Not Required: Story of Isaac

Leonard Cohen is one of the most celebrated of Canadian singer-songwriters. His lyrics are often dense, his singing style austere, his lyrics weighty with meaning. This song is about the Aquedah (Binding), or Sacrifice of Isaac as it's known by Christians.

The song starts with a dramatization of the story of Abraham and Isaac (GENESIS 22), then generalizes to modern life's useless sacrifice of war, warning that there's a difference between a divine vision and a human scheme. This is the main problem posed by the biblical story: how can we tell the voice of God from our own evil schemes?

The father in the song towers above the child. His blue eyes shine (an image of inspiration) but his eyes are cold. The contrast is repeated in the words, "strong and holy," combining human and divine traits.

Another contrast is in running/walking, which suggests what God requires is not necessarily something we (or others) desire. The same contrast appears in axe/gold (that is, violence and beauty).

Other contrasts include demon/god, wine/broken bottle (the wine is no longer a sacrament to remember but only a human drink to forget). Another strong contrast is eagle/vulture; that is between power and death.

The song concludes with the message that people who sacrifice now, in war, are not the same people who made the sacrifice to God on Mount Moriah from the "beauty of the word." That is, they no longer follow God's plan, just a human scheme. Killing now is just an excuse ("I will kill you if I can" but "help you if I must").

But the alternative is also possible ("I will help you if I can" and "kill you if I must." Thus human values are arbitrary, like the words "war" and "peace" and whom we call "brother" ("according to whose plan?").

The celebration of those values are also interchangeable ("the peacock spreads its fan"). We can only hope we do God's will ("mercy on our uniform").

The door it opened slowly,
My father he came in, I was nine years old.
And he stood so tall above me,
His blue eyes they were shining
And his voice was very cold.
He said, I've had a vision
And you know I'm strong and holy,
I must do what Ive been told.
So he started up the mountain,
I was running, he was walking,
And his axe was made of gold.

Well, the trees they got much smaller,
The lake a lady's mirror,
We stopped to drink some wine.
Then he threw the bottle over.
Broke a minute later
And he put his hand on mine.
Thought I saw an eagle
But it might have been a vulture,
I never could decide.
Then my father built an altar,
He looked once behind his shoulder,
He knew I would not hide.

You who build these altars now
To sacrifice these children,
You must not do it anymore.
A scheme is not a vision
And you never have been tempted
By a demon or a god.
You who stand above them now,
Your hatchet's blunt and bloody,
You were not there before,
When I lay upon a mountain
And my father's hand was trembling
With the beauty of the word.

And if you call me brother now,
Forgive me if I inquire,
Just according to whose plan?
When it all comes down to dust
I will kill you if I must,
I will help you if I can.
When it all comes down to dust
I will help you if I must,
I will kill you if I can.
And mercy on our uniform,
Man of peace or man of war,
The peacock spreads his fan.

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