MALACHI CHAPTER 1 - 4

BOOK OF MALACHI

The last book of the Hebrew Bible shows
That after all the plagues laid out in rows,
And after the captivity and yet
After the temple was rebuilt and set,
The truth is nothing changes in the way
The human hearts goes after evil sway.
The second temple brought the greatest sound
Of glory music that’s every been found,
The inspiration of the liturgy
Of power and justice without Trinity,
And still the folk fell into avarice,
And factions to seduce the Grecian bliss.
Today I stand upon the bickered brink
Of the same world writ large, is what I think.

I mind the law of Moses that was spoken
On Sinai for eternity, not token
Of what a band of slaves and fugitives
Ought to do with their time while Moses lives.
I mind the message of Elijah taught,
Not to bow down to Baalim when they’re sought
By priest and king and church. I mind the threat
Of judgement on the earth that’s not come yet.
And in my minding, I read on to find
That he’ll turn hearts of fathers to their kind,
And children to their parents, so to keep
Commandment with its promise not to sleep
A death too soon on earth. I see the way
That families are waiting for that day.

MALACHI 1

1 The burden of the word of YHWH
To Israel by Malachi’s due.
2 “I have loved you,” says YHWH. “Yet you
Say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’
Esau’s not Jacob’s brother buss?”
Says YHWH. “Yet Jacob I’ve loved better,
3 But Esau I’ve hated, abettor,
And laid waste his mountains and his
Heirloom where desert jackal is.”
4 Even though Edom has said, “We
Have been impoverished, but we
Will return and build desolate
Places,” So says YHWH of hosts great,
“They may build, but I will throw down,
They shall be called a wicked frown,
And people against whom YHWH will
Always have indignation’s ill.
5 Your eyes shall see, and you shall say,
‘YHWH’s great beyond Israel’s sway.’

Destroy in me the cities and their walls,
The jackals and whatever spirit calls
To idol glories in the place of You.
I may be son of Jacob, Esau, true,
Or son of neither, yet I stop to pray
To You who are God of both earth and day.
I make no claim to Your love in my place,
I make no claim of worth before Your face.
Love whom You will, and bless the worthy race,
While I bring no demand for curse or grace.
It is enough to feel both cold and heat,
It is enough to taste the sour and sweet.
It is enough I’m made to love Your way,
Though I can only twitch my tail and bray.

6 “A son honours his father, and
A servant his master’s command.
If then I am the Father, Where
Is My honour? And if I swear
To be a Master, where is My
Reverence?” Says YHWH of hosts by
“You priests who despise My name. Yet
You say, ‘How have we set
Your name in disgrace and regret?’

Your revelation, my Beloved, is sent
In human words and lovely to prevent
The claim that humankind has not the breath
To understand Your glories before death.
And yet the words, though human, cannot fail
To make ambiguous the royal mail.
You are, Beloved, a Father, yet You take
No wife, nor son nor daughter in her wake.
You are, Beloved, a Master without whip,
Without an arm akimbo on your hip.
You are One without honour and unseen,
And without worldly reverence. Intervene
That I may not despise Your noble name,
Who call You Father, Master, just the same.

7 “You offer filthy food upon
My altar and say ‘What’s the con,
And how have we polluted You?’
By that you mean table of YHWH
Is contemptible from your pew.
8 “If you give the blind for offering,
It that not just a wicked thing?
And if you offer lame and sick,
It that not still an evil trick?
Give it as gift to ruler’s hand
And see if he’ll be pleased to stand
And welcome you,” says YHWH of hosts
Before your empty words and boasts.

I am the slaughtered lamb upon the floor,
The gallows swings, the throat is open gore.
Do you accept as sacrifice today
The blind and lame and sick? I go astray
To offer you the only heart I know,
Though blind it is the whole of my trousseau.
If I lay on Your altar a vain gift,
Know that it is my all I want to lift
To You, Beloved, not just the fine and good,
Not just my gold, but also straw and wood.
Take up my bleeding self and cast it out,
Replace it with Your Self, and turn about.
I bring both good and evil to Your hand
And save not anything to reprimand.*

9 I ask you now, pray Ælohim
To be gracious to us, I deem
This has been your fault. Will He make
Acceptance for your persons’ sake?
So says YHWH of hosts at your stake.
10 “Who among you would shut the door
Without a reason in the store?
Neither do you kindle the light
On My altar with naught in sight.
So I have no pleasure in you,”
Says YHWH of hosts, “Neither will I
Accept an offering you set by.
11 For from the rising of the sun
Until its going down is won
My name for greatness and among
The Gentiles where it shall be sung
In every place and incense brought
In offering to My name unsought
And a pure offering, for My name
Among the heathen shall gain fame,”
Says YHWH of hosts and without blame.

I thank You that You deign to take the gift
Of Gentile Christians as they come to lift
Their incense cloud before iconograph,
And thank You if You do not stop to laugh.
I thank you that You bend to smell the sweet
Perfume the Muslims place on hands and feet
To prostrate in each mosque beneath a dome.
I thank You that You hear the prayer at home
Where I, outcast by Jew and Gentile, wait.
I thank You that You meet me at the gate.
But that the universe may become true
I pray that You accept also the Jew.
In one all humankind, in love or sin,
Breathe but Your name, Beloved, take us all in.

12 “But you’ve profaned it when you say
YHWH’s table is polluted way,
And its fruit and its meat agley.
13 “You also said ‘See how it’s boring’
And you’ve snuffed it out by ignoring,”
Says YHWH of hosts; “and you have brought
Torn offerings and lame, sick and sot;
That’s how you brought your gifts on cue.
Should I accept your hand?” says YHWH.
14 “And cursed is a deceiver, who
Has in his flock a male one too,
And vows and sacrifices it
Corrupted to the Lord as fit;
For I’m a great King here to sit,”
Says YHWH of hosts, “My name of dread
Is known among the heathen led.”

Who says to say Your name in repetition
Is weariness of soul has the tuition
Of other forms of oral prophecy.
Too bored to say Allah for Trinity,
Or Huu instead of making sacrifice
Of bread and wine in cannibal device,
Too bored seeks music amplified beyond
The bounds of sanity. You don’t respond.
I turn from Baal and Ashtoreth in fear,
Not of the throbbing rhythms that I hear,
But of the glories that come in Your name,
And blush that humans stir without a shame.
I turn from loud illusion and its airs
To climb the shining and the tinkling stairs.

MALACHI 2

1 “And now, O priests, here’s your command.
2 If you’ll not hear and lay to hand,
To give glory to My name, then,”
Says YHWH of hosts, “I’ll send again
A curse on you, and I will curse
Your blessing; indeed, I do worse
Already, since you do not pay
Attention to the things I say.

Beloved, there are times in the week when I
Remember to take Your name and comply,
And cantillate the Hebrew words on high,
Your word and name as the breaths counterlie.
Beloved, there are times in the day when by
The confrontation of a choice I take
Obedience to You for my own sake,
And do the things You say when I’m awake.
Beloved, You too have cantillation rare,
The things to take in blessing on the air
And those who take in curses when You swear.
Take my name too, as I take Yours today,
And in remembrance let us whirl away,
And in remembrance let us go, not stay.

3 “See, I’ll corrupt your seed and spread
Shit on your faces, excrements
On your solemn feasts and presents;
And you’ll be taken from your tents.
4 “And you will know that I have sent
This commandment to you unbent,
That My pact might be with Levi,”
Says YHWH of hosts beneath the sky.

Beloved, I really hate the things You say.
Politically correct is not Your way.
Of course I understand that You are God,
And therefore are not bound upon the sod
By the same rules as I, both in my speech
And in the things I have a right to reach.
But still You ought to clean up Your foul talk,
It’s not a think to balk at or to squawk.
There are some sweet Christians who do not hear
Beyond the crunch of swearing in the ear,
And might think You are rude and mal élevé
When they hear You repeat the prophet’s pay.
Leave excremental features from Your sermon,
And John and Jack and Jill will praise Your vermin.

5 “My covenant was with him for
Life and for Islam’s peace and more;
And I gave them to him for fear
By which he feared me, to appear
In reverence before My name.
6 “The law of truth was in his claim,
No wickedness was found for shame
In his lips; he walked with me in
Shalom and justice without sin
And did not turn many away
From iniquity and to stray.
7 “For the priest’s lips keep knowledge, and
They should seek the law at his hand;
For he’s angel of YHWH of hosts.
8 “But you went out of the right coasts,
You’ve caused many to stumble at
The law; you’ve corrupted the bat
Of Levi’s covenant like cat,”
Says YHWH of hosts after all that.
9 “That’s why I also have made you
Contemptible and base in view
Of all people, according to
The way you have not kept My ways,
Choosing from the law for your praise.”

Beloved, I love Your law and I repeat
Its sweet words in Hebrew in every meet
Place that I walk and whirl, both in the street
And on the shaded paths beneath the trees
That hide my house from drunks and other sleeze.
Beloved, I love Your law and I confess
Its melodies no matter how I dress,
And take its deep commandments and relate
Each one to what I do as well as state.
For doing is the proof of pudding’s taste,
And I wish to eat all and leave no waste.
And so I recite every word and touch
The act as well as singing with my crutch.
Beloved, I hear, recite and do in haste.

10 Have we not all one father here?
Has not one Ælohim to steer
Created us? Why do we deal
In treachery and show the heel,
Profaning the pact that once made
Our ancestors the time they prayed?
11 Judah has dealt in treachery,
Abomination done in fee
In Israel, Jerusalem;
For Judah’s profaned holy gem
Of YHWH, whom He loved, and went out
And married the daughter in rout
Of a strange god and took in hem.

Beloved, indeed I married one of tongue
Strange and unknown to me when I was young.
But she was not the daughter of strange god,
In fact our families were of one pod.
Her mother was apostle to the Lapps,
My great-grandfather, horse and buggy flaps
Full speed, went out each day to sell the same
Books to the people to warn of the flame.
Beloved, hardly could I find closer mate
And further from a strange god to relate,
And still today we hear the word and true
And follow in that worthy faith that You
In grace imparted to ancestors’ heart:
The faith to do each day commandments’ part.

12 YHWH will cut off the man to do
This, the master and scribe in crew,
Out of the tents of Jacob too,
And the one that offers a gift
To YHWH of hosts with such a rift.
13 And this you’ve done again to shed
Upon the altar of YHWH’s dread
Tears, weeping crying out, that He
Does not regard your offering’s fee,
Or take it with good will in hand.
14 Yet you say “Why?” Just because YHWH
Has been a witness between you
And the wife of your youth to whom
You have been traitor, yet in bloom
She’s your companion and the wife
Of your covenant and your life.
15 Did He not establish the one?
Still He has the rest of the gun
Upon His mind. And why just one?
So that He might seek out a seed
Of godliness instead of greed.
So take heed to your attitude,
And let no one deal with the brood
In treachery against the wife
Of his youth or then meet the knife.
16 For YHWH, the God of Israel,
Says he that hates dividing spell,
For one hides violence with cloak,
Says YHWH of hosts, so take heed’s stroke
To your own attitude and not
To deal a traitor in the plot.
17 You make YHWH tired to hear your words.
And still you say “What harm in turds?”
When you say “Every one that makes
Evil in wickedness’ mistakes
Is good in the sight of YHWH, and
He delights in them,” or in band
“Where does God of judgement now stand?”

Beloved, no doubt You are tired of my speech,
The words that tumble constantly to preach
To You of Your own law as though a peach.
If You are the spouse of the faithful few,
You ought to know the art of listening too.
The spouse repeats the same song every day,
And only love keep boredom from its ray.
Beloved, do not be tired to hear me pray
Each morning and each evening in the sway
Of ecstasies to see Your sun appear,
Astonished by the moon’s visage as sheer
And silver with the lovely light of myth
Come true where You’re enthroned by kin and kith.
Boredom is the bane of the insincere.

MALACHI 3

1 “Indeed, I send My messenger,
And he’ll prepare My way to stir.
And the Lord, whom you seek, will come
All of a sudden to the hum
Of His temple, the angel too
Of the covenant, in whom you
Delight, and he’s coming,” says YHWH
Of hosts. 2 “But who can stand the view
Of the day of His coming true?
And who can stand when He appears?
For He’s like a refiner’s fears
Of fire, and like washerman’s soap.
3 “He’ll sit as a refiner’s hope
And tester of silver, he’ll clean
The sons of Levi, purge their spleen
As gold and silver, that they may
Offer to YHWH an offering’s sway
In righteousness and justice’ way.

I guess there still are sons of Levi there,
The people name Cohen still hold that share,
If all be not a myth and legend bare.
But what is not is the fair temple wrought,
Unless we take, as perhaps should, the lot
Of the dome of the rock, the golden dome
As temple for all people after Rome.
Jesus they say stood on the very spot,
And so did good Muhammad in the plot
Of ecstasy, caught up to heaven to see
The lion of the tribe of Judah wee.
Whoever is the angel that was sent
In name of covenant comes out to vent
Perhaps, but the newsmen forget his bent.

4 “Then the offering of Judah and
Jerusalem will come to stand
As pleasant to YHWH, as in days
Of old, in former years of praise.
5 “And I will come near you to judge,
I’ll be a swift witness to budge
Against the sorcerers, and more
Against adulterers in store,
Against perjurers, against those
Who exploit wage earners, widows
And orphans, also against those
Who turn away an alien,
Because they do not fear My den,”
Says YHWH of hosts. 6 “For I am YHWH,
I do not change, and that’s why you
Are not consumed, sons of Jacob.
7 “Yet from days of your fathers' hub
You’ve gone away from what I said,
And have not kept statutes I led.
Return to Me, and I’ll return
To you,” Says YHWH of hosts and true.
“But you said, ‘In what way to do
Shall we return?’ 8 “Will a man rob
Ælohim? Yet you have robbed My cob!
But you say, ‘In what way have we
Robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings fee.

I’d like to know, Beloved, to whom we owe
The tithes and offerings of the wheat we sow
And in which year, and who can count and know?
You can’t pay tithes unless you farm the land,
And not without a calendar in hand.
But land’s not mine, nor is the count of years.
The almanacs are all turned in arrears.
So how can I rob You, Beloved, when You
Do not reveal to me the days as true?
I only know the Sabbath day unrent,
And so I bring its offering as unspent,
The double lamb upon the cringing sod,
The double love of single soul to God,
The life and hope of all that You have lent.

9 “You are cursed with a curse, for you
Have robbed Me, this whole folk, of due.
10 Bring all the tithes now then into
The storehouse, that there may be bread
I My house, and try Me as led,”
Says YHWH of hosts, “If I will not
Open for you the windows’ slot
Of heaven and pour you out such blessing
That there’ll not be room for assessing.
11 “And I will rebuke the insect pest
For your sakes, so he’ll not invest
Destroying the fruit of your ground,
Nor shall the vine fail to bear sound
Fruit for you in the field,” Says YHWH
Of hosts, 12 “And all nations too
Will call you blessed, for you will be
A land delightful,” Says YHWH of
Hosts. 13 “Your words have been without love
To Me,” Says YHWH, “And yet you say,
‘What have we spoken out of way?’
14 You have said, ‘It’s useless to serve
Ælohim, what profit’s to swerve
And keep His ordinance, and toasts
As mourners before YHWH of hosts?
15 So now we call the proud ones blessed,
For those who do wickedness best
Are praised; those tempting God go free.’”
16 Those who feared YHWH spoke each to each,
And YHWH listened and heard their reach,
So a book of remembrance writ
Before Him for those who would sit
In fear of YHWH, recite His name.
17 “They shall be Mine,” says YHWH of hosts,
“On the day that I lay my claim
To My gems. And I’ll spare them then
As a man spares his son again
Who serves him.” 18 Then you shall again
Distinguish between righteous men
And wicked, between one who serves
Ælohim and the one that swerves.

Discrimination is not right, it seems,
To those politically correct, whose dreams
Require that all things in this world are right
And equally so, but such souls in night
Who disagree. Beloved, You would discern
Between the ones who serve You, what they earn,
And those who are politically correct.
And so You make Your way here to select
Among souls by their vision and behaviour.
Stay hidden or You will Yourself need Saviour
From gendarmerie out to pick up the ones
Who make distinction between loyal sons
And bastard Sufis bent on gaining ground
By progress on and upward from Your sound.

MALACHI 4

1 “For indeed, the day’s coming fast,
Burning like an oven to last,
And all the proud, yea, all that do
Wickedness will be stubble’s crew.
And the day that comes shall consume
Them,” Says YHWH of hosts to their doom,
“That will leave them nor root nor branch.
2 But to you My name fearing blanch
The Sun of righteousness shall rise
With healing in His wings apprise,
And you shall go out and grow fat
Like calves fed in the stalls that sat.
3 You shall tread down the wicked crew,
For they shall be ashes in stew
Under the soles of your feet too
On the day that this thing I do,”
Says YHWH of hosts from where He’s at.
4 “Remember the Law of Moses,
My servant, which I did not miss
Commanding him in Horeb’s mount
For all of Israel to count
Statutes and judgements. 5 Indeed, I
Will send you Elijah the by
That prophet before coming of
The great and dreadful day above
Of YHWH. 6 And he will turn the hearts
Of the fathers to children’s parts,
And the hearts of the children to
Their fathers, lest I come with rue
And smite the earth with a curse due.”

Remember law of Moses, so I do,
Beloved, in every sema read anew.
Remember law of Moses, and zekor
The statutes glowing in the signs before
The shimmering songs that David one time sang.
I never hear them without rush and pang.
Remembering law of Moses, truly You
Dwell in the tents of Moses and the clang
Of cantillating on the Sabbath light.
Beloved, I come to You remembering
The law of Moses, and still come to sing
The Psalms of David, the Qur’an in swing,
The Gospel loves and joys in my looking.
In all remembering I find You bright.

So ends the Torah or Tawrat,
As well as Zabur or the plot
Of David’s Psalms and writings that
Support his reign. Two great truths show
From these two sacred books in row:
The Decalogue is the foundation
Of every sort of faith and nation,
And David is the king of time
Past as well as of future climb
If resurrection comes to set
Eternal kingdom, a sure bet.
Two more books support divine law
In Decalogue instead of claw,
And the same books repeat with awe
The prophecy that David’s reign
Is an eternal one as fane.
These are the books to which I turn
Now with ignited faith to burn
In heart with love, and not to spurn
Either the Gospel or Injil
Or the Qur’an upon its heel.
But those two books must both be read
To conform to the doctrine spread
In the Tanakh, or else they’re false,
Leading astray in dance and waltz.
Here ends the great Scripture, but I
Now turn to lesser ones to fly,
Such books as came to bring reform,
To take the hearer back from storm
Into the faith of Abraham,
The faith of Moses and the lamb,
The faith eternal of the King
David who rises still to sing
With those few who remain in ring
To cantillate the Psalms at last
Sabbath by Sabbath though outcast.

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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