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STEVE ISHAM
Commandment
- Which of the ten in holy writ
- has most ‘small print’?
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- …Remember the Sabbath day…
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- Rest, it enjoins, for ox and camel,
- goatherd and garment maker.
- Each to their ease, basking in shalom.
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- To break Sabbath
- it seems, is to oppress,
- to steal hope and health
- of a woman in the next tent
- who stitches a new shirt for Moses.
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- Who makes my new shirt?
- She seams in China, Honduras, Bangladesh.
- Ask me tomorrow if I give her rest.
The bestowal of the
Decalogue (or Ten Commandments) by Yahweh, God of the Hebrews, is represented twice in
early texts. (Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5). The Deuteronomic version provides social
justice elaboration for this particular commandment.
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