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Where Does The Phrase Keep Silence Originate In Literature?

2025-08-23 22:32:52 133

5 Answers

Parker

2025-08-25 01:01:11

I first ran into 'keep silence' reading hymn translations online, and then traced it back to scripture. The phrase is most famously connected to 'Habakkuk' 2:20 as translated in the 'King James Version': 'let all the earth keep silence before him.' That line comes through the Latin Vulgate and ancient liturgical texts, so it’s more a product of religious translation and chant than an original poetic coinage.

Because of that background, authors and composers use 'keep silence' when they want an archaic, majestic vibe—think candles, cloistered choirs, and slow organ chords. If you want to see it in context, compare the KJV rendering with modern translations (which often use 'be silent' or 'let the earth be silent') and then listen to the hymn 'Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence' to hear how the older phrasing shapes atmosphere.

George

2025-08-27 16:06:00

If you want a quick literary lineage, I usually point people to the Hebrew prophets filtered through Latin and then English translations. The phrase 'keep silence' is most recognizably linked to 'Habakkuk' 2:20 in the 'King James Version', where the solemn line reads something like, 'But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.' That translation echoes the Latin Vulgate's phrasing and was later mirrored in Christian liturgical texts.

From there the wording turned up in hymnody—most famously in the hymn 'Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence', which itself draws on ancient Eastern liturgical material. So the phrase didn’t spring from a single poet’s imagination; it’s an instance of translation choices and liturgical repetition cementing a particular English phrasing. Over time poets and sermonizers adopted it for its gravity, and that’s why it still sounds so formal and reverent today.

Aiden

2025-08-27 23:19:49

I got goosebumps the first time I heard those words sung in an old church choir—'Let all mortal flesh keep silence'—and then saw the same phrasing in a worn King James Bible. If you trace the phrase back in literature it really lives in the Bible and in the liturgical tradition. A famous line that scholars and hymn-lovers point to is from 'Habakkuk' (2:20 in the King James Version): "But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him." The Latin Vulgate renders it similarly, and that solemn cadence carried straight into later English translations.

Beyond the prophets, the exact phrasing was reinforced by the ancient liturgy (think the Liturgy of St James) and by the hymn translators of the 19th century who gave us 'Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.' That hymn and its archaic-sounding verb choice helped preserve 'keep silence' as an idiom in English worship and poetic language. So, in short: it’s rooted in biblical translation and liturgical practice, and survives because it sounds majestically still.

When I read it on a rainy afternoon, it always feels like a tiny time machine, taking me back to candlelight and the hush of people holding breath.

Theo

2025-08-29 20:04:10

Short and to the point: I trace 'keep silence' back to biblical phrasing translated into English. The clearest citation most people quote is 'Habakkuk' 2:20 in the 'King James Version'—"let all the earth keep silence before him." That wording also shows up in Latin liturgical texts (the Vulgate) and then in the hymn tradition, like 'Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.' So it’s less a catchy modern phrase and more an inherited, liturgical translation that stuck in English.

Daniel

2025-08-29 22:20:03

I like to think of 'keep silence' as a linguistic fossil—one of those phrases preserved by ritual and translation. The phrase’s most direct literary root is prophetic scripture, with 'Habakkuk' 2:20 in the 'King James Version' giving a classic example: the text invites the whole earth to hold still before God. That rendering follows the Latin Vulgate and earlier Greek or Syriac liturgical uses, so what we see in English is really a chain of translators making a stylistic choice: 'keep silence' instead of simply 'be silent' or 'hold your peace.'

What fascinates me is how that choice creates a tone—solemn, archaic, and ceremonious—which poets and hymn writers leaned into. The hymn 'Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence' crystallized the phrase for English speakers, and church services and choral settings have kept it alive. If you’re exploring literature, check how the phrase is used: often it’s not neutral description but a call to reverence or awe, and that’s why authors use it to heighten mood rather than just indicate quiet.

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Where Does The Phrase Keep Silence Originate In Literature?

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