ABSTRACT
The loneliness and sadness of the diasporic experience of the Jews is poignantly evoked in this psalm (reproduced here in the English Prayer Book version). Such evocations are common. Indeed, until a few years ago, most characterizations of diasporas emphasized their catastrophic origins, their mass nature and their disturbing effects. The idea that diaspora implied forcible dispersion was found in Deuteronomy (28: 28) with the addition of a thunderous Old Testament warning to a people who had forsaken the righteous paths and abandoned the old ways:
If you do not observe and fulfil all the law … the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other … Among these nations you will find no peace, no rest for the sole of your foot. Then the Lord will give you an unquiet mind, dim eyes and a failing appetite. Your life will hang continually in suspense, fear will beset you night and day, and you will find no security all your life long.
