The Bible According to Eve

By Hadassah Alderson

These poems are about the Biblical Women of the last chunk of the Bible. It includes some of the Bible's most flamboyant women: Vashti and Esther. It also includes the homely heroism of Ruth and the gentle eroticism of the Song of Solomon, in which Shoshanna (the Rose of Sharon) tells her story. This, of

• Language: English
• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Release date: Apr 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781684861668

Hadassah Alderson

Austin Macauley published my first book of poems, The Bible According to Eve: The Women of the Torah, about the women of the Fives Books of Moses in the Hebrew Bible. It is now out on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. On September 13, 2021 I did a recorded interview with the people who give the Eric Hoffer Award. Through Urlink Publishers, the company through whom she did the interview, I will be putting out three sequels, soon: The Bible According to Eve: Naviim: The Histories: Eve in Search of Adam; The Bible According to Eve: Naviim II: The Seers: Eve Supplants Lilith; and The Bible According to Eve: Kethuvim: The Writings: Eve Wrestles with God and Man and Prevails. The Bible According to Eve has also been in Publishers Weekly (twice); the Frankfurt Book Fair; the U.S. Book Fair and the American Library Association Annual Book Fair. It also has been advertised in the July/August and September/October issues in Hadassah.

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The Bible

According to Eve

Kethuvim: Eve Wrestles with Man and God and Prevails

Hadassah Alderson

The Bible According to Eve

Copyright © 2022 by Jennifer Alderson. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.

The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of URLink Print and Media.

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Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022906493

ISBN 978-1-68486-164-4 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68486-165-1 (Hardback)

ISBN 978-1-68486-166-8 (Digital)

19.11.21

CONTENTS

Psalms

Man Eaters

From the Belly of the Divine Mother

Gossip

David’s Roses

Hypocrisy and Its Opposite

David’s Plea for Forgiveness

The Fate of the Wicked

To God, in the Name of Orphans

Untitled

Little Birds

The Lord’s Espoused

The Newborn Infant

Birth in Jerusalem

The Mother Cat

To Be Loved by the Lord

Childless, A Woman Gains a Son

God Above the Crib

Love Your Little Girls, O Fathers

Mother Cow and the Lord’s Love

The Dream

Our Builders

The Strength of Jerusalem

Proverbs

Honor Your Children

O Wisdom is a Grand Old Lady

Foreign Wives

The Wisdom of Solomon

The Words of David to Solomon

The ‘Evil’ Woman

In Defense of the Abused Wife

He Whose Wife Has Committed Adultery

Your Kinswoman, Wisdom

The Spider

The Call of Wisdom

Wisdom’s Table

The ‘Stupid’ Woman

Common Sense

A Powerful Man’s Woman

In Finding Love

The Wise Woman

Honor Your Mother

Phaëton: A Study in Pride

Like Father, Like Son

A Wife’s Efficiency

The Debauched Woman and Her Critics

Thieves

Children of Glass

The Tamer, Tame

Look After Your Parents

The Good Tree

The Younger Woman

Multiplying Wives

Money Comes Between Two Friends

The Abrasive Wife

The Modern Oliver

Enough

The Bad Father

Guarding Against Evil

That Cat in Heat

The Supplanter

The Youthful Lemuel

The Good Husband

Job

The Trials of Job

The Song of Songs

The Heart of the Rose

Ruth

The Song of Ruth

Lamentations

Lamentations II

Lamentations III

Ecclesiastes

Response to Koheleth

Esther:

Prologue

Daniel

Daniel: The Wicked King

Ezra

Ezra: The Foreign Women

Nehemiah

Nehemiah: Israel and Palestine

Nehemiah: About Slavery

The Pouring Forth of Light

The Canting of the Word

The Treasure of God

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Chronicles I

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The Crime of Judah

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Chronicles II

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II Chronicles 9

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Finis:

Life as Eve in the Twenty First Century

PSALMS

Man Eaters

I

The Lord gives a command; the women who bring the news are a great host: The kings and their armies are in headlong flight; housewives are sharing in headlong flights; housewives are sharing in the spoils; even for those of you who lie among the sheepfold there are wings of a dove sheathed in silver, its pinion in fine gold.

Psalms 16:12-16:14

II

The battles Israel fights involve

the benefits the women joining

as sisters to the soldiers who will

share in the largess gained in battle.

III

This largess involves fighting as well

as the spoils of war for the women

of Israel are like great tigers

who consume ungulates such as

the water buffalo and wild boars.

IV

Like tigresses your teeth cut into

the flesh of freshly slaughtered soldiers

like the man eaters who will swallow

the flesh of humans when they become

ones unable to consume that prey

which they will usually catch to eat—

the mangy animal which can’t hunt

their usual prey for their lack of speed.

V

The killer of men is the woman

when battle is through on fields of blood—

but not just any women will do,

its Israelite ones who can maul men.

VI

O YHWH, we’re fierce beyond belief.

Although we do not drink blood itself,

we scare them as though we did in war.

The Jewish woman remains as though

she’s ferocious to enemies and

not merely appendages to males

who fight as one hand in hand with them.

VII

With men we fight our enemies, Lord,

just as we love them during peacetime.

We spill blood on the fields of wartime.

Don’t deny us our glory with them;

like Debrah and like Jael we are

more men than men are themselves at war.

From the Belly of the Divine Mother

I

You drew me from the womb and made me secure at my mother’s breast

I became Your charge at birth; from my mother’s womb You have been my God.

Psalms 22:10-12

II

O God, You gave birth to all our souls—

the Soul of all of Humanity.

For You are Mother to us as well

as Father; in the depths of our God

our spirits were formed like a fetus

and forced out of the belly of God

like a new mother’s contractions in

her going into labor itself.

III

Each child is our God’s spirit, born of

and ever replenishing well’s spout.

Now God forms each soul’s body for it;

so even bipolar is a gift

if properly its understood by

the grown up child made physical by

the breathing of the spirit into

the womb of the child’s mother herself.

For children are the Lord’s gift to us.

Gossip

I

Malicious witnesses appear who question me about things I do not know.

Psalms 35:11

II

O Lord the wickedness of gossip

hunts down the Jewish people hunts us

for wicked gossip is told about

the Jews: how we are filled with cruel greed

and hypocrisy; Communist and

yet also banker, conspiring that

the Jews have conspired against others

for wealth and power craftily used.

III

They repay me evil for good [seeking] my bereavement.

Psalm 35:25

IV

We have loved liberty and justice

we have been benefactors to the poor

we’ve produced art and culture so that

the rest of humankind can admire

the works which the Jews created, too.

This is true whether regarding work

of Kafka or of Chagall—whether meant to

be frightening or inspiring awe.

Our philosophy created what

came to be called, the West for Europe

as Christians were Jews before they would

at come to be a separate faith.

V

Yet, when they were ill, my dress was sackcloth, I kept a fast—may what I prayed for happen to me!

Psalm 35:13

VI

We’ve protested the rights abused of

the underprivileged both abroad

in Kosovo and Darfur while we

have produced advocates for the rights

of Afro-American at

home in the United States and who

have practiced the best of its values.

VII

I walked about as though it were my friend or my brother; I was bowed with gloom, like one mourning for his mother.

Psalms 35:14

For those who remain maltreated we

have spoken on their behalf ourselves.

VIII

But when I stumble, they gleefully gather; wretches gather about me, I know not why; they tear at me without end.

With impious, mocking grimace they gnash their teeth at me.

Psalms 35:15-35:16

IX

Yet still Jews have to watch out because

our enemies have remained so that

they can still attack us yet again;

for anti-Semites glory in crimes

that other assume would be shameful

while muttering foul gossip of both

the Jewish religion and people.

X

That is why Jewish people must not

be gossips themselves; it is slander

that has hurt Jewish people more than

a single other crime in history with

the rumors of us having matzo

filled with the blood of children while they

took communion on Easter itself.

These lies cost Jews lives in the millions

and Jews must never stoop to slander

in fighting for our deserved justice.

David’s Roses

I

For the leader; on shoshanim. Of the Korahites. A maskil. A love song.

Psalms 45:1

The shoshanim are lovely women

the roses within the king’s harem.

The loveliest of them sings to him,

II

My heart is astir with gracious words; I speak my poem to a king; my tongue is the pen of an expert scribe.

Psalms 45:2

O woman circumscribed by gender

allowed one man to love as husband

in a huge group of Jewish women.

Do all these women love their master?

III

Ah, but some women find him handsome,

the shoshanim are the ones who love

as beautiful but thornless roses

and, feeling lonely as a result

so that their poems for King David

are plaintive songs to David’s lovers

as tender hearts beg him to write down

words to be remembered by as they

leave nothing behind besides these words.

IV

They whisper to King David at night,

You are fairer than all men; your speech is endowed with grace; rightly has God given you an eternal blessing.

Psalm 45:3

V

For to the Shoshanim their king was

a beauty as if they were angels

who surrounded him as though he were

Lord YHWH joined by YHWH minions

above in heaven created for

their service to Lord YHWH only.

Yet in their devotion it seemed to

Lord YHWH horrifying the way

that women would make sacrifices

of themselves for a great man who for

all his good looks and power was still

a mere man and not a god that they

should swoon to be looked upon by him

when he would barely remember names.

VI

Yet God loved David as much as them;

for David seduced even his God.

Gird your sword upon your thigh, O hero, in your glory; in glory success; ride on in the cause of truth and meekness and right; and let your right hand lead you to awesome deeds.

Psalms 45:4

O David, cried the Shoshanim to

their liege, "You’re vigorous and virile

as a youth despite your hair’s graying;

we envy Bathsheba for being

a favorite while because we’re meek

we evade the king’s notice ourselves.

VII

"O to be the one overseeing

your death when you die, to be the one

who cares for our own beloved King,

to clean your bedpan and wash your sheets

while changing the kings’ clothing each night.

O King! Each wishes we were the one

to serve you lonely in your palace!"

VIII

Your arrows sharpened, [pierce] the breast of the king’s enemies; people fall at your feet.

Psalms 45:6

"O David! Mighty general who

has sparked fear into Israel’s foes!

When we see you in battle we find

that our hearts flutter at the great man.

O brave and noble David! We cry

You’re triumphant to Shoshanim who

love our King David devotedly

in loneliness for their lord’s presence."

IX

Your divine throne is everlasting; your royal scepter is a scepter of equity.

Psalm 45:7

O David, from your line will come forth

the messiah, the king who redeems

all humankind in the end of times.

Would that he be from our line also,

so that the messiah would have been

born of a crimson Rose; a woman

who was the true love of King David."

X

You love righteousness and hate wickedness; rightly has God, your God, chosen to anoint you with oil of gladness over all your peers.

Psalms 45:8

"O David, loving righteousness for

our beloved Lord’s sake who chose you.

Yet we wish you loved us as much as

you have loved virtue defined by Law.

For we feel like wild roses which are

cast like weeds rotting despite being

a beautiful plant which we’re named for—

as Shoshanim, the roses of God

which aren’t love singly but as a set."

XI

All your robes [are fragrant] with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from ivories palaces lutes entertain you.

Psalm 45:9

"O David, we, your Shoshanim are

your entertainment accompanying

our music of lutes next to lyrics.

We sing and dance in circles with him,

King David, holding hands as though we

were singing the old nursery rhyme

‘O Ring around the Rosies’ as though

a protective link David

as though the original rhyme’s meaning

in regards plague would warn the virus

to go far off from our own liege lord

and also warn the arrows of war

to leave our David lonely so that

he lives to a ripe old age at last."

X

Royal princesses are your favorites; the consort stands at your right hand, decked in the gold of Ophir.

Psalms 45:10

O King we are your princesses yet

to remember all of our names is

still impossible despite our rank."

XI

"The king will perhaps remember us

by how our face shown before

King David, beloved by these wives

named Shoshanim or Roses by those

who like the king are enraptured by

their loveliness as princesses who

were born in foreign lands far from us."

Then David spoke to the one whom he

loved best of his rose clusters at court.

XII

Take heed, lass, and note, incline your ear: forget your people and your father’s house, and let the king be aroused by your beauty.

Psalms 45:11-45:12

We have no choice in regards our home,

the Shoshanim would sadly admit.

"Our fathers forgot us in sending

Their daughters to King David to live.

O King, we bitterly weep ourselves

for our lost virginity at court."

Then David picked his favorite with

the other Shshanim made to serve

her as maids and spoke softly to her,

O Tyrian lass, the wealthiest people will court your favor with figts, goods of all sorts.

Psalms 45:13-45:14:1

And after David spoke to this girl—

a beautiful young woman to all—

she entered, trembling, the king’s bedroom.

XIII

The royal princess, her dress embroidered with gold mountings is led inside to the king; maidens in her train, her companions are presented to you.

They are led in with joy and gladness; they enter the palace of the king.

Your sons will succeed your ancestors; you will appoint them princes throughout the land.

Psalms 45:14:2-45:17

"Ah, but your princess mourns in secret;

she weeps for her lost virginity.

she wishes to be treated as one

alone among the trees of the forest,

the women loved by her lord, the king,

or to be the wife of a poor man

whose heart is undivided in love."

I commemorate your fame for all generations, so peoples will praise you forever and ever.

Psalms 45:18

Hypocrisy and Its Opposite

I

And to the wicked, God said: "Who are you to recite My laws, and mouth the terms of My covenant, seeing that you spurn my discipline, and brush My words aside?

When you see a thief, you fall in with him, and throw in your in your lot with adulterers; you devote your mouth to evil, and yoke your tongue to deceit; you are busy maligning your brother, defaming the son of your mother.

Psalms 50:16-50:17

Adulterer, thief, matricide who

lies to God in your prayers saying

I am just, when you have sinned greatly.

II

For to sin is not simply eating the foods

that violate the laws of Kosher

or disobey the rituals trough which

we pray on holidays or Shabbat;

to sin is to not give to the poor,

it is not to be kind to strangers,

it is to lie or treat friends badly.

III

To be a good Jew is to also

be a good person towards others

and to work hard at all you do with

a wholeheartedness that marks the saint.

It is a liar who while praying

has denied God his or her whole heart;

by which it is meant they have been cruel

in intention or action itself.

IV

Now humility demands we say

that all have fallen short of goodness

and prayers said in reparation

must be made, for all humans have sinned.

And as an old man insisted once

on the day of Yom Kippur itself,

God, You have made the orphans Yourself,

and Widows exist because of You.

V

And so God replied in an act of

God’s repenting with human beings

on the day of Yom Kippur itself

in hopes of being loving rather

than merely fair or just to people

who constitute Jews but also

the non-Jews throughout the world’s nations.

VIII

As God has done we should all practice;

for God is the great example to

his children humankind on the earth.

David’s Plea for Forgiveness

I

For the leader. A psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had come to Bathsheba.

Psalms 51:1-51:2

On realizing his sins King David

poured his heart out to his Lord YHWH.

Have mercy upon me, O God, as befits Your faithfulness; in keeping with Your abundant compassion, blot out my transgressions.

Psalms 51:3

O Lord—my sins seem to we as many

as the sands on the ocean floor which

the fish glide within waters they are

sharks, giant squids or bottom feeders.

III

Yet I love my Lord wholeheartedly

and swear I will now fully repent

in that I will give more to the poor

and spend more time in prayer to be

one forgiven by the Lord YHWH;

if the man whom I victimized lived

I would give him back tenfold that which

I took from him, this despite the fact

he might spit on my face in anger

and I would regard this as righteous.

IV

I would then repay to him tenfold

what his loss was which I took from him.

I would give him back Bathsheba, too.

It is too late to act thus towards

the Hittite Uriah but I shall

still remember him in my prayers.

V

Wash me thoroughly of my iniquity, and purify me of my sin; for I recognize my transgressions, and am ever conscious of my sin.

Psalm 51:4

VI

I saw a lovely woman who had

a monarch butterfly’s bright colors,

its oranges and speckled brown spots

with curves round like the Greek’s own Venus

and auburn hair down past her waistline.

Her eyes were like a wounded does were;

I’d never truly loved a woman

and yet she belonged to another.

VII

Against You alone have I sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight; so You are just in You sentence, and right in Your judgment.

Psalms 51:6

If even thought of Uriah could

not cool my lusting after his wife—

and indeed he was innocent as

I was in the wrong towards him then—

"How can I speak to God with my soul

in a state of sin towards YHWH?

How can God forgive unending sin?"

VIII

If a commits one sin only

and repents, feeling guilty for it,

then the Lord forgives the man’s mistake.

But if a different man sins while

he repents without sincerity

but multiple crimes that do not end

the Lord’s wrath is then kindled against

this