Confession retells rebellion and persistent mercy: Craving, jealousy, and the calf

Forgetting is fast: craving, a granted request, and jealousy in the camp

They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul. They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the LORD. The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.

Soon is the poem's judgment on memory. Granted craving with leanness, then Korah-circle envy named through Dathan and Abiram, are selected scenes. The telling is theological, not a full Numbers transcript. Wicked here are the rebels in the camp story, not a standing label for Israel.

The calf at Horeb changes glory into a grass-eating ox, and Moses stands in the breach

They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea. Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.

Calf, forgotten saviour, and a mediator in the breach are confession, not satire from outside. Changed glory is Israel's self-indictment of false worship. Moses standing in the breach is intercession that belongs to this people. The unit must not feed antisemitic images of Jews as idolaters, and it must not turn Moses into a mascot who now condemns them from another religion's side.