The Small Voice of the City in Revelation

Before we start

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.（エレミヤ書 25:13-17）

7宮は建てる時に、石切り場で切り整えた石をもって造ったので、建てている間は宮のうちには、つちも、おのも、その他の鉄器もその音が聞えなかった。

列王紀上 6:7（口語訳（日本語））

What I read

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.（ハバクク書 1:15）

2Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

3Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

ヨエル書 1:2-3（KJV（英語））

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.

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.

A note

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.（列王紀下 25:20）

4彼は海を戒めて、これをかわかし、 すべての川をかれさせる。 バシャンとカルメルはしおれ、 レバノンの花はしぼむ。

ナホム書 1:4（口語訳（日本語））

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.（エゼキエル書 27:16）

10ヨナハンはアザリヤを生んだ。このアザリヤはソロモンがエルサレムに建てた宮で祭司の務をした者である。

歴代志上 6:10（口語訳（日本語））

What I read

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.

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.（エズラ記（ギリシア語） 5:42）

9わたしは少しばかり教会に書きおくっておいたが、みんなのかしらになりたがっているデオテレペスが、わたしたちを受けいれてくれない。

10だから、わたしがそちらへ行った時、彼のしわざを指摘しようと思う。彼は口ぎたなくわたしたちをののしり、そればかりか、兄弟たちを受けいれようともせず、受けいれようとする人たちを妨げて、教会から追い出している。

11愛する者よ。悪にならわないで、善にならいなさい。善を行う者は神から出た者であり、悪を行う者は神を見たことのない者である。

ヨハネの第三の手紙 1:9-11（口語訳（日本語））

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.