Speaking of Kings (21:1-23:8) 105
went in hilt and all (Judg 3:22), doing its full work of consuming the victim.
The sword is commonly said to "consume" Ckl) its prey (Deut 32:42; 2 Sam
2:26; 11:25), i.e., flesh and blood of the victim enter the mouth of the sword at
the hilt. Yadin ( 1963: 78-80, 206-7) thinks the sword used in Joshua's cam-
paigns was the sickle sword, which had a long curved blade and was a "smit-
ing" weapon. But the excavated swords with "mouths" include also the short,
straight sword, which was a "thrusting" weapon. A weapon of this type was used
against Eglon. On lepf-/:zereb, see also discussion in Keel 1974: 77-79 n. 1.
he will not spare them, and he will not pity, and he will not have mercy. This
same triad occurs in 13:14. The LXX omits one of the expressions, probably
"and he will not pity" (so BHS), which can be attributed to haplography
(whole-word: wP ... wl'). It also has the first person for both verbs and adds
another "them" at the end (ou pheisomai ep' autois kai ou me oiktireso autos, "I
will not be sparing of them, and I shall not have compassion upon them"). The
first-person verbs are consistent with the LXX's omission of the phrase naming
"Nebuchadrezzar."
- And to this people you shall say. The verb to'mar ("you shall say") is singu-
lar, which means Yahweh is speaking directly to Jeremiah, giving him the ora-
cles to follow for delivery to the people. These oracles do not go to the
messengers who are sent back to the king.
Look I will set before you. 4QJer° has hinneh with a conjugated form of the verb.
the way of life and the way of death. The "ways of life and death" expressed
here give a new twist to the sermon in Deut 30: 15-20, which, according to
G. E. Wright (1953: 321), may have been recited at Josiah's covenant renewal
festival (2 Kings 23). In Deuteronomy, the "way of life and good" consists in
obeying the commandments; the "way of death and evil" consists in disobedi-
ence and the concomitant effrontery of chasing after other gods. The same ba-
sic idea is expressed in the blessing-and-curse passage of Deut 11:26-32, which
Peake thinks served as a model for the preaching here. Jeremiah's preaching,
in either case, presupposes a different reality entirely. People are on record as
having disobeyed the commandments and gone after other gods; therefore, the
covenant curses are about to fall upon them, with the result that the way of life
has now become surrendering to the Babylonians; holding out in the city is the
way of death. These oracles in w 8-10 were preached by Jeremiah while he
was in the court of the guard (38:2; Volz) and are what led to him being cast
into a pit. Preaching surrender was not something new. Jeremiah preached it
when the Babylonians came to Jerusalem in 597 B.C. (13:15-17). Volz cites
also as background for the present oracles the decision made by the four lepers
of Samaria to surrender to the Syrians, which promised life and ended up giv-
ing them life (2 Kgs 7:3-8). On the wisdom theme of the "two ways" in Jere-
miah and elsewhere in the OT, see Note for 6: 16.
- Whoever stays in this city shall die by sword, and by famine, and by pesti-
lence, but whoever goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging
you shall live, and his life will be his booty. These words are repeated almost ver-
batim in the oracle of 38:2. The verb Y$) (normally "to come/go out") has the
