GENESIS 31........THE BELOVED AND I

Genesis 31

1 He heard the words of Laban's sons,

Who said "Jacob has taken tons

Of wealth that was our father's and

From what was his enriched his hand."

2 And Jacob saw the countenance

Of Laban was no longer glance

Of favour as it was before.



If blood is thicker far than water is,

A penny is much thicker than the both.

So when it came to an issue of his

Rights to the well, then Laban made an oath

Of kinship. Now that flocks and herds and wealth

Come in between, kinship steps out in stealth.

With what magical, superstitious ways

Did Jacob seek to breed the sheep and glaze

His fortune! My Beloved, keep me from going

In human ways so bluntly far from knowing,

And where I do follow a human rhyme,

Treat me like Jacob and bless for the time.

Deliver me from both my foolish claims

And also from those who have means and aims.



3 Then YHWH said this on Jacob's score,

"Return to the land and the place

Where your ancestors walked in grace

And to your family, and I

Will be with you." 4 So Jacob aye

Sent and called Rachel and her sister

Leah to the field, to his flock,

5 And said to them, "I see a blister

Here from your father's face, a rock

Not toward me as before, but still

My father's God's been with me till

This day. 6 "And you know that with all

My strength I've served your father's call.

7 "Yet your father has deceived me

And changed my wages ten times, but

Ælohim let no hurt touch me.

8 "If he said thus: 'The speckled shall

Be your wages,' then every belle

Of all the herds and flocks bore speckled.

And if he said thus: 'Let the freckled

And the streaked be your wages,' then

All the flocks bore streaked for the men.

9 "So Ælohim took stock away

From your father and gave me sway.



If Jacob thought his machinations with

The speckled whithes and stakes were not a myth,

But that his clever doings brought him wealth

In sheep and goat as well as in good health,

Is it not vain hypocrisy to thank

You, my Beloved, for what he had in bank?

Perhaps not. Rather every act of man

And woman is, if good and goodness can,

Your own act. All things good and true aspire

To come from You and in Your name's desire

Are fashioned by the shadows we call men.

There's nothing done by humankind for good

But is Your own, and if not then is hood

Of nothingness. I flee to You again.



10 "It happened, at the time when flocks

Conceived, I lifted up my eye

And saw a dream, not of an ox,

But leaping rams that jumped up high

Upon the flocks were streaked, and speckled,

And grey-spotted, not to be heckled.

11 "Then the Angel of Ælohim

Spoke to me once more in a dream,

Saying 'Jacob.' And I said 'Here

I am.' 12 "And He said 'Do not fear,

Lift your eyes now and behold all

The rams which leap and those that fall

Upon the flocks with streak and speckle,

And grey-spotted, worth goodly shekel,

For I have seen all Laban's doing

To you. 13 'I am the God that's cuing

You from Bethel, where you anointed

The pillar, made a vow appointed

To Me. Now get up, and get out

Of this land, and return, no doubt,

To the land of your own family.'"

14 Then Rachel and Leah replied

And said to him, "Is there beside

Still any portion or heirloom

Found for us in our father's room?

15 "Are we not strangers before him?

He's sold us, and what is more dim,

Consumed our money every bit,

Till nothing at all's left of it.

16 "For all these riches that were taken

By Ælohim from him forsaken,

From our father, are really ours,

And our children's and children's flowers.

Now then, what Ælohim has said

Do so, and by your God be led."



Naive, perhaps, to see in every dream

Of mine of jumping goat and ram and stream

A witness from You, My Beloved, to say

That what I want to do is the right way:

I think it would be clearer and more certain

A matter of Your will without a curtain

Or veil of vain desire if You revealed

That what I want to do has been repealed.

I'm surest that the act I do is free

If it is not a thing I'd wantonly

Choose for myself, and yet I choose the doing.

The free to follow passion is construing

A thralldom as an empty liberty.

My will is Yours, Beloved, and then I'm free.



17 Then Jacob rose and set his sons

And wives on camels, they're the ones

18 That carried away all his goods

And livestock through both fields and woods,

What he had gained, his herds and sheep

Gained in Padan Aram to keep,

To go to his father Isaac

In Canaan's land. 19 Now Laban's track

Led him to shear his sheep, the while

Rachel had stolen one big pile

Of household idols of her father.

20 And Jacob stole away, no bother

To tell Laban the Syrian,

Of his intention when he ran.

21 So he fled with all that he had.

He rose and crossed, like Galahad,

The river towards mounts Gilead.



If Jacob thought that he was doing right,

Why did he not go openly in light?

Did he think Laban might restrain him after

All he had done in service, tears and laughter?

Perhaps, and with good reason for the doubt.

Then too, one need not act with din and shout.

The household gods reveal how near the well

Of heathen worship good men love to dwell.

Times do not change, and neither do their men.

I've hidden idols still I'm loath again

To leave behind to seek a promised land.

Like Jacob, I too love to flee at night

And give no reason for my show of right.

Give me, Beloved, the emptiness to stand.



22 And Laban was told on the third

Day Jacob fled without a word.

23 Then he took his brothers with him

And pursued him for seven days,

He overtook him in his vim

In the mountains of Gilead.

24 But Ælohim had His own ways,

Came to Laban the Syrian

In a dream in the night he had,

And said to him, "Be careful, man,

To speak to Jacob good nor bad."



I flee from confrontation, too, Beloved,

And often fail the hawk for being doved,

And like shy Jacob turn my frantic flight

Toward Bethel, yet stumble in the night.

If your speaking to me is just illusion,

I pray prostrated here in life's confusion

That Your night warnings to the ones who seize

My footprints to do me the wrong might freeze

Their burning hearts and turn their passioned hate

To good-will for this doubtful deviate.

Do this, Beloved, and I too shall repent

That I had stolen their gods when I went.

Warn not the righteous of the foul intention,

But break the onslaught and the crowd's invention.



25  Laban caught up to Jacob, who

Had pitched his tent along the hills,

And Laban with his brothers too

Pitched in the hills of Gilead.

26 And Laban asked Jacob, "What ills

Have you done to me, and what bad

Thing that you steal away unknown

To me, and carried off alone

My daughters like captives with sword?

27 "Why did you flee, a thing deplored,

So secretly, and steal away

From me, without a word to say,

And not tell me, I might have sent

You out with joy and songs well spent,

With timbrel and with harp? 28 "And you

Did not let me kiss them adieu,

My sons and daughters. Now you do

Foolishly in this thing. 29 "It's in

My hand's god to do you harm's sin,

But God of your father told me

Last night, and spoke and said to be

Careful to speak to Jacob nor

Good nor bad. 30 "You have found the door

Surely because you greatly long

For father's house, and not for wrong,

But what did you steal my gods for?"



The predator is always injured by

The insult of the prey's escape. Defy

Not predator or he will weep. His heart

Is softer than I think, Beloved. Your art

Made lamb and lion in the raw or in

The flesh and blood inside the human skin.

The stalking predator has his own grin

To mask the wrong. He always has his sights

On something else, until he takes his rights

In one quick pouncing and surprise. Indeed,

His claws are hidden by the harp, they feed

On certain prey alone, but in their need

They are as soft as stone. Beloved, let me

Scape that claw to be your gratuity.



31 Then Jacob answered and said to

Laban, "Because I was afraid,

And told myself that perhaps you

Would take your daughters as your due

From me by force.' 32 "With whomsoever

You find your gods, then you may sever

His life. In presence of our brothers,

Show what I have of yours or others

And take it with you." For Jacob

Did not know that, and there's the rub,

Rachel stole them. 33 And Laban went

Into Jacob's then Leah's tent,

And into the two maids' tents too,

But did not find. Then he went out

Of Leah's tent and went into

The tent of Rachel for a rout.

34 Now Rachel had taken the gods,

The household idols made of clods,

And put them in the camel's saddle,

And sat on them. And Laban's paddle

About the tent turned up no clue.

35 And she said to her father, "Do

Not be displeased that I cannot

Rise up before my lord, as ought,

Since manner of women's on me."

He searched about diligently

But did not find the household idols.



Beloved and Father, search my fleshly tent,

Leave hiding place revealed, and all veils rent,

But find the last of clay and household gods

And crush them under foot and iron rods.

Whirl round the bleeding saddle where I sit,

Helpless as I remain in exquisite

Denial of my fault, and in that turning

Leave every false god in my heart there burning.

The fire of love and wrath are one to me,

But let its flames arising set me free

From every self and every vain desire,

Seven times purified in gates of fire.

I rise to whirl and leave my scorner's chair

To find that only You are everywhere.



36 Then angry Jacob took the bridles,

Rebuked Laban, Jacob replied,

And said to Laban "Be my guide

And say what's my trespass and sin,

That you so hotly, in such din

Pursued me. 37 "Although you have searched

All my things, my name's unbesmirched.

Now what things of yours have you found?

Set it here before yours and mine,

Between these brothers on the ground,

That they may judge who pays the fine!

38 "These twenty years I've been with you,

Your ewes and female goats, not few,

Have not miscarried their young, I

Have not eaten the rams set by

From your flock. 39 "That which was torn I

Did not bring to you, I bore loss.

You took from me, I had to toss

In from my own to make it up,

By morning crust or evening sup.

40 "There I was! In the day the drought

Consumed me, and by night was caught

In frost, and my sleep left my eyes.

41 "Thus I have been without reprise

In your house twenty years, I served

You fourteen years and never swerved,

For your two daughters, and six years

For your flock, and for what appears

You have changed my wages ten times.

42 "Unless the God of my grandfather,

The God of Abraham sometimes,

And the Fear of Isaac, had rather

Been with me, surely now you would

Have sent me empty in the wood.

Ælohim saw my troubled labour

And last night rebuked you the neighbour."



Who knows what hidden plots lie under all

The calls to justice, who is short and tall

Before the judgement eye that You lay on

The midnight treachery and on the dawn.

Fault lies in human actions that seek gain

And in their seeking lay a mask in vain

On every face. Jacob was brave to say

What hurts had festered twenty years to day,

Because he thought he was more innocent

Than he was really in his wife's back tent.

Make me, Beloved, more humble in my cry

Against oppressor, less inclined to try

My innocence against other illusion.

All human things begin and end confusion.



43 And Laban answered Jacob, saying

"These daughters are my daughters, and

These children are my children staying,

And these flocks are my flocks that stand,

All that you see is mine. But what

Can I do this day to begot

Of me or to whom they have borne?

44 "Now therefore, come, let us be sworn

In covenant, both you and I,

Witness between us under sky."



Illusion of wrongness in Laban makes

Him gentle for his daughters' children's sakes.

The ploy is always useful, whether as

Intended or unplanned as this one was.

The victim's always wrong, the hero stands

With spoils in cart and unwashed, bloody hands.

I turn from right and wrong in all their veils

And seek Your face alone where justice pales

Before reality. I lift a song

Made of Your name alone that knows no wrong.

Let market and the battle field both swear

To be comrades in action everywhere.

I eat and drink and bathe me once a week,

And leave the grasping to the ones who seek.



45 So Jacob took a stone and set

It up a pillar. 46 Then he told

His brothers, Jacob did, to get

More stones. And all of them took hold

Of stones to bring and make a pile,

On top of which they ate a while.

47 And Laban had a name to give

The place, Jegar Sahadutha,

Jacob, less imaginitive,

Called it Galeed. 48 And Laban saw

And said "This heap is witness here

Between you and me this day clear."

Therefore its name was called Galeed,

49 Also Mizpah, since he decreed

"May YHWH watch between you and me

When we are absent mutually.



The stones and standing pillars set with names

Are all that humans have to make their claims.

With signatures and promises men prove

That utterance alone can never move

The human heart to loyalty and truth.

My prowess is expressed in beads and stays

> And contracts lest I be caught up in ruth.
>
> The witnesses on witness steel my days.
>
> Beloved, I turn to You with only breath,
>
> A single word to council before death,
>
> And rise to find above the pillars song
>
> And that the day as well as night is long.
>
> Our whisperings are mutual when said.
>
> You speak and I become and take the bread.
>
>
>
> 50 "If you afflict my daughters, or
>
> If you take other wives before
>
> My daughters, although no man is
>
> With us, see, Ælohim has His
>
> Witness between the both of us
>
> To see if we're contrarious!"
>
> 51 Then Laban said to Jacob, "Here
>
> Is this heap which I am sincere,
>
> And pillar, in placing between
>
> The both of us, which may be seen
>
> 52 "This witness heap and pillar that
>
> Is a witness, from where I'm at
>
> I will not pass beyond this heap
>
> Nor shall you, while we wake or sleep,
>
> To do the other harm. 53 "The God
>
> Of Abraham, of Nahor, God
>
> Of their father judge between us."
>
> And Jacob swore, commodious,
>
> And by his father Isaac's Dread.
>
> 54 Then Jacob offered up instead
>
> A sacrifice on the mountain,
>
> And called his brothers to eat bread.
>
> And they ate bread and stayed therein
>
> All night long upon the mountain.
>
> 55 And early in the morning rose
>
> Up Laban, kissed his sons and chose
>
> To kiss his daughters, blessed them all.
>
> Then Laban left, went home withal.
>
>
>
> The contract that is basic in men's lives
>
> Is not the one that rises in beehives.
>
> Suffice to man another will not harm
>
> His life and wife and child and cattle farm.
>
> Belovèd, You are just the Dread that keeps
>
> The equal in invading strength from sweeps
>
> Into full warfare. There's no shadow more
>
> Of You in human thoughts from aft to fore.
>
> The only dread that rises when the power
>
> Is unequal is that invasion's hour
>
> Is not postponed, but dread of attack comes
>
> To release the impoverished of their sums.
>
> I rise up early to kiss You and go.
>
> Belovèd, do not let my weakness show.


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