No one so strong as Yitzchak, who held still
And let himself be bound for sacrifice;
But then it seemed his will had quenched his will:
No one has strength to climb that mountain twice.
And so he sat at home with dimming eyes,
Loving his reckless firstborn who brought home
The taste of life, shrinking from Yakov’s voice
In which he heard the note of woes to come.
Rivka had chosen freely, loved the true
Inheritor -- but, that he might prevail,
Used the kind of trick her brother knew.
Yitzchak at last against his will did well.
But was there no trickery in the Divine
Counsel, that bound this fate on Yitzchak’s line?