I would have perished in my affliction.
Guiding Questions:
What is fatness here?
Why and how is fatness admired? Denigrated?
What seems worrisome about fatness?
What questions do these texts leave us with?
Can these texts teach us anything about fatphobia and/or fat liberation today?
(14) Curd of kine and milk of flocks;
With the best of lambs,
And rams of Bashan, and he-goats;
With the very finest-d wheat—
And foaming grape-blood was your drink. (15) So Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—
You grew fat and gross and coarse—
He forsook the God who made him
And spurned the Rock of his support.
Alternate translations for "You grew fat and gross and coarse:"
KJV: "thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness"
NIV: "they became heavy and sleek"
(8) Then I heard the voice of my Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me.” (9) And He said, “Go, say to that people:
‘Hear, indeed, but do not understand;
See, indeed, but do not grasp.’ (10) Dull [i.e. make fat] that people’s mind,
Stop its ears,
And seal its eyes—
Lest, seeing with its eyes
And hearing with its ears,
It also grasp with its mind,
And repent and save itself.”
(11) I asked, “How long, my Lord?” And He replied:
“Till towns lie waste without inhabitants
And houses without people,
And the ground lies waste and desolate—
Who lurk, like fowlers lying in wait;-a
They set up a trap to catch men. (27) As a cage is full of birds,
So their houses are full of guile;
That is why they have grown so wealthy. (28) They have become fat and sleek;
They pass beyond the bounds of wickedness,-f
And they prosper.
They will not judge the case of the orphan,
Nor give a hearing to the plea of the needy.
(25) They captured fortified cities and rich [i.e. fat] lands; they took possession of houses filled with every good thing, of hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive trees, and fruit trees in abundance. They ate, they were filled, they grew fat; they luxuriated in Your great bounty.