Revised Edition: LukivPress (Victoria, BC), 2022.

introduction

Baal worship has ruined Judah. Sometime before 648 BCE, Zephaniah writes Jehovah's words meant for his disobedient people: "'I will completely sweep away everything from the surface of the ground, ' declares Jehovah. 'I will sweep away man and beast. I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks along with the wicked ones; and I will remove mankind from the surface of the ground, ' declares Jehovah. 'I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem [Babylon will overthrow Judah and Jerusalem in 607 BCE], and I will wipe out from this place every vestige of Baal, the name of the foreign-god priests along with the priests, and those who bow down on the rooftops to the army of the heavens [referring to worship of celestial bodies, such as the moon, sun, and stars, and to astrology] and those who bow down and pledge loyalty to Jehovah while pledging loyalty to Malcam [the fundamental god of the Ammonites].'" (Zephaniah 1:2-5) Do the Jews listen to Zephaniah? Zephaniah 1:12 says, "I [Jehovah] will call to account the complacent ones, who say in their heart, 'Jehovah will not do good, and he will not do bad.'" Do they repent of their wayward choices? No, they do not. In 607 BCE they learn that Jehovah, the God of Abraham, their forefather, fulfills all his prophecies. In their hearts, they have seen Jehovah as a God of inactivity; how wrong they are. A righteous and holy God, he refuses to put up with their divided form of worship any longer.

An excerpt, based on chapter one

Baal,
owner, of land,
Hearts,
thinkless minds
Full like dry cisterns,

Of myrtle trees, and
Vineyards that beautify
Hillsides,
Of virgins,
shepherds,

Warriors swinging sharpened
Swords;
this Baal,
The man,
the lady,

The androgyne;
see,
men dressed
As women,
Women dressed as soldiers
Skilled in war and death;

O Baal,
Aliyan,
Zabul Prince,
Rider of Clouds,

Lord of Earth-
The rain and womb belong to you
Under Mot,
god of death and
Dry air,

Do you call your wife Ashtoreth,
Will you mate once again
To unfold the womb?

Listen to songs of lust-crazed
Sex-mongers,
to mum-
Bling readers of the zodiac,
To chirping birds no longer

On Baal's shoulders-
Did he leave the land,
Like a jackal on the run?

Like an ostrich abandoning
Her babies?
One day,
Baal,
you will cease
To be,

No longer lurking in thinkless
Men-
a log in a blaze,
You will cease to be.

The author

Dan Lukiv, published in 19 countries, is a poet, novelist, columnist, short story and article writer, and independent education researcher (hermeneutic phenomenology). As a creative writer, he apprenticed with Canada's Professor Robert Harlow (recipient of the George Woodcock Achievement award for an outstanding literary career), the USA's Paul Bagdon (Spur Award finalist for Best Original Paperback), and England's D. M. Thomas (recipient of the Cheltenham Prize for Literature, Orwell Prize [biography], Los Angeles Fiction Prize, and Cholmondeley award for poetry). He attended The University of British Columbia (creative writing department), the acclaimed Humber School for Writers (poetry writing program), and Writer's Digest University (novel writing program).