“For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,”
The statement 'for I eat ashes like bread, and mingle tears with my drink' escalates the imagery of consumption, replacing normal sustenance with substances of mourning and penitence. The eating of ashes is a gesture of repentance and mourning familiar from the book of Job and prophetic literature, suggesting that the speaker has moved beyond mere suffering to incorporate the postures of the penitent. Yet the verse does not explicitly state that the speaker is penitent; rather, the speaker's condition has become identical with the condition of one who mourns or repents. The mingling of tears with drink suggests that even hydration has become contaminated with sorrow, that the speaker cannot maintain the distinction between body and emotion, substance and emotion. This verse transforms the body into a site where mourning is literally incorporated.
Church Fathers on Psalms 102:9
1. Behold, one poor man prays, and prays not in silence. We may therefore hear him, and see who he is: whether it be not perchance He, of whom the Apostle says, “Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:9 If it is He, then, how is He poor? For in what sense He is rich, who sees not? What then is richer than He, by whom riches were made, even those which are not true riches? For through Him we have even…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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