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Now I will utter dark sayings of old. No longer will I hide these things from the children.
Yahweh visited our ancestors, when they were laborers in the Empire. He brought them out, and they attended a banquet on his hill.
He went with them as they wandered through the wilderness. He desired to lead them into Eldorado of India, to mix and to mingle. But the workers armed themselves, and carried weapons into the battle. They forgot about melding with the nations; they committed a slaughter, and they left the land a bloodbath.
Yahweh did marvelous things in the sight of those ancients, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the ocean, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand aside in two jumbles, to keep dry the hoofs of the ark-bearers. His vehicle looked in the daytime like a cloud of thick smoke, and in the night it appeared as a blazing fire.
Fallout Rock, in the wilderness, the peak where Moses was lynched, was bone dry when the wayfarers arrived: they were dying of thirst, so Yahweh brought streams out of the stone: he cleaved the rock and caused the waters to rush down like rivers.
Then the wayfarers asked for meat, because they were starved. And some doubted, saying: “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” And King Bryan the Eternal Christ assured them, saying: “Behold, he smote the rock, and the waters gushed out: the streams overflowed, so that some of you nearly drowned. Do you not think that he can give bread also? He can even provide flesh if you ask.”
Yahweh overheard this, and he commanded the clouds above to open the doors of the stratosphere, and it rained down sky-bread: thus he gave them the corn of heaven. Mortals ate the food of angels, until they were full. Then Yahweh caused an east wind to blow, and it hailed flesh upon them like dust, with feathered fowls like the sand of the sea. This fell in the midst of their camp, all around their habitations. So they ate again, till they were quite full, and very satisfied.
But right at that moment when the meat was in their mouths, God drew his glittering sword out from his girdle, and he slew the fattest of them: because he foresaw that the greediest would otherwise style themselves leaders: yogis and gurus, priests, pastors, and rabbis. Thus did Yahweh save the caravan much future grief.
With the rest of the wayfarers, Yahweh had his troubles; but he forgave them, time and again. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passes away, and comes not again.
After many years, the workforce’s memory faded, and the mighty deeds that Yahweh did to deliver them were forgotten. They no longer remembered how he turned all the Empire’s rivers into blood, so that the oppressors could not drink; and how he sent diverse sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them; he also gave increase unto the caterpillar and locust, to devour their crops; and how he ravaged their cattle with hail, and their vines with frost, and their flocks with hot thunderbolts; and how he sent evil angels among them, and gave their livestock over to the pestilence; and how he himself came down in person, and beheaded all the firstborns of the creditor class, while sparing the souls of the working people. He led those laborers on in safety, straight through the sea, and when their enemies followed them, he caused the floods to overwhelm them; and he brought the workforce unto his mountain. Then, after their wandering in the wilderness, he brought them to India, where they mixed and mingled in Eldorado; and he sent them elohims. And later he suffered their select committees of moguls to appoint presidents for them to elect. Yet the son of David inflicted the caravansary with forced labor, and the ways of the Empire returned upon the children of the workforce. Then Yahweh awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouts by reason of wine. He refused the permanent tabernacle of Solomon, and relinquished the north; he stormed far east, abandoning also the southern caravan; and Ozymandias dragged the remnant into Wonderland.
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O God, the creditors’ mercenaries have come to steal your inheritance; they have broken into your temple and defiled it, they have laid Eldorado on heaps. The dead bodies of your wayfarers are given to be meat for the fowls of heaven; their blood is shed like water, and there is no one to bury them. Our religion is a joke, no one believes in it. Why did you let this happen, Yahweh? Why did you burn everything with fire? They have devoured the caravan, and laid waste to our dwelling places. O God, save us, for the sake of your good name! Do you not want newcomers to join our congregation? Why do you allow scoffers to pass by and say: “Ah, this deity left his supplicants to be the victims of a bloody massacre; he is therefore either a stupid god or powerless.”
O Yahweh, we urge you: Render unto our assailants a sevenfold revenge. If you do this, we will sing your praise forever.
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Give ear, O herdsman of the caravan, you who lead your wayfarers like a flock; you that dwell between the cherubims, shine forth.
Come save us, O hairy one. Brush back your abundant locks, let your face shine, and be our savior.
Yahweh God of the pantheon, how long will you allow our meals to be the breadcrumbs of groaning, and teardrops for wine? All the neighboring nations are laughing at us.
You took a tree out of the old Empire, and transplanted it in Eldorado, then it took root and grew until it became a beautiful rainforest. But now it is burned with fire; it is cut down. Why did you let this happen? Awake, Yahweh! Quicken us!
81
Take a song; bring the timbrel, harp, and psaltery. Blow upon the trumpet in the new moon. This is a holiday.
Remember when the wayfarers first went to Egypt, and they heard the language that they did not understand. The Pharaoh treated you poorly, and you cried; then God answered your cry from his secret place of thunder.
Later, Yahweh proved you at Fallout Rock, at Lynch Peak. “What happened to Moses?” Now who’s crying? Think about that.
Hear, O caravan, and I will testify against you. You want bread; you want wine? I have plans to feed you with the finest wheat, and with the choicest blood of the grape.
I am Yahweh God, which brought you out of the Empire: open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
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Yahweh stands in the pantheon of the mighty; he judges among the gods.
Follow my lead: make your judgments like mine. On earth as in heaven.
Defend the poor and parentless: do justice to the afflicted and the needy.
Deliver those who are helpless out of the hand of the powerful.
But I suspect that your judges willfully misunderstand; they keep walking in darkness. For all the foundations of the earth are out of course: none of your established institutions are worthy of trust.
I have called your judges elohims, saying: “You are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High.” But you shall die like men, and fall like the rest of your leaders.
Arise, O God, judge the globe: repossess every nation.
83
Stop holding your peace and standing so still, O God. Break your silence!
For, lo, your enemies are making a tumult; and they that hate you have lifted up their head. They have taken crafty counsel, and consulted in a hidden place, against the innocent. They have said: “Come, let us financialize every necessity, and charge tolls for all essentials, to force the entirety into indentured servitude. And let us kill whoever resists.”
O my God, treat them as dung for the earth. Spin them like a wheel; sweep them like stubble before the wind. As the wildfire burns a forest, and as the flame sets the mountains on fire, so persecute them with your tempest. Chase them down, ride upon your cherubims, fly at them in your vortex, make them afraid of your storm. Fill their faces with shame. Let them be confounded and troubled forever; let them collapse in a heap and perish; that all creditors may know that you, whose name alone is YAHWEH PEOR, are the mightiest god at the apex of the starfield.
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How amiable are your tabernacles, O Yahweh!
My soul yearns, even faints, for the furnace where you dwell: my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
You even allow the sparrow to make a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, in your holy room, beside your oracle, O Yahweh my captain, because you are gentle.
Happy are those creatures who dwell in your house. They will still be praising you, as they tend to their eggs.
When you pass through a dry valley, you fill all the wells; the rain also surges in pools. The ground is no longer cracked.
Whomever you bless advances from strength to strength. There is no limit to the power that you bestow.
O Yahweh, God of the Armies, let us take shelter under your shield. Let us see the bright face of your Anointed Flagbearer.
A single day in your Furnace is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in Yahweh’s tabernacle, even a butler or bellboy, than to serve as the top brass in the tents of the creditors.
For Yahweh God is the sun and the shade, all in one. Think about that.
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