Tusite ‘Okatopa 17, 2023
Souls and Throats
Ko e Loto mo e Ngutu
PROVERBS 13:3
WHOEVER GUARDS HIS MOUTH PRESERVES HIS LIFE; HE WHO OPENS WIDE HIS LIPS COMES TO RUIN.
PALOVEPI 13:3
3 Ko ia ‘oku ne lama hono ngutu ‘oku ne malu‘i ‘ene mo‘ui: Ka ko e ngutu mafa‘a ko e tu‘utāmaki‘anga kia kita.
Proverbs is full of admonitions to natzar ("guard or keep") wisdom, commandments, and knowledge. In 13:3, a wise son uses a mouthguard, as it were, to keep or preserve his life. He stations a language soldier on his mouth to keep those two lip-gates shut. But there's a hidden Hebrew wordplay here as well. The word translated as "life," nefesh, can also mean soul or personality or the physical throat. Since this verse highlights the mouth as well as the lips, the pun on nefesh as throat/soul/life gives us a taste of artistic writing. Like so much of Proverbs - not to mention the rest of the Bible - the mouth is highlighted as the portal out of which evil loves to launch its besmirching crusades.
Any dental hygienist will tell you that our mouths are the window to the rest of our body's health. All varieties of diseases have oral manifestations. What is true physically is far truer spiritually. "But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person" (Matt. 15:18). So we pray to listen more and speak less. And we ask the Lord to make our hearts the lexicon of his love, that out of our hearts may come verbs of truth and nouns of mercy.
"O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise" (Ps. 51:15).
No comments:
Post a Comment