Letting Go of the Day of Fasting

Closing

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.

What I read

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.（ヨハネの第二の手紙 1:4）

（ヤコブの秘密の書 第3章）

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.（アモス書 4:6）

• Written out of a failed attempt to explain this passage to a child.
• I stopped here in the middle of a read-through, and wrote from the stopping.

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.（ヨブ記 3:15）

7דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים א 25:7 וַיְהִ֤י מִסְפָּרָם֙ עִם־אֲחֵיהֶ֔ם מְלֻמְּדֵי־שִׁ֖יר לַיהוָ֑ה כָּל־הַ֨מֵּבִ֔ין מָאתַ֖יִם שְׁמֹונִ֥ים וּשְׁמֹונָֽה׃

歴代志上 25:7（レニングラード写本（ヘブライ語））

Put the translations side by side and the same verse arrives differently each time. One is soft, another is severe, and the original is a third thing that is neither. That difference is itself a way in.

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.

Following the context

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.

3王はその僕たちをつかわして、この婚宴に招かれていた人たちを呼ばせたが、その人たちはこようとはしなかった。

4そこでまた、ほかの僕たちをつかわして言った、『招かれた人たちに言いなさい。食事の用意ができました。牛も肥えた獣もほふられて、すべての用意ができました。さあ、婚宴においでください』。

5しかし、彼らは知らぬ顔をして、ひとりは自分の畑に、ひとりは自分の商売に出て行き、

マタイによる福音書 22:3-5（口語訳（日本語））

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.

25しかし、群衆を外へ出したのち、イエスは内へはいって、少女の手をお取りになると、少女は起きあがった。

マタイによる福音書 9:25（口語訳（日本語））

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.