Song of Pharaoh

August 14, 2025 | By Douglas Bunting - Regent University

Paolo Fiammingo, Elijah Fed by the Ravens, 1585

Douglas Bunting is a junior at Regent University, studying the Bible and theology. Throughout Scripture, our lack of trust in God’s generosity consistently leads to a prideful attempt to seize control, defining good and evil as we see fit. Pharaoh exemplifies this mistrust, and this poem uses him as a foil against the whole of Scripture and its call to trust in God's provision. Two voices speak: Pharaoh, whose seemingly logical words directly contradict Scripture, and a prophetic narrator, who frames and critiques Pharaoh’s twisted words.

Song of Pharaoh

Behold the wickedness of Pharaoh

Woe to those who share his heart:

I am not dust, I am a man

I know my rights and take my stand

What you request, I must not do

My people won’t bear pain for you

Did God not place into my hands

The lives of all within these lands

I will not jeopardize their souls

For these few Hebrews you console

Go tell your precious “Adonai”

That bread does not fall from the sky

He did not make the world a feast

Behold the starving of the beast

Consider ravens, how they strive

For bitter scraps to keep alive

See how the grass is crushed and spurned

Behold the flowers, scorched and burned

Babylon the great shall fall

A hope for all the souls who call

Upon His love and holy name

Whose heart the darkness shall not tame

I am, I am, and there is not

Another king whom they have sought

To keep them safe, to give them rest

At any cost, they shall be blessed

Weren’t you the one who let this be

Who placed these Hebrews here with me

I shall not yield, I shall not fail

My people’s hope shall yet prevail

With every plague, you prove me right

You are a God of death and blight

However loving be your name

You alone shall hold the blame

You dare to speak of my dear son

Perhaps my judgement’s just begun

It may be time the Nile flows

Once more with blood, with daughters’ woes

I hear a voice, it sings to me

A song of hope, of slaves set free

Arise, O Judge, in Your great might

To end Thy people’s endless night