Our lives are bitter with service in mortar and brick
III
Our lives are bitter with service in mortar and brick,
we whose fathers watched the flock of stars,
and had no Pharaoh but the sun. When he came,
they led their sheep to pasture at the pace of the lambs —
few and evil are the days of our lives.
We have built Pithom and Raamses. What are two
cities to Pharaoh?
We must build him many as the stars.
Why do you complain? The more you are afflicted,
the more you multiply, the more you spread abroad.
What have you become?
A shepherd in a wilderness.
Your hair is grey;
how much longer
before you attempt the dreams of your heart?
Deliver my people out of Egypt,
bring them out of that land to a good land,
a land of milk and honey, the land of your fathers.
What is this you have done? Who sent for you?
Before Pharaoh and his court come two shabby Hebrews and say,
Let our people go, we pray you, three days' journey into the wilderness,
to hold a feast to God.
Who asked you to speak for us?
No wonder Pharaoh's court burst into laughter;
we have heard how Pharaoh smiled, leaned forward and said,
Who is your God that I should listen to Him?
I know Him not.
Then you should have known enough to be silent,
but you must speak on;
until Pharaoh answered in anger,
Why do you loose the people from their work? Get to your burdens.
And he commanded his officer, Give the people no more straw to make brick,
let them gather straw for themselves;
and the number of bricks they did make, you shall lay upon them,
you shall not make it less,
for they are idle, therefore they cry, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.
We are scattered throughout Egypt to gather stubble for straw,
and the taskmasters are urgent,
fulfill your work, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.
We are beaten and the taskmasters demand of us,
Why have you not fulfilled your task both yesterday and today?
You are idle, you are idle, therefore you say, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.
Who asked you to speak for us? God judge you,
because you made us hateful in the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants,
and put a sword in their hand to kill us.
The God of the Hebrews sent us to say,
Let my people go to serve Me in the wilderness,
and Pharaoh did not listen.
In the morning, when Pharaoh came to his barge,
was not the river foul? Pharaoh turned and went into his house.
The fish in the river died, the Egyptians loathed to drink from the river,
the water was foul in vessels of wood and vessels of stone;
and they dug for water — they could not drink the water of the river.
Still Pharaoh would not let us go.
And the dust became lice throughout Egypt,
there were lice upon man and beast;
and the river swarmed with frogs.
The frogs came up into the houses and into the bedrooms and upon the beds,
and into the ovens and into the kneading troughs.
Still Pharaoh would not let us go.
The frogs gathered themselves into heaps and the land stank;
and swarms of flies came into the houses
upon Pharaoh and his servants and his people —
the air was black with flies.
Still Pharaoh would not let us go.
Then a murrain was upon the cattle in the field,
upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the herds, and upon the flocks,
and the cattle died; boils broke out upon men;
it thundered and rained hail and fire ran down into the earth,
and the hail struck every man and beast in the field,
every herb of the field, and broke every tree;
the flax and barley were struck down,
for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bloom.
And still Pharaoh would not let us go.
And an east wind blew all day and all night,
and in the morning brought the locusts;
they covered the earth so that the land was darkened
and ate what had escaped the hail,
every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees —
not a blade or a leaf or anything green was left.
Still Pharaoh would not let us go.
Now there has been darkness throughout Egypt for three days
so that men grope in the darkness.
Let us go,
with our young and old, with our sons and daughters,
with our flocks and herds to hold a feast to our God, as He commanded us.
The water of the river has been foul before.
Then there were lice and frogs, flies, and a murrain upon the cattle,
and boils upon men. What have these to do with it — or their God?
It has hailed in Egypt before the Hebrews were here;
we have known locusts often enough and darkness.
Why do you come before me as magicians and charmers?
Are we Hebrews to believe this?
See my face no more. The day you see my face again,
you die. Drive them from me.
The first-born of the Egyptians die,
from the son of the Pharaoh upon the throne
to the son of the servant behind the mill,
to the son of the prisoner in the dungeon;
not a house among them is now without its dead!
You hear the cry throughout Egypt;
now take your flocks and herds, the jewels of silver and the jewels of gold,
the fine clothing you have borrowed from the Egyptians,
your young and old, your sons and daughters,
take the dough before it is leavened,
the kneading-troughs upon your shoulders,
and hurry out of this land!
Why did you take us away to die in the wilderness;
were there no graves in Egypt?
Did we not say to you, Let us alone;
was it not better for us to serve in Egypt than to die in the wilderness?
The Egyptians turn, they turn, they cannot drive!
Their chariot wheels are bound with sand!
The waters return, return upon the Egyptians,
upon the horses and the chariots;
Pharaoh's host and his captains are sunk in the sea!
The water is bitter, we cannot drink it. The water is bitter.
Is there only the bitter for us from which to choose?
The water is bitter, we cannot drink it.
The water is bitter. The water is bitter, we cannot drink it.
That we had died in Egypt,
when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate bread to the full.
I remember the fish we did eat for nothing in Egypt.
The cucumbers and the melons, the onions, the leeks, and the garlic —
our soul is dried away;
there is nothing except this manna to look upon.
You are not to be like other nations;
you are to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
You shall have no other gods besides Him;
you shall make no image,
or the likeness of anything in the heavens,
on the earth, or in the water,
to bow down to it and serve it.
By righteousness shall you serve God:
you shall not swear by his name falsely;
six days shall you do your work and on the seventh, rest,
in ploughing time and harvest you shall rest
that your ox and ass may rest and your servants;
honor your father and mother; you shall not kill;
you shall not whore; you shall not steal;
you shall not deal falsely with each other;
you shall not covet your neighbor's house,
your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, his maidservant,
his ox, his ass, nor anything your neighbor's.
In righteousness shall you judge your neighbor:
you shall not respect the person of the poor nor honor the person of the mighty,
neither shall you favor a poor man in his cause.
If a witness has testified falsely,
as he thought to do to his brother, you shall do to him.
You shall put away evil from among you and your eyes shall not pity:
life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe;
as a man does to his neighbor it shall be done to him.
You shall not follow a multitude to do evil,
you shall not go up and down, a talebearer,
you shall not hate your brother in your heart:
rebuke your neighbor,
but you shall not take vengeance, nor bear a grudge;
you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
If you meet your enemy's ox or his ass astray,
you shall surely bring it back;
if you see the ass of him who hates you lying under his burden,
you shall surely set it free.
You shall be holy men before God;
you shall make a distinction between the unclean and clean.
These you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the hart,
the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the antelope, and the chamois,
but not the camel, the coney, the hare, and the swine,
nor whatever beasts go upon paws,
nor whatever dies of itself,
nor of all that move in the waters,
whatever has not fins and scales;
and of those that fly, the flesh of these is an abomination:
the eagle, the vulture, the kite, the falcon, and every raven,
the ostrich, the sea-mew, the night hawk and the little hawk,
the cormorant, the great owl, the horned owl,
the pelican, the stork, the heron, the hoopoe and the bat;
and all creeping things,
whatever goes upon its belly or has many feet,
the weasel and the mouse, the great lizard, the gecko, the crocodile, the sand lizard and the chameleon.
When you come into the land that shall be yours,
and reap your harvest,
you shall not reap the corners of the field,
neither shall you gather the gleanings:
you shall not glean your vineyard,
neither shall you gather the fallen fruit;
you shall leave them for the poor and the wanderer.
The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning;
you shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the corn.
If a stranger comes among you, you shall not do him wrong;
the stranger shall be as the home-born among you,
you shall love him as yourself;
for you know the heart of a stranger, you were strangers in Egypt.
You shall do no unrighteousness in measures of length, of weight, or of quantity:
you shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin.
When you go out to battle and see horses and chariots and a people more than you,
the officers shall say,
What man has built a house and has not dedicated it?
Let him return lest he die in the battle and another dedicate it.
What man has planted a vineyard and has not used the fruit?
Let him return lest he die in the battle and another use the fruit.
And what man has betrothed a wife and has not taken her?
Let him return lest he die in the battle and another take her.
What man is faint-hearted?
Let him return lest his brother's heart melt as his.
Six years you shall sow and reap;
the seventh year you shall let the land lie fallow
that the poor may eat and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat.
The poor will never cease:
therefore, I command you,
you shall open your hand to your brother — enough for his need.
If your brother be sold to you and serve you seven years,
at the end of the seventh year you shall set him free,
and you shall not let him go empty-handed:
you shall furnish him out of your flock and out of your threshing-floor and your wine-press,
as you have been blessed you shall give,
you shall remember that you were a bondsman in Egypt.
At the end of every seven years,
the creditor shall release that which he has lent:
he shall not exact it of his neighbor.
And you shall number seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years,
then you shall sound the trumpet throughout the land
and shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty to all the inhabitants:
it shall be a year of jubilee.
The land shall not be sold forever: the land is God's,
you are strangers and sojourners before Him;
you shall grant a redemption for the land;
but if the land is not redeemed,
it shall stay with him who bought it until the jubilee,
and in the jubilee he who sold it shall return to his possession.
You are not to do each what is right in his own eyes:
the words of this day shall be upon your heart,
teach them diligently to your children,
talk of them when you sit in your house,
along the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up,
bind them upon your hand,
they shall be frontlets between your eyes,
you shall write them upon the door-posts of your house and upon your gates.
Our lives are bitter with service in mortar and brick,
we whose fathers watched the flock of stars,
and had no Pharaoh but the sun. When he came,
they led their sheep to pasture at the pace of the lambs —
few and evil are the days of our lives.
We have built Pithom and Raamses. What are two
cities to Pharaoh?
We must build him many as the stars.
Why do you complain? The more you are afflicted,
the more you multiply, the more you spread abroad.
What have you become?
A shepherd in a wilderness.
Your hair is grey;
how much longer
before you attempt the dreams of your heart?
Deliver my people out of Egypt,
bring them out of that land to a good land,
a land of milk and honey, the land of your fathers.
What is this you have done? Who sent for you?
Before Pharaoh and his court come two shabby Hebrews and say,
Let our people go, we pray you, three days' journey into the wilderness,
to hold a feast to God.
Who asked you to speak for us?
No wonder Pharaoh's court burst into laughter;
we have heard how Pharaoh smiled, leaned forward and said,
Who is your God that I should listen to Him?
I know Him not.
Then you should have known enough to be silent,
but you must speak on;
until Pharaoh answered in anger,
Why do you loose the people from their work? Get to your burdens.
And he commanded his officer, Give the people no more straw to make brick,
let them gather straw for themselves;
and the number of bricks they did make, you shall lay upon them,
you shall not make it less,
for they are idle, therefore they cry, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.
We are scattered throughout Egypt to gather stubble for straw,
and the taskmasters are urgent,
fulfill your work, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.
We are beaten and the taskmasters demand of us,
Why have you not fulfilled your task both yesterday and today?
You are idle, you are idle, therefore you say, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.
Who asked you to speak for us? God judge you,
because you made us hateful in the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants,
and put a sword in their hand to kill us.
The God of the Hebrews sent us to say,
Let my people go to serve Me in the wilderness,
and Pharaoh did not listen.
In the morning, when Pharaoh came to his barge,
was not the river foul? Pharaoh turned and went into his house.
The fish in the river died, the Egyptians loathed to drink from the river,
the water was foul in vessels of wood and vessels of stone;
and they dug for water — they could not drink the water of the river.
Still Pharaoh would not let us go.
And the dust became lice throughout Egypt,
there were lice upon man and beast;
and the river swarmed with frogs.
The frogs came up into the houses and into the bedrooms and upon the beds,
and into the ovens and into the kneading troughs.
Still Pharaoh would not let us go.
The frogs gathered themselves into heaps and the land stank;
and swarms of flies came into the houses
upon Pharaoh and his servants and his people —
the air was black with flies.
Still Pharaoh would not let us go.
Then a murrain was upon the cattle in the field,
upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the herds, and upon the flocks,
and the cattle died; boils broke out upon men;
it thundered and rained hail and fire ran down into the earth,
and the hail struck every man and beast in the field,
every herb of the field, and broke every tree;
the flax and barley were struck down,
for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bloom.
And still Pharaoh would not let us go.
And an east wind blew all day and all night,
and in the morning brought the locusts;
they covered the earth so that the land was darkened
and ate what had escaped the hail,
every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees —
not a blade or a leaf or anything green was left.
Still Pharaoh would not let us go.
Now there has been darkness throughout Egypt for three days
so that men grope in the darkness.
Let us go,
with our young and old, with our sons and daughters,
with our flocks and herds to hold a feast to our God, as He commanded us.
The water of the river has been foul before.
Then there were lice and frogs, flies, and a murrain upon the cattle,
and boils upon men. What have these to do with it — or their God?
It has hailed in Egypt before the Hebrews were here;
we have known locusts often enough and darkness.
Why do you come before me as magicians and charmers?
Are we Hebrews to believe this?
See my face no more. The day you see my face again,
you die. Drive them from me.
The first-born of the Egyptians die,
from the son of the Pharaoh upon the throne
to the son of the servant behind the mill,
to the son of the prisoner in the dungeon;
not a house among them is now without its dead!
You hear the cry throughout Egypt;
now take your flocks and herds, the jewels of silver and the jewels of gold,
the fine clothing you have borrowed from the Egyptians,
your young and old, your sons and daughters,
take the dough before it is leavened,
the kneading-troughs upon your shoulders,
and hurry out of this land!
Why did you take us away to die in the wilderness;
were there no graves in Egypt?
Did we not say to you, Let us alone;
was it not better for us to serve in Egypt than to die in the wilderness?
The Egyptians turn, they turn, they cannot drive!
Their chariot wheels are bound with sand!
The waters return, return upon the Egyptians,
upon the horses and the chariots;
Pharaoh's host and his captains are sunk in the sea!
The water is bitter, we cannot drink it. The water is bitter.
Is there only the bitter for us from which to choose?
The water is bitter, we cannot drink it.
The water is bitter. The water is bitter, we cannot drink it.
That we had died in Egypt,
when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate bread to the full.
I remember the fish we did eat for nothing in Egypt.
The cucumbers and the melons, the onions, the leeks, and the garlic —
our soul is dried away;
there is nothing except this manna to look upon.
You are not to be like other nations;
you are to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
You shall have no other gods besides Him;
you shall make no image,
or the likeness of anything in the heavens,
on the earth, or in the water,
to bow down to it and serve it.
By righteousness shall you serve God:
you shall not swear by his name falsely;
six days shall you do your work and on the seventh, rest,
in ploughing time and harvest you shall rest
that your ox and ass may rest and your servants;
honor your father and mother; you shall not kill;
you shall not whore; you shall not steal;
you shall not deal falsely with each other;
you shall not covet your neighbor's house,
your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, his maidservant,
his ox, his ass, nor anything your neighbor's.
In righteousness shall you judge your neighbor:
you shall not respect the person of the poor nor honor the person of the mighty,
neither shall you favor a poor man in his cause.
If a witness has testified falsely,
as he thought to do to his brother, you shall do to him.
You shall put away evil from among you and your eyes shall not pity:
life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe;
as a man does to his neighbor it shall be done to him.
You shall not follow a multitude to do evil,
you shall not go up and down, a talebearer,
you shall not hate your brother in your heart:
rebuke your neighbor,
but you shall not take vengeance, nor bear a grudge;
you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
If you meet your enemy's ox or his ass astray,
you shall surely bring it back;
if you see the ass of him who hates you lying under his burden,
you shall surely set it free.
You shall be holy men before God;
you shall make a distinction between the unclean and clean.
These you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the hart,
the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the antelope, and the chamois,
but not the camel, the coney, the hare, and the swine,
nor whatever beasts go upon paws,
nor whatever dies of itself,
nor of all that move in the waters,
whatever has not fins and scales;
and of those that fly, the flesh of these is an abomination:
the eagle, the vulture, the kite, the falcon, and every raven,
the ostrich, the sea-mew, the night hawk and the little hawk,
the cormorant, the great owl, the horned owl,
the pelican, the stork, the heron, the hoopoe and the bat;
and all creeping things,
whatever goes upon its belly or has many feet,
the weasel and the mouse, the great lizard, the gecko, the crocodile, the sand lizard and the chameleon.
When you come into the land that shall be yours,
and reap your harvest,
you shall not reap the corners of the field,
neither shall you gather the gleanings:
you shall not glean your vineyard,
neither shall you gather the fallen fruit;
you shall leave them for the poor and the wanderer.
The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning;
you shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the corn.
If a stranger comes among you, you shall not do him wrong;
the stranger shall be as the home-born among you,
you shall love him as yourself;
for you know the heart of a stranger, you were strangers in Egypt.
You shall do no unrighteousness in measures of length, of weight, or of quantity:
you shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin.
When you go out to battle and see horses and chariots and a people more than you,
the officers shall say,
What man has built a house and has not dedicated it?
Let him return lest he die in the battle and another dedicate it.
What man has planted a vineyard and has not used the fruit?
Let him return lest he die in the battle and another use the fruit.
And what man has betrothed a wife and has not taken her?
Let him return lest he die in the battle and another take her.
What man is faint-hearted?
Let him return lest his brother's heart melt as his.
Six years you shall sow and reap;
the seventh year you shall let the land lie fallow
that the poor may eat and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat.
The poor will never cease:
therefore, I command you,
you shall open your hand to your brother — enough for his need.
If your brother be sold to you and serve you seven years,
at the end of the seventh year you shall set him free,
and you shall not let him go empty-handed:
you shall furnish him out of your flock and out of your threshing-floor and your wine-press,
as you have been blessed you shall give,
you shall remember that you were a bondsman in Egypt.
At the end of every seven years,
the creditor shall release that which he has lent:
he shall not exact it of his neighbor.
And you shall number seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years,
then you shall sound the trumpet throughout the land
and shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty to all the inhabitants:
it shall be a year of jubilee.
The land shall not be sold forever: the land is God's,
you are strangers and sojourners before Him;
you shall grant a redemption for the land;
but if the land is not redeemed,
it shall stay with him who bought it until the jubilee,
and in the jubilee he who sold it shall return to his possession.
You are not to do each what is right in his own eyes:
the words of this day shall be upon your heart,
teach them diligently to your children,
talk of them when you sit in your house,
along the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up,
bind them upon your hand,
they shall be frontlets between your eyes,
you shall write them upon the door-posts of your house and upon your gates.
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