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Chapter 1
THE burden of the word of the LORD which came unto John the son of Kathryn, the daughter of Jacob and Messiah’s Light, the son of Karl Hirsch, the son of Abraham, the son of Hillel, when the LORD first drew him out from the nations and inclined his spirit to seek after the LORD. It first came when he was about 30 years of age, saying expressly: “Thou shalt surely be my witness to Israel.”
The very beginning sets the stage properly: this is the burden of the word of the LORD. As such it is not the prophet’s personal interpretation or deductions that are being presented. “Burden” by ancient Jewish meaning (and modern) means the gist, weight, crux, the whole meaning of what the LORD is declaring. Hebrew heritage is stated, obviously following mother’s lineage. This is significant, for although the father’s heritage is Jewish the mother was the true believer and not just a descendent of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In all the 73 chapters of the book, this is the only place where “expressly” is used in conveyance of the word of the LORD, indicating perhaps this is the sum total calling of the prophet in a nutshell.
But the prophet wrestled at the word of the LORD, and the LORD would not have it inscribed, For it is not yet time that I cry out, that I rend and that I devour; that I heal and that I say Restore. So it was laid to heart.
“Wrestle” indicates the uncertainty of the prophet to be a prophet-- perhaps his disbelief that he was being chosen-- a personal desire not to be a prophet; plain and simple: reluctance. We must assume a certain education on his part in Jewish biblical history and thus knowledge of the fate of many prophets. A testing and molding period is now being conveyed in which the prophet is drawn and prepared.
It came again in his 37th year. See, I have molded thee. I have given thee pain, and I have given thee fear. I have given thee loss and death, and a burning heart. None can quench what the LORD causeth to burn. Lay it to heart.
Refers to unknown things that happened in the prophet’s life. It is fruitless to resist. The gentle hand of the LORD continued to ignite his heart. The calling can never be quenched. “Lay it to heart.” Seven years of preparation. Noting the year in his life in which this came indicates a significant statement appropriate to be placed in the first chapter. It does not imply gaps, as chapter 2 is evident. Utterances came to the prophet that were simply not written down, but apparently rehearsed mentally.
And in his 38th year, which was 5,764, it came as a flood. Inscribe it now, what I have laid in thine heart, and what I shall put from henceforth into thy heart, for it is time that I cry out. And publish thou it abroad at the time of thy turning 40, for thou shalt serve me in thine old age. For it is time that I plow up and that I plant, that I cause to wax young that which hath waxed old; that which is buried I reveal unto light, and that which is I pull up and bury.
In this one paragraph alone there is so much, especially in the last sentence, it is hard to write a compact pesher on it. The tempo of the future is set: plow up and plant. To turn over an old era and establish a new era. Not just an upheaval within an era, but a whole new age. A temple era might be in view, implied by what has become old and tired will be rejuvenated, a massive reformation both in terms of worship and hearts and spirits. The mindsets and traditions that have come about in the diaspora will be forgotten and in place there will be the work of the LORD. This is the first utterance to carry the connotation a timeline will be given, for the prophet is to be 40 years old. The moment of the proclamation beginning in 2006 is crucial in light of the next paragraph:
Cry out, cry out in the name of the LORD: Destruction and upheaval! Plowing and planting, turning over and deep furrows, the banks thereof without footing. Heavy rains and mud, and the furrows shall be filled, and the line shall grow. I shall fence it in, and I shall reset the hinges of my gate.
Symbolism is clearly setting the tenor of what is to come. Jeremiah was also given the call to cry out destruction and upheaval and it meant a very literal upheaval. The future upheavals will be key in directing the seed into the furrows and keeping them there. Without footing they cannot get out. covered in earth, a new vineyard grows as the LORD planted it, and he shall rebuild his gates and fence it in to protect it. Times of upheaval also turn people to God, but in this case God is especially directing the children of Israel to the furrows he shall dig by calamity in the field he intends to plant and protect them in.
And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Behold now in the dusk vision, a great caldron set upon broken desert ground. What doeth it? And I said, “It pitcheth ’round, as on a whirligig, and doth not steady, but the water slosheth at every point of the brim.”
So bring I upon the Earth at every quarter, convulsion and upheaval, dismay, a setting on edge, fumes and smoke and a steamy vapour. As the water feedeth the desert from tumult, so shall old seed sprout from upheaval. Publish it abroad. Fear not, for I shall put the fear of thee on mine enemies, and at the time appointed I shall give thee the heart not of a rabbit but of a lion. At my word they shall have confusion of face, for, lo, I have not spoken by prophet since days of old.
The scope is set. The vision is not careless: a dusk vision -- the ending of the age-- the caldron is the earth seething in its ways. Upheaval has set it spinning erratically, and from within this upheaval a dry, old earth is being watered so that the “old seed” long waiting will sprout forth. There was obviously much to the prophet’s wrestling at the word of the LORD that we will not know and it is not necessary that we do. The last sentences perhaps are meant to allay the fears. “Confusion of face” means an initial reaction neither good nor bad but one of care and uncertainty. Has God spoken? What should we do?
(But the prophet wrestled again) And I said: Why should they, O my Lord, hearken unto me, seeing I was not raised after the manner of my fathers, nor in the ways of my mothers? —Seeing also that thou hast not raised up a prophet unto this thy people for so long. Why should it be me?
Part of the prophet’s concern is given: Though Jewish he was apparently not raised in a traditionally Jewish manner (although he does use Yiddish). As a Nazarene he may have been raised in a Christian manner or cultural Gentile manner. As paragraph 1 indicates, he was called out of this. Traditional Christianity taught a Gentilizing of Jews that converted. This is being taught against here. God has drawn him out of the nations and inclined his heart to seek after the substance of God’s truth. God does not justify himself or cajole anyone. A sharp reply sends him on his way with some of the best assurance given a prophet:
And the LORD said: Away, get thee to thy task, for I shall be with thee; and who can prevail against thee? seeing I am a hawk upon thy shoulder and a falcon unhooded against its prey. Whom I call, I shall call, and whose feet I shall place upon the path before me, I shall send before me. Away, son of Isaac, get thee to thy people and declare thou mine heart, what I have placed in thine heart.
God asserts his sovereignty and the zeal with which he shall accomplish all that will be declared hereafter. The prophecies begin.
Chapter
2
THE word of the LORD which first came unto Jachanan ben Kathryn in the year 5,755 (1995) concerning the Holy Place (Temple).
Thus saith the LORD, Do I not see Israel gather and wail at the wall? My spirit goeth forth within the land and every man’s heart is turned toward Jerusalem in lament. Is it not the heart of Israel?
Look upon this stone wall, if thou canst bear it. Listen to them bleat. Look at them bow themselves again and again and with their parted books recite vain words.
See the concourse of stone as I see it, if thou canst bear the sight. Behold, I, even I, saith the LORD, do see the heart of Israel. The concourse of stone is potted and etched and doth not have the appearance of vigour and hath no similitude unto what it was when it was cut true and polished smooth.
Beyond it are the promenades of free living cats, and the birds of centuries have cast their dung upon it, and beyond this there is the house of a god which is no god. Yea, have I seen the heart of Israel. Well do they call this place their heart.
The duel meaning is pretty clear already: Israel’s heart, symbolized by the ruined Mount Moriah, is completely decayed and no longer even a fragment of what it was. It is here that they worship, at a fantasized image perhaps. the reality is not so pleasant. God affirms that just because a building is on Moriah it is not his house. The Dome of the Rock is not the house of God and the Allah it celebrates is not the living God.
Therefore tread upon this people’s heart, and say unto them:
Thus saith the LORD God, Thine heart is even as this stone, and beareth no resemblance to what it was. Within it is filth and brambles, unclean things and a place for birds to waste, and in its center are thine own imaginations. Thine idols are loathsome to me; thine imaginations are crudely formed and have no beauty.
My spirit hath perceived, yea, mine eyes have beheld; therefore my right hand is stretched forth to make the days, even the days that shall come, saith the LORD Almighty, that I shall build again the wasteland of David and restore unto thee thine heart. Even I shall do this.
A duel meaning seems clear again: Despite the spiritual depravity of Israel, God will bring a great awakening. He shall rebuild Israel as a temple, and the heart of the people shall be purified.
Such days as this thou hast not seen in all thy generations since, nor hath ear heard the gentle comfort of God from the far places of thy dispersion. These days have been the days of thine enslavement, and within these days the multitude of thy woundings have wedged thee into the cleft of the rock and sunk thine head between thy knees in weeping. The days that come shall be the days of thine astonishment, the days of thy setting free from thy yokes, from thy sore travail and thy caged heart. For thou art in bondage without me. No matter where thou shouldest dwell, affliction is thy neighbour; desolation is thy mother.
Since the temple was destroyed in 70 AD we have had no word from God. Rabbis have built up strange justifications, new gezeirahs and minhags are sanctified, but God has still left us to our sojourn.
Thou couldest see only flesh, O daughter of Zion. Goodly flesh and skin like alabaster thou beheldst with pleasure, but mine honour thou couldest not touch. Blood issued forth glory, but thou only hissedst.
Thine eyes were cast to thy handsome men. Their comely features led thee to destruction, and thou wentest cheerfully enough.
There they left thee, in the wilderness of thy desolation they caused thee to dwell. In the shadow of darkness thou foundest solitude, and thou soughtest to thyself no light.
Thou hidst thy shame in the clefts of the rocks, and amongst the scorpions thou learnst a new thing: a coarse temperament was thy way; and thy feet walked upon the hot and sharp rocks. Thy soft skin became calloused; thine heart became old.
There I would not approach thee. What doth desolation have to do with me, saith the LORD? Let thy lovers console thee. Thou art a hissing to me.
Our sojourn is recited. We, typified by the daughter of Zion (used here as Israel in general rather than Jerusalem) rejected God, denied he walked among us. We were left to our fate. We went where our feet led us.
Chapter
3
AND in the 38th year the word of the LORD moreover came unto me, saying, Behold, it is time to cry out, to lift up my voice as a slash of lightning teareth the sky with its thunder. I am a flood upon thee. My word shall be a tempest upon the Earth. I cry out. I proclaim from on high:
Hear ye one and all the word of the LORD, O ye nations and thou house of backsliding: I withhold not anymore. As a hand hitting the forehead I cause the whole Earth to stop astonied, to gape, and to stutter.
Shall I make mankind to multiply on the Earth, only for firebrands for the furnace? Behold, saith the LORD, it shall never be. I shall never let that it should be shut up. Nor shall I bring forth man as the fowls, only to stamp my feet to cause them to fly into the fowler’s net.
Behold, saith the LORD, the nations are my kingdom and Israel is mine house. I shall return from setting my borders and from building me far cities. I shall sweep out mine house of the dust and the webs that grow only upon quiescence; and I prune the brambles about my garden. I shall remove the shutters, and let the light in. Yea, the very fine scent of jasmine and mandrakes shall fill mine house.
I shall reset my table and replace my candlestick, and I shall light the way by day and by night to all those of my kingdom, near and far, who shall come to do obeisance before the LORD of hosts.
The restoring of both the Temple and the reformation of Israel is elaborated on in several subtle ways. Not only is he speaking through prophets again, thus guiding Israel for the future, but by his actions he will cause the earth to be astonished by his turning of Israel.
I see thee now, O daughter of Zion. Dost thou come also in the way? Ah, thou art old and no longer comely. Thy whoredoms have aged thee; and when thou didst set thy mind to knowledge, behold, it was vanity: strange ideas and evil eyes.
At such mighty acts as turning Israel slowly, as a body Israel begins to come and see what God is doing. They now inquire of the Nazarene movement. They finally begin to see that it is God is clearly directing his people again.
I see now the report. The truth of it is before me. The LORD hath heard the rumor and confirmeth it. In the markets thy reproach causeth even thy money to be scorned.
Despite our self deceptions, God sees us in relation to the rest of the world: corrupt, evil, using God to feel better than others. We are a shell of what God chose us to be: faithless, culture Jews, with little past identity with God other than mere farce. We have become contemptible in the eyes of the world. Our traditions are born from philosophizing. We are certainly nothing like what our fathers were during the glory days of Israel before we went into our dispersion 2000 years ago.
See the merchants magnify themselves against thee, but thou holdest thy peace. Thy skin is too calloused, thine eyes too heavy to care anymore. Thou art tired of thy wounds bound with dirty linen, and tears dried upon thy dirty face.
Christian heretical groups praise us as objects of faith; they preach one way and the other at us. Jews are the gross merchandizing of faith when popular; when not, we are ridiculed as cast-off apostates. But even this is of no value to us anymore. They do not see that there is emptiness in us. That God is the only solution. We have finally had enough of our persecution and our shallow excuse that it is for our righteousness. But are we coming to their kind of Christianity or to a true Christianity that worries them? Never mind the doctrinal squabbles, for:
Are the cries of merchants so loud, saith the LORD, that my shout of pity cannot they hear? My words are deeds indeed, and my deeds are mercy. What is it to thee if thou must be merciful for a season if thou shalt come to me forever and dwell in my garden of delight?
Amidst all this “end times” preaching and prophesying can God’s words be heard, truly calling Israel to repentance? That is where it all begins, not in using Israel as an object of faith, not on money, success, or accepting Gentile traditions.
Therefore stretch I out my voice, and my voice is salvation and my words dissolve brine. Behold a plain man. I stand at the door. Without thy sight thou shalt not see my garden hinter.
Clear symbolism of Christ. As in the classic prophets, references to the Messiah that walked among us is still spoken in the first person as the LORD.
Thy beauty is gone, O daughter Zion; thou hast long lost thy maiden innocence. Truly, thy widowhood hath been bitter. Now thou wilt hear my call. Above the din of the market thou shalt hear, and my plain flesh thou wilt not abhor.
The whoredoms of thy youth I sought to redeem. The whoredoms of thy middle-age overflowed. Thy body was young and light and thine ear heavy. Now thou art heavy and slow, and thine ear is light. Now thou shalt hear. Thy youth shall not return for a season, but thou shalt live with what thou hast done.
A bittersweet moment, for sure. At repentance what shall Israel have to think of?— that which we have done, and our disbelief for 2000 years. A bitter moment, unquestionably. Until this generation passes the full guilt and perhaps denial will not completely pass from the Jewish conscious.
Thine eyebrow archeth with curiosity. What stirreth at that desolate house? Come and see, come and see, saith the LORD.
There is no shame upon me. I have cleansed this place, and I will build it: to turn thy heart to me in purity. Thou shalt build these concourses and I shall sweep thine heart. Thou shalt gild with gold and I shall burnish thy soul and make it gleam brighter than gold, yea greater than very fine gold.
Then shall thy worship be sweet to me; then shalt thou have this place and call it my house, though I dwell not in buildings, though even the Universe is nought but a bowl that cannot contain a finger of my soul.
Chapter
4
The moment of realization. Also probably an actual moment when the women of Jerusalem will come together to weep for what we have done. One son is in view.
WEEP, O Zion, that thou ever didst bear a son; who can shut the floodgates of our weeping, for the hand of the LORD hath revealed it?
The mouth of the LORD doth direct mine ears to the sound: Kidron in the sunset doth moan with the weeping of women, weeping as if over their firstborn. Louder is the weep thereof then the cheer when they see Zion formed in marble and gold, for we have seen the hand of the LORD, and a guiltless wound is etched in our pupil. Hear ye the beating of breasts, women beating their breasts in anguish at their firstborn, and saying, Truly my name is Bitterness. (Mara)
Astonied looks give place, I say ye, give place to anguish. How is a harden brow become melted! At the sight of the wounds we without wounds feel pain. All we have become guilty, yet he suffereth no voice to accuse; it is we who with shamed face ask unto him, “Wherefore didst thou do this in the company of thy children?”
We esteemed thee not, nor in thy affliction did pity take us companion. Our hearts spit forth murder, and yet thou bledst; our imaginations imagined vain things, yet thy soul was afflicted; even our sins overflowed, but thou wast whipped. Thou afflictedst thyself, but they thy bruises have become whiter than snow, but our bright spots are ugly and putrid. Our flesh is rotted, yet we have no wounds; our bodies stink, yet we wash. Thou hast scars, but art more brilliant than the sun.
Is this the weeping of triumph, saith the LORD? Is this the sound to greet a hero? Weep not, O Zion; remove the pit from thy stomach. Rather, shout ye aloud! I say ye, “Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the LORD.” Be thou refreshed in thy God, and be no more ignorant of his way. See thou now, and declare: “I see.”
Cast aside your weeping. He has redeemed. We now see our God clearly.
Behold, behold, I have declared and my word is good. I live forever and my feet can tread down mountains as tender grapes in the harvest. I bury with mercy, yea, mercy is the only earth I know for them that love me; and my breath can blow the dust off the deepest of graves, and my voice can call and bring forth the bones, even dried bones. I shall bury thee under this earth, and I shall call thee forth with a mighty shout.
And it shall come to pass in that time, and at that moment, that ye shall call upon the name of the LORD, even upon his goodness, and the LORD shall hear you, and he shall give goodness by an ephah worth an homer, a shekel shall be worth a talent, and it shall cause your hearts to burn, even as ye pull out your hair in anguish over your souls and the souls of your fathers. As a young woman waileth who hath just lost her firstborn at the time of his weaning, so shall ye wail. Lift up thy wounds with thy cry, O Zion, and I shall stretch forth my hand, and I shall bring forgiveness.
As I live, saith the LORD, I will not forebear. Thou shalt look up and feel the latter rain as before. As a wineskin that is sliced open shall I pour out my spirit upon Israel. Even as thou art overwhelmed at my graciousness, even more shall I overwhelm thee with my mercy, and thy sons and thy daughters shall come to me, and I shall polish their pockmarked hearts.
Then thou shalt acknowledge thy guilt; just that: acknowledge thy guilt; and I shall silence thy accusers. Thou shalt then worship at Zion with a joyful sound. Thy timbrals shall be merry, thy horn a rejoicing; and I shall hear thee. Then shalt thou tread my courts with joy and thou shalt dance the fine song of the maiden for the groom in the house of the LORD.
There thou shalt dwell and be happy, O Israel, and at its ramparts thou shalt look upon these stones of people and thou shalt say, “Look at what the LORD hath built; even our God had mercy, for he hath forgiven us all our sins, even blotted out our unbelief, our great sin, and hath purged our souls. He bloweth our transgression from upon the book as dust that shall no more return. He hath gathered us to the fullest intent of his desire.”
Desolation shall yield to fatness. It shall give fruit to abundance. Your withered souls shall swell and burst forth like a sweet grape. Kings and angels have desired to see that moment, saith the LORD, and such a shout shall go forth in heaven when the LORD bringeth it to pass.
Chapter
5
GIVE ear, O heavens, cast off your sullen eyelids, O stars. Canst thou imagine greater glory to shake the Earth? Canst thou see a greater wonder? Hast thou seen a virgin restored, or an old woman leap as unto a young Roe again?
If I awaken the nations from their vain ways would not the Earth still slumber? Did they wound me that I should bear grudge? But I shall restore thee as a marvel, as a widow to the husband of her youth, that the heavens may sing at the mercy of God.
A beautiful statement of God’s redemption of Israel, we who wounded him at his coming.
The LORD shall approach and the train of his majesty shall flow out from his holy house. As a cascading stream shall it flow over Moriah, and in it shall be his children of all nations. No more shall they be called strangers who come to the LORD.
God has restored his presence to the inner sanctum as a symbol of his dwelling with us again. It should not be taken as a literal coming of Jesus to the Temple to reign physically as many “Millennialists” believe based on utterly non biblical legend.
Nations shall come by tens and by twenties. Ten thousands times ten thousands speak: Come, cast mercy as the sand. Cast it to the wind, and it shall come back to thee as sand doth in a gale. Come, cast gold of no value, for the treasures of the LORD are as abundant as the wind, and who can measure it upon a scale to determine its portion? As a mighty wind breathe upon us again, O LORD, and give us again thy spirit. Unlock the floodgates of thy soul.
Possibly the dedication of the Temple of the LORD, the concourses jammed with the many worshipers.
Gather ’round me, saith the LORD. I gather thee as a chick is gathered under the wing, and nestle thee to my warm breast. If any harm shall come to thee, mine hand beareth the wound, for my right hand— it protecteth thee; and my left hand, it comforteth thee. This shall be the piercing of thine heart, and thy scars shall be healed. Mine hand shall be a shield to any foe; and a wound of battle is upon it that shall draw the beleaguered and warn thine enemies.
An illustration to the piercings of his hand at the Cross can be drawn. It is certainly a wound of battle that destroyed evil and draws men unto him, and it warns all those who should challenge to what length God goes to reveal himself and redeem. Take heed those that should rise up against his chosen, both Jews and Gentiles, for he has gathered his believers.
Rise up and shout, O house of Jacob, shout unto heaven at the mercy of God, and in that day all the nations shall marvel! And they shall worship from afar off and from near. The LORD thy God hath spoken.
Surely a believing Israel thronging the Temple declaring Jesus is God With Us shall cause all nations to marvel. The world shall worship in that day at the mercy and works of God. That seems to be the implication below. The last time the Temple was surrounded and thronged was by Gentile armies (70 AD). The following paragraph could be a reference to the fact that the third temple at or near its dedication is thronged by the nations, only these are not armies of destruction but of worship. A far different image is in view, the opposite of what the nations did at the last moment of the Temple’s standing so long ago. Irony may be the basis for the vision.
The army that destroyeth shall worship. They shall cast off their weapons and pick up the aged and the infirmed and bring them to the House of the LORD, and I shall heal them. Mine house that is encompassed shall conquer. The armies that laid waste shall stand in awe, and shall cast off their idols.
In that day, as in aforetime, I shall make an end of Israel, Israel that scattereth, Israel that lieth, Israel that denieth the way. Without siege and without pulley, without fire and without the battling ram shall I make an end. They that were within the camp shall be left without, and Jacob shall possess the ramparts of his God.
The classical use of “Jacob” as true believing Israel has taken the ascendancy and not the gross corporate and secular culture club of Hebrews who use the concept of “Jewishness” and God to protect themselves from reproach no matter how base and irreligious they are. That Israel shall perish, the hard hearted unbelievers; but Jacob the new massive Messianic movement shall dwell with God in a new Israel.
But the house of Israel shall be the portion for dogs, and the sword shall devour. All those of my people who call upon the Lord of their own imagining and know me not shall be as if they called upon Buddhim and Allahim and Krishna Baalim.
That is clearly defined here: Hebrews who swear by other gods and gurus, philosophies or those who are just plain secular and immoral, shall be cut off. No more will he tolerate the corruption.
Thou art still the younger, O Jacob, my beloved. Thou art a spitz and esteemest thyself evil above thy fathers; but I love thee. O Jacob, I have not forgotten thee. I shall give thee that place; for your sakes I shall give it to you. I shall give you the pleasant gardens. I shall give you a swept house.
The division between Israel and Jacob follows a pattern. Clearly, Israel in this context is the corporate Israel and their adherents— Hebrews or Jews that despite their excessive claims to being Jewish are completely secular if not geshmad, merely cultural Jews. An example can be seen at the vitriolic JewsonFirst.com that espouses the First Amendment in order to preserve Jewish religious freedom but then at the same time espouses almost everything that is anti-Jewish: a ridicule of creation, pro-abortion, pro-Gay, and incredibly passé scientific stances on evolution. There is, in fact, nothing religious about the Jewry on the site. The “Jewishness” on this site is merely defining Jews an ethnic Jewish people without a country in the vein of Gypsies. Their plea to preserve a “Jewish” identify is that of apostate Hebrews that are no different than the Gentiles around them. Much of what they claim to be the Christian Right is actually fundamental to Jewry. They don’t understand, apparently, that Hebrew is a people and Jew is a religion.
In the prophecy above, Jacob is defined as it is usually used in scripture: the faithful Jews who truly believe in God and are loved by him. They uphold his laws and abide by them in true spirit. Our father Jacob’s own words before Pharaoh are referred to and applied to his true descendants who know that the LORD is righteous and not we of ourselves. God declares his tender love for us.
In that day I shall pose a riddle, and thou shalt give me the answer. When was Jacob not Israel? When was the younger divided into two, and the elder portion still served the younger?
The riddle would appear to fit the above-- the apostate Hebrews are cut off, crushed in the nations (probably by their own loud mouths stirring up trouble), and Jacob are the true believers that know that God has walked among us, that Jesus is the tabernacle in whom resides the Spirit of God. As the surviving Israel, they now inherit. Israel as an ethnic people descendant of Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, are thus born of the younger, those not born of Esau the elder. Yet the Messianic movement is certainly the younger portion of the children of the promise born to Jacob, for no generation has seen such a number of Jews turn to believe that the Lord has come. Thus the younger (literal descendants of Jacob) is being divided into two again, and the younger, the true Messianic believers, as the survivors will inherit the supremacy, and those remaining of the cultural Hebrews will no longer be able to support their own apostate ways as “Jewry.” Non believers will eventually die out until those born of Hebrews who are secular will be only a few. They are gone and without inheritance in the kingdom.
Jacob, O Jacob, thou shalt be my prince again. Thou shalt be Israel, and the elder shall be cast away and without inheritance.
Chapter
6
IN that day thou shalt see my vengeance on they who made thy children few—on they who stopped the womb; upon they also who took thee from thy path to heathen Tels to teach thee their ways as mine, saying: “No more do the ways of the LORD, for they are things which are old.” I shall make their ways few, and their traditions shall be no more remembered. Even I the LORD shall do this.
We see a wonderful chronology here: “In that day” means a general period of elapsing time, events occurring within an era whose beginning is defined as the time in which Jacob is gaining the ascendancy. Thus the prophecy is taking up against the Gentiles and not against corrupt Israel:
For in that day the LORD shall make an end of the nations, and their glory shall be utterly consumed. Their congregations shall be called Impudent, and shall be a place for the casting of dice, for the forum and for the market; their heralds proclaiming the jig and the polka.
With the ascendancy of Jacob and the building of the Temple, corporate Christianity must either reassess its traditions or be cast off. The ascendancy of a synagogue based Christianity is very possible. The glory of the nations is indeed completely consumed by the restoration of God’s spirit to Israel (now that it has become Jacob) and a biblical standard restored. Established church traditions are exposed for not having biblical foundations, and those congregations that do not adjust their ways will merely be places of entertainment, like so many of the holy roller places are already, and not true places of worship.
And the LORD shall turn the captivity of the nations into bitterness, and their sojourn shall be as dried timber, that the remnant of mankind shall seek the LORD. He shall plunder the nations, and he shall leave them with gall. For all that they have done he shall utterly devour and cast them off, because of their enchanters, because of their prophets, their vanities, and their lusts. Go to, ye nations! Be as primitives adorning your bodies with costly jewels and elaborate piercings! Your vanities only inflict upon you wounds, and they open up to infection and are a place for the gathering of puss.
“Captivity of the nations” means it is plain God is not identified with the Gentile churches anymore. This will be a bitter thing when the nations can no longer consider themselves and their traditions as defining Christianity, and their churches must confront their long standing corruption. Many traditions and doctrines will be exposed for their error. To plunder the nations means to take thousands of Gentiles into a biblical Christianity closely associated with Judaism-- hence a massive reformation centric to the restoration of Jacob, true Israel. God will, indeed, bring to an end all their ways. Enchanters could mean those who extrapolated false laws; prophets those who justified all of this and declared it to be from God, etc. A double analogy is used: as the nations physically go back into paganism with piercings and tattoos, so are these false doctrines vanities that have opened the wounds of established Christianity and led to disease. A double condemnation is found on the primitivism the Church has allowed society to spiral into largely based on its own compromising and longstanding false doctrines. No society has seen such paganism on such a scale for thousands of years.
Mount up ye who see and hear not, for the babblers are brought to nought, and the dreamer of dreams is set on edge, and the expounder of tradition hath confusion of face. None have children from that point, and are as unto a dried twig that withereth, one that a wind taketh from the stump.
Corrupt Christianity is full of the “tongues” movement people, some occult gibberish declared to be messages from an intelligent and eloquent God. Many true believers have seen it, but have not hearkened unto the gross spiritualism of the movement. Those who have not hearkened will be able to appreciate the fulfillment of this: the babblers and their whole culture and prophecies are wiped out. Those who touted “supersessionism” (a major tradition of Gentile Christianity) won’t know what to do with a believing Israel that is very different from them, and where worship of God is centralized at the Temple again. “None have children from that point” implies a complete cessation of the mainstream and traditional Christian attitudes in favor of a more biblical one.
So shall the LORD do in that day upon the house of the nations, upon the impudent congregations. Mount up ye that see and hear not, mount up and be not afraid of what ye see in that day.
For the LORD shall rise up on Mount Moriah. He shall exalt himself above the mountains and he shall fill in the valleys. All they that come to him shall come on sure ground, and they shall see his glory. Bring thou down our walls; let every fortification fall out that we may see thy rising early.
The key event is referenced again: the restoration of the Temple as the symbol of God’s inner sanctum on earth for all peoples. Collapse all the mental minhags and walls of our preconceived ideas so that we understand what a great thing God is doing and see it for what it is.
Chapter
7
THUS saith the LORD, When have I spoken in the secret place, or when have my words been unintelligible? My words are not the words of groves nor the wisps of wind. When have I whispered in the ear or carried my word as skulking gossip?
Your fathers cannot teach you to hear me, nor train your tongue to speak my words. My words are not tattle nor the rumor of strangers.
All these years I have not spoken unto thee, O Israel. Hast thou not considered? Doth not even a dog whine when his master’s voice is long absent?
Yet thou hast not considered the sum of thy ways and looked back to see thy footsteps outlined in blood. Thou hast invented doctrines to cover thine inward parts like a skirt for shame, and vain statutes are the covering upon thine head that thou wilt not bear or confront. Thou makest excuses. As a mantel they cover shame, for they cover the things of thine own imagining. Thy study is perverse. It is wisdom only to lackeys. Thou makest excuses.
Dost thou think it is mine iniquity that hath caused silence? Nay, but if thou couldst thou wouldest hear the heavens resound with my praise. Thou wouldest run to and fro and not be comforted as a lover seeking her spouse if thou lovest me with all thine heart. If thou knewest how great I am thou wouldest brag until the Earth would beat its ears.
Thou hast not pined and longed for me, but inventedst debaucheries to keep thy mind at ease. Thou sittest and art idle all the day, inventing excuses.
When for one day thine heart and tongue do not make excuse, then will I declare thou hast righteousness. If a lens can be made powerful enough that I can see thy righteousness then will I say unto thee that thou needest me not.
Who hath spoken unto thee in my name, lo, these many generations, these thousands of autumns the leaves have fallen to the grave, and it hath come to pass or hath comforted thee?
Chapters 1-17 seemed closely aligned. More is evolved below, and we find more specifics in the evolving prophecies. Some things touched upon are elaborated and expanded with details. It is best to stop the commentary here and let the reader continue uninterrupted. The complete book of John ben Kathryn can be found here.
Chapter
8
JUDGMENT hath come upon you, O my people, yea, cruel judgment hath come swiftly upon you like a stag and deadly as unto a scorpion’s sting. Without warning and without a word from the LORD hath it come. Yet ye have not inclined your hearts unto the LORD, to deliver you from the sore travails— Nay, but ye have courted disaster. Ye have called upon me, and I have not answered. Ye have sought deliverance, but your bodies have formed hillocks. Your dead ye have left by the wayside; the avenue of your sojourn is littered with the corpses of your dispersion. The LORD’s wrath hath burned furiously, but you have only hardened your hearts lest ye should see. Ye look up only to see the vultures. And because ye see something desiring you, ye think ye must be righteous and possessing something worth extolling.
It is not my silence, saith the LORD, that hath caused thy foot to continue on the hard ground. Who speaketh to a stone, and how long shall one wait for an intelligent reply?
Behold, your hearts are hard, the heart of this people is waxed stupid. Your minds are defiled with your pride, and your hard conceit hath made you dumb to reason, and rebelling to the words of the LORD. I shall make the presumptuous woman a blemish unto you; and he that maketh a word an offense to make men count their words before him, even he shall be an offense to me. Your hearts and minds are defiled with your idols, and an image of your fancy is as a totem burned into your pupil that ye may adulate it all the day.
This generation shall end before me, saith the LORD. This pride shall I no more tolerate upon the Earth; they and the farmers that have become your teachers, and they who were at the plow that have become your elders; and their vain jangling that hath become your law; even this shall be the last of it. I shall sift them out as wheat. Not one shall fall upon the ground that it should take hold and bear the fruit of this generation. None shall live out their days that they may as a burden place it upon the sure and youthful foot to carry it forward into their generation.
They are the forehead of a foolish body. I remember the feet that were their fathers, in the day that I scattered them; and, behold, ye are indeed the forehead and the princes the crown of an ignorant head. In my sore contempt I would not approach thee. Nor did I walk amongst the promenades of thy ruins in wait for someone to come upon me. But I left thee to thy ruins. Thou madest the scale of the righteous and the wicked equal, in that thy foolishness saith “He punisheth the righteous. How else can we explain our travail?” Is it not meet that I should make the head fall? Is it not good that it should fall, such a foolish thing that doth not consider where he who was an husband unto Israel hath gone? Who shall ask, and who shall enquire?— but he in whom I have placed my heart and he in whom my words do reside.
Chapter
9
AND the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Hearken unto thy heart, and be attentive to thine ears, for I shall put my heart into thy bosom, and place my will before thine eyes. Thou shalt call upon me and I shall hear thee, and I shall answer thee. Thy prayers for this people I shall put upon thy lips, and the deep groanings I shall apply unto their hearts. Of all they who since old have fallen asleep thou shalt call upon me, and thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD God; and it shall come to pass. For I do put my words in thine heart and I wrap them around thine head; and thou shalt enquire, Ah, LORD God; and I shall hear thee.
And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, What seest thou? And I said, “A tree heavily laden with fruit, and upon the fruit thine holy name.”
Take and eat, for so do I end the famine that I have brought upon Israel, as I swore unto Amos that I should bring. Therefore speak unto this people, and say unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel: Run no more to and fro, beloved daughter. Lift up thy downcast head, O my son. Be ye comforted, my people and all ye nations. All ye Gentiles that are called by my name, wedge your staff in Zion and be not moved. He that lusteth after God hath found the Most High.
Let the evil be vanquished at my word, but let my people rejoice and shout aloud.
Open thine ears, and hear the pleasant waters, for the LORD thy God doth direct thee again in thy ways, and my words shall give thee peace and they shall give thee life.
(The burden of the word of the LORD which was given unto John ben Kathryn)
And this shall be the burden of the word of the LORD which I give unto thee:
Thus saith the LORD unto thee, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Thy mother Kathryn is with me, and thy mother Messiah’s Light. They dance and rejoice with their mother Sarah.
I am the God of thy people. In flesh I did appear amongst them, and from the womb did mine eyes see the travail. I looked about at the poverty of their soul and was amazed. My spirit was grieved within me. The wealth of ages flowed out from me, but they preferred poverty of their flesh. In drunkenness did they wound me. In ignorance did they call judgment down upon themselves and their children.
I shall shake off their wine of ignorance, saith the LORD. I shall sober their hearts and fatten their lean souls on my mercy. I shall teach them to fast from the world, and I shall set them up for a sign, and establish them as a far gate in my kingdom, that the overflow may come to me; and the world shall know that I am the LORD.
Say thou not, O Zion, “I am forsaken,” and, “My Lord hath cast me off for the place of a wound.” I am the LORD. BEING is my name. My name is etched deeper than any wound, and for thee I bore it. For my great namesake I shall gather thee at last. It is I the LORD that doth ever have thine image in my pupil, that declareth now unto thee.
Beforehand it cometh to pass, I reveal unto you. Before they should happen I tell you of them. Before ye shall hear, I speak. Before I gather Israel, I declare unto you that ye may consider and lay it to heart at the doings of God. Behold, I gather mine offspring from amongst the nations and set them upon the path. Let not the nations say: “I never was,” and that: “His hand is not fierce and his visage dreadful;” and of the days that come, “They come by natural course.”
They come by my mighty hand, saith the LORD, and my voice precedeth them as a howling wind before storm. For this purpose I raised thee up from thy mother’s womb. I brought thee out from a princeling among the Gentiles and restored thee unto thy people which thou knewest not. I took thee from thy righteousness and showed thee thy sin. From foolishness to wisdom I led thee, for great is the day of the LORD that shall come, and great shall be the repentance before it.
For this reason raise I up my prophets so that none of my doings shall come without mercy. For, behold, I give warning first: I do not delight in destruction.
Faint not, nor look upon thine own sin. Why dishearten thyself at blackness? If I should raise thee up to be a prophet, what is it to thee? It shall be my words that shall come to pass, not thine.
I know thy fears and thine infirmities, thy halting speech. It is for my word that thou wast given these. It is I who have afflicted thee since thy youth, and I shall afflict thee until I take thee; that thou mayest say, Thus saith the LORD God, and that thou may bear it; that thou mayest call upon me rightly, Ah LORD God, and that I should hear thee. See the false prophets around thee; see them carried off in their pride. Rejoice then at my affliction, for thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD the King, and it shall come to pass.
See how the Gentiles glorify their prophets. But I have made thee base that thou and Israel shall know that it is I the LORD that doeth these things.
Tie thy tongue into a ribbon and bow if thou canst, yet when thou speakest Israel shall hear thee, for I shall now cause wonders upon the Earth. Even I, saith the LORD, shall bring my word to pass and I shall turn Israel. As I place my column in the sky to lead them, so shall I place it in their hearts to lead them perpetually.
Chapter
10
AND the word of the LORD moreover came unto me, saying: Seeing that I have made thee a prophet unto Israel, take thou no disciples, lead no one off into a far place, separate not, bind not men with customs, take no money, make no public display, shout thou not in the street, nor speak rashly in my name.
But rather when thine heart burneth within thee, when it hurteth and when tears choke thee, when thou art in passion of my nature and great name, then speak and write in my name and I shall bring it to pass. Fear not, for it is I that speak from thee.
And this shall be a sign unto thee: I shall burn these words into the heart of Israel, and thou shalt know that I have spoken from thee. Be not lifted up, nor deceived, for I shall do these things and my spirit shall move men.
Take heed so that thou fearest not at my word, seeing how hard the heart of Israel hath been and how vain have I let the customs of Jacob become. It is I who shall cause men to turn, not thee. It is I who shall be praised, not thee.
But when thou hatest thy people for their hard hearts and despisest them for their ignorance, thou shalt not speak in my name, nor in thine anger declare my vengeance. For words spoken at my glory are harsh enough, and even from a steady note can no one stand before my wrath.
Wages I give thee not; but thou shalt inherit of thy portion as a child. Thy reward thou knowest: Thou shalt see of these things come to pass.
Thus saith the LORD thy God, Come unto me as a child, and like an admirer in an accomplished man so boast of me. Begrudge me not, for my great glory is greater than man’s and my ways worth shouting across the Universe. If thou wilt admire a great man and be filled with privilege in the company of famous people, how much more should not all mankind seek the LORD who is beyond all things and created all things?
Speak not what Israel wanteth to hear, nor be joined to any group, nor be led to any place, saying, It is the LORD’s will. I shall not be enquired of concerning those things already said. I bandy not with men, nor am I tried by mankind. If Israel shall say unto thee, ‘Judge us,’ say NO. If they say ‘Administer,’ say NEVER. For I have appointed thee a prophet, and I shall judge Israel, and I shall be their ruler.
But gird thou up and hold thy reigns within thee, and prophecy unto this people and tell them, Set your hearts to turn; let the hearts of the sons turn to the fathers, so that they might understand how they have wandered, so that they turn.
Soften thy stony heart into flesh, O Israel, for flesh cannot break, and there is none who can mend rock and make it sound again. A wounded heart I will heal; but a heart of stone shall shatter and crumble under my fist; and I shall scoop up the pieces and cast it to the heap; and it shall be a proverb that a hard heart hath no life and can only break, but a heart of flesh I shall wound and I will heal.
Set thine heart to be wounded, O foolish wandering Israel, that I may heal, so that at my coming I shall find faith upon the Earth and shall not utterly destroy all mankind at my sight.
For, lo, I come suddenly, and my sword is in mine hand, and my justice set to heart; my threshingfloor prepared unannounced. Let my people prepare, let the nations cringe and tremble, for the day of the LORD shall not be as they imagine; and it is a day in which no grain shall be spared the reaper’s eye, nor shall one be overlooked to find refuge; and it is a great and terrible day when all secrets of men’s hearts are purged by the hand of the living God.
I play amongst the atoms, and from nothing I can create beauty. Who will not tremble at my presence?
Yet am I as gentle as a father with my children. As gentle as a hand stroking a lamb do I comfort my people. I shall make thy wool white with a touch, and I shall rest thine inward parts.
Therefore thus say I the LORD unto thee, speak to this people Israel, for I turn the hearts unto the fathers. Turn ye that my day catch you not in shame. This shall be thy burden wherewith I burden thee.
(And from this point forward no more did John ben Kathryn struggle and wrestle at the word of the LORD, for he did not wish to be a prophet).
Chapter
11
I SHALL now stand in awe with certainty, unto the LORD, for his goodness; his word is unrelenting; his honour unreproachable; they are soothing psalms of edification, for his graciousness endureth forever. Beware, O ye nations, and ye gainsayers of foolish traditions: He shall restore his people with a mighty hand; he shall honour us as at the first with his holy name. For his great namesake he shall prepare the future as a fine confection. He shall shut the presumptuous mouth and bring to nought the thoughts of the self-serving. Our honour is the great name of the LORD, and his presence is our joy! He taketh away our reproach!
Set it to heart to enquire. I shall seek from mine heart his words; and I shall not take them for granted. Let thy people humble themselves and enquire. Behold, the LORD hath not gone so far that he cannot hear, nor are his feet slow that he cannot deliver his people. Let our prayers go up before the Holy One of Israel, and let them be acceptable.
Who can bear the words of the LORD! Hearts are hardened and fists beat against temples. For the day of the LORD is declared and his words break the forms of Ephraim and dash the carved stones of Israel, and rework the carved trunks of the nations!
Plain words overthrow, declareth Ephraim. He searcheth to find a means of annulment. The letter is an idol for him but its meaning is an uncarved form to recarve a meaning, that he might worship the works of his own mind.
Let us, saith Ephraim, go to and cast the prophets from our midst. Oh heavy burden! Get thee hence and prophesy not. When thou art perished we shall adorn thy tomb and make merry over thy words. Is it not said amongst the people, “What the son wisheth to forget, the grandson wisheth to remember”?— Thus hath Ephraim trusted in the word of the LORD, but thus he recognizeth not the words when the LORD speaketh.
Wherefore, thus saith the LORD, forasmuch as this is true, thou shalt be plundered, O Ephraim, for by a flea in the ear is a man driven mad. So shall the LORD’s words be unto this generation. They shall not be a shout, to cause one to jolt and dismiss, but they shall be a buzz and a tickle that shall not depart from thine ears or from the house of Israel. So do and, Lay on! Boldly on! Thy finger shall route thine ear until thou art a laughing stock, and the people walk from thee.
Chapter
12
BEHOLD, I see Ephraim upon the mountains and in the watchtowers, yea, the very tall watchtowers. They have set their code, and they signal therewith. Though they reflect the sun, their signal is set to their rhythm. Therefore the stillness of the LORD’s doings they have not detected, and the method of his purpose hath been marvelous unto them, incomprehensible and without form.
Rise up, O ye inhabitants of Judah and ye dwellers of her uttermost borders, and give the signal to the watchmen. The LORD cometh with a mighty hand, and his fierce ax doth cleave mountains before him! But is it that ye see not also? Howbeit none see?—only because your watchmen peek at points of light and ye dwellers of the land wait upon them. Open up your panorama and see smoke over the mountains. It is not the smoke of fire but of dust, the dust of stampede. Behold, they are not far mountains, O Judah. And the men of them ye know. But, lo, ye know not the LORD your God. The LORD sendeth them not a prophet to stir them up, but I send ye my servant, for many winds shall be stirred, and the dust shall approach you from many lands, yea, and encompass your seed even in far lands.
The LORD is wonderful in wisdom and comforting in his counsel. And from his depth he doth declare his wise things. Woe unto them who do not enquire, saith the LORD, and woe unto those who do not consider the sum of their ways and the burden of history, who take away from what the LORD hath done, and who add but a foot unto his path, either to lengthen it or to broaden it by their measure.
The LORD shall turn the dust with his breath and make it a smoke of fire upon mine enemies, to raise up Jacob to bear my name, to deliver the outcasts and gather the dispersed of Israel. What thou, O mighty Syria, devisest in the culverts of Riyadh shall bring down Damascus and shake the foundations of Mecca; and it shall be contemplated in Medina; and Alexandria shall bring down Cairo with it. Hear the sound of the LORD’s quake! The LORD deviseth not in secret of his beloved, but hath drawn my banner in days of old.
The LORD shall save thee that day, O Judah, by his open counsel with the words he declareth here, as in the days of thy Babylonian captivity. Ye shall no more fall back into your idols, O people, for, lo, the LORD raiseth me up again by wise counsel; he setteth me in an anointed place. By hardness he delivereth thee, and in it shall be glory.
In this his resolution there is tender purpose. In his deep things there is reason, a fuller’s soap, a trying with fire. It burneth forth not with eloquence, but it refineth the metal of dross and it cleanseth the linen. For the LORD shall open again the mouth of the unlearned, and from the reason of the illiterate will he speak again unto his people. He shall utter his deep things from voices long stilled, and Jerusalem shall rejoice again as a barren widow who hath found joy in the son of her first husband.
Man’s trials are hard, but the LORD’s are cunning. The meek have upset the mighty, and the brazen have learned to keep their mouth shut. O thou, little Judah, though thou be small and as unto a remnant, halt and quivering, shall God’s salvation burn in thee, and as an ember it shall ignite and it shall consume the world. In that day the Gentiles shall cast off their idols, and no more shall a graven image be found amongst them. No more shall a hand fondle stone and bronze, nor heart wait upon a stony eye. Apples shall not be an offering to brass, nor flowers to the artificer’s vanity. The stone altars of the heathen shall be barren, and their foundations shall be pits. They shall break up their idols, and decay shall grow over them; they shall no more be found.
For, lo, O Israel, the LORD hath declared plainly unto me: I have so declared it this day: Thou hast seen generations of thy children, and thou seest thy prodigal return. No more shall they call you son. But this day I have called you father. I pronounce it clear that all may know that I am come, and that it is I the LORD that dwelleth amongst them, and it is I the LORD that they behold. The LORD thy Saviour hath spoken it.
The LORD overturneth the shallowness of the world forever. Thou art too great; this heart hath done too wonderful a thing to draw to thy courts affectations, and for thy caravan to be that of flatterers; that the cloisters of thy garden should be the promenade of gainsayers. Therefore I have decked thee with the array of the lowly, but I have made thy breath as a cool breeze in the desert heat; thy words as clear water to those that thirst. I say unto thee, thou art my breath. Greater art thou than wind, earthquake and fire, wherein was not to be found mine intent; but from a soft voice did I speak.
How shall a king know the heart of his servant, and how shall he test his piety? A golden crown man will obey in action, but anon his heart grumbleth. With a rough cloak tried I man, and he that followeth doth not grumble. I was not comely, and no man durst follow me by reason of gain. Cast aside thy vestures of fine linen and thy golden jewels. Let thy spirit burst forth at my passing. Follow me. Feel mine hand touch thee and awaken thy reason.
Behold a wonder, O Israel and ye inhabitants of Judaea, a ripple hath gone forth from Zion as when a block is dropped in water. My ripples are gentle and my block is soft, saith the LORD, yet they brought down multitudes and upset many a course. Who shall believe, saith the LORD, and whose spirit shall be tempered? Let him trace the ripples. Is it not easy? But stop and consider. Doth not a straight line lead to the center from no matter where thou encounterest the ripple? Can a ripple come from a false angle? Trace it. Even from the farthest ripple shall they be safely led.
For this sake I set in Zion my block, and so I let my ripples silently to go forth. Ephraim was upset and hearkened not. He traced not the ripples but rode out the swells. Let him stop and there consider his God. Yea, our God is the only God.
Chapter
13
HEAR a cry, a cry of toppling, O Judah. Ephraim is cast from the watchtower, for Ephraim saw but he could not say. When too late he could only point to destruction but not to whence cometh salvation. Deliverance is far from him, and its path to him is retreat. For the fear of the LORD in that day shall possess him, and he shall cast himself as a headlong torrent to the sea. He shall cast his wise things and the mantel of his prestige upon the waves and they shall no more come back to him, but they shall be swallowed by the deep.
They shall take up this song: In days of glory did Ephraim not hearken, and with mighty deeds did he not remain content. The LORD worketh a work of substance, and he shall possess the heart of his people. Let Ephraim fall back. Let the shallowness of the world go on. Those that see destruction be many, and those that delight in it be not a few; but blessed is he who raiseth his voice to proclaim the LORD’s salvation. He shall draw the sword of the LORD’s glory and he shall command the mighty men of valour, and on the day of the LORD they who are humble shall be honoured. Yea, blessed is he who waiteth upon the LORD, yea, blessed is he whom the LORD will not move from his place but goeth before to lead him as a young colt through rocky ground. Yea, he who seeketh the LORD in the stillness of his doings shall not be upset, and through the great and terrible day of the LORD he shall rejoice in his salvation.
Yet though for a season doeth he wonders, it is by his gentle silence that he shall try thy faith, O son of man, and it is by this faith that thine heart’s blood shall be replaced. Let a man consider. Ponder ye the way and consider what hath been laid in Zion. Try mankind as aforetime, saith the LORD, try them with my signs to set their faith.
Come ye with this people, O Gentiles. Come, hear the trees sing you a fine tune. Hear the calving of young with the sound of joy. Oh clap your hands, all ye mountains. Skip ye the clouds with his thunderous glory. Come ye to the glorious works of the LORD!
Stumble not, O Ephraim, seek thou them not because thy faith is unsound. Try and give unto him this word that he might see the ripples again, for I do quell the ocean that they might see the ripples again, lest my block be placed in vain. My spirit doth go out in stillness. Cast thine eyes upon a tempered sea and behold and but seek.
Pray, and I shall quell the ocean that there withholden any tempests, and there shall be no storms upon the sea 40 years; for thy faith, O Jacob; for thy rebuke, O Ephraim.
I am a poor servant indeed if I cannot recognize my master, and bring my head down lower than his. Yet I also see my father. Therefore I shall not prostrate myself, but I shall embrace he who saw not his children, and yet he hath generations unto abundance. Let thy spirit gush forth, O LORD, that our lusts for thy words may be filled. The Earth doth starve. We hunger and yearn, but we are not filled. Ephraim’s cakes are apportioned unto us by mince. But thy words are as sweet as angel’s food. They fill my soul and relax my joints. Let thine Holy Spirit go about mankind and see that we are dumb. Feed us with thy salvation, O my God. Stretch forth thine hand and touch my lips. Feed us, feed us, thou who art my maker, my guide and my beauty. In thy resolve there is life, and this life is evermore.
Chapter
14
AND the word of the LORD came unto me, saying: I shall yet do a wonder in Zion. Not since Horeb, they shall say, hath the LORD caused us to tremble so. He bringeth us to the brink; by the mouth of the deep he causeth us to dwell.
But the LORD seeth Jacob. We shall not be moved. Let the unbelieving depart. Let them seek the mouth of the deep. Let them watch from afar, for God is with Us; we shall mount up.
Let his banner be raised. Let it go forth before us. Let the sharpness of his eye spare not our enemies. Let Egypt run to her borders first, for she came late of battle. Let Syria be ashamed, and they that dwelt among us find excuse.
For our stony hearts did it come to this, for in our hard conceit did we regard the LORD as Buddhim and Baalim and Krishnim.
Oh that we were not a people who did mischief! Oh that we did not hearken unto the prophets of the nations and the leaders of Israel, speaking peaceably. To every desire of our imagination do they say “thus saith the LORD.”
But thou didst not speak peaceably, O LORD, for thou dost not condone the vanity of man, nor singest thou the praises of flesh. We have no excuse, for we corrupt the love of God and make it usury. All the willful made it a stumbling block to the weak.
We would not hearken unto thee in thy forbearing. Thy goodness we greeted with a turn of our backs.
Our face was to those who did evil in thy sight, and we did not look away. In the name of love they justify fornication, adulteries and murders, envy, jealousy and greed. Whatsoever they desire to do, they call love; and if one taketh unto himself from one must it be taken.
There is no man that layeth hold, freely given; but covetousness is his god and envy his prophet.
It is because they delight in evil that they corrupt the ways of the LORD to prevent judgment. They delight in frowardness and audacity, and have a perverse lust for irony. They heed not thy laws that they may be reproved. They use love to tip the scales against those who were defrauded.
We drank of their cup, and are not innocent. Yet for a little while will thine anger endure, O Holy One. Thou pickest us up, and dustest off our knees. Set us on thy way, O LORD. We shall call that day JHWH RAH’AH, for God hath shown us, and we trembled more at his mercy than at his wrath, for God hath shown himself on the field of battle and hath torn heaven asunder and shouted down his name, and in the hearts of men did it burn.
O LORD, that we had hearkened unto thy prophets; that we had heard thy voice. But even now at the brink, as the mouth of the deep doth yawn for our souls, thy wrath is of short duration; thy wonder as the fire from Horeb. Stir thou from thy place, O God, |