City Of Evil (2005) "Trashed And Scattered"

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
As performed by A7X, uncensored version (pretty salty)

Keep on writing you're just raping yourself (nothing can take my mind away from them)
Don't you ask about me, ask 'bout somebody else (Once I've fallen there's many stories to tell)
I can feel it, won't embrace it, it's overwhelming how far you take it (Stuck in a state of questioning)
And don't you tell me you know we're destined, you won't convince me, I won't listen (Resentment building, you've put our lives on hold)

Trashed and scattered again, I'm feelin' so low
You waste your breath while f****n' with me, my blood is so cold
My destination always unknown, I'll find my way there
but g*****n motherf***ers always wasting my time

I won't be the victim, but the first to cast a stone
Sedated nights to the bar room fights as metropolis takes its toll
And don't you try to stop me, it's a place you'll never know
Don't try to judge or take shots at me, I'll never let you seize control

Play your game you better walk away cause your integrity don't mean sh*t
Crawl on me you f***ing parasite, and I'm gonna take you out

Label me, that's fine, I'll be somebody else (Nothing in front of me but holes ahead)
Lie about my life, have a story to tell (Lights went down, was on the edge and I fell)
Oh you're so insightful, let me remind you to twist and break me, should make you worried (Long way to go and you're right there)
Two-faced liar, don't try and know me, deceit brings fire, makes sure you can't breathe (Pick at pieces of my body below)

I never bothered with all the rumors, too much garbage (all the same)
(I know my destination)
I'll stand right here, come on you falsehood deceitful liar (There's no shame)
Don't ever take my side, I know you're never right, I'll justify the means (Nothing's what it seems)
I'll stand around and fight, but there's no point tonight, been chained to this machine
Trashed and scattered again, I'm feelin' so low
You waste your breath while f****n' with me, my blood is so cold
My destination always is known, I'll find my way there
but G*****n Imposter are you out of your mind?

I walk down these roads alone and now you're seen here
My feelings that I'm having towards you are perfectly clear (I control this ride)
My devils appetite is tonight and now I'm alright
But you G*****n Motherf***ers always wasting my time

Play your game you better walk away cause your integrity don't mean sh*t
Crawl on me you f***ing parasite, and I'm gonna take you out

I won't be the victim, but the first to cast a stone
Sedated nights to the bar room fights as metropolis takes its toll
And don't you try to stop me, it's a place you'll never know
Don't try to judge or take shots at me, I'll never let you seize control

Don' try and get the best of me (No one can help but your own self)
City makes my body ache (Lonely, don't try and prey on me)
I feel your world dying, no more use in tryin'

And my body's trashed and low, but to you I'll never show myself or what's inside
And I've seen it all before and I'll settle the score, I'll never join your side

The poet gets rough and raw as he describes what it's like to be on the other end of judgment,

I can feel it, won't embrace it, it's overwhelming how far you take it (Stuck in a state of questioning)

The poet seeks to turn the tables, instead of being the victim, he'll "throw the first stone," referring to a story one of Jesus' followers, John, told about Him,

It was around the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus was sitting on a marble bench, teaching the crowds around Him, while the giant menorahs in the background lit up the golden walls of the temple. In came some Pharisees and scribes dragging along a tousled young woman, who was crying. They pulled her through the crowd until they were standing right in front of Jesus,

They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, "Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?" They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.

There are two passages they were referring to, both from Torah, the books of Moses: Leviticus 20:10 says that both the man and the woman are to be put to death. In Jesus’ day the method of execution for adultery was strangulation. But in Deuteronomy 22:23-24 if the woman was betrothed to a man, therefore a virgin, and committed adultery, then the two were to be stoned. So this was probably a young woman, maybe a girl as young as thirteen.

Where was the man? The law required that both be put to death, and the Pharisees claimed they’d caught her “in the act.” Was the man in on the plot? Was he also a scribe or Pharisee? In Jesus’ day it was common for rabbis to go from town to town to teach. In each town the rabbi would find a woman that pleased him and he would marry her. When he was ready to leave that town he would divorce her, and marry another woman in the next town. It may have looked legal, but Jesus had already pronounced that such practices were adultery.

The trap should have been airtight. They were banking on Jesus losing the people’s sympathy if He tried to uphold this unpopular and seldom enforced law. Even Jesus' adoptive father, Joseph, a righteous man, had thirty years before planned on quietly releasing Mary from their betrothal, rather than have her stoned. And in any case, because of the Roman occupation, the Jews weren’t allowed to exact the death penalty, so Jesus would have gone to prison.

On the other hand, if Jesus didn’t uphold the law, they would expose Him as a fraud who didn’t keep God’s word.

Weirdly, as He was sitting there, Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground while they kept pressing Him to make a judgment. Nobody knows what Jesus wrote. Finally He stood up and said, “You’re right,”

"The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone"

And bent down to write some more things on the ground. Some think Jesus wrote a list of everyone present who was an adulterer one way or the other. Others think Jesus started writing down everyone’s sins.

Jesus had read their hearts and knew that it wasn’t God’s law they were concerned about. They weren’t concerned about purity or the sanctity of marriage. They were supposed to be the shepherds of God’s flock, but instead they were eager to kill His lambs. To these religious authorities the girl’s life was expendable, she meant nothing more to them than a tool to trap Jesus with. What they were really doing was using God’s word to try and trap God. When do you and I try to trap God that way, making His word say what we would like it to say and somehow trapping God into condoning or allowing what we want from Him?

Whatever it is Jesus wrote, one by one, the men dropped their stones and silently went away until all her accusers were gone.

Jesus also read the young woman’s heart. She knew she had sinned and made no excuse for herself. She didn’t try to slip away. She owned her guilt before Jesus, acknowledging He was Lord. Jesus would not condemn her. He forgave her on His authority as God. Jesus gives comfort to the guilty. He set her free, free from her accusers, free from the penalty of death because of what she had been caught in, and even free from her guilt.

But it’s not as though Jesus did not think what the woman had done was unimportant. He told her that what she had been caught in was sin. She was not to engage in it anymore.

The amazing truth is that Jesus has the power to set people free from sin and death

In a sense, this was the best day of her life. If she hadn’t have been caught, she would not have had this moment alone with the Lord. Yes, it was a humiliating, terrifying, devastating. But Jesus had set her free. What sin would you like to be set free from? How willing are you to confess it to Jesus and have this moment with Him?

On the other hand, look at the scribes and Pharisees. They condoned and rationalized their own sin and at the same time were eager to see sin punished in other people’s lives, even to the death, rather than to see them forgiven and restored.

The principle Jesus was working from is found in the famous sermon he gave early on in His career, what people call the Sermon on the Mount,

Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own.

Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt? It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

Strong words! But look at what happens when you and I get all judgmental on someone instead of loving them and wanting to do all we can to help them and restore them,

Don't try to judge or take shots at me, I'll never let you seize control
Don' try and get the best of me (No one can help but your own self)
City makes my body ache (Lonely, don't try and prey on me)
I feel your world dying, no more use in tryin'
And my body's trashed and low, but to you I'll never show myself or what's inside
And I've seen it all before and I'll settle the score, I'll never join your side

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