Josuas Landtag

Just as the river at its mouth breaks through

its dykes with the excess of its outflow,

so now there broke through the voices of the elders

for the last time the voice of Joshua.

how all of them held heart and hands stock-still,

as if the din of thirty battles rose up

in a single mouth; and this mouth began.

as on the great day before Jericho,

but now the trumpets were inside of him,

and the walls of their life swayed so much

and defenseless already and overwhelmed, before

they had even thought it, how on his own authority

at Gibeon shouted at the sun: Stand still!

and held the sun, until his hands

ached for him, over the slaughtering race,

only because one man willed that it stand still.

of whom they thought that he no longer counted

in the midst of his hundred-and-tenth year.

Then he stood up and broke into their tents.

What do you mean to promise God? Uncounted

stand gods around you, waiting for you to choose.

Yet if you choose, the Lord will crush you.

I and my house, we stay wedded to him.

and strengthen us for our heavy choice.

climbing toward his fortified town on the mountain;

and then no more. It was the last time.