EZEKIEL CHAPTER 1 - 8

THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL

The dates of the book itself would place it
Among the captives in exile and fit
Between five ninety three and a year near
Five seventy-one in the prophetic gear.
But some is addressed to those living in
Jerusalem before the siege of sin,
And some to nations all around before
The Babylonians evened the score.
Ezekiel was a priest, but more than that,
He made himself a sign upon his mat,
A visionary of unknown sights too,
The first of the apocalyptic crew.
Beloved, I love him for his frantic view
As well as for the new heart in new fat.

EZEKIEL 1

1 It happened in the thirtieth year
Of the captivity of fear,
In the fourth month, on the fifth day,
As I was where the captives stay
By River Chebar, heavens unrolled,
I saw Ælohim’s visions told.
2 On the fifth day, in the fifth year
Of King Jehoiachin’s career
As captive, 3 the word of YHWH came
Expressly to Ezekiel same
The priest, the son of Buzi, in
The far land of the Chaldean
And by the River Chebar, and
There upon his head was YHWH’s hand.
4 Then I looked, and indeed, there came
A whirlwind from the north like flame,
A great cloud with a raging fire
Engulfing itself in desire,
And brightness all around it and
Pouring out of its midst expand
Like amber colour from the fire.
5 Also from within it there came
The likeness of four and by name
Living creatures, and they looked so:
They had the likeness of a man.
6 Each had four faces, on the go
Each had four wings not to be slow.
7 Their legs were straight, as straight as can,
And the soles of their feet were like
The soles of calves’ feet like a spike.
They sparkled like the colour of
Burnished bronze from below, above.

Configuration of faith in the days
Of bronze are not hidden in some gross haze.
The sun cult, graves aligned to meet its will,
The cross imposed upon its discus still,
The agriculture well developed by
Society well known to stratify.
Beloved, all these detract from what You said
On Sinai to the slaves that had been led
To freedom: now the Christian way to bed
Is back to slavery in the sun-cult bred,
The cross, the phallic symbols that are bled,
The stratified society in church,
The eastward turning of prayer where they lurch
In time to markings carved upon a birch.

8 Hands of a man under their wings
On their four sides, the hands of kings,
Each of the four, faces and wings.
9 Their wings touched one another too,
But did not turn when they went through,
But each one went straight forward best.
10 As for the likeness of the rest,
Their faces, each had a man’s face,
Each of the four also in place
Had the face of a lion to right,
The face of an ox on the left,
And each an eagle’s face in sight.
11 So were their faces and their heft.
Their wings stretched upward, where two reached
To touch each other, and two breeched
To cover their bodies. 12 And each
One went straight forward and to reach,
They went where the spirit impressed
To go, and did not turn addressed
When they moved. 13 As for the likeness
Of the living creatures’ address,
They were like burning coals of fire,
And to and fro moved to admire
Among the living creatures there.
The fire was bright, and in the air
Out of the fire went lightning fair.

The beasts painted so finely on the walls
Of caves may represent the glowing stalls
Of hunting magic, or the ornament
Of ritual of theriotheist sent.
The high Paleolithic also casts
The pregnant female idols on the hearth,
And so together both in line that lasts
Enunciate a faith ancient and swarth.
The matriliturgy goes on aware
Of totem in both clan and in the share
Of each man holding weapon in the air.
Beloved, the faces still haunt prophets now
That polytheism upon the brow
Is shameful and forbidden in the lair.

14 The living creatures to and fro
Like flash of lightning ran to go.
15 Now as I looked at the living
Creatures, indeed, there was a thing
A wheel on earth beside each one,
Living creature four faces done.
16 The likeness of the wheels and their
Workings was like the colour fair
Of beryl, and all four had the same
Likeness, their workings likeness came,
As it were, a wheel in a wheel.
17 When they moved, they went toward the reel
Of any one of the four ways,
They did not turn aside their gaze.
18 As for their rims, they were so high
They were awesome against the sky,
And their rims were full of eyes round
All four of them. 19 When the living
Creatures went, the wheels went to sing
Beside them, and when the living
Creatures were lifted from the earth,
The wheels were lifted up to girth.
20 Where the spirit wanted to go,
They went, because they were not slow,
There the spirit went, and the wheels
Were lifted together with seals,
For spirit of the living beings
Was in the wheels and in their seeings.
21 When those went, these went, when those stood,
These stood, when those lifted for good
Up from the earth, the wheels were lifted
Up together with them, for gifted
With the spirit of the living
Creatures was in the wheels and wing.

The sun cult in the Bronze Age gave birth to
Such chariots drawn by horses not few
With solar disc over it in the lands
Boreal where the northern light commands.
In Sweden Ezekiel might have found out
The disk on wheels that turned about, about.
In Spain he might have found the heavenly lord
In figurines with disks beneath adored
Feet of the horses who pulled without sword.
Beloved, around the world the vision goes,
The idols face the people in their rows.
But where are You when the great sun-god shows?
You’re making jokes with prophets for a while
In visions far from Euphrates and Nile.

22 The likeness of the firmament
Above the heads of those live sent
Beings was like the colour of
An awesome crystal, stretched above
Their heads. 23 Under the firmament
Their wings spread out straight where they sent
One toward another. Each one had
Two wings of which covered each lad
On one side, and each one had two
Which covered the lad’s other too.
24 When they travelled, I heard the noise
Of their wings, like the waters’ noise,
And like the voice of the Almighty,
A tumult like the noise of flighty
Hosts, and whenever they stood still,
They lowered their wings down until
25 A voice came from above expanse
Over their heads, and when their dance
Stopped, they let down their wings and bill.
26 Above the firmament, above
Their heads there was the likeness of
A throne that looked like sapphire stone,
And on the likeness of the throne
A likeness with the appearance of
A man as it were high above.
27 Also from the appearance of
His waist and upward I saw, as
It were, the colour of as has
Amber with likeness of a fire
Within it all around its spire,
And from the appearance of his waist
And downward I saw, where I faced,
As it were, the appearance of
Fire with brightness around, above.
28 Like the appearance of rainbow
In cloud on a rainy day, so
Was the appearance of the bright
All around it and in its light.
This was the appearance of that
Likeness of glory where YHWH sat.
So when I saw, I fell on face,
And heard a voice speak in that place.

Ezekiel saw in vision divine form
And heard in his audition cold and warm
The divine voice arising from above
The throne of sapphire, throne of fear and love.
I cannot say, Beloved, if You are caught
In visible formation though unwrought,
Or if the forms he saw were those cast by
The shadow of the covering angel’s sky.
Beloved, I do not hear the voice, I do
Not see the visage of divine and true,
Nor do I hold the Hellenistic view
That in matter and spirit empties You
Of all reality. But I stand firm
That You are the Reality in term.

EZEKIEL 2

1 And He said to me, “Son of man,
Stand on your feet, stand if you can,
And I’ll speak to you man to man.”
2 Then the Spirit entered me when
He spoke to me, and set me then
On my feet, and I heard Him who
Spoke to me. 3 And He said to me
“Son of man, I am sending you,
To the children of Israel flee,
To a rebellious nation that
Has rebelled against Me out flat,
They and their fathers have transgressed
Against Me to this day addressed.
4 “For impudent and stubborn are
These children. I’m sending you far
To them, and you shall say to them,
‘So says the Lord YHWH to His gem.’
5 “As for them, whether they hear or
Whether they refuse to hear, for
They’re a rebellious house, yet they
Will know a prophet’s been their way.
6 “And you, son of man, do not be
Afraid of them nor their decree,
Though briers and thorns are with you and
You live among the scorpions’ band,
Do not be afraid of their words
Or dismayed by their looks like curds,
Though they are a rebellious house.
7 And you shall speak my words no chouse
To them, whether they’ll come to hear,
Or whether they’ll turn back their ear,
For they are a rebellious house.
8 But you, son of man, hear what I
Say to you, don’t rebel or try
Like that rebellious house, but you
Open your mouth and eat the due
That I give you to say and do.”
9 And when I looked, see, there a hand
Was sent to me, and see, the stand
Of a roll of writing in it;
10 And he spread before me the writ
Within and out were written down
Laments and griefs and woe to drown.

Beloved, I have no mandate from Your mouth
As did Ezekiel to both north and south.
I have no message given by Your tongue,
My only speech is that in torment wrung
From human heart and lips, the human ware.
And yet I fear no stand of court or share
Of hopeless tyranny. I know the rate
Of public opinion’s against my fate,
And still I raise a fist against the fair,
The rich, the poor, the proud ones everywhere.
I have been bludgeoned by the feathered soft
Pretending to be freedom sent aloft,
And know its stench and power to demonize
The very best of right in human guise.

EZEKIEL 3

1 Then he said to me, “Son of man,
Eat what you find, eat this roll’s span,
And go and speak to Israel’s house.”
2 So I opened my mouth like mouse,
And he made me eat that roll’s bran.
3 And he said to me, “Son of man,
Let your belly be filled as can,
And fill your gut with this roll that
I give you.” So I ate out flat,
And it was sweet to tongue to taste,
Like honey in a honey paste.
4 And he said to me, “Son of man,
Go up to Israel’s house by plan
And speak My words to them, you can.
5 “For you’re not sent to a folk tossed
By a foreign language embossed
And of a hard tongue, but unto
The house of Israel in crew.
6 “Not to many folk of strange speech,
Not to a language hard to preach,
Whose words you cannot understand.
Indeed if I’d sent to their land
They would have obeyed, though unmanned.
7 “But house of Israel will not hear
What you say because in their ear
They do not take My words with fear:
For all the house of Israel are
Impudent and hard-hearted star.
8 “Behold, I have made your face strong
Against their faces in the wrong,
And your forehead strong against theirs.
9 “As diamond harder than flint shares
I’ve made your forehead; do not fear
Nor be dismayed as they appear,
Though they’re a house rebelling here.”

Though I have a face strong as flint to cast
In teeth of impudence of priestly crassed,
I am not sent at all, and if I’m sent,
It’s to a folk whose language has been spent
In northern silences, in liquor rent,
A foreign speech and strange one, even bent
Beyond the need in frumpish tyranny.
But every tongue has potential to be
The tongue of human heart and to be free.
Beloved, I’m sent if sent at all to speak
In foreign languages but only peek
Within my heart words near to be forgot
Of childhood stories by the vacant lot,
Of words of the long dead if I should seek.

10 And He said to me, “Son of man,
All My words that I’ll speak by plan
To you, receive them in your heart,
And hear with your ears set apart.
11 “And go to those who came to be
In the midst of captivity,
To the sons of your people and
Speak to them and tell them in band,
So says the Lord YHWH, if they’ll hear
Of whether they’ll reject with leer.”
12 And lift me up, a spirit did,
And I heard behind me the grid
Of great rushing: “Blessed is the glory
Of YHWH from His place in the story.”
13 Also the sound of living things
With wings that touched each other’s flings,
And the sound of the wheels to turn
In noise of great rushing to earn.
14 So the spirit lifted me up,
And took me away from the cup
In bitterness, in heat of mind,
But YHWH’s hand held me from behind.

Here is a paradox I have to say,
That Your prophet caught up before the fray
By spirit and by wing and wind to hear
Is once delivered from the bitter fear,
Is once delivered from the bitter way
Before he lands among the captive prey.
I’d think his bitterness might then increase
To see the exiles go without release.
But everything man writes is filled to brim
With paradox, the thing we love with vim.
It’s only Your word, Decalogue, I find
Reveals no paradox to human mind,
But is as clear as crystal to the wined,
As straight as geometry is designed.

15 I came to the captivity
At Telabib, who live to see
The river of Chebar, and I
Sat where they sat without reply
Astonished then for seven days.

I too should be astonished to fly high
And over desert and three rivers nigh
To reach the river Chebar there where I
Would sit for seven days to catch my breath.
Indeed, I should be astonished to death.
The way You handle prophets is a shame,
Dragged kicking and shouting before the flame
And caught up in the sky with multitude
Of dove and eagle and the swallow’s brood.
Beloved, I’d think twice before I replied
With favour to a call come from Your side
To be a prophet to relate Your way.
I’d count to ten and turn around to pray
Another task, another grace to stay.

16 It came at end of seven days,
That YHWH’s word came to me and said
17 “Son of man, I have set you led
A watchman to Israel’s house spread,
So hear the word of My mouth, and
Give them warning from Me to stand.
18 “When I say to the wicked, 'You
Will surely die;’ and you in cue
Say nothing to warn him, nor speak
To warn the wicked from his peek,
To save his life; the same bad man
Shall die in his wickedness’ span;
But his blood I will ask of you.
19 “Yet if you warn the wicked, and
He does not turn from evil planned,
Nor from his wicked way, he’ll die
In his iniquity to spy,
But you’ve delivered your own soul.
20 “Again, when the righteous in dole
Turns from his righteousness in toll,
Committing iniquity’s role,
And I lay stumbling block for him,
He shall die; because you were dim
Not to give him warning with vim,
He’ll die in his sin, and the right
That he has done no more in sight
Shall be remembered; but his blood
Will I require at your hand’s bud.
21 “But if you warn the righteous man,
So that the just sin not by plan,
And he does not sin, he shall live,
Because he’s warned, and you shall give
Life to your own soul as you can.”

I’ve saved my own soul and my life, Beloved,
In the words that I write hooded and gloved.
I clearly state against both state and church
That those who disobey leave in the lurch
Both self and others under pine and birch.
I state again to every human brow,
There is one law eternal anyhow,
The Decalogue that tells in ten short words
How humans should live among beasts and birds.
If no one listens to my faithful speech,
But goes on after those who teach and preach
To worship three or four, to break the day
Of Sabbath and to kill in times of grey,
I’ve saved my soul in everything I say.

22 And YHWH’s hand was there upon me;
And he said to me, “Get up, see,
And go into the plain, and I
Will talk there with you by and by.”
23 Then I got up, went to the plain;
And see, YHWH’s glory would remain,
As glory I saw by the stream
Of Chebar; and as though to deem
I fell on my face not in vain.
24 Then the spirit came into me,
And set me on my feet to see,
And spoke with me, and said to me,
”Go shut yourself in your shanty.
25 “And you, O son of man, behold,
They shall put bands upon you cold,
And tie you up with them and you
Shall not go out among the crew.
26 “And I’ll make your tongue stick into
Your palate, so you’ll be dumb too,
No longer warning of the due,
For they’re a rebel house in view.
27 “But when I speak with you, then I
Will open up your mouth to cry,
And you’ll say to them, ‘So says Lord
YHWH; the one who hears Him adored,
Let him hear; and the one who will
Not, let him close his hearing still;
For they’re a rebel house for pill.’”

I’m shut with the cold bands of iron and steel,
And broken beneath every Finnish heel,
An exile from the supposed land of free
Where took place the greatest in history
Of holocausts and shoahs when the race
Of red men were shunted out without trace.
You’ve chosen me to write these awful words
And shout them among bumblebees and birds,
Accused and persecuted for the rate
Of white and non-white fallen on my pate.
Then finish off the punishment in me
And make my tongue stick to eternity,
And give me rest from frantic poetry
Before my life is passed and I am late.

EZEKIEL 4

1 You also, son of man, come take
A tile and lay it in your wake,
And draw on it the city plan,
Jerusalem in sight and scan.
2 And lay siege against it, and build
A fort against it, and unstilled
Throw up a bulwark on it too;
Set the camp also by its crew,
Battering rams as unfulfilled.
3 And take you then an iron pan,
And set it for a wall in span
Of iron between you and the town;
And set your face there with a frown,
And let it be besieged, and you
Shall lay siege against all its crew.
This be a sign to Israel’s house.
4 Lie there too on your left side’s dowse,
And lay the sins of Israel’s house
Upon it; by number of days
That you shall lie upon its stays,
You will bear their iniquity.
5 For I have laid upon the tree
Of years of their iniquity,
According to number of days,
Three hundred and ninety in stays;
So shall you bear iniquity
Of Israel’s house and faithfully.
6 And when you’ve done them all, then lie
On your right side, and you will try
To bear the sins of Judah’s house
For forty days and like a mouse:
I’ve set for you each day to be
For a year in eternity.

I mark the principle, and mark it well,
To pick it up against after a spell,
To use when days of prophecy are writ
Without an explanation to the fit.
A day for one year, so the rhyming goes,
And prophecy will then reveal the rows
Of coming kingdoms from the head to toes.
Beloved, I thank you as did Paul one day
For hiding from the generals in the fray
The scoring of the victory to last,
And showing to the simple in the blast
The haven and the chart before the caste.
Beloved, I count a day for every year
And wait for Your own justice to appear.

7 That’s why you’ll set your face toward
The siege of Jerusalem’s cord;
And your arm shall be bare, and you
Shall prophesy against it there.
8 And see, I will lay bands on you,
And you shall not turn from the view
From one side to the other till
You end the days of your siege still.

Between good Hesiod and the man they killed
With draught of hemlock, one prophet fulfilled
The role of visionary in the track
Of seeing matter and spirit both lack
Solidity of right philosophy.
The acts of priest Ezekiel flew in face
Of every human thought for thoughtful race,
And showed that thought’s enfeebled by the word,
And action only is the sign occurred
That can express reality at all,
Whether in the Semitic sort of stall
Or in the rotten glory of the hall
Of Athens. My Beloved, I think and speak
And in a moment act both strong and weak.

9 “Take also wheat and barley and
Beans and lentils and millet stand
And fitches and put them into
One pot and make you bread to chew;
By the number of days that you
Shall lie upon your side in view,
Three hundred ninety days and you
Shall eat of it day and night too.
10 “And your food which you’ll come to eat
Shall be by weight, each day the treat
Of twenty shekels; time to time
You’ll eat a bit as fearing crime.

You serve the minimum of human need
To your prophet and punish him indeed.
The recipe must then contain the seed
Of all nutrition’s secrets in its store.
I read it faithfully and keep the score.
The wheat and barley and the lentils and
The beans and millet with the fitches stand
The perfect recipe of bread to bake.
I take the recipe for my own sake.
Although I may increase the rate I eat,
And have a bit of oil for bitter treat,
And bitter herb as well for vitamin,
I see the recipe in protein’s grin
Is perfect and better than any bin.

11 “You’ll also drink some water there
By measure, sixth of a hin’s share;
From time to time you’ll drink with care.
12 “And you shall eat as barley cakes,
And you shall bake it with the rakes
Of shit that comes out of a man,
And in their sight and by My plan.”
13 And YHWH said “Even so shall sons
Of Israel eat their defiled buns
Among the Gentiles in their runs.”
14 And I said “Ah Lord YHWH! See here,
My soul’s not been an unclean leer
From my youth up to now I’ve not
Eaten what’s dying in the pot,
Or torn to pieces, neither came
Abomination in mouth’s claim.”
15 Then he said to me, “See, I give
You cow’s dung for man’s shit, so live
To make your bread with that in sieve.”
16 And He said to me, “Son of man,
See I will break the staff in span
Of bread here in Jerusalem;
And they shall eat bread like a gem
With care, and drink water by share,
And with astonishment to bear,
17 “That they may lack both bread and drink
And be astonished there to think,
And waste away at their sin’s brink.”

Beloved, I think Your stroke of genius hits
No spot of empathy where my heart sits.
I speak the same hope that Your prophet shares
That I might eat the kosher best of wares.
Polluted is the water and the bread
Of London City and New York outspread
With shit a-plenty where the wealthy fed.
Let those You warn not to destroy the earth
Eat of those balls of shit and suffer dearth.
I hie me to my spring and take the leaf
Of my own garden without fear or grief.
I leave poor prophets to Your hand and care
And kings and occupants to what they share
Of shitty waters and the piss they bear.

EZEKIEL 5

1 And you, son of man, take a knife
As sharp indeed as tongue of wife
Of a barber with razor edge,
And cause it to cut down the hedge
Of hair on your head and your beard,
And weigh the hair, divide the cleared.
2 You’ll burn with fire a third of it
Within the city where you sit,
When the days of the siege are done;
And a third part flay with knife-blade;
And a third part scatter for fun
In the wind, and I’ll draw unstayed
The sword after them in parade.
3 You’ll also take a few hairs out
And wrap them in your cloak about.
4 Then take some of them once again
And throw them in the fire amen,
And burn them, from them shall arise
A fire in all Israel’s house prize.

In Bangladesh the Hindu practice still
Invades Islamic faith and act and will.
They shave the baby’s head of hair and weigh
It to see how much in more alms to pay.
I’m glad to see the practice has a part
In what Your prophet did and said to start
His prophecy before the coarse and art.
And yet I cannot think but innovation
Is the best word for such a confrontation,
And let the heathen mow their own faith down
And strut with it about the flooded town.
I cut my hair at last to root of crown
In Muna without sacrifice to stay
And save the wisps and carry them to weigh.

5 So says the Lord YHWH, “This is that
Jerusalem I’ve set out flat
Among the nations and lands round.
6 “And she has changed My judgements’ ground
To wickedness more than those found
In other nations, and My laws
More than the countries round her claws.
For they’ve refused My judgements and
My statutes not to walk or stand.”

So I was right to make a bucky strike
At innovation before Your word’s spike.
The Muslim’s changed Your verdict and to spare
So has the Rabbi in the things to wear.
And that’s not speaking of the Christian bear
That varnishes the heathen stories there.
Beloved, give me no verdicts of this day
Of Rome’s apostasy and Mecca’s fray.
Give me the verdicts of Your word alone,
Pure and undefiled from before Your throne,
In Abraham’s rejoicing and the book
Of Moses and the heart that David took,
The fount of Christ’s humility and in
Muhammad and Ali’s cup lit within.

7 So says the Lord YHWH, “Because you
Multiplied more than any crew
That are around and about you,
Not walking in My statutes true,
Nor keeping of My judgements due,
But did according to the way
Of nations' judgements round your hay;
8 “That’s why” says the Lord YHWH, “See now,
I, even I against your prow
Will execute judgement on you
In sight of the nations in crew.
9 “And I will do in you what I
Have not done before nor will I
Do any more the like, for why?
Because of all the things you try
In your abominations’ cry.
10 “That’s why the father shall eat sons
Among you, and the sons for buns
Shall eat their fathers; and I’ll lay
Judgement on you and the whole sway
Of those left I’ll scatter away
In all the winds in heaven’s pay.
14 “Wherefore, as I live,” says Lord YHWH,
“Surely because you came to spew
Defilement on My temple too
With all your horrid things in view,
Sacrifices to idols new,
Therefore I will diminish you;
My eye shall not spare nor will I
Take pity on your hew and cry.
12 “A third part of you’ll come to die
With plague and famine be consumed
Among you, and a third part fumed
Shall fall by the sword among you;
And I will scatter to the wind
A third, draw sword after unbinned.
13 “So shall My anger be fulfilled;
And I’ll cause my fury unstilled
On them, and I’ll be comforted;
And they shall know that I am YHWH,
And I have spoken in My due,
When I’ve fulfilled My fury’s hue.
14 “And I shall give you for a waste
And a reproach in nations’ taste
That are around about you here,
In the sight of all that appear.
15 “So it shall be reproach and taunt,
Instruction and astonished vaunt
To all the nations around you,
When I shall execute judgements
On you in wrath and fury too,
In raging rebukes on your tents.
I YHWH have spoken what is due.
16 “In sending evil darts to take
Bread from the mouth and stomach’s sake
Among you appointed in wake
Of your destruction, that I send,
And famine I add to and lend,
And break your staff of bread in stake.
17 “So I’ll send on you famine and
Such evil beasts and grieve your band;
And plague and blood shall pass through you;
And I will bring the sword in view.
I YHWH have spoken, it is true.

The words are his and not Your own, I know
Because what happened then in Israel’s show
Was just a fob in clucket on the go
Compared with genocides that even I
Have seen portrayed beneath a calmer sky.
He had no sense of what things were in store
For human kind, much less on Israel’s shore.
He did not dream the Maccabean fate,
The coming of the Grecian, Roman state.
He dresses Your words in the feeble light
Of primitive in hate, uncouth in spite.
The Bible is a human book I see.
You would have had a clearer spectropy
On eating human flesh of son and wight.

EZEKIEL 6

1 Now the word of YHWH came to me,
Saying: 2 “Son of man, turn and see
Toward the mountains of Israel,
And prophesy against them well,
3 “And say, ‘O hills of Israel,
Hear now the word of the Lord YHWH!’
So says the Lord YHWH to the true
Mountains, to the hills, to the vales,
And to the valleys on their scales,
“Indeed I, even I, will bring
A sword against you, and I’ll fling
Destruction on your high places.
4 “Then your altars shall be like fizz
And desolate, your incense towers
Shall be slashed down, and I will throw
Down those killed among you to show
Before your idols in their bowers.
5 “And I will lay the corpses down,
Corpses of Israel’s sons in town
Before their idols, and I will
Scatter your bones on altars’ hill.
6 “In every place you live the towns
Shall become wastelands for My frowns,
And the high places shall become
A desolation of the dumb,
So that your altars may be laid
In waste and desolation made,
Your idols may be broken and
Made to cease from city and land,
Your incense altars be cut down,
And your works wiped out from the town.
7 “The slain shall fall down where you are,
And you shall know that I’m a star
And YHWH God only near and far.

The Hebrew tense is not of time and so
The future is not sure in come and go.
I rather think I should translate in slow
Regard for the past and the things that show.
To bow before the image of a god
Or mother goddess, though comfort in pod,
Is to become a corpse, a thing that’s dead
In sacrifice unvivified and fled.
I sacrifice myself to You and find
I rise up whole and ready to be dined.
But should I bow to idols in the glow
Of secret or of public retroblow,
I’d rise a moving corpse, the living dread,
The denizen of crypts the Romans bled.

8 “Yet I will leave a remnant, so
You may have some that will not go
Under the sword where nations low,
When you’ll be scattered in the row
Of countries going to and fro.
9 “Those who escape of you shall mind
Me among the nations combined
Where they shall be carried to be
Captives, because I broke the ley
Of their whore’s heart departing Me,
And their eyes which follow the tail
Of idols; and they will loathe their
Own flesh for the evil in share
That they’ve committed on the stair.
10 “And they shall know that I am YHWH,
And have not said in vain I’d do
This evil to them in their view.

Indeed, Beloved, You left some of the crew
To live and suffer in Judean view,
And finally be scattered in all lands
Again by cruel Romans and the hands
Of mercenary soldiers in their bands.
They lived to give their offspring after years
Of pogroms to come under Hitler’s shears.
Reality of history is not
Predicted in the slightest of the taut
And awful verses of the prophet’s lot.
Perhaps You thought the human mind could bear
Only a little of the coming share.
You blinded Yourself and the human race
To what would come in horror and take place.

11 So says the Lord YHWH, “Strike by hand
And stamp with your foot on the land,
And say ‘Also for all the band
Of wicked horrors of the house
Of Israel! For they like grouse
Shall fall by sword and famine too
And by the pestilence in view.’
12 “The one far off shall die beneath
The pestilence come without wreath,
And the one nearby with the sword,
And the one left besieged ungored
Shall die by the famine; so I
Will lay my fury on their sty.
13 “Then you shall know that I am YHWH,
When their slain shall come into view
Among their idols round in crew
Of their altars, on each high hill,
On all the mountaintops to fill,
And under every tree that’s green,
And under every thick oak seen,
The place where they offered incense
Sweet to all their idols’ presence.
14 “So I will stretch out My hand on
Them and make the land empty drawn,
Indeed more desolate than that
Wilderness toward Diblath in flat,
In all their habitations; and
They’ll know that I am YHWH and stand.”

I’ve seen the hills of Edom and the glow
Of sunset in reflection on the show
Of Ammon’s heights, and they looked bare to me.
You stretched Your hand, Beloved, on bush and tree
And made an end of groves with desert spree.
The whole land is converted at a breath
To You alone as God, and yet the death
By hate and gun still stalks the glowing land.
Beloved, You must again take the command.
My heart bleeds too to see the narrow strand
Of hope recede and so I leave a word
Tight folded in an expectation blurred
Caught in the youthful toil in En-Gedi,
The touch of life in Bethlehem’s country.

EZEKIEL 7

1 The word of YHWH came to me saying
2 “And you, son of man, so YHWH’s saying
To the land of Israel waylaying;
An end has come at last upon
The four corners of the land’s spawn.
3 “Now is the end upon you, and
I’ll send My anger down to stand
On you and will judge you by what
You have been doing to the glut,
Avenging the horrors you strut.
4 “And My eye shall not spare, nor will
I have pity; but I will fill
You with the punishment your ways
Deserve, and your horrors in maze
Shall be among you, and you’ll know
That I am YHWH, and I’m not slow.”

The thought that some catastrophe will teach
The people better than a voice to preach
Is just naïve, Beloved, beneath the reach
Of Your divinity and wisdom’s care.
You ought to know the better for Your share.
We have not learned that You are YHWH by right
Of pain and grief upon our homely site.
We did not learn in ages past nor did
We learn it from the Nazis when we hid
Or when sent to the gas without a lid.
You’ll have to find another strategy
If you want to teach people some degree
Of knowing that You’re God of all we see.
The Decalogue in fact does it for me.

5 So says the Lord YHWH, “A bad thing,
A great affliction’s come to sting.
6 “An end has come, come has the end:
It lies in ambush, see its trend.
7 “Here’s come the dawn destroying you,
O you who live on the land’s dew;
Come has the time, the day in view
Filled with trouble is near, it’s true
This time and not rumours on hills.
8 “Soon I’ll pour out My fury’s bills
On you and vent My rage on you:
And I will judge you by your ways;
And recompense your horror’s praise.
9 “My eye shall not spare, neither will
I have pity; I’ll fill the bill
Of punishment to you for what
You’ve done and for your horrors’ glut
Among you, and you’ll know that I
Am YHWH that attacks from the sky.
10 “See the day, see it coming fast;
The morning is now almost past,
The rod has blossomed and the pride
Has budded around every side.
11 “Violence is raised in the rod
Of wickedness; none on the sod
Shall stay of their great multitude;
Nor even any of their brood;
And none shall wail their passing crude.
12 “The time has come, the day draws near;
Let not the buyer rise for cheer,
Nor let the seller mourn for dear;
For wrath’s on all both far and near.
13 “The seller shall not come back to
What has been sold, though still in pew
Of life; for the vision is due
Upon the whole crowd not to come;
Nor shall any rise up to hum
In life’s iniquity for rum.
14 “They’ve blown the trumpet, preparation
Is done, but none goes out to station;
For My wrath’s on all the crowd’s nation.
15 “The sword’s without, and pestilence
And famine within the offence;
The one left in the field shall die
By the sword, and the one to vie
Still in the city shall succumb
To famine and plague’s odium.

I like the way you put the choices given
To humankind upon the earth we live in.
The one left in the field dies by the sword,
The one who takes his refuge in accord
Of city safety succumbs to the fate
Of famine or an epidemic late.
Disease and violence and hunger still
Lie in ambush for almost all who will
Be born before I die. Beloved, I make
A truce with You, if only for Your sake.
No wonder Hellenistic thought is geared
To spiritualize all that we’ve feared,
And made of You, the sole Reality,
A spectre at the harvest of the spree.

16 “But those who do escape shall run,
And be on mountaintops in sun
Like doves of the valleys to mourn,
Each one for wickedness he’s borne.
17 “All hands shall be feeble for scorn,
And all knees weak as water worn.
18 “They’ll clothe themselves in sackcloth, and
Horror shall cover them in band,
And shame shall be on every face,
And baldness on all heads to trace.
19 “They’ll throw their silver in the streets,
And take away their golden treats;
Their silver and their gold shall not
Be able to save them in plot
Of YHWH’s wrath; they shall not remain
To satisfy their souls, in vain
They try to fill their paunch with grain:
Because it is the stumbling block
Of their iniquity in stock.
20 “As for the beauty of his gem,
He set it in majestic hem;
But they made images of their
Abominations and the share
Of their detestable things there;
That’s why I’ve set it far from them.
21 “And I will put it in the hands
Of strangers for a prey’s remands,
And to the wicked of the earth
For a spoil, they shall spoil its worth.
22 “I’ll also turn My face from them,
And they shall spoil My secret gem;
For robbers shall come into it,
And there defile the clean and fit.

It is irrational to think that gold
Can save anyone from the fears that hold
The human heart, the fear of pain and grief,
The fear of death and famine, and belief
That neighbours are out there to steal the store
Of peanut butter horded in the floor.
Gold has just one good quality in it:
It does not spoil but keeps on being fit,
Though fit for what besides the body made
Of mythic images upon parade,
I wot not. Still the crowd is slave and fast
To gold and thinks security at last
Is in the possession of more and more.
Gold is more precious even than the gore.

23 “So make a chain; for the land’s full
Of bloody crimes, the city full
Of violence. 24 “That’s why I bring
The worst of the heathen to spring,
And they shall hold their houses; I
Will also make the pomp to vie
Of the strong to cease; and their holy
Places shall be defiled by lowly.
25 “Destruction comes; and they shall seek
Islam or peace and find no peek.
26 “Mischief shall come on mischief and
Rumour shall be on rumour’s hand;
Then they shall seek prophetic vision;
But law shall perish with derision
From priest and ancient counsel’s stand.”

Indeed the world still seeks Islam or peace,
At least the most part think they do for fleece.
Perhaps Islam’s not found merely because
Sincerity of search is not in claws.
Islam is simply the Qur’an today,
And not a history and culture to slay.
It’s just the recitation of that word
And doing what it says with a heart stirred.
The Qur’an makes criterion of what
You handed to Moses besides the shut
Book of the Torah, the tables of law,
The ten in view of every man with awe.
I lay hold on the Decalogue and know
That Islam lights the way that I should go.

EZEKIEL 8

1 It happened in the sixth year, in
The sixth month and fifth day in bin,
I sat in my house and there too
With me sat Judah’s elders’ crew,
And then the hand of the Lord YHWH
Fell there upon me in their view.
2 And I looked and see it was like
Appearance of the fire to strike;
From the appearance of his waist
And downward, fire; and from his waist
Upward like brightness as in hue
The amber shining in its due.
3 And he stretched out what was like hand,
And took me by the hair to stand;
The spirit lifted me up high
Between the earth, between the sky,
And brought me in great visions to
Jerusalem, to the door to
The inner gate with northern view;
Where was the seat of image due
To jealousy, provoking too.
4 And see glory of Ælohim
Of Israel there, by what did seem
I saw in the valley of dream.
5 Then he said to me, “Son of man,
Lift up your eyes and so to scan
Toward the north.” So I raised up
My eyes to northward like a tup,
And see to northward at the gate
Of the altar this image great
Of jealousy to enter late.
6 And he said to me, “Son of man,
Do you see what they do by plan?
The great abominations that
The house of Israel out flat
Commits here, that I should go far
Away from My temple as star?
But turn again once more and see
Even greater stupidity.”

The flaming visitor came down to show
Ezekiel the vision on the go
Of what defiles Your temple in the show,
The idol, imaged god, that marks the row
Of the cathedral and the church I know.
I’ve seen the idol set up in the church,
I’ve felt its wrath from out the fleshly perch
Where it rules hand and heart and fills the head
With darkness in the way that such are led.
Beloved, I’ve seen the idol motionless
Upon the morning of my own address,
And find it must be emptied daily from
The temple of the heart as well as sum
Of stone and mortar hearing hymns that hum.

7 He brought me to the door of court;
And when I looked, there was a sort
Of hole in the wall. 8 Then he said
To me, “Son of man, dig with dread
Now in the wall.” And when I’d dug
In the wall see a door to plug.
9 And he said to me, “Now go in,
And see the wickedness for sin
That they are doing here to win.”
10 So I went in to see, and there
Was every kind of creeping there,
Beasts horrible, and all the share
Of idols in Israel’s house, and
Inscribed upon the wall to stand.
11 There stood before them seventy men
Of the ancients of Israel’s den,
And in the middle of them stood
Jaazaniah the son of hood
Shaphan, with every man in hand
His censer, and thick incense stand.
12 Then he said to me, “Son of man,
Have you seen what the ancient band
Of Israel’s house do in the dark,
Each man in the chambers in spark
Of his imagination’s lark?
For they say “YHWH does not see us,
YHWH has forsaken omnibus.”

You made the human mind of such contrived
That the part seems the whole when he’s survived
To study universe and everything
That enters in the vision of his wing.
The trinity of subject and object,
The vehicle of perception select
Suggests to minds both dark and to reflect
That threefold in reality is true.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do
Seem to the mind at worship all we can
Understand of the divine in its plan.
It takes humility instead of sense
To accept that Oneness is no pretence
And demands idols be cast from our tents.

13 He also told me, “Turn again,
And you shall see a greater wen.”
14 And he brought me to the gate door
Of YHWH’s house toward the northern shore,
And see there sat women by score
Weeping for Tammuz regimen.
15 And he said to me “Have you seen,
O son of man? Turn round in beam,
And you shall see a greater scheme
Of horrible idolatry.”

Some weep for Hussein in his great distress
To point of idolatry to confess,
And others weep for Jesus on the cross,
An image of Tammuz among the dross
Of Middle Eastern faiths for centuries.
The Tammuz faith is still around to please
The Baptist and the Catholic and tease
The Presbyterian down on his knees.
Beloved, if I were You I would strike down
Idolatry in church as well as crown.
Your patience with the world’s beyond my ken.
I would be more than wrathful in my den.
If flood was not enough one day to quell
The thing, then send down fire to do it well.

16 He brought me in the inner court
Of YHWH’s house, and see there for sport
At the door of YHWH’s temple, there
Between the porch and altar fair,
About twenty-five men, with their
Backs toward YHWH’s temple, and their face
Toward the east; and so apace
They worship the sun in its race.
17 He said to me, “Have you seen this,
O son of man? Is it to miss
In the house of Judah that they
Commit abominations’ sway?
For they have filled the land with grief:
And have come back beyond belief
Provoking Me to wrath; and see,
They put the branch to their nose free.
18 That’s why I’ll deal in My fury;
My eye shall not spare in the spree;
Neither will I return pity;
And though they cry in My ears loud,
Yet I will not regard the crowd.”

I cannot fathom what dark mind it takes
To set aside the Sabbath in the wakes
Of Sunday and then bow to worship You
Toward the Sun and satisfy that cue
And not think that it is idolatry.
On Sunday they worship the crossly tree,
The point of light that Constantine brought out
As Christian Sun worship and without doubt.
Disarmingly the arguments may flow,
But grasping at such rays upon the go
Just adds to wickedness of heart and hand.
Destroy, Beloved, Sun worship from the land.
But at the same time convert Sabbath-keeper
From being such a stinker for a reaper.

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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