The Small Voice of Holy Week

In its own century

Here is the conclusion, which is not an answer. I have decided to read this as a promise rather than a command, for the plain reason that I can live inside the first reading and not the second. Whether that is a legitimate reason I genuinely do not know.

Some people are consoled by this verse and others are wounded by it, often in the same room. The writer almost certainly did not anticipate that. It is left for readers to carry.

Closing

Here is the conclusion, which is not an answer. I have decided to read this as a promise rather than a command, for the plain reason that I can live inside the first reading and not the second. Whether that is a legitimate reason I genuinely do not know.（マカバイ記三 1:7）

68氏族の長数人はエルサレムにある主の宮の所にきた時、神の宮をもとの所に建てるために真心よりの供え物をささげた。

エズラ記 2:68（口語訳（日本語））

Anticipating the objection

Finally, back to the text. No amount of commentary competes with the texture of the sentences themselves. Read it out loud once before you read anything else about it.（ガラテヤ人への手紙 4:28）

Closing

Now set it back into its own century. What was the community that first heard this actually worried about? Simply imagining that changes the temperature of every line.

11主がウザを撃たれたので、ダビデは怒った。その所は今日までペレヅ・ウザと呼ばれている。

12その日ダビデは神を恐れて言った、「どうして神の箱を、わたしの所へかいて行けようか」。

13それでダビデはその箱を自分の所ダビデの町へは移さず、これを転じてガテびとオベデ・エドムの家に運ばせた。

14神の箱は三か月の間、オベデ・エドムの家に、その家族とともにとどまった。主はオベデ・エドムの家族とそのすべての持ち物を祝福された。

歴代志上 13:11-14（口語訳（日本語））

In its own century

Pull a single verse out of its paragraph and you can make it say almost anything. This particular verse has been made to say a great deal. Which is precisely why it deserves to be read with what stands on either side of it.（哀歌 1:5-9）

4モーセはイスラエルの人々の全会衆に言った、「これは主が命じられたことである。

出エジプト記 35:4（口語訳（日本語））

In an ordinary week

The first time I read this passage I understood nothing at all. I carried that incomprehension around for years, and then one afternoon it turned slightly, the way a key turns, and something opened. What follows is an attempt to describe the turn.

13レビの家の氏族は別れて嘆き、その妻たちも別れて嘆く。シメイの氏族は別れて嘆き、その妻たちも別れて嘆く。

ゼカリヤ書 12:13（口語訳（日本語））

Now set it back into its own century. What was the community that first heard this actually worried about? Simply imagining that changes the temperature of every line.（マタイによる福音書 20:20）

2主が最初ホセアによって語られた時、主はホセアに言われた、「行って、淫行の妻と、淫行によって生れた子らを受けいれよ。この国は主にそむいて、はなはだしい淫行をなしているからである」。

ホセア書 1:2（口語訳（日本語））