Nehemiah 12:43 · World English Bible
They offered great sacrifices that day, and rejoiced; for God had made them rejoice with great joy; and the women and the children also rejoiced; so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even far away.
Religion at its origin is festivity, and the sad face in the temple is a later invention of people who could not dance. A city that has just finished its wall responds by making noise; sacrifice and singing happen on the same day.
From the Indian Guru reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
AWARENESS
Religion at its origin is festivity, and the sad face in the temple is a later invention of people who could not dance. A city that has just finished its wall responds by making noise; sacrifice and singing happen on the same day.
Joy cannot be kept private. It spills, it is heard at a distance, because it is not a thought held in one head but an energy moving through bodies, which is why the women and children were in it too. Anything that must be maintained by seriousness is borrowed. What is genuinely yours comes out as sound.
Indian Guru lens
When was the last time your gladness was loud enough for someone else to hear?
The devotee sings, claps, and dances, and the singing is the practice itself. There is no quieter, more respectable version of it waiting underneath.
The dervishes turn and the music plays, because what has filled the body has to move through the body. Stillness alone cannot hold it.
Prayer was danced and sung aloud, and the whole village could hear it. What is alive in a person does not stay inside the person.
Free · No account needed
Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.
Get Lensightful on the App Store
Indian Guru