IMPRECATIONS
Again, the Oriental's consideration of life as being essentially
religious makes him as pious in his imprecations and curses as he is in
his aspirational prayer. Beyond all human intrigue, passion, and
force, the great avenger is God. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay,
saith the Lord."[1] "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no
God with me: I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; neither is
there any that can deliver out of my hand."[2]
By priests and parents these precepts have been transmitted from
generation to generation in the Orient, from time immemorial. We all
were instructed in them by our elders with scrupulous care. Of course
as weak mortals we always tried to avenge ourselves, and the idea of
_thar_ (revenge) lies deep in the Oriental nature. But to us our
vengeance was nothing {92} compared with what God did to our "ungodly"
enemies and oppressors.
The Oriental's impetuosity and effusiveness make his imprecatory
prayers, especially to the "unaccustomed ears" of Americans,
blood-curdling. And I confess that on my last visit to Syria, my
countrymen's (and especially my countrywomen's) bursts of pious wrath
jarred heavily upon me. In his oral bombardment of his enemy the
Oriental hurls such missiles as, "May God burn the bones of your
fathers"; "May God exterminate your seed from the earth"; "May God cut
off your supply of bread (_yakta rizkak_)"; "May you have nothing but
the ground for a bed and the sky for covering"; "May your children be
orphaned and your wife widowed"; and similar expressions.
Does not this sound exactly like the one hundred and ninth Psalm?
Speaking of his enemy, the writer of that psalm says, "Let his days be
few, and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless,
and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually {93} vagabonds,
and beg; let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
Let there be none to extend mercy unto him; neither let there be any to
favor his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off; and in
the generation following let their name be blotted out."
The sad fact is that the Oriental has always considered his personal
enemies to be the enemies of God also, and as such their end was
destruction. Such sentiments mar the beauty of many of the Psalms.
The enemies of the Israelites were considered the enemies of the God of
Israel, and the enemies of a Syrian family are also the enemies of the
patron saint of that family. In that most wonderful Scriptural
passage--the one hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm--the singer cries,
"Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me, ye bloody
men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy
name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am I not
grieved with those that rise against thee? _I hate them with perfect
hatred: {94} I count them mine enemies._" Yet this ardent hater of his
enemies most innocently turns to God and says in the next verse:
"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts: _and
see if there be any wicked way in me_, and lead me in the way
everlasting."
This mixture of piety and hatred, uttered so naïvely and in good faith,
is characteristically Syrian. Such were the mutual wishes I so often
heard expressed in our neighborhood and clan fights and quarrels in
Syria. When so praying, the persons would beat upon their breasts and
uncover their heads, as signs of the total surrender of their cause to
an avenging Omnipotence. Of course the Syrians are not so cruel and
heartless as such imprecations, especially when cast in cold type,
would lead one to believe. I am certain that if the little children of
his enemy should become fatherless, the imprecator himself would be
among the first to "favor" them. If you will keep in mind the juvenile
temperament of the Oriental, already mentioned, and his habit of
turning to {95} God in all circumstances, as unreservedly as a child
turns to his father, your judgment of the son of Palestine will be
greatly tempered with mercy.
The one redeeming feature in these imprecatory petitions is that they
have always served the Oriental as a safety-valve. Much of his wrath
is vented in this manner. He is much more cruel in his words than in
his deeds. As a rule the Orientals quarrel much, but fight little. By
the time two antagonists have cursed and reviled each other so
profusely they cool off, and thus graver consequences are averted. The
Anglo-Saxon has outgrown such habits. In the first place the highly
complex social order in which he lives calls for much more effective
methods for the settling of disputes, and, in the second place, he has
no time to waste on mere words. And just as the Anglo-Saxon smiles at
the wordy fights of the Oriental, the Oriental shudders at the
swiftness of the Anglo-Saxon in using his fists and his pistol. Both
are needy of the grace of God.
[1] Rom. xii: 19.
[2] Deut. xxxii: 39.
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