The Levite's Return

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About this song

When a Levite has regerts

Lyrics

[Verse 1 - The Walk Up]
The morning air was sweet with thyme
A temple hymn stuck in my head
The road was clear, the sun was kind
I saw something that looked like dead
I came closer than I should have
Closer than the priest before
I could see his back still breathing
See his blood pooled on the floor
[Verse 2 - The Contemplation]
I stood there watching flies gather
Calculating what it meant
If I touch him and he dies
I'm unclean, my service spent
Seven days outside the gate
Seven days of holy wait
But his eyes were open wide
Something like hope I couldn't hide
[Verse 3]
I saw him try to lift his hand
His mouth was working, forming air
I took a step toward him then
Another back - I couldn't bear
The priest already made the call
A higher man than me, that's all
Who am I to second guess?
Who am I to make this mess?
[Verse 4 - The Walk Away]
I crossed the road, I walked on by
I didn't meet his open eye
Could be a trap, could be a ruse
A man's got everything to lose
[Chorus]
I'm a man of the temple
A man of the song
I know the law, I know where I belong
I'm a man of the temple
I couldn't stay long
[Verse 5 - The Distance]
I walked a mile, I walked another
But something in my chest drew tight
The hymn had turned to silence
His eyes followed me like light
I said the reasons to myself
I said them once, I said them twice
But each repetition fell
Like losing dice
[Verse 6 - The Turn Back]
I stopped
I turned around
Maybe someone else has come
Maybe mercy has been found
I walked back slow along the ridge
And when I came around the bend
I saw something I still can't speak
Something I can't comprehend
[Verse 7 - The Witness]
One of them was kneeling there
One from the northern hills
His hands inside the wounds
Doing what mine never will
I can't even say what he is
That word won't form upon my tongue
But there he was, this man we mock
Binding wounds, the praises unsung
[Verse 8]
He poured his oil out like water
Tore his shirt without a thought
For a man he'd never know
Doing what cannot be bought
[Chorus]
I'm a man of the temple
A man of the song
I know the law, I know where I belong
I'm a man of the temple
But I got it wrong
[Verse 9 - The Following]
He lifted the broken one up
Onto his donkey, slow and sure
I followed in the shadows
A Levite brought down from pure
Seventeen miles he walked beside
His hand upon the wounded back
I could have helped, I could have shared
But shame kept me off the track
[Verse 10 - The Inn]
He brought him to a roadside inn
I watched him pay in silver coin
Heard him promise to return
And settle what the days conjoin
Then he left, walked past my hiding
Didn't see me, didn't care
What's one more man of the temple?
Just another breath of air
[Verse 11 - The Reckoning]
I sat behind that wall till dark
A man I was taught to despise
Had done what I could not
Right before my holy eyes
I know the psalms, I know the law
I know which foot goes where and when
But I don't know what I know now
Or who I even am
[Final Chorus]
I was a man of the temple
A man of the song
I knew the law, I knew where I belong
I was a man of the temple
I was wrong
God forgive me
I was wrong
[Outro - spoken]
I never went back to see if he lived
I still can't say the word
For the man who did what I wouldn't do
But I hear it in the silence
Between every note I sing
That man from the north
Showed me what the law looks like
Written in the dirt
With your own bare hands

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