The Book of Kings and Herman Melville

In reading the Book of Kings, the Biblical record of the history of the Jews several hundred years after the Exodus from Egypt and the conquest in Canaan, I am once again struck by the powerful, poetic and enobling use of language.

The words are frequently spare yet pack so much wallop; and this is the English King James version. In the original Hebrew, there is so much potency, shading and meaning in each word.

But to give the King James Version its due, it truly is a magnificent translation and I would commend anyone to read even the Wikipedia summary of how the Kings James Bible came about.

Below is one of the evocative phrases that is seen over and over when referring to the death of a king. So for example when Jehosaphat died:

"And Jehosaphat slept with his fathers"

What a poetic way of speaking of death - suggesting death is not such a final and isolating event but a gentle return to the family.

Or after recounting some gruesome record of a particular king's apostacy and cruelty (the Bible is not really all that in favour of the monarchy and makes it clear that the preferred form of leadership was the charismatic prophet) the text not wishing to visit on the reader too much of a litany of sins simply refers the reader to another source for all of the gory detail by saying:

" Are they not written in the Book of Chronicles of Judah?"


As if to say "this is all very bad and tiresome and we could go on and on, but you get the picture and in any event there is already another Book that records all of this tiresome detail for posterity and we have already made the point that this king was an apostate and cruel so lets get on with it and for those of you who need the details- check out the Book of Chronicles"!


And then finally, for tonight- a line I came across from Melville's Moby Dick a few weeks ago and thought intriguing:

"Though in many of its aspects this world seems formed in love, the invisible spheres were formed in fright"

Observations: Elder Abuse

James Hillman, the noted psychologist needs to be more of a household name. One of his works on The Soul's Code was a New York Times bestseller although his other works are less known. In that work he wrote brilliantly of the "acorn" theory of development wherein each of us is born with a psyche blueprint for our own " calling. In his work "The Force of Character and the Lasting Life" this is what he says about aging on page 15

"The disparagement of values generally associated with the old- tricks, skills and know-how; familiarity with local lore, songs and phrases, and superstitions; and just plain slowness- lowers their value. In the context of these diminished values, we more easily justify geronticide. We call this "putting them out of their misery" and cover it over with more antiseptic language such as
"DNR" ("Do Not Resucitate") euthanasia, death-hastening and assisted suicide. These practices take place in private homes, nursing homes and hospitals far more often than reach the public eye. Even if our society does not condone beating, stabbing and strangling the aged, in some hearts the wish is often there".

Dr. Hillman often speaks in "extreme" language to make his point- however these words written in 1999 do bear serious reflection.