courage and loyalty
Caryl Ramsdale, American Poet
RIZPAH
Story: The Gibeonites punish King Saul's family
Rizpah means "A Hot Stone or Coal"
to Shirley Skidmore Holley
Birds of the sky that flew by day,
Animals that fed after dark;
Shied away from the mourning cloth
A slave woman swung in an arch.
Her sackcloth dipped and whipped the wind
Sent the scavengers on their way;
As she protected the bodies
Of young men, left there to decay.
King Saul’s concubine was guarding
Two dead sons that lay on a hill;
And in their midst rest five grandsons
That dropped shortly after the kill.
Soon those seven men hung from stakes
Their lives taken to pay a debt;
All for the sins of their father
To even a score that was set.
Grief stricken, she stood watch over,
The men she once rocked and held tight;
This courageous, loyal mother,
Protected them with all her might.
Maybe because she was admired
For devotion to family;
Or because she took her vigil
On a cold rock others could see.
Her sleepless purpose, the reason
She wouldn’t stop her woeful plight;
Was to wait for a burial—
To honor men and make things right.
Her power to make things happen
Left some with a feeling of awe;
Circumstance didn’t block the way
Of a brave, persistent Rizpah.
Therefore the Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteousness;
according to my cleanness in his eyesight. II SAMUEL 22:25 KJV
~ Pray for mother's that stand resolute against immoral issues...it pleases God. ~
[Usually the deceased were buried within twenty-four hours of their death.]
© Copyright 1999-2007 Caryl Ramsdale. All rights reserved.
Newsong Online.org
September 24, 2005
