God's Riddle Poem by Daniel Partlow

God's Riddle



(From Job 40)

Hearken to the voice of thunder.
Rumbling spreads across a sky which has lost it’s cobalt hue.
Lightning covers the whole earth.
His breath brings forth ice and oceans freeze right through.

He charges the hurricane with its power,
spiraling at his guidance - leveling reproof upon creation.
Out of the whirlwind proceeds the voice:
'Who is darkening counsel without knowledge or revelation? '

Shall a critic contend with the Almighty?
Gird up your loins like a man and answer the demand of my song.
Will you profane me and my law to justify you and yours?
Will you ever judge that I am wrong?

Hast thou an arm like God?
Can you thunder with a voice of almighty power?
Can you project the rage of thy wrath:
debasing every one that is proud, and make them cower?

Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency;
and array thyself with beauty and glory.
Look on every one that is proud and dethrone them
from their penthouse and highest story.

Hide them in the dust together;
and bind their faces in secret sheol.
Then will I also confess unto thee that thine
own right hand doth play a role.

But, behold now behemoth, which I made with thee;
he eateth grass as an ox.
Behold his mighty loins, his powerful belly muscles down low -
as strong and hard as rocks.

He moveth his tail and sweeps the cedar:
mightly the sinews of his stones, his bones, together knit.
His bones are strong brass and iron -
his entire constitution is tough as nails and grit.

He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him
will use him as a sword.
Surely the mountains of the beasts bring him forth food,
and sustaining reward.

He lieth brewing under the shady trees,
in the covert of the marshy fen and reeds
The shady willows of the brook compass round
and on the waters of the Earth he feeds.

He trusteth that he can draw up Jordan,
the gateway to the promised land, in his mouth.
He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.
Keep watch for the Queen of the south.

Can you catch leviathan with an hook?
Or harness his tongue with a cord to power thy mill?
Can you put an hook into his nose?
or bore his jaw through with a thorny drill?

Will he show such useful promise
speaking soft supplications?
Will he make a covenant with thee?
Will you take him for a servant for useful application?

Wilt you play with him as with a bird?
or wilt thou bind him for all thy maiden?
Shall the companions fete him at the exchanges?
Shall they divide and trade this beast so power laden?

But can you control it filling his skin with barbed irons?
or his head with harpoon?
Challenge him once, and remembering the battle,
you will not try again so soon.

Behold, the hope of him is in vain:
shall you not be cast down even as you see?
None is so fierce that dare stir him up:
who then is able to stand before me?

To who do I owe? Whatsoever is under
the whole heaven is mine - No one is my creditor.
So, I will not conceal his parts, nor his power,
nor his comely proportion - this beastly predator.

Who can disarm him?
Who can come to him with double bridle?
Who can open the doors of his face?
He sits awaiting his time so deceptively idle.

His teeth are terrible round about.
His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.
One is so near to another, that no air can come between them -
his form I shall reveal.

They are joined one to another, they stick together,
that they cannot be put asunder.
His eyes are the lids of dawn, from his nose comes
lightning when he sneezes and deafening thunder.

Out of his mouth spew streams of
sparks and burning torches.
Out of his nostrils goeth smoke,
as out of a seething pot or caldron - the Earth it scorches.

His breath kindleth coals,
His vast neck contains potential energy and power.
The flames blast forth from his mouth
drying lakes and wilting flower.

The flakes of his flesh are joined together:
they are firm, impregnable to human force.
His heart is as firm as a stone; and molten
nether millstone through his veins does course.

When he raiseth up, the mighty fear and purify,
earthquakes and eruptions urging-on.
The sword cannot hold him:
the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.

To him iron is as straw, and brass as rotten wood,
a ruined farmhouse rubble.
The arrow cannot make him flee,
missiles are turned with him into stubble.

Bullets and darts are naught,
he muses at the shaking of a spear with laughs of fire.
Sharp stones are under him:
and he speweth sharp pointed things upon the mire.

He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.
The deep boils like a pot, fiery red and gory.
He leaves a shining path after him;
one would think the deep to be hoary.

Upon earth there is not his like,
who is made without fear - the heavens he doth deride.
This leviathan beholdeth all high things:
he is a king over all the children of pride.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Chitra - 29 August 2008

an absolute 10 for this write!

0 0 Reply
Linda Hepner 01 May 2007

Incredibly powerful Daniel. It's wonderful how you have internalized the poetry of the psalms and prophets. The leviathan is a curious creature in the bible, terrible yet delicious we are told. Strange anomoly, like the beauty and power packed into your poem.

0 0 Reply
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Daniel Partlow

Daniel Partlow

St. Louis, MO > Westport, CT
Close
Error Success