wedding

[low_delta]

Here was something that was read in church at a wedding we saw today.

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the lord watches over the city, in vain the watchman keeps his vigil.
vain too to eat the bread of toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Children are a heritage from the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is a gift.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth.
Happy is the man who has a quiver full of them!
He shall not be put to shame when he contends with his enemies in the gate.


I have no idea what that means.

Comments

[penpusher.livejournal.com]

God gets the last word, but be fruitful and multiply!

translation:

[ravengirl.livejournal.com]

"any ya'll don't believe in god,
your marriage is a sham"

heh.

[sunshine-two.livejournal.com]

It looks like some pieces are missing but if I remember Sunday school, and lessons --I would imagine the essence of the message is to do the work, harvest the crop, make a family, etc., in God's name versus taking the entire credit for yourself. I think it's an attempt to keep us from getting too full of ourselves and our own personal power.

[serendipity.livejournal.com]

Yes.

My dad, an agnostic who gets truly bored on the rare occasion that he goes to synagogue, told me a couple of years ago that almost all the prayers really mean the same thing: people are lowly, nothing, little more than servants to the Almighty Lord. God is Great, humans are nothing without God.

[sunshine-two.livejournal.com]

I wasn't analyzing it that deeply. When I took a rubbinic judaism course in University a few years ago (it was either that or calcius), the prof started us off by indicating the documents were written thousands of years ago by scribes who if we showed them how we write today, wouldn't be able to understand it. They spoke differently, and wrote obviously differently. Rather than use the course as a basis of teaching religion, the prof simply indicated it was history. I found it very interesting. The reasons behind why they did certain things was based on their lifestyles back then. They were also the basis for the first laws. He also said to look for the essence of what they were saying versus analyzing each word because a lot of the words had different meaning back then. The bit about having large families I think was for protection. They didn't have governments, or policing organizations like we do now, and to have the strength of a large family was in itself protection. Not to mention the ability to put for a lot of work for the families sustenance.

I think the scriptures are an amazing account of history but in my personal opinion, many organized religions take the words too much to heart, and analyze the information until it no where resembles what it was intended.

[ravenfeather.livejournal.com]

*blink*
I don't either.

[cynnerth.livejournal.com]

Line's #4 and #6 are pretty plain and I plan to make jokes about a man's quiver for quite a while. Prepare yourself! *L*

Line #3 is the most cryptic of all. And what do the first three lines have to do with the last four? That was just too weird to hear yesterday.

[ravengirl.livejournal.com]

i know- it's clearly two parts that do not make a whole~
i'd be callin' the minister, sayin' "what the hell were you saying?!"
could've been the couple, but it could have been the minister.
i loved that quiver part! i'm sure i would have at least smirked
during the ceremony!

[aki-dreaming.livejournal.com]

I may be entirely off my beam here, but I'm thinking it's equating children with arrows in a quiver. In order not to be embarrassed when your enemies come calling, it's important to have a lot of children to throw at them. Because that's why God gives us children, so we can send them off to kill and get killed. Don't you kill them in the womb. Wait a bit and use 'em as cannon fodder, or summach.

Christ, man, what kind of wedding was this?!