“Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?”—Luke 13:4
Last night, I heard that California burned,
While here, outside, snow swirled in biting wind.
The black and billowed towers skyward churned
On television; far away, “They sinned,”
Some whispered. What the Lord had warned
His hearers when Siloam’s tower caved in
They did not recollect, nor Dante’s stern
Inferno made of ashen ice, flame’s twin.
E. J. Hutchinson
E.J. Hutchinson is Associate Professor of Classics at Hillsdale College, where he also directs the Collegiate Scholars Program. He is the editor and translator of Niels Hemmingsen’s On the Law of Nature: A Demonstrative Method.
