Holding the Question in the Psalms

A note

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.（レビ記 15:28-33）

12あなたがたに書きおくることはたくさんあるが、紙と墨とで書くことはすまい。むしろ、あなたがたのところに行き、直接はなし合って、共に喜びに満ちあふれたいものである。

13選ばれたあなたの姉妹の子供たちが、あなたによろしく。

ヨハネの第二の手紙 1:12-13（口語訳（日本語））

The text itself

I went through several scholarly treatments and found nothing decisive. On reflection, the absence of anything decisive may be the most appropriate result this passage could produce.（ネヘミヤ記 2:18）

Closing

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.

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.

18たといそうでなくても、王よ、ご承知ください。わたしたちはあなたの神々に仕えず、またあなたの立てた金の像を拝みません」。

19そこでネブカデネザルは怒りに満ち、シャデラク、メシャクおよびアベデネゴにむかって、顔色を変え、炉を平常よりも七倍熱くせよと命じた。

20またその軍勢の中の力の強い人々を呼んで、シャデラク、メシャクおよびアベデネゴを縛って、彼らを火の燃える炉の中に投げ込めと命じた。

ダニエル書 3:18-20（口語訳（日本語））

In its own century

Let me set the terms. This is not an argument about doctrinal correctness. It is one reader's account of what the text can be made to yield. I am going to leave the ending open on purpose.（箴言 3:3-5）

4これを書きおくるのは、わたしたちの喜びが満ちあふれるためである。

ヨハネの第一の手紙 1:4（口語訳（日本語））

In its own century

A short detour. There is a passage elsewhere with the same shape though no direct connection, and setting them next to each other makes the writers' different concerns visible.

3またわが民の肉を食らい、 その皮をはぎ、その骨を砕き、 これを切りきざんで、なべに入れる食物のようにし、 大なべに入れる肉のようにする。

4こうして彼らが主に呼ばわっても、 主はお答えにならない。 かえってその時には、み顔を彼らに隠される。 彼らのおこないが悪いからである。

ミカ書 3:3-4（口語訳（日本語））

In its own century

There are obvious objections, and I don't hold this reading with much confidence. What I would defend is narrower: that the text leaves room for it.

9וְהֵבֵאתִ֤י אֶת־הַשְּׁלִשִׁית֙ בָּאֵ֔שׁ וּצְרַפְתִּים֙ כִּצְרֹ֣ף אֶת־הַכֶּ֔סֶף וּבְחַנְתִּ֖ים כִּבְחֹ֣ן אֶת־הַזָּהָ֑ב ה֣וּא ׀ יִקְרָ֣א בִשְׁמִ֗י וַֽאֲנִי אֶעֱנֶ֣ה אֹתֹ֔ו אָמַ֙רְתִּי֙ עַמִּ֣י ה֔וּא וְה֥וּא יֹאמַ֖ר יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהָֽי׃ ס

ゼカリヤ書 13:9（レニングラード写本（ヘブライ語））

The text itself

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.

• How I finally made peace with a passage I avoided for years.
• 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.

Another way to read it

There are obvious objections, and I don't hold this reading with much confidence. What I would defend is narrower: that the text leaves room for it.

14そこでイスラエルの人々は彼らの食料品を共に食べ、主のさしずを求めようとはしなかった。

15そしてヨシュアは彼らと和を講じ、契約を結んで、彼らを生かしておいた。会衆の長たちは彼らに誓いを立てた。

16契約を結んで三日の後に、彼らはその人々が近くの人々で、自分たちのうちに住んでいるということを聞いた。

ヨシュア記 9:14-16（口語訳（日本語））

A note

Reading the non-canonical material alongside this shows how wide the shared vocabulary of the period really was. Looking only at what was eventually collected hides that width entirely.（コリント人への第一の手紙 5:6-10）

13主はひとりの預言者によって、 イスラエルをエジプトから導き出し、 ひとりの預言者によってこれを守られた。

ホセア書 12:13（口語訳（日本語））

In an ordinary week

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.

19イスラエルの子孫の有司等汝等その日々につくる磚瓦を減すべからずと言るを聞て災害の身におよぶを知り

出エジプト記 5:19（文語訳（日本語））

Leaving the question open

Reading the non-canonical material alongside this shows how wide the shared vocabulary of the period really was. Looking only at what was eventually collected hides that width entirely.

How you render this one word determines the meaning of the whole paragraph. A translator has to decide, and the decision is already an interpretation. Readers deserve to know that a decision was made.

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.

• What came into view when I set three translations side by side.
• One verse, read slowly, with one word held up to the light.
• I stopped here in the middle of a read-through, and wrote from the stopping.

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.

Another way to read it

A short detour. There is a passage elsewhere with the same shape though no direct connection, and setting them next to each other makes the writers' different concerns visible.（ベルと竜 1:22）

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.

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.

• An attempt to read a famous passage all the way through without lifting it out of context.
• Written from the experience of being hurt by words drawn from this passage.

Another way to read it

Let me set the terms. This is not an argument about doctrinal correctness. It is one reader's account of what the text can be made to yield. I am going to leave the ending open on purpose.

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.

12あなたの恥は国々に聞えている、 あなたの叫びは地に満ちている。 勇士が勇士につまずいて、共に倒れたからである」。

エレミヤ書 46:12（口語訳（日本語））

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.（ペテロの第一の手紙 5:2）

• An attempt to read a famous passage all the way through without lifting it out of context.
• How I finally made peace with a passage I avoided for years.

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.