The Small Voice of the Exodus Road

A note

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.

7for thou art the Lord most high, compassionate, longsuffering, and most merciful, repenting of the evils of men. Thou, Lord, according to the abundance of thy goodness, hast proclaimed repentance and forgiveness to those that have sinned against thee, and in the multitude of thy kindnesses thou hast decreed for sinners repentance unto salvation.

マナセの祈り 1:7（Brenton 訳・七十人訳から（英語））

What I read

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.（ヨハネの第三の手紙 1:2）

This is where I stopped. I could not go forward, so I stayed with the same few lines for a long time. I have come to think the staying was the point.（詩篇 112:10）

A note

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.（歴代志下 14:7-11）

11その家来たちが町を囲んでいたとき、バビロンの王ネブカデネザルもまた町に攻めてきた。

列王紀下 24:11（口語訳（日本語））

Comparing translations

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.

13こういうわけで、わたしたちは慰められたのである。これらの慰めの上にテトスの喜びが加わって、わたしたちはなおいっそう喜んだ。彼があなたがた一同によって安心させられたからである。

コリント人への第二の手紙 7:13（口語訳（日本語））