Chewing on The WORD

Go to Google and search for "Chew on the word of God". You will see many references to descriptions of meditation as "chewing" on something. Many describe it as "chewing the cud" like a cow does. This is a very apt description of what it used to be like to read the scriptures.

When the old testament was originally composed in Hebrew, there was no punctuation and no vowels. Here's what the above paragraph looks like written like that:

gtgglndsrchfrchwnthwrdfgdywllsmnrfrncstdscrptnsfmdttns
chwngnsmthngmnydscrbtschwngthcdlkcwdsthssvrptdscrptn
fwhttsdtblktrdthscrptrs

It does save space, but it is very difficult to read. Even the Greek Septuagint was written with no punctuation (although they did have vowels). I presume that the voweless Hebrew wasn't as difficult to read as voweless English is, but it did take a great deal of effort to read. You really had to chew on the text to understand it. You had to chew on the Word of God. You had to chew on the Word. And in so doing, the text would become not just something you read, but it would become a part of you.

This is, of course, exactly what we do when we receive the Eucharist.