12 If one does not repent, God will whet his sword;
he has bent and strung his bow;
13 he has prepared his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 See how they conceive evil,
and are pregnant with mischief,
and bring forth lies.
15 They make a pit, digging it out,
and fall into the hole that they have made.
16 Their mischief returns upon their own heads,
and on their own heads their violence descends.
This sounds so grim. But, I have already said so will only repeat briefly, HP uses picture language to illustrate the fact that, when I am not “upright in heart,” I suffer. When I fall prey to my own egoic, self-centered programs, it is not long before I begin to feel as if my life has been cut to shreds. I feel pierced through by the arrow of my own dysfunction. I fall into a “hole” I have dug for myself, and leave trails of “violence” and suffering wherever I go.
The new twist HP adds here is the idea that “evil” comes forth from my innermost being, like a mother bringing forth a child into the world.
Jesus said to his disciples,
Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? 18But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.’
(Matthew 15:17-20)
HP might have been shocked by these radical words from the Jewish rabbi named Jesus. Jesus was much less concerned with behaviour (“whatever goes into the mouth”) and much more concerned about the condition of the human “heart.”
Jesus understood that if I get the first thing first, the rest will fall into place. When I concentrate on behaviour before doing inner heart-work, my heart remains stiff and parched; a pinched heart can never bring forth the works/“fruit” of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22:23) . My behaviour will never come into alignment with the truth of my created nature as long as I harbour resentment, bitterness, anger, violence, personal ambition, self-aggrandizement, or personal agendas in my heart. When I concentrate on being “upright in heart,” my behaviour begins to conform to that Spirit who dwells in my heart and calls me back to the life I was created to embody.
The problem with “upright” is that it sounds so righteous. Righteousness is the very quality with which Jesus had so much trouble. He was constantly under attack by those who believed in their own righteousness. But the Hebrew word translated “upright” can also mean “straight.” It sounds odd “God saves those who have a straight heart.” But a “straight heart” is a heart that seeks to go consistently in the same direction. It is a heart that aims to move straight ahead; it foreswears the crooked ways of dishonesty, duplicity and deceit. A “straight” heart is a heart that is reliable and faithful. This perhaps feels a slightly more manageable aim than a heart that is always “upright.”.
What forces cause my heart to become crooked?
Lord help me to align my heart with your heart so that I might go consistently in the direction of your love.
In A Spacious Place 
4 comments
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June 3, 2021 at 7:48 pm
bobmacdonald
I look at this poem as translated and I ask, what is the antecedent of ‘they’ in verse 14? Is it the fiery arrows? It can’t be since the verb is in the singular.
This poem is a fast moving dance.
If he will not turn he will hone his sword,
his bow he directs, and he will aim.
And for him he has prepared consuming means of death.
His arrows for those in hot pursuit he will draw.
Behold he pushes out mischief,
and he is big with toil and he gives birth to falsehood.
A pit he digs and he excavates it,
and he miscarries into the destruction that he has worked.
He turns his toil in his head,
and onto his scalp his violence descends.
Who is the subject of each sentence? It is never specified in the Hebrew. Why do we feel the need to ‘explain’ in the translation?
The verb in the first and last verses in this section ‘turn’ is the same verb. I don’t see the rationale for translating one as ‘repent’ and the other as ‘return’. I do use ‘return’ as a gloss for this verb but never ‘repent’. I never used ‘repent’ once in my translation.
The question about these poems is: are they all theological, instructional, and moral? Or are they also playful and personal? Are we always to draw a pious lesson from them? I think the answer is probably in the middle: they are personal and often playful. They are certainly serious but sometimes comedic – as for instance the birthing imagery in this section.
God is giving birth to a people who are filled with kindness and under his mercy to demonstrate God’s character. The poet is his instrument, his consuming means of death, to burn away all our pretence, and stop us from turning our toil in our heads.
Shoot me if you wish… What would happen in the dance if he did turn?
June 3, 2021 at 8:07 pm
Christopher Page
certainly no wish here to “shoot” you for this Bob. Your words are lovely and provocative. I love the translation “turn” or “return” rather than “repent”. I will use “return” on Sunday and draw a parallel with the lost son in Luke suddenly “coming to himself” and returning to the father. Certainly, we could all use some “turning” these days.
June 3, 2021 at 10:31 pm
bobmacdonald
Yes – turn is exactly what the son does. Repent sounds like so much work! Turning to our God is nowhere near as hard to do.
June 3, 2021 at 10:27 pm
bobmacdonald
I see that the Jerusalem Bible and the Revised English Bible all have ‘the enemy’ as the subject of all the verbs in the section. It certainly makes the whole thing funnier and it loses the moral image of a God rampaging around with burning arrows:
The enemy sharpens his sword again, strings his bow and makes it ready. It is against himself that he has prepared his deadly shafts… etc
This is also not translation but interpretation and explanation.
I note that Coverdale preserves the distinction of the words in the last verse.
For his travail shall come upon his own head *
and his wickedness shall fall on his own pate.
Coverdale uses ‘turn’ in the first verse of the section but fails to repeat it in the last verse. Until recently, it appears that translators generally have not preserved the technique of repeating words that is evident in HP’s style.