ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 8 - 14

ZECHARIAH 8

1 Again the word of YHWH of hosts
Came saying 2 So says YHWH of hosts,
“I was jealous of Zion’s coasts
With a great jealousy, and I
Was jealous for her fury’s cry.”
3 So says YHWH: “I’ve returned at last
To Zion’s fortress and to cast
My dwelling in Jerusalem;
Jerusalem by stratagem
Shall be called a city of truth;
And the mountain of YHWH of hosts,
A mountain both holy and couth.”
4 So says YHWH of hosts: “There shall yet
Old men and old women come get
To inhabit Jerusalem,
Her streets, and every man in hem
With his cane in his hand to let.
5 “And the streets of the town shall be
Full of boys and girls happily
Playing in the streets where they met.”
6 So says YHWH of hosts: “If it be
A marvel for the eyes to see
Of the remnant of this folk in
These days, should it also begin
A marvel in My sight?” says YHWH
Of hosts. 7 So says YHWH of hosts too:
“See, I will bring My people’s crew
From the east country, and from west.
8 “And I will bring them of the best
To inhabit Jerusalem:
And they shall be My folk and gem,
And I will be their Ælohim
In truth and righteousness to beam.”

The streets of old Jerusalem are sweet
And shady in the narrow way they meet.
But they are not much crowded with the feet
Of children playing there. The fine prediction
Is not now fulfilled in the last eviction.
To north and west of wailing wall there were
Some Arab children who used to infer
They had a place to play. But now the town
Is rather filled with tourist sort of gown,
And neither Jew nor Arab come to play
Hopscotch or twinkle-toes in garments gay.
But I trust that the prophecy is sound
And has been sometime fulfilled on the ground,
Or else in future days will come around.

9 So says YHWH of hosts: “Let your hands
Be strong, you that hear in these stands
These words by prophets’ mouth the day
Foundations of the house of YHWH
Of hosts they came about to lay
So temple might be built as due.
18 “For before these days there was no
Hire for man nor for beast in show;
Neither any Shalom for him
Who went out or came in as dim
Because of the affliction’s rate;
For I set all men of each state
Against his neighbour to berate.
11 “But now I’ll not be to the rest
Of this folk as earlier zest,”
Says YHWH of hosts of former nest.
12 “For the seed shall be prosperous;
The vine shall give its fruit in muss,
The ground shall give its own increase,
The skies shall give their dew on fleece;
And I will cause the remnant of
This people to take all in glove.
13 “And it shall happen as you lay
A curse among the heathen way,
O house of Judah, Israel’s too,
So I will appear to save you,
And you shall be a blessing new;
Don’t be afraid, but let your hands
Be strong against the waning bands.”
14 For so says YHWH of hosts,
“I intended to afflict you,
When your ancestors rose in crew
To provoke Me to wrath,” says YHWH,
“And I did not turn from the true.”
15 “So now again I’ve thought these days
To do well to Jerusalem
And to the house of Judah’s gem;
Do not fear but repent your ways.
16 “These are the things that you will do;
Speak every man the truth in view
To his neighbour; and execute
The judgement of truth and recruit
Peace in your gates and not the boot.
17 “Let none of you keep in your heart
Evil imaginings apart
Against your neighbour; do not love
False oaths, for all these things above
I hate,” says YHWH, and from the start.

Peace in the gate could well abide if those
Who look for future building on the rows
Of temple mount might take a look again
And see a temple there built for all men.
Al-Aqsa and the dome of the rock stay
Open for prayer both in the night and day,
And those who wish to praise Your name may come
And prostrate themselves while they gaily hum.
Beloved, I washed my hands and face and feet
In the fountain of ablutions’ retreat,
And peered into the sacred precincts where
The rock is visible for its own share,
And bowed between the red pillars that make
Al-Aqsa beautiful and for Your sake.

18 And the word of YHWH of hosts came
To me, saying 19 So says YHWH’s claim
Of hosts: “The fast of the fourth and
The fast of the fifth month at hand,
And the fast of the seventh too,
And the fast of the tenth in view,
Shall be to house of Judah’s crew
Both joy and gladness, and such feasts
Of good cheer, therefore love the feasts
Of truth and peace as it is due.”
20 So says YHWH of hosts: “there shall come
A folk and city-dwellers rum:
21 “And the inhabitants of one
Town shall go elsewhere on the run,
Saying ‘Let us go fast to pray
Before YHWH and seek YHWH today
Of hosts, I’ll also go my way.’”
22 Indeed, many people and strong
Nations shall come to seek along
YHWH of hosts in Jerusalem,
And pray before YHWH at His hem.
23 So says YHWH of hosts: “In those days
Ten men shall take hold from the ways
Of all the languages of earth,
Take hold of the robe of one worth
Being a Jew, and say ‘We’ll go
With you, for we’ve heard in the show
That Ælohim’s with you below.’”

In Babylon the people stopped to weep
And fast in four months of the year and creep
Out of the dreary dwellings where they wept
And blink in the false sunlight having slept.
They wept for fair Jerusalem in plight
Of ruin and its degradation’s night.
But when the restoration came along
Those months of fasting turning into a song.
No doubt fair Jesus, when he spoke aloud,
That his own did not fast among the crowd
As long as he was there, he meant that he
Was temple enough for the heathen spree.
Today I raise a temple of praise where
David’s Psalms speak to me upon the air.

ZECHARIAH 9

1 The burden of the word of YHWH
In the land of Hadrach’s preview,
And Damascus and suburbs too;
When the eyes of a man as all
The tribes of Israel in the thrall
Of YHWH shall lift up at the call.
2 And Hamath too has borders there;
Tyre and Zidon in wisdom’s share.
3 And Tyre built for herself a strong
Fort and heaped silver all along
As dust, and fine gold as the mire
Of the streets. 4 Behold then desire,
The Lord will cast her out, and He
Will strike her power upon the sea;
And she shall be devoured with fire.
5 Ashkelon will see it and fear;
Gaze also shall see appear
And be in grief, and Ekron too;
For her awaiting in shame’s view;
And the king shall perish from Gaza,
And Ashkelon be empty praiser.
6 A bastard shall live in Ashdod,
And I’ll cut off the pride from sod
Of Philistines. 7 And I will take
Away blood from his mouth in cake,
And his abominations from
Between his teeth; but from the scum
The one who’s left shall be for God,
And he shall be a ruling prod
In Judah and a Jebusite
In Ekron not put out of right.
8 And I will camp around my house
Because of the army to grouse,
Because of those who will pass by,
And because of returner sly;
And no oppressor shall pass through
Them any more, for now in view
I have seen them with my own eye.

That’s the point that I keep coming back to.
Beloved, we need a time now, not in view,
When there shall be no more oppression’s fear,
No more to take by force the fun and gear.
As long as Sabbath is just one day more
To bicker about on the dergah floor,
The law of jungle will appear to rule
Democracy and kingdoms where they grew.
There may be oppression, and so there is,
Where Sabbath is acknowledge in the biz,
But there’s freedom from the oppressor’s hand
Only where Sabbath is held in the land.
A concrete minder must come every week
To show the rights indelible we seek.

9 Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion;
Shout, daughter of Jerusalem:
See, your king comes to you like lion;
He’s just, salvation’s in his hem;
He’s lowly and rides on an ass,
And on the young foal of an ass.
10 I’ll cut the chariot from Ephraim
And the horse from Jerusalem,
And the battle bow shall be broken,
And he shall speak Shalom in token
To the heathen, and his dominion
Shall be from sea to sea in pinion,
And from the river to the end
Of the earth, everywhere a friend.
11 As for you also, by the blood
Of your covenant set in bud
I’ve sent out your captives in all
From the dry pit they’ve been in thrall.

When Matthew wrote about Jesus he thought
This passage proved his messianic plot,
If he could make him ride upon an ass
Or two in fact as a surprise to pass.
Truth is no messianic age of peace
Can be installed by two donkeys’ release.
The donkey is protected by the law
Of Sabbath from the human sort of claw,
But even Rabbis never stop to think
That people too have rights upon the brink
Equal to those of donkeys where they stink.
That’s why they would forbid the Sabbath day
To all but Jews and such as in their sway.
They don’t want to upset the status prey.

12 Turn you to the strong fort and be
Prisoners of your hope to see;
Even today I do declare
I’ll render double to your share.
13 When I have bent Judah for me,
Filled the bow with Ephraim to see,
And raised up your sons, Zion free,
Against your sons, O Greece, to be,
And made you like a soldier’s sword.
14 And YHWH shall appear over-scored,
And His arrows shall fly like flash
Of lightning; and Lord YHWH shall crash
With trumpet sound and shall go out
With the whirlwinds upon the south.
15 YHWH of hosts shall defend them, and
They shall devour subduing band
With sling stones; and they’ll drink and make
A noise as through wine and its sake;
And they shall be filled up like bowls,
As corners of the altar’s tolls.
16 And YHWH their Ælohim shall save
Them in that day as flocks to crave
Of His folk; for they’ll be as stones
Of a crown lifted in signs’ tones
Upon his land. 17 For how great’s His
Goodness and how great beauty’s whiz!
The corn shall joy the young men’s heart,
And new grape juice the maidens’ start.

It’s fine You preach of Your defending hand
And how You save Your people in a band.
Fact is the next year the same raping claw
Comes looming up again and with éclat.
The true salvation’s not that You might see
Your way to intervene upon the spree,
But that all men might understand that You
Are one God of all people in one crew.
The confrontation is inherent in
Perceiving we’re all in a different bin.
One God, one boat contains who cannot swim,
And we’ll all dependent on bright and dim.
The joy will come when there’s no wall between
The Jew, the Christian and Islamic bean.

ZECHARIAH 10

1 Ask of YHWH rain in the due time
Of the late rain; so YHWH makes climb
The bright clouds, and gives showers of rain
To each herb of the field’s domain.
2 For idols just speak vanity,
Divines see a lie and they flee
To false dreams to comfort in vain;
So they go their way like a flock,
Troubled without shepherd or stock.
3 My wrath rose against shepherds, I
Punished the goats, for YHWH of hosts
Descends upon His flock in coasts
Of Judah, and made them rely
As His fine horse at battle cry.
4 Out of him came the corner, out
Of him the nail, out of the rout
The battle bow, out of him all
Oppressors gathered at the wall.

The shepherds and the goats are live and well,
They are the ones who rule the church with spell
Of heathen Trinity and the goats are
The ones who bow before the gracious star
Of Queen of Heaven without a qualm or bar.
Let rise Your wrath, indeed, Beloved, and make
The shepherd and goatfoot in me forsake
The hope of life and enter in the pit
Of doom and destitution where I sit.
Leave in my heart none but the lowly fit
Who will obey Your commandments and so
Attain the love of life and heavenly glow.
Punish the goat in me and mine and bring
The shepherds out upon the fields to sing.

5 And they shall be like mighty men,
That tread down foes in mire again
Upon the streets in battle den;
And they shall fight, because that YHWH
Is with them and the riders too
On horses shall be amazed then.
6 And I will strengthen Judah’s house,
And save Joseph’s house like a mouse,
And I will bring them once again
To place them in My mercy’s glen,
And they shall be as though I’d not
Cast them off; for I’m YHWH their God,
And will hear them cry on the sod.
7 And Ephraim shall be like one bold,
And their heart rejoice as through sold
Grape juice, indeed their children told
Shall see it and be glad as gold;
Their heart shall rejoice in YHWH’s fold.
8 I’ll whistle and summon them in,
For I have redeemed them from sin;
And they shall increase more and more.
9 And I will plant them in the score
Of peoples; and they shall mind Me
In every and in far country;
And they shall live with their offspring
And then return to Me to sing.
10 I’ll bring them again also out
Of Egypt’s land, and turn about
From Assyria; and I will bring
Them into Gilead’s land and spring
Of Lebanon; till there’s no room
Found to contain abundant bloom.
11And he shall pass upon the sea
With his affliction and shall be
Upon the sea waves, all the deep
Of the streams shall dry up and seep;
The pride of Assyria shall be
Brought down and Egypt’s sceptre flee.
12 And I will strengthen them in YHWH,
And they shall walk to and fro too
In His name, and so’s spoken YHWH.

Redemption and the strengthening You give
Come not from heathen sacrifice and sieve,
The fables that to slay an innocent
Beneath the gate will set city and tent
On a hill of success, the fables that
A god-man crucified brings in the fat.
You are redeemer and bringer of grace,
The strengthener of heart and hand and face
By Your name alone in this darkened place.
And so I look to Your name in my hope,
And in my weakness and my narrow scope,
And trust that name alone brings down the true,
The liberty to obey only You,
The melody at last I would dance to.

ZECHARIAH 11

1 Open your doors, O Lebanon,
That fire may consume cedars won.
2 Howl, fir tree; for the cedar’s cut;
The mighty are spoiled to the gut;
Howl, O you oaks of Bashan too;
The wood of vintage come to hew.
3 A voice of shepherds howling, for
Their glory’s spoiled, a voice to roar
Among young lions; for Jordan’s pride
Is spoiled with nothing left to hide.

The sound of howling and of horrid pain
Rises from throat of idolaters’ wain,
The hollow images with golden crust
Before reality have turned to dust.
This hymn against the progress of the race
Rushing into a peace of fabric’s lace
Instead of justice set upon Your law,
Including Sabbath, Your oneness, and straw
Of the non-violent in hand and claw,
Rejoices my heart above every trace
Of hopeful technology in this place.
Beloved, return and build avast and sure
Upon the shore a people right and pure
Who know and love and keep within Your grace.

4 So says YHWH my Ælohim: “Feed
The flock of the slaughter in need.
5 “Whose owners kill them without guilt
Upon their conscience; those who lilt
To sell them say ‘Blessed now be YHWH;
For I am rich, and their own crew
Have no pity on them in pew.’
6 “For I’ll pity no more those who
Inhabit the country,” says YHWH;
“But see, I will deliver men
Each into his own neighbour’s den,
And into the hand of his king;
And they shall strike the land and spring,
And out of their hand I’ll not fling.
7 “And I will feed the flock to slay,
You, O poor of the flock in stray.
And I took to me two staves: one
I called Beauty, the other spun
I called Bands, and I fed the flock.
8 “Three shepherds I cut off in one
Month, and My soul loathed them when done,
And their soul too hated my stock.”
9 Then I said “I will not feed you;
Whoever dies, let him die too;
And the one to be cut off, let
It be cut off, and the rest met
Each one eat the flesh he can get.
10 “And I took my staff, Beauty, and
I cut it in two with my hand,
So I may break my covenant
Made with all the people to rant.
11 “And it was broken in that day;
And so the poor of the flock stray
That waited on me knew that it
Was the word of YHWH that had hit.”
12 “And I said to them, ‘If you think
It good, pay me My price and wink,
If not, forbear.’ So they weighed clink
For my price thirty silvered twink.”
13 And YHWH told me, “Just throw it out
To the potter: a good price stout
That I was priced by them about.”
I took those thirty silver coins
And threw them to the potter’s loins
In the house of YHWH that adjoins.
14 I cut in to my other staff,
Bands, to break the brotherhood in gaff
Between Judah and Israel’s chaff.

The Gospel writer copied from this word
And made the story follow it though blurred.
To do so is no proof at all to bring
Before the eyes of those who come to sing.
You break the three shepherds to take that wit
As something in the ark to make them fit.
You break down Trinity and come at last
Replacing it with the One God and fast.
Beloved, I take hold of the Jesus man
And love him without help or hope to scan,
Not since some word of prophet in good plan
May be applied to him, but because he
Upholds the ten commandments in the spree,
And follows Your word always, faithfully.

15 And YHWH said to me, “Take to you
The vessels of the foolish crew
Of shepherds here before My view.
16 “See, I’ll raise a shepherd here
In the land who shall not appear
To those cut off, neither shall seek
The young, nor heal the broken peak,
Nor feed the one that’s standing still;
But he shall eat flesh of the fat,
And tear their claws in pieces flat.
17 “Woe to the shepherd of false gods
That leaves the flock stumbling on clods!
The sword shall be upon his arm,
And on his right eye to do harm;
His arm shall be clean dried up and
His right eye darkened in the land.”

I take the chalice covered in fine gold,
The paten where they come in prayer to hold
The divine biscuit that is human flesh,
And cast them out once more with curses fresh.
I take the vessels that the folk adore
When held up by the priest upon the floor,
And break them and crush them and bring them out
To mix with the water of those in rout.
Let Moses rage, let Pharaoh even doubt,
Let Aaron cringe, but keep my bright heart stout.
Beloved, let temple vessels in my view
Be nothing more than the words safe and true
Of Your divine book, the one David drew,
The Psalms where I rejoice as well as pout.

ZECHARIAH 12

1 The burden of the word of YHWH
Against Israel. And so says YHWH,
Who stretches out the heavens’ view,
Lays the foundation of the earth,
And forms man’s spirit from his birth:
2 “Indeed, I’ll make Jerusalem
A cup of drunkenness, condemn
All the surrounding folk, when they
Lay siege against Judah in sway
And on Jerusalem for pay.
3 “And it shall happen in that day
That I will make Jerusalem
A very heavy stone in hem
For all nations, all who would heave
Her away will without reprieve
Surely be cut in pieces, though
All nations of the earth shall show
Against her. 4 “In that day,” says YHWH,
“I will strike every horse with due
Astonishment, its rider too
With madness, I’ll open My eyes
On the house of Judah in guise,
And I will smite every horse of
The nations with blindness in glove.
5 “And the rulers of Judah shall
Say in their own heart’s arsenal,
‘The dwellers of Jerusalem
Are my strength in YHWH of hosts’ gem,
Their God.’ 6 “In that day I will make
The rulers of Judah in stake
Like a hearth burning to wood’s grief,
Like a torch of fire in a sheaf,
They shall devour the folk around
On right and left where they are found,
But Jerusalem shall again
Be inhabited by her men,
In her own place, Jerusalem.
7 “YHWH will save first Judah’s tents then,
So that the glory of the hearth
Of David and the glory swarth
Of the inhabitants then found
In Jerusalem shall unbound
Not be greater than of the sound
Of Judah. 8 “In that day YHWH will
Defend the inhabitants still
Of Jerusalem, the one who
Is feeble then among their crew
Shall be like David, and the room
Of David like place of God’s doom,
Like YHWH’s Angel before their bloom.

Who lay oppressed beneath affairs of State,
Held necessary to empires of late,
Are promised a return to house and home,
And to a better thing from which they roam.
Who lay oppressed, whether for guilty stain
Or merely for their innocence and pain,
Receive the promise, ages once again,
And still look out upon a world of men,
In generations beyond golden law
That shackles slaying arm and treading paw.
Beloved, I pray You, though I am the least
That You will lead me into David’s feast
To share his arm and song before the beast
Among a congregation and increased.

9 “It shall be in that day I
Will seek to destroy on the fly
All the nations that come to fight
Against Jerusalem in site.
10 “And I will pour on David’s house
And on inhabitant and spouse
Of Jerusalem spirit of
Grace and supplication in love,
And they will look for My part on
The one whom they have pierced and drawn.
They’ll mourn for him as one mourns for
His only darling, and grieve for
Him as one grieves for a firstborn.
11 “In that day there shall be forlorn
A mourning in Jerusalem,
Like mourning at Hadad Rimmon
In Megiddo’s valley at dawn.
12 “And the land shall mourn, each family
Alone: David’s house’s family
Apart, and their wives set apart,
The family of Nathan’s part
By itself, and apart the spouse,
13 “And family of Levi’s house
By itself, and their wives apart,
Shimei’s family set apart,
And their wives in their solitude,
14 “All the families that remain,
Every family by its feud,
And their wives lonely without gain.

Let me not see, Beloved, the horrid world
With warring banners flying and unfurled
To count the dead by weight and numbers strong,
Let me not see the suffering of the throng.
I would not join You, my Beloved, to share
The agony and anguish of Your care
Who see the wanton destruction of life
That seemed essential to the good of strife
When men went out to war. Beloved, I show
My face to a small part of gore and grow
Faint with my weeping that a child is found
Pierced through and bleeding, fastened to the ground.
Beloved, I cling to Your word once made law,
Do not kill anyone with tooth or claw.

ZECHARIAH 13

1 In that day there shall be a spring
Opened to David’s house and wing
Of dwellers in Jerusalem
For sin and for uncleanness’ hem.
2 “And it shall come to pass that day,”
Says YHWH of hosts, “I’ll cut in sway
The names off that their idols bray
Out of the land, and they no more
Shall be remembered in their score;
And I will also cause to go
Out of the land the unclean show
Of spirit and prophets below.
3 “And it shall happen when any
Shall yet prophesy for a fee,
Then his dad and mum who bore him
Shall say to him without a whim,
‘You shall not live, for you speak lies
In YHWH name;’ and upon his cries
His dad and mum who bore him too
When he predicts will thrust him through.
4 “And it shall come to pass that day,
Prophets shall be ashamed to say
Each one his vision when predicted;
Neither shall they wear when convicted
The rough clothes to deceive the prey.
5 “And he shall say ‘I am no prophet,
I’m just a farmer, none to scoff at;
For I’ve been taught from my youth up
To keep cattle, both sheep and tup.’
6 “And someone will say to him then,
‘What are these marks in your hands’ ken?’
Then he shall answer and reply,
‘I got hurt in my friends’ house, why?’”

Since my David, my sweet, my lovely one,
With ruddy cheeks and shining like the sun,
Went to the shade and left the kingdom won
In hand of his spawn, first to Solomon,
Oppression has ruled all the world for fun.
I’m waiting, my Beloved, and for that day
When David shall stand once more in the sway,
And David’s kingdom, David’s seat again
Shall rule among the remnants of Your men.
The marks upon the hands, indeed, they’re cast
As Jesus’ marks upon the torture mast.
But nothing can atone for now or past.

7 “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
Against the man my fellow leopard,”
Says YHWH of hosts; “and strike the shepherd,
And the sheep shall be scattered, and
I’ll turn my hand on little band.
8 “And it shall happen in the land,”
Says YHWH, “two parts cut off to stand
Shall die, but the third shall be left.
9 “And I will bring the third bereft
Through fire and will refine them still
As silver is refined to fill,
And will try them as gold is tried;
They shall call on My name relied,
And I will hear them; I will say
‘It is My people’ and they’ll say
‘YHWH is my Ælohim today.’”

Though Judaism is a faith long past
Its prime with sinful glittering avast,
And Christianity was fallen from
The day that Constantine took it for rum,
If You mean that Islam is third and great,
Let me tell You how fast they fell from state.
While those who wept washed then the body of
The dead prophet, the others, hand in glove,
Voted their own apostasy in shove,
The fastest of apostasies on earth
From its beginning to the final berth.
So try Your people if You must, but bring
The Ummah from the desert in to sing,
And give them once more David as a king.

ZECHARIAH 14

1 “See a day comes to YHWH and it
Divides your spoil to make you fit.
2 “For I’ll gather all nations down
Against Jerusalem in town
To battle, and the city fall
And houses rifled to the wall,
And women ravished, half the town
Shall go into the captive frown,
And those left of the folk shall not
Be cut off from the city plot.”
3 Then YHWH shall go out and shall fight
Against those nations, as in sight
When He fought in the battle light.
4 And His feet shall stand in that day
Upon the mount of Olives way,
Which is before Jerusalem
On the east and mount Olives’ hem
Shall split down the middle toward
The east and toward the west in hoard,
And there shall be a very great
Valley; and half the mountain’s state
Shall remove to the north and half
Of it toward the south in staff.
5 And you’ll flee to the mountains’ vale;
For mountains’ valleys shall prevail
To reach up to Azal; indeed,
You’ll flee, just as you in your need
Fled from the earthquake in the days
Of Uzziah king of the ways
Of Judah; YHWH my Ælohim
Shall come, all the saints with your beam.
6 And it shall happen on that day,
The light shall not be clear nor stray:
7 But it shall be one day that’s known
To YHWH, not day or night alone;
But it shall come to pass at eve
It shall be light as for reprieve.

It’s not so much Assyrian on the run
That ravishes the women just for fun.
The heathen doctrine caught in Christian dress
Now ravishes the mind in its duress,
And bows the body lower to confess
That Baal and Ashtoreth are here to stay,
The ones to whom every people must pray.
I flee indeed to mountain pass and find
The spires and domes of fainter gods still bind
And ravish all the folk that they make blind.
The dark day is repeated with the sight,
The secular as well as priestly might
Across the graves and squares in their delight
Is cast for substance, though a bitter rind.

8 And it shall come to pass that day
That living streams of waters’ sway
Out from Jerusalem to run;
Half of them toward the former spun
Sea, and half of the to the back;
In summer and in winter’s track.
9 And YHWH shall be king of the earth;
In that day shall be one of worth
YHWH and His name be one, no lack.
10 All the land shall be turned a plain
From Geba to Rimmon in skein,
South of Jerusalem; and it
Shall be lifted up and be fit
For habitation in her place,
From Benjamin’s gate to the trace
Of the first gate, to corner share,
From tower of Hananeel there
As far as the king’s winepress there.
11 And men shall dwell in it, and there
Shall be no more destruction’s share;
Jerusalem shall be safe lair.
12 And this shall be the plague by which
YHWH will strike all the folk in pitch
That have fought Jerusalem’s ditch;
Their flesh shall consume away while
They stand upon their feet in guile,
And their eyes shall consume away
In their holes, and their tongue in prey
Consume away in their mouth’s clay.
13 And it shall come to pass that day,
A great noise from YHWH shall bear sway;
And they shall lay hold every one
On the hand of his neighbour won,
And his hand shall rise up to strike
The hand of his neighbour with spike.
14 Judah also shall come to fight
Jerusalem; and wealth in sight
Of all the heathen round about
Shall be gather together stout
Gold and the silver, and fine clothes,
In great abundance and for woes.
15 And so shall be the plague of horse,
Of mule and camel and of course
Of donkey and of every beast
That shall be in these tents increased
As this plague that shall be released.

Shall You be king of earth, Beloved? If You
Are as good a king as the one in view,
My David, my sweet David, good and true,
Then come, come sit upon the earthly throne,
And I shall obey You and You alone.
But if You fail to life to the ideal
Attained by David against woe and weal,
Then out, Beloved, out and let David in
To deal with all injustices and sin.
I do not doubt Your goodness in the least,
That is established by the word increased
Of Your commandments. But You’ve yet to show
That You can deal with evil in the row,
That You can better stand in David’s glow.

16 And it shall happen, every one
That’s left of all the nations spun
That came against Jerusalem
Shall even go up in the hem
From year to year to worship there
The King, YHWH of hosts and keep share
In feast of tabernacles care.
17 And it shall be, whoever will
Not come up of earth’s clans to fill
Jerusalem and worship King,
YHWH of hosts, even on their wing
Shall be no rain or anything.
18 If clan of Egypt does not go
And does not come to meet the show
Without rain, there shall be a plague,
Whereby YHWH will strike heathen vague
Who do not come to keep the feast
Of tabernacles there at least.
19 This shall be Egypt’s punishment,
And that of all nations once sent
That do not go up to the feast
Of tabernacles there increased.
20 In that day there’ll be on the bells
Of horses Holy to YHWH spells;
And the pots in YHWH’s house shall be
Like bowls before the altar wee.
21 Every pot in Jerusalem
And in Judah of holy gem
To YHWH of hosts; and all who give
Sacrifices shall come and live
To take them and seethe in them, and
In that day there shall come to stand
No more the Canaanite in boasts
In the temple of YHWH of hosts.

The temple is not brick and stone and wood,
It is instead the crown that David should
Raise in the cantillation of Your praise.
The feast of tabernacles I would raise
Is not the gathering on doubtful days,
But the heart raised after the judgement spent
In songs of David and Psalmodic tent.
Let Canaanite hymn fail, let rock and roll
That bides the churchly worship on the dole
Lie vacant and abhorred, while David’s toll
Is resurrected from degraded pent.
Beloved, the sacrifices of Your songs
Lisped by the boy David against all wrongs
Again inspires and strengthens, so relent.

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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