Job – Kate Bluett

I was not there to watch you shut
the sea within its doors,
to see you lift the mountains up
and bind the earth with shores,
but I have seen the ocean swells
rise up and break and fall,
that something of your mercy tells
beneath the gull's wild call.

For we are past the solstice now,
and summer's hold must break
though cruelty will have its hour
and Pharaoh holds his sway.
They rise and grow; they crash and sink
like waves upon the shore.
There is a time for everything—
so peace will come once more.

You set the limits of the sea
and you can part its waves,
just as you set the pris'ners free
and open up our graves.
You cast the mighty from their thrones
to crash upon the sands:
Though now we walk through waves unknown,
we still are in your hands.

Written at Rachel Wilhelm’s suggestion.

I came forth naked from my mother's womb,
and naked I will go into my grave.
No treasures will I bear into my tomb,
for God has taken everything he gave.

Why, Lord, do you afflict the righteous man?
I have not earned this penance or this pain.
If only you would face me as I stand
and hear the cries I raise to you in vain.

I know, I know my vindicator lives
and I will see him stand upon this earth.
I long to taste the comfort that he gives:
Oh when, oh when, my God, will you come forth?

The innocent are punished without crime;
the guilty meanwhile gorge on wealth and gain.
Where are you, God, in all this muck and grime?
Do you not hear our cries or feel our pain?

For every man of every woman born
is no more than a breath upon the wind:
He vanishes, and none is left to mourn;
he fades, forgotten even by his kin.

If only there were one to stand between,
to place his hand on me, his hand on God,
to teach me what this suff'ring myst'ry means,
and turn away the anger and the rod.

Too high, too high for me to ever know,
too far beyond the reaches of my sense,
I see what I had only heard before:
You came to me, my God, and I repent.

Tag: Job

Waves

Job’s Lament