Where has the “valley of the shadow of death” gone? In most contemporary Bible translations of Psalm 23:4, it has been replaced by more philologically correct, if also more prosaic, expressions, such as a “valley of deepest darkness” or the “darkest valley.”
Have no fear! The traditional wording is alive and well in the popular press.
It is to the worlds of sports, entertainment and politics that we first turn our attention, since writers in these areas consistently mine the Biblical text in creative ways. Thus, we read (in Africa News) of the travails of a Zimbabwean soccer team: “Monomotapa are walking through the valley of the shadow of death with their battle to conquer African football running out of oxygen, and need a victory over Congolese giants TP Mazembe at Rufaro this afternoon to remain in the race.” This immediately reminded me that the football stadium at Clemson University (South Carolina), where I taught for two decades, was aptly named Death Valley.
From the world of entertainment come two rather disparate notes. Accompanying a story (in The Times of London) about the memorial to Michael Jackson, with the headline “Lo$ Angele$ Is in Mourning … and It Really Could Not Have Come at a Better Time,” is a graphic with this caption, “‘Yeah though I moonwalk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death …’ The Neverland ranch has been stripped bare of many of its attractions.” And those who were in Montreal in January 2010 could have seen a performance by the group Valley of the Shadow of Death at Casa del Popolo, as reported in Montreal’s Gazette.
In international reporting, a columnist for The Globe and Mail (of Canada) was able to pack two Biblical allusions into one sentence: “Japan has passed through its valley of the shadow of death, surviving the burst of its asset bubble and the resulting economic slump that once threatened to pull down the global financial system like Samson.” Rhetorically (but not economically) speaking, it doesn’t get much better than that.
An entirely different vista was opened up (or, more precisely as we shall see, closed off) when we turn to what I had thought was the peaceful world of nature. A story from The Times of London paints an unpleasant picture: “There are so many houses in my area of North London … which are now quite invisible to passers-by, obliterated by up to half a dozen enormous trees crammed into the front garden. I marvel that the inhabitants can bear to live in a year-round valley of the shadow of death.” And I marvel too, since I thought that the English were a people far more sympathetic to, and tolerant of, flora and fauna in all its grandeur.
One other story, one other nation—in this case, Nigeria. As reported in Africa News, pedestrians are practically an endangered species in that land. Thus it was observed that “moving to and fro on the numerous wide roads by residents in Abuja [the nation’s capital], is like walking in the valley of the shadow of death, as crossing those roads on which motorists take delight in displaying their driving dexterity, amounts to a suicide mission.” Not only pedestrians, but drivers also, should be required “to recite Psalm 23:4 … because the petrol tankers have taken over the long stretch on both sides of the Express … The highly inflammable products are parked not too far from the many local restaurants and the street hawkers.”
From these examples, it is clear that “the valley of the shadow of death” can evoke a number of different sensations, from baleful to beautiful. To end (as I always try to) on a “high” note, we look at a story from The Philadelphia Inquirer that relates efforts by the police to enlist clergy in a program to encourage fugitive criminals (of whom there are almost 70,000 in the area) to surrender. As one minister related, “The city will be safer if people feel that they have someone who’s going to walk through the valley of the shadow of death with them.” True, oh so true! And not just for fugitive criminals and not just in Philadelphia.
Where has the “valley of the shadow of death” gone? In most contemporary Bible translations of Psalm 23:4, it has been replaced by more philologically correct, if also more prosaic, expressions, such as a “valley of deepest darkness” or the “darkest valley.” Have no fear! The traditional wording is alive and well in the popular press. It is to the worlds of sports, entertainment and politics that we first turn our attention, since writers in these areas consistently mine the Biblical text in creative ways. Thus, we read (in Africa News) of the travails of a Zimbabwean soccer team: […]
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