Is All of This True or Just a Lie?

Is all of this true or just a lie,

That some god up in the sky,

In an age that passed long ago

(Maybe four thousand years or so),

Said to a man in words like this:

“To you I give in solemn promise

A stretch of land that’s very vast

As a gift which forever shall last.

This land I’ll grant not just for you,

But for all your descendants, too”,

And years after this man was dead

The god high up in the sky then led

The deceased man’s tribal band

To attack and conquer that land,

In doing so, they put to the sword

(In the name, they said, of ‘The Lord’)

All of the folks who were then there

(For their lives they just didn’t care),

Meting out to them a gruesome fate

As them they sought to exterminate,

Claiming that it was their god’s will

That all of them they had to kill

And grab their land, which they said

Their god had given to them instead.

This one event led to enormous strife

That took a heavy toll of precious life,

Driving fierce war and fomenting hate

Which till this day just refuses to abate.

Was it really true, what they proclaim,

Or a lie invented in a sky-god’s name?

It’s You, O God, who alone knows well

The truth behind this story that they tell.