom
Of bride. Instead my cut-off boots may hide
Darned socks and patches on my velvet pride.
The earth that brings forth spring has moments when
Her harvest is a muddy, swimming glen
Bedecked with gold-green sprouts of grass again.
I’m just too young to represent the lot
Of treasure and of glory that You’ve got.
I rather represent the hopeful spring,
What’s done is always vernal when You sing,
What’s spun is always kernel of Your ring.

ISAIAH 62

1 For Zion’s sake I’ll not hold my peace,
And for Jerusalem’s release
I will not rest till justice go
Out with the brightness of a show,
And its salvation like a lamp
That burns despite the wind and damp.
2 Gentiles shall see your righteousness,
And all the kings your glory’s dress,
And you’ll be called by a new name
Which the mouth of YHWH has in claim.

The new name raises questions in the mind
Of whoever produced the Revelation,
And so he laid hold on exotic rind
And quoted good Isaiah with elation.
Zion shall have a new name and I guess
An epithet Jerusalem shall dress.
The new name I have heard is Quds to show
How holy is the city in a row.
What Jebusites profaned upon the shore
Of Kidron has become a righteous store,
And what thing David coveted the more
Is now named holy as Your words confess.
Beloved, I turn toward the holy gate
And see how many whirl about in hate.

3 You’ll also be a crown of glory
In YHWH’s hand, and a royal story
In the hand of your Ælohim.
4 No more will you be called forsaken,
Nor shall your land be longer taken
For desolate: but you will seem
By name of Hephzibah, your land
Will be called Beulah, for YHWH’s hand
Finds its delight in you and your
Land shall be married shore to shore.
5 For as a young man takes a wife
Of a virgin, so your sons rife
Shall marry you, and as the groom
Rejoices over the bride’s bloom,
So shall your Ælohim rejoice
Over you with a lifted voice.

Both Hephzibah and Beulah are two names
Of places in the mountains of my claims.
The highways are so big and fast that they
Can hardly be seen at all in the sway
Of traffic. But I mind the time when I
Knew Hephzibah as just a dusty sty
Whose main joy was that soon I should arrive
And find my grandmother hale and alive.
The joys of progress since those days are few:
The town is turned out from the highway’s view
And my grandmother is long dead since then.
I am grandparent now among young men.
Beloved, the rounds of joy and sadness know
The words that dark Isaiah came to show.

6 I have set watchmen on your walls,
Jerusalem, both day and night,
They are not silent in their stalls,
But seek to proclaim what is right.
You who keep YHWH in mind do not
Refrain from speaking what you’re taught.
7 Give no silence to Him till He
Establish and set graciously
Jerusalem upon the earth.
8 Sworn has YHWH by His right hand, and
By the arm of His strength at hand,
“Indeed I shall no longer give
Your wheat to nourish those who live
To be your foes, nor shall the sons
Of foreigners drink up your tons
Of grape juice in your labour’s worth.
9 “Instead the harvester shall eat
And praise YHWH, and those too whose feet
Have brought it shall drink it within
The courts of My holiness’ din.”

The way of life Isaiah assumes fair
Is that each man should cultivate his share
And gather in the grain and grape that he
Is able in a year to eat freely.
He has no concept of the craven way
We specialize in marketing today.
If I depended on the humble store
Of corn I gather from my awkward shore,
I’d starve before the coming of the light
And buckle under hunger as my right.
Beloved, You gave the scratching of the earth
To stave off hunger and to stave off dearth,
But Cain saved us from Your salvation’s way
In his creation of city and pay.

10 Pass on, pass on and through the gates,
Prepare the pathway of the mates,
Raise up, raise up a highway too,
Pluck out the stones, lift up in view
A standard for the people true.
11 See YHWH’s proclaimed to the world’s end,
Say to the fortress daughter kenned,
“See, your salvation comes,” behold
His payment’s with him, his work told.
12 And they shall call them holy folk,
Redeemed of YHWH and at a stroke
You shall be called sought out and not
A city in forsaken plot.

The prophecy is all about the run
Of old Jerusalem, not the hot bun
Of politics today, though preachers side
With one or other of the folk in pride.
Jerusalem is great, I’ve seen the wall,
I’ve seen the excavations and the tall
In monument of gold and where to pray
When gates are opened in a lovely way.
Beloved, salvation may have come and gone
While the bazaar was closed before the dawn,
It may have gone unnoticed by the eyes
That now scan over Kidron’s last surprise.
It may be reckoned for an ancient book
That pondered over crosses in a nook.

ISAIAH 63

1 Who is that coming from Edom,
With dyed garments from Bozrah come,
This glorious one in his address,
Moving in his great strength to bless?
I who utter in righteousness,
The mighty to save by the drum.
2 Why are your clothes red and your cloak
Like those who tread out wine for broke?
3 I’ve trodden the winepress alone,
None of the folk shared in my groan,
For I shall tread them in my wrath
And trample them in fury’s path,
And their blood shall be sprinkled on
My garments and will stain them drawn.
4 The day of vengeance in my heart,
The year of my redemption’s part
Has come and shall not soon depart.
5 I looked and there was none to help,
I wondered for upholding whelp,
That’s why my own arm only brought
Salvation to me, and the lot
Of my own anger was my help.
6 I’ll tread down the folk in my wrath
And make them drunk in fury’s path,
And I’ll bring down to earth their strength.

Beloved, I too tread down the world in wrath
And sink Onassis’ ships in bubble bath.
I lift the cup of blood struck from the veins
Of priest and bishop to the lips of fanes,
Commanding them to drink their wonted froth,
While I rage and tremble, unwonted wroth.
I look and see that there is none to help:
You stand above the earth like helpless whelp
And wonder that all men turn from Your law.
Reach out a sharp and blood-stained, angry claw.
Beloved, I send the proud down on their knees
And force them to conform to what You please
To announce on Sinai. I have the right
To life in peace under commandment’s fright.

7 I shall remember then at length
The tender mercies of YHWH and
The praises of YHWH by the hand
Of all that YHWH’s bestowed on us,
And also the good bounteous
Toward the house of Israel,
Which He’s bestowed upon them well
By His mercies, according to
His lovingkindnesses in crew.
8 For He said “Surely they’re My folk,
Children that will not lie in yoke,”
So He was there Saviour for broke.
9 In their distress He was no foe,
The angel of His presence show
Saved them, in His love and the glow
Of His pity He redeemed them,
And He lifts them up, like a gem
Carries them all the days in hem.
10 But they rebelled and vexed His mind
Of holiness, so He in kind
Turned to be their foe, and He fought
Against them for the things they wrought.
11 Then He remembered days of old,
And Moses and his people bold,
“Where is he that brought them up out
Of the sea with the shepherd stout
Of his flock? Where is He that put
His holy spirit hand and foot?”
12 Who led them by Moses’ right hand,
With His arm glorious to stand
Dividing the waters from land
Before them, to make His name grand?
13 Who led them through the deep and like
A horse in the desert on spike
Not to stumble, but always stand?
14 As a beast goes down in the vale,
YHWH’s spirit caused him to rest hale,
So did You lead Your people and
Make Yourself a glorious name grand.

Do not blame me, Beloved, that I react
To lawlessness in every human pact.
The New Age thought that every man creates
His own reality, and has no mates
Except what he himself wants and relates
Is egotistical scrap and insane.
I follow on for my own health and gain.
I follow Your example on the plain,
Since You too turned in kind on those who swore
Obedience to idols like a whore.
Note that I share Your heart of sympathy,
And turn again to them in such mercy
Before they have repented full and true.
In love and wrath I merely follow You.

15 Look down from heaven and behold
From holy dwelling place of gold
And glory, where is Your zeal told
And Your strength and the sounding bold
Of Your bowels and mercies uncold
Toward me? Are they restrained to fold?
16 For You are our Father, though still
Abraham did not know our bill,
And Israel does not recognize
Us, You O YHWH, will not despise,
You are our Father and You are
Our own redeemer, and Your star
Is everlasting in the skies.
17 O YHWH, why have You made us stray
From Your ways and hardened the way
Of our heart from Your fear in sway?
Repent for Your own servants’ sake,
The tribes of Your heritage wake.
18 The people of Your holiness
Possessed it just in small address,
While our foes have come to tread down
You sanctuary with a frown.
19 We are Yours, You never took rule
Over them, they were not the school
Called by Your name, a wicked pool.

The Revelation marks the true Jew from
The synagogue of Satan that had come
By then to share the Roman empire’s fuel.
So sects rise up and quarrel and then duel.
I care not that I’m stricken from the slate
Of Christian church and thrown out at the gate.
I care not that I’m turned out like a dog
From mosque as well and Jewish synagogue.
My only care is that Your law demands
My love and my obedience in hands,
And there I find my peace and there the bands
Of beauty and of love and happiness.
I stay before the mountain to confess
The promises in letters You address.

ISAIAH 64

1 Oh that You’d rend the sky apart
And come down so the mountains dart
Unmade before Your presence’ art!
2 As when the melting fire burns,
The fire that boils water and churns,
To make Your name known to Your foes,
So nations tremble in their throes.
3 When You did terrible things that
We did not expect on our mat,
You came down and the mountains flowed
Down at Your presence and Your goad.
4 For from the world’s beginning men
Have not heard nor by ear given ken
Neither has the eye seen, just You,
O Ælohim know of the view
Of what He’s prepared for the one
Who waits for Him in what He’s done.
5 You meet the one rejoicing and
Doing the righteous thing to stand
In Your remembrance in Your ways,
See You are angered by the maze
Of our sins, in those always plays
The coming of salvation’s days.

Ear has not heard nor has eye seen
Is a phrase that St. Paul would glean
From old Isaiah when he hopes
To open up the future scopes
To the eyes of Gentiles who make
Jesus the leader of their stake.
Whether or not the Pharisee
Misapplies the promise in spe,
I meet the one rejoicing now
In the new sun behind the brow
Of aspen hill and frozen lake,
And with the morning breather take
Another hearing, one more sight
Of Your ineffable delight.

6 But we are all an unclean thing,
All our justices come to fling
As menstruous pads, and we all fade
Like a leaf, and here on parade
Are the iniquities we’ve made,
Like the wind, bear us from the stayed.
7 There’s none who call upon Your name,
Stirring himself to hold Your flame,
For You have hidden face from us,
And have devoured us for the fuss
Of our iniquities in claim.
8 But now, O YHWH, You are our Dad,
We are the clay, and You are clad
As potter, and we’re all the work
Of Your own hand not wont to shirk.
9 Do not be very angry, YHWH,
Do not remember wickedness
For ever, but behold the view
As we beg of You, and confess
We are all Your people in dress.
10 Your holy cities are a waste,
The fortress is a wilderness,
Jerusalem has been erased.
11 Our holy, beautiful address
Where our ancestors came to bless
You is burned up with fire, and all
Our things within Muhammad’s stall
Are turned to ruin in the fall.
12 Will You refrain Yourself for these,
O YHWH? Will You withhold Islam,
Afflicting us and without balm
And sorely for iniquities?

The followers of St. Paul forget duly
The rest of the words Isaiah says truly:
That sin is wicked wrong and it must fail,
And even righteous deeds in stinking rail
Must be flung off and the soul quiet lie,
Relinquishing the human will, to die
In potter’s hand until the wilderness
Of fair Jerusalem meets the address
Of fire and after fire the coming of
The desert prophet with his burning love.
Isaiah looks toward that time beyond
St. Paul and lifts a hopeful, guessing frond
That You will not withhold from Jew and saint
Islam upon the day of Your restraint.

ISAIAH 65

1 I am sought of those who asked not,
I am found of those who have sought
Not at all, I said ”See me, see,”
To a nation not called to be
By My name nor planted in plot.
2 I’ve spread My hands in supplication
All day to a rebellious nation,
That walks in a way that’s not good,
After their own thoughts in a wood.
3 A folk that always would provoke
Me to wrath to My face for broke,
That sacrificed in gardens fair,
And burned incense upon the glare
Of altars made of brick to stare.
4 They stay to worship among graves,
And lodge where the monument paves,
They eat pork and soup of unclean
Things in their bowls and spoons to glean.
5 They say “Stand aside, don’t come near
To me, for I’m a holier peer
Than you.” These are smoke in My nose,
A fire that scorches as it goes.
6 See, it’s determined at My face,
I will not be quiet in place,
But will give recompense and so
Let the same fire in their heart glow.
7 “Your sins and your ancestors’ sins,”
Says YHWH, “who’ve made perfume in bins
Upon the mountains and blasphemed
Me on the hills, so I have beamed
Their former deeds in their hearts creamed.”

As prophesied by David of the time
That Moses brought the people from the clime
Of Egypt, the folk will not trust the voice
Of desert prophet come here to rejoice.
Instead the Hellenizing Jewish strain
Becomes the wicked Christian pagan reign
Of pork pie and of offerings wine and bread
Given to heathen deities instead
Of You, Beloved, Creator of all things.
Against these two follies You come to kings
And princes in the word that Islam brings
To curse the infidel and blasphemy,
And show the world universal mercy,
But only find another wicked spree.

8 So says YHWH, “As the new grape juice
Is found in the cluster’s abuse,
And one says ‘Don’t destroy the use’
For there’s a blessing in the truce,
So I shall do for my slaves’ sakes,
I’ll not destroy all of their shakes.
9 “And I’ll bring from Jacob a seed,
And from Judah possessor’s deed
Of My mount, and they will possess
It, My elect and the address
Of My servants shall have their lead.
10 “Sharon shall be a fold of flocks,
The vale of Achor in its locks
A shelter for the herds, and for
My people that have sought My store.”

Another seed You bring in the last time,
A tiny seed despised in prose and rhyme,
A girl-child it may be, since men have strayed
From Eden to the darkness of the raid
Of Rome and Athens, and Genevan stream
As far as London in the futile dream.
Another seed You bring, not one to be
Known to the eyes of those in armoury,
But hidden in the frozen land and lake,
Beside pine-studded hill and in the wake
Of mink and fox who shyly send a prayer
That no man living uncover their lair.
Beloved, I kiss the hidden seed and lay
It’s head to sleep and silently away.

11 But you are those that forsake YHWH,
Forgetting My holy mount’s view,
Preparing a mess for that troop,
Furnishing drink offerings to dupe
That band of devils and their crew.
12 So I’ll count you up for the sword,
And you’ll all bow down to the floored
Slaughter, because when I called you,
You did not answer, when I spoke,
You did not hear, but evil stroke
Perpetrated before My eyes,
And chose the thing that I despise.
13 So says the Lord YHWH, “Now behold,
My servants shall eat hot and cold
And still be hungry with the fare,
Behold My servants shall drink share,
But still be thirsty, see with care
My servants shall rejoice and yet
Be bowed with the shame they have met.
14 “See, My servants shall sing for joy
Of heart, but you shall tears employ
For sadness, and howl in the grasp
Of troubled spirit clip and clasp.
15 “You’ll leave your name to be a curse
To My elect, and what is worse
The Lord YHWH shall slay you and call
His servants by another name.
16 “So the one who on earth for claim
Shall bless himself, shall blessing take
In the Ælohim of truth’s sake.
And the one who swears on the earth
Will swear in Ælohim of truth,
Because the former troubles lie
Forgotten and because they fly
Hidden away before My eye.”

Suzanne sang of the ancient temple tune
With hope that every Jew and Gentile soon
Would hear the olden lays and come to show
Obedience to You alone and know.
Instead the very seat of learning at
Jerusalem turned out scornful fiat,
And all the world turned a deaf ear to that.
That’s why there is a dearth of holy Word,
And everywhere the doleful voice is heard
That hocks and holes the dirge of heathen choice
Deaf to the holy twitters of Your voice.
Beloved, the former troubles barren lie
Beneath the simple Psalms that meet the sky
Hidden from all and yet to multiply.

17 “For see, I make a brand new sky
And a new earth; the former die
Shall not be remembered, nor come
Into the mind of all or some.
18 “But be glad and rejoice always
For what I create in those days,
And see I make Jerusalem
Rejoicing and her folk a gem.
19 “I’ll rejoice in Jerusalem,
And joy in My people, the voice
Of weeping shall no more find choice
In her, nor crying in her hem.
20 “No more shall there be the stillborn,
Nor those who die young before sworn.
The one who dies a hundred old
Will be called a youth that’s been sold,
But when a sinner reaches that
Age, he’ll be considered a cat.
21 “And they’ll build houses and live there,
And they’ll plant vineyards, eat the share.
22 “They’ll not build and another stay,
They’ll not plant and another stray
To eat it, for as the days go
Of a tree so My folk’s days show,
And My elect shall long enjoy
The work that their own hands employ.
23 “They shall not work in vain nor bear
Children for troubles in their share,
For they are the seed of the blessed
Of YHWH, and their offspring the best.
24 “And it shall come to pass before
They call I’ll answer at the door,
And while they are still speaking there
I will hearken to every prayer.
25 “The wolf and the lamb eat together
The lion shall in every weather
Eat fodder like the bullock and
Dust shall be the serpents command.
They shall not hurt, shall not destroy
In all my holy mountain’s joy,”
Says YHWH in His holy command.

Some think the promise came in times long past
Predicting course of the return at last
From Babylon by offspring of outcast.
Some think the promise is a future scene
Of Jesus’ body glorious in sheen
Of church, the apple of his eye and keen.
But I know better secrets in the heart
Of darkened night when sorrow tears apart
The hopes of youth and all is black despair.
The voice of angel on the ear laid bare
Re-echoes on the promises to start.
Beloved, I know the mysteries that vain
Labour calls to the sun and falling rain.
While others guess, I know the divine art.

ISAIAH 66

1 So says YHWH, “The sky is My throne
And the earth is My footstool’s stone,
Where is the house you build for Me?
And where do I take rest to be?
2 “For all those things My hand has made,
And all those things are on parade,”
Says YHWH. “But to this man I’ll look,
To the poor with contrite heart’s nook,
Who trembled at My word and shook.
3 “The one who kills an ox shall be
As if he killed a man in fee,
And the one who sacrifices
A lamb as if he cut with whiz
A dog’s neck; and the one who makes
A drink offering as if he takes
Pig’s blood; and the one come to burn
Incense, as if he blessed the urn
Of an idol. Indeed, they chose
Their own ways, and so their soul goes
After abominations’ rows.
4 “I’ll also take their empty views,
And bring on them the fears they choose,
Because when I called they did not
Answer, and when I spoke a lot,
They did not hear; instead they rose
To do the evil in My sight,
And chose in what I don’t delight.”

The wine blessed in the chalice and raised high
For all the folk to bow and sing and cry,
Is not what they think when they hear the bell,
It’s not the blood of Christ beneath the knell.
The doubter thinks that it remains just wine,
The fruit of grape and press after the vine,
But fact is the doctrine secret and fine
That it turns into blood is true as twine:
It turns into the blood of piggy swine.
Beloved, I stay at home, and when I drink
The grape juice from the paper carton’s brink,
I know at least pollution at a wink
Is limited to what the law requires
To preserve it from hopefuls and from squires.

Because the cantillation of Your law
Has met today as in the fatal claw
Of ages past the ignorance of men,
The swilling of the wine to dance again
With devils on the shore by the mouse den,
For this, Beloved, You choose to let the crowd
Descend to hell and there to sing aloud
The hymns of agony that were their choice.
Beloved, let me lift up another voice,
And beg Your pardon once more on the earth
To give creation failed a renewed birth.
Write on the heart of stony flesh desire
To sip the syllables beyond Your ire
That echo from Sinai in blazing fire.

5 Hear the word of YHWH, you who shake
At His word, “Your brothers in wake
Who hated you and threw you out
For My name’s sake, said ‘Let YHWH shout
For glory,’ but He shall appear
To your joy and leave them in fear.”
6 The sound of a noise from the town,
A cry from temple of renown,
A voice from YHWH that brings the pay
Upon His enemies in sway.
7 “Before she laboured, she gave birth,
Before her pain came, in his worth
She was delivered of a boy.
8 “Who’s heard of such a thing in ploy,
Who has seen such things? Shall the earth
Be made to bear in one day’s dearth?
Or shall a nation be born fast?
For as soon as the fortress blast
Came, she bore up her children cast.
9 “Shall I bring to birth and not cause
Delivery?” says YHWH. “Do laws
Bring to bear and yet shut the womb?”
Say your Ælohim to your doom.

The brethren cast out the fair seed once born
In secret to meet all the earth in scorn,
And even my prayer spoken and forlorn
In their behalf cannot remove the bourn.
And so that precious seed bore too a son
Before the pangs of labour had begun,
And be that one more sign that You replace
The wicked priesthood with the hidden trace
Of simple keeping of commandments’ lace.
If virgin-born had been a sign to kings
Set in Jerusalem, this token wings
Today along the beech and walnut hill
In joys that pass under the fateful thrill
To find that rugged paths of faith fulfil.

10 Rejoice now with Jerusalem
And be glad with her, all her gem,
Rejoice with gladness in her hem,
All you that mourn for her pro tem.
11 So you may suckle and be filled
With the breasts of her comfort stilled,
So you may milk and with delight
Enjoy her full glory in sight.
12 For so says YHWH, ”See I’ll extend
Islam to her stream without end,
And Gentiles’ glory like a stream
Flowing, then you will suck the dream
And be borne on her sides and hung
By the feet from her knees and sung.
13 As one comforted by his mom,
So I will comfort you and calm,
You’ll have solace, Jerusalem.
14 And when you see this stratagem,
Your heart shall rejoice and your bones
Shall flourish like a flower loans,
And YHWH’s hand shall be shown before
His servants, and His anger’s store
Toward His enemies and drones.

The faith of peace is still a sight most rare
Within Jerusalem’s walls come to share
The Jewish and the Christian with Islam
In name beneath the sharp-leafed, sighing palm.
And yet while men of hate return to sword,
Deceitful to both men and to their Lord,
The pilgrim humble and unnoticed finds
The solace of Jerusalem to minds
That echo with the words of Your commands.
Beloved, the proclamation at Your hands
Of law to love in holy, heathen lands
Returns in chambered hearts and on their tongues
Into Jerusalem. The laboured lungs
Of pilgrims break the hurtful, fretting bands.

15 For see, YHWH will come down with fire,
And with His chariots like ire
Of whirlwind, to render His wrath
With fury, and rebuking path
With flames of fire upon the pyre.
16 For by the fire and by His sword
YHWH shall plead with all flesh implored,
And the slain of YHWH multiply.
17 “Those who practice ablutions sly
In gardens behind trees and eat
Pork and abomination’s treat,
And mice, shall all then be consumed
Together,” says YHWH of the doomed.
18 “For I know their works and their thoughts,
It shall come I shall gather knots
Of all nations and languages,
And they shall come and see the whiz
Of My glory and of My biz.
19 “And I will set a sign among
Them, and I’ll send those on the rung
Escaped from them to every land,
To Tarshish, Pul and Lud to stand
And draw the bow, to Tubal and
Javan, to continents in band
Far off, that have not heard My fame,
And have not seen My glory’s claim,
And so among Gentiles proclaim
The splendour of My holy name.
20 “They’ll bring your brothers all to be
A gift to YHWH out of the spree
Of all the nations, on horse and
In chariots, in litters grand,
And on mules and upon swift beasts,
To My holy mountain of feasts,
Jerusalem,” says YHWH, “just like
The children of Israel in spike
Bring an offering in a clean pot
Into the house of YHWH for lot.
21 “And I will take of them for priests
And for Levites to make the feasts,”
Says YHWH when He reveals His plot.
23 “And it shall come to pass, from one
First day of the month in the sun
To another, and from one day
Of Sabbath to another’s sway,
Shall all flesh come to worship there
Before Me,” says YHWH on the stair.
24 And they shall go out, take a look
At the dead carcases that shook
Of the men that transgressed My law;
For their worm shall not die for straw,
Neither shall their fire quench in awe,
And they shall be abhorred and hated
By all flesh without breath abated.

Three groups I see transported in the pen
Isaiah plucked upon the river marge
To write upon the parchment in his large
Black letters: the descent of fire again
Upon the Grecian invaders of men,
The Hellenizing troops of Jewish barge
That entice Athens’ idols of their charge,
And finally the Gentile band and den.
Beloved, let me be of that Gentile crowd
That returns to Your law being unbowed
To idol and the science of the scroll
Of fates. Beloved, let me look on the toll
Of carcases from Baghdad to the stream
Of Jordan and wake from the evil dream.


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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