120 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS
(ANET^3 149 vi 33-34, 46-50; CS I 342; Ginsberg 1945: 50-52); and in the Tale
of Aqhat, which holds up the good Daniel as someone who did judge the cause
of the widow and adjudicate the cause of the orphan (ANET^3 151 v 7-8; 15 3 i 24-
25; CS I 346, 351). On justice toward the sojourner, orphan, and widow, see
also Note for 5:28.
do not wrong. Hebrew >al-tonu. The verb ynh occurs also in Exod 22:20[Eng
22:21] in a context similar to the present one. It means cheating or taking un-
fair economic advantage of another (Lev 25:14). Ezekiel says the righteous
man wrongs no one and will live (Ezek 18:5-9).
and the blood of the innocent do not shed in this place. The idiom "to shed
blood" means "to murder" (Milgrom 1991: 710). A warning to keep the sixth
commandment is given in the first Temple Oracle of 7:6; in 22: 17 Jehoiakim is
judged for having grossly violated it. "This place" is not the Temple area (pace
Craigie et al.), because the oracle is delivered at a gate near the palace. But ref-
erence could be more broadly to the city of Jerusalem.
- For if you really do this word, then through the gates of this house shall come
kings sitting for David on his throne, riding in chariots and with horses-he, and
his servants, and his people. This same protasis-apodosis argument is used in
Jeremiah's oracle about Sabbath observance ( 17:24-25), but there reference is
made to gates of the city. Practicing justice, in any case, is necessary for main-
taining the Davidic line on Judah's throne.
this house. The royal palace, not the Temple as in 7:10-14 (Giesebrecht).
kings sitting for David on his throne. Hebrew melakfm ("kings") is probably
to be taken as a plural intensive in view of the following "he" (see discussion in
Note for 13:13).
he, and his servants, and his people. The LXX and Vg have plurals to go with
the plural "kings": "they, and (their) servants, and their people." The T has sin-
gulars. Volz, Rudolph, Weiser, and Janzen ( 1973: 13 3) take the phrase as an ex-
pansionist gloss (Rudolph from v 2b) but without textual support. See a similar
enumeration (using plurals) in 17 :25. There is also no reason to take the singu-
lars of MT as reflecting later messianic concerns (pace Duhm, Cornill, Volz,
Holladay). These singulars balance the singulars of v 2.
- But if you will not hear these words. I.e., "if you will not heed these words."
Hebrew we>im lc/ tisme'u >et-haddebarfm ha>elleh. The LXX has me poiesete,
"you will not do," which creates a consistency with the verbs of vv 3-4. The use
of different verbs in MT - "do" in vv 3-4 and "hear" in v 5-may be a further
indication that v 5 is a separate oracle (see Rhetoric and Composition). In the
single oracle of 17:24-27, "hear" appears in both the positive and negative con-
ditionals. The phrase "these words" plural (in both MT and LXX) is also incon-
sistent with "this word" in vv 1 and 4, pointing once again to there being two
oracles here and suggesting that the second oracle may be a later add-on.
I swear by myself On Yahweh's swearing by his own name, see Note on
49:13.
that this house will come to be a ruin. Hebrew kf-leborba yihyeh habbayit
hazzeh. Usually the land is said to become a ruin (7:34; 25:11; 44:22), other-
