Halfway Through Ruth's Choice

One word that snags

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 6:18）

7ἕως τῶν ὁρίων σου ἐξαπέστειλάν σε πάντες οἱ ἄνδρες τῆς διαθήκης σου ἀντέστησάν σοι ἠδυνάσθησαν πρὸς σὲ ἄνδρες εἰρηνικοί σου ἔθηκαν ἔνεδρα ὑποκάτω σου οὐκ ἔστιν σύνεσις αὐτοῖς

8ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ λέγει κύριος ἀπολῶ σοφοὺς ἐκ τῆς ιδουμαίας καὶ σύνεσιν ἐξ ὄρους ησαυ

9διὰ τὴν σφαγὴν καὶ τὴν ἀσέβειαν τὴν εἰς τὸν ἀδελφόν σου ιακωβ καὶ καλύψει σε αἰσχύνη καὶ ἐξαρθήσῃ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα * 1:9 καὶ πτοηθήσονται οἱ μαχηταί σου οἱ ἐκ θαιμαν ὅπως ἐξαρθῇ ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ὄρους ησαυ

10διὰ τὴν σφαγὴν καὶ τὴν ἀσέβειαν τὴν εἰς τὸν ἀδελφόν σου ιακωβ καὶ καλύψει σε αἰσχύνη καὶ ἐξαρθήσῃ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα

11ἀφ' ἧς ἡμέρας ἀντέστης ἐξ ἐναντίας ἐν ἡμέρᾳ αἰχμαλωτευόντων ἀλλογενῶν δύναμιν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀλλότριοι εἰσῆλθον εἰς πύλας αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐπὶ ιερουσαλημ ἔβαλον κλήρους καὶ σὺ ἦς ὡς εἷς ἐξ αὐτῶν

オバデヤ書 1:7-11（七十人訳（ギリシャ語））

A note

A word about ordinary life. I think about this passage in the kitchen and on the train, almost never in a pew. I have come to suspect that is not accidental.（マカバイ記一 16:4-5）

9これらはみな内外とも、土台から軒まで、また主の宮の庭から大庭まで、寸法に合わせて切った石、すなわち、のこぎりでひいた高価な石で造られた。

列王紀上 7:9（口語訳（日本語））

Closing

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.

• I stopped here in the middle of a read-through, and wrote from the stopping.
• One verse, read slowly, with one word held up to the light.
• One verse, read slowly, with one word held up to the light.
• Moving back and forth between an ordinary week and an ancient text.