To appreciate fully that local tradition of prophetic poetry and liturgical response, we should contrast it with the empire's own liturgy. The empire's liturgy was all doxology, all praise, all celebration, all self-affirmation, and all victorious confidence. The empire had no room for sadness, loss, or grief.Unwelcome poetry never found voice in the empire, for the poets of unwelcome were all silenced. The empire permitted no cry, expected no response, engaged in no dialogue, offered no ultimate holiness . . . and so practiced an unrecognized despair and an uninterrupted denial.
