JEREMIAH CHAPTER 18 - 26

JEREMIAH 18

1 The message come to Jeremiah
From YHWH when He was speaking higher,
2 Get up and do go to the house
Of the potter and there I’ll dowse
You with My words. 3 And so I went
Down to the potter’s house where bent
The potter at his potter’s wheel,
Kneading the clay with hand and heel.
4 The vessel that he made of clay
Was marred in the potter’s hand’s way;
So he made it again to be
Another pot, and one that he
Liked better than the broken clay.
5 Then the word of YHWH came to me
And said 6 “O house of Israel,
Cannot I do with you as well
As this potter?” Says YHWH. “Behold
As the clay in the potter’s hand,
So are you, house of Israel’s band,
In My hand. 7 “The moment I speak
About a nation strong or weak,
Concerning a kingdom to pluck
It up, to pull down and destroy,
8 “If that land against whom I buck
Turn from the evil they employ,
I will turn from the evil joy
I thought to do to them unstuck.
9 “And at what instant I shall speak
Concerning a nation to peak,
A kingdom to build up and plant,
10 “If it does wickedly ascant
Not to obey My voice, then I
Will repent of the good that I
Said I would benefit them by.

My Hellenistic thinking runs aground
Upon this metaphor, though it be sound
As any allegory I have found.
The concept I cling to of God is that
You are omniscient, not in potter’s vat,
And that You are omnipotent and fat.
So how can any cup You make turn out
A broken piece that even You would flout?
I’d think each pot that came out from Your hand
Would be perfection to an ampersand.
The vision of You sitting at the wheel
With sloppy hands and splatters I can feel
Is beyond the grasp of the mind and heel
That abstracts from Your mercy an ideal.

11 “So now get going, tell the men
Of Judah and dwellers again
That are still in Jerusalem,
And say, ‘So says YHWH in His stratagem,
“See I plan evil against you,
Devising a device of rue:
Turn back each one from sinful way,
Make your plans and acts good today.”
12 “And they say “There’s no hope at all,
But we will walk by our own call,
And we will every one do what
His evil heart has in his plot.”
13 “That’s why YHWH says “Just ask around
Among the heathen on the ground,
If anybody’s heard a sound
About such things that reach the bound
Of wickedness the virgin of
Israel has done for hate or love.
14 “Will anyone give up the snow
Of Lebanon for the dry show
Of stony field? Or shall the flow
Of cool waters in any place
Be forsaken for desert’s trace?
15 “Because My folk’s forgotten Me,
They’ve burned incense to vanity,
And idols have caused them to fail
In their ways from the ancient trail
To walk in paths of no avail,
16 “To make their land both desolate,
A constant hissing and a bet,
For everyone who passes by
To be amazed and shake his wry.
17 “I’ll scatter them as with east wind
Before the enemy unbinned;
I’ll show them the back, not the face,
The day of calamity’s trace.”’”

The man and company that from all time
Has been sunk in the grist of sin and crime
Without a ray of truth or hope beyond
The constant swelling of the conscious wand
Of I-ness is often in his estate
Moral to the extent he can relate.
It is the chosen seed, the mindful few,
Who have capacity in derring-do
To blaspheme beyond all the heathen crew.
They know the sacred nooks and crannies where
To find Your glory and disparage there.
So You should not in gross astonishment
Stand up before the prophet that You sent,
Amazed that Moses’ offspring have unbent.

18 Then they said “Come, let us devise
Conspiracy against the wise
Man Jeremiah, for the law
Shall not fail from the priestly claw,
Nor counsel from the wise nor word
Come from the prophet when he’s stirred.
Come, let us strike him with the tongue,
And not listen to what he’s sung.”
19 Listen to me, O YHWH, and hear
The voice of those who crank their gear
Against me. 20 Is it right that bad
Falls on me for the good I’ve had?
For they have dug a pit for me.
Remember that I stood freely
Before You to speak good for them,
To turn away Your wrath from them.
21 So give their spawn over to die
Of hunger and pour out the cry
Of their blood from the hands that ply
The sword, and let their wives then weep
For their lost children as they reap
Their widowhood when husbands fall
Beneath the shadow of death’s pall,
Let their youth be slain by the sword
In battle where they’ll all be gored.
22 A cry rise up from their housetops,
When You shall bring a troop that stops
Suddenly on them, for they’ve dug
A pit to take me, in the rug
Hid snares for my feet when I roared.
23 And You, YHWH know all their plans set
Against me to kill me when met;
Do not forgive iniquity,
Nor blot out their sin that You see,
But let them be cast down, so deal
With them at Your wrath’s time and heel.

Your prophet is vindictive in the way
He remembers his foes when come to pray.
No doubt Your sweet Messiah called the Christ
Meant such prayers when he commissioned enticed
Disciples to pray for their enemies.
It’s a relief to find out I don’t need
To bless the wicked in their troubled greed
To war around the world and keep up speed.
I’m free to relax and to shoot the breeze
Instead of agonizing on my knees.
Let pagan-taught in rhyme and supplication
Call blessings down on the oppressive nation,
And pray for warlords in their hooks and cranks
Controlling airborne bombers and their tanks.

JEREMIAH 19

1 So says YHWH “Go and get a flask,
A potter’s earthen jar, and ask
Some of the elders of the folk
And elders of the priestly cloak.
2 “And go out to the Valley of
The Son of Hinnom, that’s above
The entry of the potsherd gate,
And proclaim there the words of hate
That I will tell you, 3 “and say, ‘Hear
The word of YHWH, O you kings near
Of Judah and inhabitants
Of Jerusalem come to dance.
So says YHWH of hosts, Israel’s God
“Indeed, I will bring such a rod
Of destruction upon this place,
That whoever hears the disgrace,
His ears will tingle, burn his face.
4 “Because they have forsaken Me
And made this a stranger’s country,
Because they’ve burned incense in it
To other gods whom neither kit,
They, their fathers, nor Judah’s kings
Have known, and have filled this place’ stings
With the blood of the innocent,
5 “They’ve also built Baal’s high places,
To burn their sons with fire and fizz
For burnt offerings to Baal, which I
Did not command or speak to try,
Nor did it come into My mind,
6 “Therefore indeed, the day’s behind,”
Says YHWH, “that this place shall no more
Be called Tophet or on the shore
The Valley of the Son of Hinnom,
But the Valley of Slaughter in them.
7 “And I’ll disperse all Judah’s plans,
Jerusalem in this place’ fans,
And I’ll cause them to fall by sword
Before their enemies and lord
And by the hands of those who seek
Their lives, their corpses I’ll have cheek
To give as meat for all the birds
Of the sky and for the beasts’ turds
Of the earth. 8 “I will make this town
A desolation and a frown,
A hissing, and all those who pass
By it will be astonished class
And hiss because of all its plagues.
9 “And I will cause them to the dregs
To eat the flesh of their sons and
The flesh of their daughters in hand,
And everyone shall eat the flesh
Of his friend in the siege and mesh
And in the desperation which
Their enemies and those who pitch
To seek their lives shall drive them to,
In the despair that is their due.”’
10 “Then you shall break the flask in sight
Of the men who go with your right,
11 “And tell them ‘So says YHWH of hosts
“Even so I will break the boasts
Of this people and this city,
As one breaks a potter’s clay, see,
Which cannot be made whole again,
And they shall bury all the men
In Tophet till there’s no more room.
12 “So I will do this place to doom,”
Says YHWH, “to its inhabitants,
And make this town like Tophet’s dance.
13 “And the homes of Jerusalem
And the houses of diadem
Of the kings of Judah shall be
Defiled like the place of filthy
Tophet, because of the houses
On whose roofs they have burned the whiz
Of incense to all heaven’s host,
And poured out drink offerings to boast
To other gods and made a roast.”’”

There is no sin at all, I’d say to burn
Incense upon an altar or an urn.
The recipe for good incense is left
In law of Moses for deft without theft.
What makes it sin is offering the sweet to
The honour of the trinities in cue
Of Baal and Ashtoreth and other fair
Gods and goddesses on the evening air.
Let someone stand up and tell me the fate:
Which church is more ancient in earthly state,
The church rabbinical or Orthodox.
One burns incense to Trinitarian stocks,
One burns no sweet at all, but only talks,
Despite the Torah recipe in blocks.

If You, Beloved, established incense smoke
In Your Word, You deny the fatal stroke
Of offering sons and daughters to the lord
Is anything You thought of, but deplored.
You hate the incense lifted up to Baal,
Even though You allow it to prevail,
But offering up of children and wholesale,
Despite the faith of Herod, You eschew,
Rejecting it no matter what the crew.
You do not accept offering of the blood,
The sacrifice of children in the bud,
And yet the church in lurch sits on its perch
To sacrifice the divine Son for smirch.
I’d cast down such religion in the mud.

It would appear that Jeremiah is
A secret Zoroastrian in bizz:
He wants to give the flesh of men and kings
To birds to eat to help them beat their wings.
The birds soar over every temple where
The faithful come to gather and in prayer
Petition and give plaint upon the air,
Or praise the penance of appointed share.
Beloved, I bring the foot-toed gift to You,
And bow prostrating with an end in view.
Perhaps the Parsee p’s will turn to cue
Without Your help or the prophetic crew.
Let every grave be purified in me
Rolling in Hellenistic sophistry.

14 And Jeremiah entered in
From Tophet, from where YHWH to win
Had sent him up to prophesy;
And he stood in the court nearby
YHWH’s house and spoke to all the folk.
15 So says YHWH of hosts not to croak,
The Ælohim of Israel’s yoke;
See, I will bring upon this town
And on all her suburbs’ renown
All the evil that I’ve proclaimed
Against it, because they have framed
Their necks not to hear My words famed.

Well Jeremiah was courageous or
A fool to go and recite all the store
Of what You said, Beloved, before the door
Of temple in Jerusalem in rate.
But let me not condemn the man too late.
I’ve also shouted out a thing or two
Upon that very spot and stopped with hue
And cry the Muslim crowd then passing through.
In my case it was not to courage due
But rather to the alternative screw.
Beloved, if I’m allowed to go again
Up to Jerusalem with trembling wen,
I’ll wash me and recite my prayers in peace
Without a shout of Shi’ite law’s release.

JEREMIAH 20

1 Pashur son of Immer the priest,
Also chief in the house increased
Of YHWH, heard that Jeremiah
Prophesied these things in God’s awe.
2 Then Pashur struck Jeremiah
The prophet and put him in stocks
That were in the high gate in blocks
Of Benjamin, which was nearby
The house of YHWH beneath the sky.

The start of every Inquisition here
Is with incarceration without gear.
Jerusalem or in Guantanamo
Or by the lovely streets of Toledo,
It’s all the same: there is a priest who’s chosen
To be chief of God’s house in Lederhosen.
The names begin with Pashur in this text
And go on randomly to the perplexed.
Beloved, You made humankind so that it
Would conform to any horror unfit
Except for the few with insight and grace.
So far so good, but then You turn Your face
And leave the best to execution on
A cross, electric chair, or shot at dawn.

3 And it happened on the next day
That Pashur brought Jeremiah
Out of the stocks. Then came to say
Jeremiah to him, “YHWH does
Not call your name Pashur the fuzz,
But Monstrous Sight On Every Side.

I guess it’s a good thing that You speak to
The prophet and tell him what thing on cue
To say, because when You leave him alone,
And free to utter things before the throne
Of power, he withstands no temptation there,
But proclaims insults on the holy air.
The proof of prophethood is not that You
Wish to give revelation more as due,
But that You come to stop the vilest tongue
From repetition in the ears of young.
Sometimes the spell is broken and the words
Fall honestly and cover earth with turds.
Pashur had better have left well and good,
When he heard what You said and understood.

4 “For so says YHWH, ‘Behold, I’ll make
You a terror to your own stake
And all your friends; and they shall fall
By the sword of their foes in stall,
And your eyes shall behold the thing;
And I will give all Judah’s wing
Into hand of Babylon’s king,
And he shall carry them away
Captive to Babylon in sway,
And he shall take up sword to slay.
5 “Besides that I’ll give all the strength
Of this city, and all the length
Of workers in it and all things
Of precious worth, treasures of kings
Of Judah I’ll put in the hand
Of their foes who shall spoil the land
And take them off to Babylon.
6 “And you, Pashur, and all the spawn
Living in your house shall go to
Captivity; and you’ll come to
Babylon, and there you will die,
And you’ll be buried there and lie,
You and all your friends to whom you
Have prophesied such lies in pew.’”

The town was caught between two views to see
Which king was better choice by the decree
Of future and predict the coming share.
Some said that Egypt was for centuries there
And so over time better than to wait
On upstarts shouting insults at the gate.
Others predicted Babylon would take
The day and Egypt fall down at the stake.
Why make the matter an issue of faith,
One of obedience to You or wraith?
The prophets did not lie, but told the spell
They hoped would fortify the one and quell
The powers of the other. Jeremiah
Came in with opposite magic’s pariah.

7 O YHWH, you have deceived me, and
I was deceived; for Your strong hand
Is stronger than I and prevailed,
I am mocked daily, all have sailed
To mock me. 8 For since I have spoken
And cried out, crying when awoken
Of violence and spoil, because
The word of YHWH was made a cause
Of reproach to me and a clause
Of derision in daily pause.
9 Then I said “I’ll not mention Him,
Speak any more in His name grim,”
But His word was in my heart trim,
A burning lamp shut in my bones,
And made me tired to keep my groans,
And I could not prevent the tones.
10 For I heard the defaming of
Many, fear on every side’s shove.
Persecute him and let us all
Persecute him inside his stall,
And my acquaintances came all
To watch for my stumbling to fall,
Saying “Maybe he’ll be enticed,
And we shall win against him diced,
And we’ll take vengeance on his wall.
11 But YHWH’s with me a mighty one
And terrible, therefore the bun
Of my persecutors shall fall,
And they shall not prevail at all;
They shall be greatly ashamed too;
For they shall not prosper in due;
Eternal confusion on them
Shall not be put from mind and hem.
12 But, O YHWH of hosts, You who test
The righteous and see inner nest
And heart, let me see Your vengeance
On them, with You I’ll take my chance.
13 Sing to YHWH, praise YHWH, for He’s saved
The soul of the poor from the laved
Hand of the wicked and unstaved.

I am not like Luther in his despair,
Or Beza, who sees sinfulness in share
Of every child born under earth air.
And yet clear-eyed I see the evil note
Rise in my heart, though it would all devote
In love to You. Dressed in the angel guise
Of light and power and hope beneath the skies,
My way would save the world from its demise.
Beloved, remove that gross will from my breast
Each day that it awakens with the blessed,
And I will praise You for salvation guessed
Where there’s no self but Self upon the throne,
No expectation but the merest bone
Of Decalogue to treat me with my own.

14 Cursed be the day when I was born;
Nor let the day wherein was sworn
My mother to bear me be blessed.
15 Cursed be the man who brought the rest
Of tiding to my father then,
Saying “A boy is born again
To you” and make him glad in den.
16 And let that man be as each town
That YHWH’s overthrown and cast down;
Don’t let him hear the waking sound
At morn, nor shout on noon-day ground.
17 Because he did not kill me then
From the womb; or than in her glen
My mother might have been my grave,
And her womb always shield its slave.
18 Why did I come out of the womb
To see labour and sorrow’s doom,
That my days should with shame consume?

The prayer of Job and Jeremiah sat
According to the legend in the cat
Who carried in her womb Lao Tze who spent
More than his sixty years in bed she lent.
Some prove divinity by the fact that
Their mother was a virgin on the mat.
But others show divine appointment’s feat
In being born with grey hair and beard meet.
Lao Tze was a fine fellow from his birth
And Tao Te Ching reveals his utter worth
In jingles even finer than my own,
At least when sung by clever baritone.
If You had done as much for Jeremiah,
He could have slept through his days as a crier.

JEREMIAH 21

1 The word which came to Jeremiah
From YHWH, when the king Zedekiah
Sent to him Pashur the son of
Melchiah, and without his love
Zephaniah son of Maaseiah
The priest, saying as 2 “to enquire
Please from YHWH for us, it would seem
Nebuchadrezzar who was beam
Of Babylon makes war on us;
If so be that YHWH make a fuss
On our behalf by all His power,
That he may go from us an hour.”
3The Jeremiah said to them,
Say to Zedekiah in hem:
4 “So says YHWH Israel’s Ælohim:
‘See, I’ll turn back the battle stream
That is in your hands, and with which
You fight against Babylon’s stitch,
And the Chaldeans who besiege
You outside of the walls for liege,
And I’ll gather them in the ditch
Of the town, in the middle beam.
5 “And I Myself will fight you here
With an outstretched hand and the gear
Of a strong arm, in fury’s wrath,
And in great anger for a path.
6 “And I will strike inhabitants
Of this town, both man and beasts’ pants;
They’ll die of a great pestilence.
7 “And after that,’ says YHWH, ‘and set
Zedekiah Judah’s king met,
And his servants and all the folk
And such as are left by the stroke
In this city from plague and sword
And from the famine of unstored
Into Nebuchadrezzar’s hand,
The king of Babylon to stand,
And into the power of their foes,
And into the hand of all those
Who seek their life, and he shall strike
Them with the mouth of sword and spike,
He shall not spare them in pity,
Nor will he have on them mercy.’”

The message Jeremiah sent the king
Says that You Yourself planned to join the fling
And fight in battle with the eastern horde
Against Jerusalem of one accord.
I’d think testosterone does not mark You
With all the failings of the manly crew,
But it would seem that Jeremiah thought
You had a soldier’s inclination’s spot.
Beloved, You once spoke on the mount to say
Thou shalt not kill thy neighbour in the way.
I reckon You’re excepted by estate
Of Sovereign of the universe, and wait
To kill the ones You like on dinner plate,
And then go on to fight another day.

8 And to this people you will say
“So says YHWH, ‘See, I’ll have My way
Before you, way of life and way
Of death. 9 “And so the one to stay
In this town shall die by the sword,
And by the famine and the plague,
But the one that goes out unscored
And falls to the Chaldeans vague
Who lay siege against you, he’ll live
And his life be his gift to give.
10 “For I have set My face upon
This city for evil undrawn
And not for good,’ says YHWH, ‘and it
Shall be delivered to the fit
Hand of the king of Babylon,
And he shall burn with fire the drawn.
11 “And as for the house of the king
Of Judah, hear word of YHWH sing;
12 “O house of David,’ so says YHWH;
‘Execute judgement in the dew
Of morning and deliver him
Who’s spoiled from the oppressor grim,
Lest My wrath go out like a fire,
And burn so none can quench its ire,
Because of wickedness you do.
13 “See now how I am against You,
O dweller of the valley and
The rock of the plain,’ says the grand
YHWH; ‘you who say “Who can attack
Us, who will come to meet our slack?”
14 “But I will punish you by what
Your actions serve to make unshut,’
Says YHWH, ‘and I will kindle fire
In the forest of your desire,
And it shall consume all the pyre.’”

To tell the truth, Beloved, I see the word
Of Jeremiah as a prophet stirred
And that of king and priest, though not concurred,
As fumblings in the dark morass of faith
And vain philosophy before a wraith
To try an explanation of the fact
That might makes right no matter how men act.
All try to find a reason and excuse
For some alliance to reduce abuse,
While armies and their success call the day,
And the stronger economy in sway.
Faith is a crutch to justify the way
Men fail of moral strength and come to pay
A guilty conscience for their theft agley.

JEREMIAH 22

1 So says YHWH, “Go down to the house
Of the king of Judah and spouse
And speak there this message to grouse,
2 And say, ‘Hear the message of YHWH,
O king of Judah, who sits due
Upon the throne of David, you
And your servants and your folk who
Enter in by these gates in crew.
3 “So says YHWH, “Do judgement and right,
Deliver the spoiled from the fight
Of the oppressor, do no wrong,
Nor violence to those along
The way who’re foreigners, and those
Without father or mother’s shows,
The widow, neither shed the blood
Of innocent ones in the mud.
4 “For if you do this thing indeed,
Then there shall enter without need
By the gates of this house the kings
Sitting upon David’s throne’s wings,
Riding in chariots and on
Horses, he and his servants wan,
And all his people then outdrawn.
5 “But if you will not hear this word,
I swear by Myself,” says YHWH stirred,
“That this house shall be desolate.”
6 “For so says YHWH not to come late
To the king’s house of Judah’s mate;
“You are a Gilead to Me,
The head of Lebanon to see;
But I’ll make you a desert free,
And empty cities on the spree.
7 “And I’ll prepare destroyers too
Against you, every one in crew
With his arms, and they shall cut down
Your best cedars and cast the crown
Into the fire. 8 “And many folks
Shall pass by this city of strokes,
And they shall say each to the other,
‘Why has YHWH done this thing to smother?’
9 “Then they shall answer, ‘Because they
Forsook the covenant and way
Of YHWH their Ælohim in sway
And worshipped other gods and served
Them and from the right way have swerved.’”’”

Ingenuously prophets come to say
That all crises will turn to splendid ray
If only kings and subjects will obey
Your bright commands as given on a day.
The serving widows with their rightful share
And given orphans bed and home and stair
Will keep the boggy man of Babylon
And all his cavalry from coming on.
Beloved, the thought is dangerous for two
Reasons beneath a sky both grey or blue:
First, it may distract counsellors from what
Needs to be done to keep the town gate shut,
And second, it may foster sacrifice
Of those we might think morally unnice.

10 Do not weep for the dead or moan,
But weep sorely for him and groan
For him who goes away, for he
Shall no more come back faithfully
To see again his own country.
11 For so says YHWH about Shallum
The son of Josiah no bum
But king of Judah and who reigned
Instead of Josiah, dad laid,
Who went up out of this place too:
“He shall not return here in view.
12 “But he shall die in the place where
They have taken him captive there,
And shall see this country no more.
13 “Woe to the one who builds his house
By unrighteousness and to dowse
His bedrooms by wrong-doing’s course,
That uses his neighbour’s perforce
Labour without paying a wage,
And gives nothing for his work’s gauge;
14 “Who says ‘I’ll build for me a wide
House with large bedrooms on the side’
And cuts him out windows and makes
The ceiling with cedar and shakes
Painted with vermilion in stakes.
15 “Shall you reign just because you close
Yourself about in cedar rows?
Did not your father eat and drink
And do judgement and justice link,
And then it was well on his brink?
16 “He judged the cause of poor in need,
Then it was well with him indeed,
And was it not to know My lead?”
Says YHWH, and so He says indeed.
17 But your eyes and your heart are not
But for your covetousness’ lot,
And for to shed blood innocent,
And for oppression and for bent
Violence to do it unspent.
18 That’s why YHWH says about the man
Jehoiakim the son to scan
Of Josiah king of Judah;
“They shall not sorrow for his paw,
Saying ‘Ah brother, sister, they
Shall not lament for him and say,
“Ah lord or ah his glory stay.”’
19 “He’ll have a donkey’s funeral,
Drawn out and cast beyond the wall,
Gate of Jerusalem to fall.”

Beloved, give me a donkey’s funeral
Outside the brave Quds’ wall and stall,
And let me bloat beneath the sacred sun
That touches the dome of the rock begun
Before rise of the last millennium.
Promise me such a burial in sum
Where I can hear the golden angels hum
About the altars and the hooded veils
Of the sweet sanctuary with its sails.
Beloved, let me lie with the donkeys where
King David set his house with room to spare,
And Solomon came out beside the ant
And spoke to it and every savoury plant.
Then I shall rest in peace and not recant.

20 “Go up to Lebanon and cry,
Lift up your voice in Bashan’s sty,
And shout to them that will pass by,
For all your lovers are destroyed.
21 “I spoke to you in times employed,
But you said ‘I’ll not hear a word.’
This was your way from childhood up,
You disobeyed Me like a tup.
22 “The wind shall consume your shepherds,
And your lovers turn into sherds,
Surely then you will be ashamed,
Confounded by wicked life blamed.
23 “Inhabitant of Lebanon,
Who make your nest in cedars won,
How gracious will you be when pangs
Come on you, as the pain of fangs
Of a woman when labour hangs.

Inhabitant of Lebanon is still
Not out of danger from the holy hill.
If no intruder comes to fit the bill,
The people themselves find a way to kill.
But Jeremiah has no interest in
Historic causes of the shameful din,
He only looks to see if men fulfil
Your divine law, and then proclaims their sin.
Beloved, if sin is cause of wicked snare,
The plague, invasion, poison on the air,
Then let its distribution on the fair
Be according to every sinful share.
No one has paid enough, it seems, to bide,
So let Your mercy turn away and hide.

24 “As I live,” says YHWH, “though Coniah
The son of Jehoiakim higher,
King of Judah were signet on
My right hand, still I’d pluck you drawn
From there. 25 “And I’ll give you into
The power of those who look for you
To take your life, and in the hand
Of those whose face you fear to stand,
Even the power of Babylon,
Nebuchadrezzar the king’s pawn,
Into Chaldeans’ hand outdrawn.
26 “And I will throw you out, and so
Also your mother who gave birth
To you, into another earth,
Where you were not born to see show,
And there you will die, be laid low.
27 “But to the land where they desire
To go back to, they don’t find hire.
28 “This man Coniah, is he just
A broken idol in the dust?
Is he a clay pot in which there
Is no pleasure in joy to share?”

Coniah is a king who follows through
Upon the plan political and due
That’s based on the statistics of the crew
And not upon the guesswork sent in stew
By Jeremiah, who favours the rue
Of Babylon. My guess is that the rate
Of words was written after fulfilled state
To bolster the imperial decree
To rebuild Quds and its sanctuary.
It’s justified by his idolatry,
If such there was or not, I cannot see.
Beloved, rewriting of Your history
Is such a human plot in honesty
That even prophets succumb to the spree.

29 O earth, earth, earth, hear word of YHWH.
30 So says YHWH, “Write to this man too
That he’ll be childless, one who’ll not
Prosper in all his days in lot,
For no man of his spawn shall see
Any kind of prosperity,
Sitting on David’s throne to rule
Any more in Judah like fool.”

The promise to David is for the space
Of time eternal on the human race.
But his son Jeconiah in the grace
Of Babylon is told to hide his face.
The promises to David are too great
To have fulfilment in the world of late,
And faith is sore tried to hold fast and sure
The fearless hopes of David’s strong and pure.
Beloved, is it a thing of grief to know
That strong and pure in David have the show,
That some are strong and some are pure but no
Man is both strong and pure down here below?
I stake my fortune on the recitation
Of words both strong and pure in their elation.

JEREMIAH 23

1 “Woe be to shepherds who destroy
And scatter sheep in their employ!”
Says YHWH. 2 “That’s why” says YHWH the God
Of Israel against the prod
Of pastors that pasture my folk;
“You have scattered My flock in yoke
And driven them away and not
Examined their ways in the plot;
See I shall let rain down on you
Results of the evil you do,”
Says YHWH. 3 “And I will gather in
The rest of My flock from the sin
Of all the countries where they’ve been
And where I’ve driven them and bring
Them once again to their folds’ spring,
And they’ll be fruitful and increase.
4 “And I will set up shepherds there
Over them who shall feed their share,
And they shall fear no more nor be
Dismayed, nor any lacking see,”
Says YHWH. 5 “See now, the days will come,”
Says YHWH, “that I will raise in sum
To David branch of righteousness,
And a king shall reign in address
And prosper and shall execute
Judgement and justice absolute
Upon the earth. 6 “In his days shall
Judah be saved and Israel
Dwell in safety; this is his name
By which he shall be called in fame
YHWH is our righteousness and well.
7 “That’s why, see, the days will come near,”
Says YHWH, when they shall no more fear
To say “YHWH lives, who brought up dear
The children of Israel with gear
Out of the land of Egypt’s dell.
8 But rather YHWH lives who brought up
And led the spawn of Israel tup
Out of the north country and from
All countries I have made them bum,
And they shall live in their own cell.

The name is Zedekiah, a name used
By two or three, by some of them abused.
Indeed, Beloved, You are my righteousness,
The gauge of my existence and address.
The hope of Jeremiah that a king
Of that name, if that is the very thing
He means, should enter in an golden age
Has not yet been fulfilled on history’s page.
Beloved, I’d think that humankind would tire
Of waiting for messiahs to set fire
On fate of foul oppression and give wait
To justice in the worldly kind of state.
The human spirit is amazing still
Beyond all patterns, before divine thrill.

9 My heart within me’s broken for
The state of the prophets in store;
All my bones shake, I’m like a drunk,
And like a man in wine who’s sunk,
Because of YHWH and for the word
That His holiness in me stirred.
10 The land’s full of adultery;
Because of swearing there freely
The land mourns, and the pleasant lea
Of wilderness is dried up where
Their ways are evil and the share
Of their strength is not right to bare.

The causal link between the awful brink
Of growing desert and adultery,
It is a thing I think escaping me.
Perhaps the prophet says it with a wink.
Perhaps I doubt because the place I live
Is fraught around about and like a sieve
With lakes on every side, and the rainfall
Is sometimes great enough it would appal.
If I lived in the barren hills around
Jerusalem, say to the eastward bound,
I might take more with less salt at the sound.
But I see all around adulterous act
While every green thing flourishes in fact.
My view may be Ashtoreth’s, though, intact.

11 “Both prophet and priest are profane;
Indeed in My house and My reign
I find their wickedness is there,”
Says YHWH. 12 “That’s why their way will be
To them as slippery as a spree
In darkness; they shall be pushed on,
And fall, for I’ll bring evil on
Them in the year of their judgement,”
Says YHWH and that is what He sent.
13 “And I have seen the folly in
The prophets of Samarian din;
They prophesy in Baal and cause
My folk Israel to err in flaws.
14 “I’ve also seen the prophets in
Jerusalem in horrors’ bin;
They commit their adultery,
Walk in deceit, foster the free
Hand of the wicked, so none will
Turn back from his own wicked swill:
They are all of them unto Me
As Sodom and the dwellers in
Gomorrah and Gomorrah’s sin.
15 “That’s why” says YHWH of hosts about
The prophets: See, I’ll feed them stout
On wormwood and make them to drink
The water of gall for their stink,
For from Jerusalem’s prophets
Profaneness in all the land sits.”

I don’t know which prophet who came to sit
About Jerusalem fulfilled with wit
The drinking of the wormwood in his stall.
John in the Revelation greets the call.
But Jesus Christ was made to drink the gall.
I guess some cynic might at last recall
That every text that can be on the wall
Is spoken for in fulfilled prophesy
Of Your Messiah in the Roman spree.
I don’t recall that any took this line
To prove that he was prophet come to dine,
One of those You eschew. Maybe that’s why
The gall is left forgotten on the sly.
Take all or none, I say, and not repine.

16 So says YHWH of hosts, “Do not hear
The words of the prophets who steer
Their prophecies to you: they’re vain;
They speak a vision from the stain
Of their own heart, and not to speak
From the mouth of YHWH and to seek.
17 “They still say to those who despise me,
YHWH’s said ‘You’ll have peace’ and advise me
That every one who acts according
To his own heart imagined hoarding,
‘No evil shall come to your boarding.’”
18 For who has stay in YHWH’s advice,
Perceived and heard His word concise?
Who’s marked His word and listened twice?
19 See, a whirlwind of YHWH is out
In fury, a tornado stout;
It shall fall for grief on the head
Of the wicked, though safe in bed.
20 The wrath of YHWH shall not turn back
Until He’s gathered up the slack,
Until He’s carried out the thoughts
Of His heart, in the latter plots
You’ll think about it perfectly.
21 I have not set these prophets free,
And still they ran; I have not spoken
To them, and yet they show a token.

You have not sent a prophet in the world
Except those who take commandments unfurled
And give all ten to everyone around
And show them how and why they are still sound.
When Jeremiah makes that law profound
Before the eye and year of Judahite,
Then he’s a prophet true and good and right.
But if he has another thing to prove
Another message, a distracting groove,
A point to cause contention on the spot,
It’s then he’s turned to a satanic plot.
All men whirl back and forth in their desire,
Sway from the good and true to meet the fire,
But few rise in obedience’ spark and higher.

22 “But if they’d stayed in My advice,
And had caused My folk to hear nice
Words that I spoke, then they’d have turned
Them from the evil ways they learned,
And from their evil sacrifice.
23 “An Ælohim nearby am I,”
Says YHWH, “not Ælohim far off?
24 “Can anyone hide in ways sly
Where I shall not see him and scoff`?”
Says YHWH. “Do I not fill the sky
As well as earth?” says YHWH with sigh.
25 “I’ve heard what the prophets said, those
Who prophesy lies in My rows,
Saying, ‘I’ve had a dream, a dream.’
26 “How long shall this be in the scheme
Of prophets prophesying lies?
In their own heart the deceit flies.
27 “Intending My folk shall forget
My name by their dreams which they’ve set
Every man to his neighbour yet,
As their ancestors did forget
My name for Baal, a false god met.
28 “The prophet when he dreams a dream,
Let him tell what the dream may seem,
And the one that has My word, let
Him speak My word in truth well set.
What is chaff to the wheat to get?”
Says YHWH as He lets down the net.

The chaff is to the wheat as is the sound
Of hymn and prayer and market all around,
Whatever may distract me from the bound
Of Your commandments firmly on the ground.
Beloved, I follow through the many gates,
The air, the water, fire, the earth in states,
And find illusion spread out everywhere
I whirl upon a world wrought for the fair.
And yet, above, beyond the meagre share
Of life and breath among abundant care,
I find Your name repeated in the way
All things revert to Your creation’s sway,
And so I leave me dreams of scattered chaff
Indulging soul in wheat’s abundant staff.

29 “Is not My word just like a fire?”
Says YHWH; “and like a hammer dire
That breaks the rock in pieces’ mire?
30 “That’s why, see I’m against the prophets,”
Says YHWH, “that steal my words for soffits,
Each one from his neighbour to hire.
31 “See, I’m against the prophets here,”
Says YHWH, “that use their tongues for ear
And say ‘He says’ and without fear.
32 “See, I’m against those with false dreams
Who prophesy,” says YHWH, “of schemes,
And tell them, and make My folk err
By their lies and by light minds’ share;
Because I did not send them out,
I did not command them to shout,
That’s why they shall not profit this
People at all,” says YHWH to hiss.

I too, Beloved, am much against the prophets,
And so because of their distracting cough-fits.
I hear the lovely bells, the tinkling sound
Of exquisite in rhyme come mincing round,
The helpful deaths and resurrections that
Awaken in the bread and wine in vat,
And turn away to find the living flood
Where columns of fir and birch in the bud
Lead me beside the festivals and feasts
Where twelve good fruits are laden without priests
To turn them into flesh and blood of beasts.
I breathe and hear the cantillation rare
Of crow and moose upon the tingling air,
Of nature’s law in ten for all the fair.

33 And when this folk, prophet or priest
Shall ask you saying at the least
“What is the message come from YHWH,
You’ll say to them, ‘What message new?’
I’ll even forsake you,” says YHWH.
34 As for the prophet and the priest,
And the people that say like beast,
The message of YHWH, “I will come
To punish man and house in sum.”
35 So shall you say to every one,
To neighbour and to brother won,
“What has YHWH answered? and “What more
Has YHWH replied, spoken in store?”
36 And YHWH’s message mention no more;
For every man’s word shall be his
Own message, you’ve corrupted biz
In the words of the living God,
Of YHWH of hosts, our Ælohim.
37 “And so you’ll to the prophet nod,
‘What has YHWH replied to you? And
What has YHWH spoken by your hand?’

The choice is simply between You and those
Prophets and priests who claim to hoe Your rows.
One cannot walk a middle fence that goes
Between the two, accepting these and crows.
If I am Yours, Beloved, I don’t belong
To priest and prophet who rise up for wrong,
And they are many and lead every song.
Your own, Beloved, are not among the crowd
Nor even in the smaller sects allowed,
But in the inner chamber where the soul
Alone meets heaven and earth above the toll.
Beloved, I find the barren tent of stone
Surrounds in veils the palace of Your throne,
Where I appear before Your face alone.

38 “But since you say, ‘YHWH’s message came,
Therefore so says YHWH as in blame;’
Because you say this thing in name:
‘The message of YHWH is the same,’
And I have sent to you to say,
Don’t say YHWH’s message on the way.
39 “That way, see, I, even I, do
Utterly come to forget you,
And I will forsake you all too,
And the town that I gave to you
And your ancestors and throw you
Out from before My face as due.
40 “And I will bring reproach on you,
An everlasting reproach too,
Which for shame in continued view
Shall never be forgotten brew.”

Remembrance and forgetting are concern
For those of us who whirl upon the burn.
Beloved, do not remember me as I
Do you, so many times beneath the sky
Forgetful of Your name and claim to fame.
Remember me rather as though in blame,
Full flowered and unforgettable to lie,
Revered for all the things I’ve yet to learn.
Bring Your reproach, I cannot steel the soul
Better than this before the fatal goal.
Bring Your reproach, but bringing it indeed,
Keep me in Your remembrance as in seed.
Then I shall find the shame of every view
Has disappeared before Your hand and You.

JEREMIAH 24

1 YHWH showed me, see, two baskets full
Of figs set before the ample
Temple of YHWH, after the time
Nebuchadrezzar king to climb
From Babylon carried away
Captive Jeconiah from sway,
The son of Jehoiakim king
Of Judah, and the princes’ ring
Of Judah with the carpenters
And smiths from Jerusalem’s spurs,
And brought them to Babylon’s sting.
2 One basket had very good figs,
Like the figs of the first ripe gigs;
The other basket very bad,
Too spoiled to eat, was all it had.
3 Then said YHWH to me, “What see you,
Jeremiah?” And I took view
To say “I see figs: the good ones
Are very good figs in their tons,
And the bad ones are very bad,
Too spoiled to eat, both spoiled and sad.”
4 Again the word of YHWH came down
To me saying upon the town,
5 “So says YHWH Israel’s Ælohim:
Like these good figs, so it would seem
I’ll know them that are borne away
Captive from Judah, sent to stray
Out of this place into the land
Of the Chaldeans for good planned.
6 “I’ll set My eyes on them for good,
And bring them back to this land’s wood;
And I will build them up again,
And not pull down, I’ll plant in glen
And not pluck up. 7 “And I will give
To them a heart to know and live
That I am YHWH, and they shall be
My people, and I faithfully
Their Ælohim, for they’ll repent
With their whole heart where they are sent.
8 “As spoiled figs that one cannot eat,”
Surely so says YHWH to compete,
“So I’ll give Zedekiah king
Of Judah and his princes’ ring
And all left in Jerusalem
And in this land and those in hem
Of Egypt’s land, 9 “I’ll set them out
To be removed in every stout
Kingdom of the earth for their hurt,
To be reproach and proverb curt,
And taunt and curse in every place
That I shall drive them without trace.
10 “And I will send out the sword and
The famine and plague on their band,
Till they’re consumed right off the land
That I gave them and fathers’ stand.”

You call the king, Beloved a rotten fig,
Which does remind me of the childish rig
Of calling the last one a rotten egg.
Perhaps You stand upon a better leg.
Two questions rise here in the place to beg:
One question is whether the king obeys
Your law or not, or whether in a craze
He must resort to some idolatry.
The other question is the infamy
Of politics, refusing to believe
That Nebuchadnezzar gives no reprieve.
Beloved, I don’t condemn Your wrath laid down
Against idolatry, but if the town
Is just political, You ought not frown.

JEREMIAH 25

1 The message come to Jeremiah
About all the folk in and nigher
Judah in the fourth year of king
Jehoiakim, son of the king
Josiah king of Judah’s ring,
That was the first year of the reign
Of Nebuchadrezzar the fane
Of Babylon; 2 which Jeremiah
The prophet spoke to all the choir
Of Judah’s folk, to all who live
In Jerusalem fugitive,
Saying 3 “Now from the thirteenth year
Of Josiah son of the peer
Anon king of Judah, to this
Day, that is the twenty-third year,
The word of YHWH has come to me,
And I have spoken to you free,
Getting up early with my voice,
But you have not listened by choice.”
4 And YHWH has sent you all His slaves
The prophets, rising with their staves
Early and sending them, but you
Have not listened nor turned ear due.
5 “They said ‘Repent again now too,
Each on from his wicked way’s rue,
And from the evil of your acts,
And live in the land that YHWH’s pacts
Have given you and your ancestors
For ever and ever bequesters.
6 “And do not follow other gods
To serve them and worship in pods,
And do not provoke Me to wrath
With the works of your hands and path,
And I’ll do no hurt on your sods.’
7 “But you would not listen to Me,”
Says YHWH, “so you would provoke me
To anger with the works you do
To your own hurt in your own pew.”

I note well, my Beloved, that prophets’ role
Is to oppose idolatry in toll.
Their work is first and foremost to invest
Your name with the reality and best
That You are one alone, not more or less,
And at their word nobody needs to guess.
Diversity is argument of fame
That every person has his own god’s claim,
And every glen and dale can claim the same.
But every leaf and snowflake is unique,
And still they show a common sort of pique:
Six-sided or all veined with what they seek.
Diversity of faces all point to
The one face that above all is the true.

8 That’s why says YHWH of hosts: “Because
You have not listened to My laws,
9 “See, I’ll send and take all the clans
Of the north,” says YHWH, “and the spans
Of Nebuchadrezzar the king
Of Babylon, My servant wing,
And will bring them against this land,
And against its dwellers in band,
And against those nations about,
And utterly set them to rout,
And make them an astonishment,
A hissing and desolate tent,
For ever and for ever spent.”

The oneness of the God that You remain,
Beloved, in word and fact, is One to reign
And have servants of all men in their line,
Both Jew and Gentile, sober or in wine.
So Nebuchadnezzar’s Your servant too,
As are all men and beasts that make the crew
Of earth below and those up in the sky,
The aliens and angels on the fly.
Beloved, we’re all in one boat or spacecraft,
And have one fate, whether to fore or aft,
One God of all, though of ten thousand tongues,
One God among the ladders and the rungs
That lead around in spirals to raise up
A human leader to butt heads with tup.

10 “And I’ll take from them sound of joy,
And voice of gladness to employ,
From bridegroom and the voice of bride,
The sound of millstones to abide,
The light of candle at their side.
11 “And this whole land shall be desert,
Astonishment, nations inert
Shall serve the king of Babylon
For seventy years from this dawn.
12 “It will happen when seventy years
Are finished, that I’ll punish gears
Of Babylon’s king and that land,”
Says YHWH, “for their wickedness’ stand,
And the land of Chaldeans, and
Will make it always be desert.
13 “And I will bring upon that land
All the things I proclaim to stand
Against it, all writ in this book,
Which Jeremiah came and took
To prophesy on every land.
14 “For many nations and great kings
Shall serve themselves of them in rings,
And I will recompense each one
According to the deeds they’ve done,
And by the words of their own hand.”

If Jeremiah had written this thing
About Babylon at the date of fling
Jehoiakim made, then I’d think the rate
Of punishment would have come on his pate.
The theory of the liberal suggests
The writing was to stir the Persian nests
To favour the reclaiming of the land
Of Judah by a certain lobby’s band.
The falsified in documents may stand
As true when they succeed to set in place
Establishments come to enjoy Your grace.
But if the prophecy of seventy years
Can be shown to have appeared without fears
Beforehand, it’s an argument to face.

15 For so says YHWH the Ælohim
Of Israel to me in scheme,
“Take the wine cup of this wrath at
My hand and make all nations fat
To whom I send you drink it flat.
16 “And they shall drink and shall be moved,
And be insane and yet reproved
By the sword I’ll send on their mat.”
17 Then I took the cup at YHWH’s hand
And made all nations drink and stand
To whom YHWH sent me in their band.

The cup of wrath awakened at the hand
Of Jeremiah was still filled to stand
In John’s apocalypse for a new brand.
The cup of wrath is poured for all mankind,
The pagan and the faithful ones in mind,
And all are faced with its most bitter dregs,
And all must learn to drink and find sea-legs.
Beloved, pour out Your wrath on me and mine,
And may the draught awaken from the vine
Complacent and in pleasure where I dine.
I’ll read and hear with new eyes and with ears
Tuned to obedience and without fears,
My nostrils waiting at the changing air
Before I dance upon the storm and glare.

18 Jerusalem, and Judah’s towns,
And the kings of suburbs and downs,
And princes to, to make desert,
Astonishment, hissing and blurt
Of curse as it is to this day.
19 Pharaoh king of Egyptian sway,
And his servants and princes gay,
And all his people in the way,
20 And all the mixed folk and all kings
Of land of Uz, and all the kings
Of Philistines’ country and springs
Of Ashkelon, Azzah, Ekron,
And the rest of Ashdod to pawn,
21 Edom and Moab, Ammon’s spawn,
22 And all the rulers of Tyre and
All the kings of Zidon and band
Of the kings of the isles to stand
Beyond the sea: Dedan, Tema,
And Buz and the furthest in awe,
24 And all kings of Arabia,
And all the kings of the mixed folk
That lived upon the desert spoke,
25 And all the kings of Zimri and
All the kings of Elam as scanned,
And all the kings of Medes and more,
26 All the kings on the northern shore,
Both far and near, one with the other,
And all the kingdoms of earth mother,
And Sheshack’s king shall drink the last.

The kings who came to drink the fashioned cup
Of Jeremiah’s divine wrath to sup
Have all gone in the way of ruin’s own,
Except the one who sits upon the throne
Of happy Araby. I’ve never seen
The man. The one time I was clean
Upon the floor beside the Kaaba he
Was not within the palace or city.
I saw the royal folk from windows stare
Down on the crowd that set their feet now bare
In circumambulation. What was in
Their minds as they stood there above the din
I cannot know. But my heart swelled to know
They paused to look benignly on the show.

27 “And you shall say to them: ‘Hear this,’
Says YHWH of hosts, ‘Ælohim’s kiss
To Israel; drink and be drunk,
And vomit and fall where you’re sunk,
Because of the sword I will send
Among you from the start to end.’
28 “And it shall be, if they refuse
To take the cup from your hand’s dues
To drink, then you shall say to them,
So says YHWH of hosts stratagem,
‘You’ll certainly drink as I choose.’
29 “For see, I start to bring the wake
Of evil on the city stake
That is still called for My name’s sake,
And should you go unpunished then?
You shall not be unpunished men;
For I will summon up a sword
Upon all dwellers on earth gored,”
Says YHWH of hosts with vengeance scored.

The punishment You wish to send upon
Judah is not the punishment that’s drawn
To turn the people and their king and pawn
Out into hell forever and a dawn.
You save such for the Philistines now gone.
But still the punishment that You would show
To Judah is expressed in words that glow
With vile heat and with rapine wrath below.
Good John, when he repeats the cuply drought,
Is not so obscene in the words he taught.
And yet the image is a burning fire,
And red reflection on the heaven and choir
Of the soul temple, leaning on Your ire.
Finish in me Your purifying lot.

30 “Now prophesy against them all
These things, and bring to their recall,
‘YHWH will roar from on high, and send
His voice from His holy hill’s end,
He will roar mightily against
His fold, He’ll give a shout incensed,
As those who tread the grapes, against
All the inhabitants of the earth dispensed.
31 A noise will come to the earth’s ends,
For YHWH takes issue and contends
With the nations, He’ll plead His case
With all flesh. He’ll give the race
Of the wicked to sword,’ says YHWH.”
32 So says YHWH of hosts: “It is true,
Disaster shall go forth from nation
To nation, and a conflagration
Of wind raised from the earth’s far ends.
33 “And at that day the slain of YHWH
Shall be from one end of earth to
The other end of the earth, they
Shall not be mourned, gathered, or buried,
But be dung on the ground uncarried.

Neanderthalan burial is sought
As proof that man is with early faith taught,
And the belief in souls is the foundation
Of every religion in early station.
It does not follow: we can only know
There was some reason for the burial show,
Perhaps they loved the brother on the go,
Perhaps they knew that corpses are not slow
To cause a stink about the cave and fire.
The fact of burial may well contrive
To be excuse for one that’s stayed alive
To invent a religion of the hive,
But it is not in evidence of fear:
Faith rises up in I-ness and in ear.

34 “Wail, shepherds, cry! And roll about,
You leaders of the flock devout!
For the days of your slaughter and
Your dispersions are quite at hand,
You shall fall like an instrument
Of Muhammad by accident.

The clay vessels that bring life-giving drink
Were once called vessels of Muhammad. Think
How deep was the desire that he should come
That daily artefacts take up the drum.
Clay vessels hold the living waters to
The thirsty lip, and bring the thing that’s true.
And like clay vessels can be dropped and broken,
The scattered shards and useless are a token
Of what Muhammad is and was to be:
A burning light and warning to the free
That bore his message straight and truthfully,
But then was cast aside without remorse
The meaning and intent of his discourse.
If but to one, let his words live for me.

35 And the shepherds will have no way
To flee, nor the leaders to stray
From the flock to escape. 36 A voice
Of the cry of the shepherds choice,
A wailing of the leaders to
The flock will be heard. Behold, YHWH
Has plundered their pasture, 37 Therefore
The peaceful dwellings furthermore
Are cut down before YHWH’s fierce wrath.
38 From lair like lion He takes His path,
For their land’s desolate because
Of fierceness of oppressor’s claws,
And because of His fiercest wrath.”

The Arab tents of those who rose to choose
Another leader and the only faith to lose
Before the prophet’s body had grown cold
Are all destroyed and may destruction bold,
Relentless count the desert fuel and done.
I hear the false leaders raise pious cry
Of God is Great up to the solid sky
And yet lap innovation in the sun.
The lion of God take up the plundered field
And plunder those who plunder Ali’s yield.
The leadership that falls on eager men
Ends in the wailing of the weak and then
In no escape from You, Beloved, who touch
The pastures with a zeal unseen as such.

JEREMIAH 26

1 In the beginning of the reign
Of Jehoiakim the son of fane
Josiah, king of Judah, this word
Came from YHWH, saying as occurred,
2 “So says YHWH: ‘Stand in the court of
YHWH’s house, and speak to all the shove
Of Judah’s cities come to bow
Prostrated before YHWH’s house now,
All the messages I command
You to speak to them out of hand,
Not leaving out a single planned.
3 It may be everyone will hear
And repent from his evil steer,
So I may relent from the sheer
Calamity that I propose
To bring on them because they chose
Their evil actions rows on rows.

In the beginning, famous words, that come
First in the word of revelation, sum
Of knowledge. In beginning You made all
In earth and sky to prostrate at Your call.
And so it was and so was seen to be
Good, very good, until I came to see
These words changed by the reign of some new king
Whose jurisdiction jumps to take to wing
And cover all the earth if possible.
That’s why the teeming world is always full
Of evil ways. Choice must be made which god
To serve, Beloved, You or the golden pod.
Let there be no beginnings but the reign
Of You, Beloved, whose unity is gain.

4 “And you’ll say to them, ‘So says YHWH,
If you will not listen and do
According to My law, which I
Have set before you under eye,
5 “To obey the words of My slaves
The prophets whom I sent conclaves
To you, both rising at the dawn
And sending them, with your ears drawn;
6 “Then I’ll make this house like Shiloh,
And this city a curse below
All earthly nations in a row.’”

No clearer exposition of the way
Could be made in anything You could say:
Observe and keep the ten commandments here
And that’s the message the prophets made clear.
The one’s who seek another word to do
Or wallow in among the prophets crew
Miss out on what is valuable and true.
Some hope to find predictions that congrue
With what they find in history in view.
Some hope to find their pagan hopes rebound
In vellum and in leather for a pound.
Beloved, I stand here once more with the claim
That ten commandments represent Your name,
And nothing more is needed in the game.

7 So the priests and the prophets and
All the people hearing the stand
Of Jeremiah when he spoke
These words in YHWH’s house for a stroke,
8 It happened then when Jeremiah
Had finished speak all the dire
Things YHWH had commanded to speak
To all the people, in a peek
The priests and prophets, all the folk
Took him and said “You’ll die a stroke.
9 “Why have you prophesied in name
Of YHWH, saying ‘This house of fame
Shall be like Shiloh, and to blame
This town shall be desolate shame
Without a dweller to its name?’”
And all the crowd came up together
Against Jeremiah in tether
In the house of YHWH in their game.

Distraction from the issue is the way
Both priests and people come out for their prey.
They do not repent that they break Your law,
Oh no, instead they focus on the claw
Contending that the word’s subversive to
The well-being of temple and its crew.
They cast blame on the speaker to his rue,
Complaining he disparages the view
Of sanctuary, but refuse to note
The main thing was the ten commandments’ boat,
The boat they’ve sunk and so have drowned their souls
On heathenism’s resplendent atolls.

10 When princes of Judah heard these
Things, they came up from the king’s ease
Into the house of YHWH and sat
Down in the entry of the mat
Of the new gate of YHWH’s house frieze.
11 The priests and prophets came to speak
To the princes of all the streak
Of people, saying “This man ought
To die, because he prophesied
Against this city where we’re taught,
And you heard with your ears beside.”

The princes give the death sentence when they
Are found within the clutches as the prey
Of priest and people: so the Inquisition
Was not a Latin kind of imposition,
But was invented by the princes that
Looked out upon Jerusalem and sat
Before the son of David to get fat.
Don’t blame the Vatican, Beloved, if soon
Or late they follow suite like any goon.
They only take a cue from Your own king,
And so their claims may be right on the wing.
They represent better than anyone
Your reign on earth. Jerusalem was fun
And gave the model of faith once begun.

12 Then Jeremiah spoke aloud
To all the princes and the crowd,
Saying “YHWH sent me here to sing
Against this house and everything
In this town, all the words you’ve heard.
13 “So now amend your ways unstirred
And what you do, and just obey
The voice of YHWH your Ælohim;
And YHWH will repent in that day
Of the evil declared to stay.
14 “As for myself, see I am here
In your power, do to me with fear
What seems to and meet to your ear.
15 “But know for sure, if you kill me,
You’ll bring surely innocent blood
Upon yourselves and this city,
On its inhabitants in flood,
For truly YHWH’s sent me to you,
To tell you all these things are true.”

The prophet Jeremiah makes attempt
To turn the notice back to the unkempt
Way folk have dealt with Your law when they take
A course against the ten commandments’ cake.
He says if they will only do ten things
That You command, then all their temple wings
Will rise in praise forever. But instead
He guesses they look for some blood to shed.
That’s what the people here all do today
Instead of ten commandments in the way,
They want to crucify a man and say
That cures the crisis and provides the pay.
They were sweet Christians in that hour and time
And knew the litany down to the rhyme.

16 Then prince and folk together spoke
To priest and prophet at a stroke:
“This man is not worthy to die,
For he has spoken to us why
In name of YHWH our Ælohim.”
17 And certain elders of the scheme
Got up to speak to all the cream
Of the folk saying 18 “Micah the
Morasthite came with prophecy
In the days of Hezekiah
Who was the king then of Judah,
And said to all Judah’s folk then,
‘So says YHWH of hosts to you men,
“Zion shall be ploughed like a field,
Jerusalem be heaps for yield,
And the mount of the house just like
The heights of a forest to strike.”’
19 “Did Hezekiah who was king
Of Judah then and the princeling
Of Judah put him to death then?
Did he not fear YHWH and again
Pray to YHWH and YHWH turned away
From the evil He thought to pay?
So we might get our evil way
Against our souls to act today.
20 “And there was also a man who
Prophesied in the name of YHWH,
Urijah Shemaiah’s son too
Of Kirjathjearim, who proclaimed
A prophecy against this famed
Town and against this land just like
All words of Jeremiah’s strike.
21 “And when Jehoiakim the king
With all his mighty men to sling,
And all the princes, heard his word,
The king tried to kill him deterred,
But Urijah heard it and feared
And fled, into Egypt appeared.
22 “Jehoiakim the king sent men
Into Egypt, Elnathan then
The son of Achbor and some men
With him into Egyptian den.
23 “And they brought out Urijah from
Egypt and to Jerhoiakim
The king; who killed him with a sword,
And threw his carcass unadored
Into the common graves deplored.”
24 So Ahikam Shaphan’s son’s power
Was with Jeremiah that hour,
So they did not deliver him
To the people for a death grim.

How slender and how fragile is the life
Of those You send before the pruning knife
Of pagan thought and worship and the throne!
It all depends upon the word alone
Of someone who will dare to stand and state
The truth despite the crowd of heathen hate.
It is a rare thing that such word is spoken,
And the result is just a scattered token.
Most times the one who does what You have said
Is simply struck down to the ground and fed
To pigs for later feasting before bed.
Beloved, create more prigs that dare to take
A stand against injustice for Your sake,
And let them speak aloud before the bled.

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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