Mashiach Ben-Yoseph (a poem)

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This poem by Elhanan Ben-Avraham is accompanied with his rendering of Joseph with his brothers before him. The poem parallels the story of Joseph and that of Yeshua and his brothers, the children of Israel.

Mashiach Ben-Yoseph

by Elhanan Ben-Avraham

 

What specie of blindness

Afflicts the eyes

That eleven men wise of the ages

See not their own brother?

 

Let us slay our brother Yoseph

Lest the sun and moon and stars

Lay down themselves before him,

Like his dream!

 

What manner of darkness

Envelops the heart

That the brothers of a king

Know not his voice?

 

Let us sell him to the Gentiles

Lest we bow ourselves before him

And our father too be humbled,

Like his dream!

 

What genus of deafness clogs the ear

Of the wise and learned children

That they cannot seem to hear

The pleading holy word?

 

Did we not see tears

In the eyes of the king

As he laden down our donkies

With his grain?

 

Were the cataracts inflicted

By the cross-shaped swords

In the blood-stained hands of demons

Cutting children in his name?

 

Were we not sore afraid

And troubled at his presence

When we knew our very brother

Who revealed himself before us!

 

Were the ears waxed closed

By the retching cry of infants,

And the hearts charred black

By the sickening heavy smoke

Of the fires it by monsters

In his name?

 

How our tears were flowing freely

As we ate there at his table

And we knew that we’d thought evil

But that God had meant to save us

As we gazed upon our brother,

Now a king.

 

What specie of tree

And family of wood

Was used to raise the sign

That the Jewish king of Israel

Has forgiven all his brethren

To take away their mourning,

To clothe them now with gladness

And to save alive much people,

In his name?

Mashiach Ben-Yoseph (Artistic Drawing by Elhanan Ben-Avraham)


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  • Elhanan Ben-Avraham

    Elhanan Ben-Avraham

    Elhanan Ben-Avraham is a professional painter, illustrator, calligrapher and poet. He has produced a number of large biblical murals in public buildings in Jerusalem, a monument of the Ten Commandments in Denver, Colorado, and a series of watercolor biblical greeting cards. He also teaches Bible…
    [Read more about author]

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