124 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTSCatchwords connecting ahead are "Lebanon" and "cedars" in the present
poem to "Lebanon" and "cedar(s)" in other poems of the core structure. Mo-
winckel ( 1946: 49) identified "Lebanon" as a catchword between vv 6-7 and
vv 20-23, to which should be added "cedar(s)" in vv 7, 14-15, and 23.NOTES
22:6. the house of the king ofludah. "House" (bet) here refers to the royal palace
(cf. v 13 ), not the Davidic royal line. This introductory formula is then emi-
nently suitable to the oracle following, which is the first of three judgment
words on the palace complex newly enlarged by King Jehoiakim. Reference is
not to the Temple, Jerusalem, or the land of Judah (pace Jerome; Duhm; Ehr-
lich 1912: 297), although it goes without saying that these too will be destroyed.
Gilead you are to me, the top of Lebanon. An "obscure comparison," to quote
J. D. Michaelis ( 1793: 175), which has been variously interpreted. The T takes
"Lebanon" here and in vv 20 and 23 as referring to the Temple (Vermes 1958:
4; cf. 1 Kings 5-6), a tradition surviving in Jerome and the Church Fathers
(Sparks 1959: 271; Hayward l 985b: 102-3). Boadt thinks Jeremiah is address-
ing the king (pronouns in the verse are masculine singular), but "Gilead" and
"Lebanon" are more commonly metaphors (not similes) for the royal palace
(Volz; Rudolph; Hyatt; Holladay). Both localities were richly forested in bibli-
cal times (Ealy 1974: 221-23; P. J. King 1993: 153), making them suitable de-
scriptions of palace buildings whose interiors were lavishly supplied with cedar
and other choice woods. One building in the complex was called "The House
of the Forest of Lebanon" (1 Kgs 7:2-5). On luxurious Gilead, known other-
wise for its trees producing balm, see Note for 8:22. Lebanon's reputation for
possessing cedar and cypress trees is alluded to often in the OT (Isa 37:24 =
2 Kgs 19:23; Ezek 31:3; Zech 11: 1-2). Gilead and Lebanon are linked again in
Zech 10: 10, where, as here, the pairing may represent choice highland forests
of east and west (Ottosson 1969: 244). In 22:20 and Isa 2: 13, Lebanon and Ba-
shan are paired, the latter located just north of Gilead in the Transjordanian
highlands and famous for its stands of oak trees. The point being made here is
that Yahweh thinks very highly of the royal palace, being just as proud and pos-
sessive of its extraordinary beauty as Solomon himself was; however, he will
now destroy it because of a blatant disregard of covenant obligations by the
king currently residing there, viz., Jehoiakim. This argument echoes one used
by Yahweh against the covenant people in an earlier prophetic word from
Amos: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will
punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2). See also the arguments in Jer
11:16 and 12:7.
But I will surely make you a wilderness, cities that are uninhabitated. The ex-
pression >im lo> has the force of an oath (Calvin; Brichto 1963: 123; cf. Note on
15: 11 ). The NEB: "I swear that I will make you a wilderness." Here again, "wil-
derness" and "uninhabited cities" are metaphors for the palace (Hyatt), now
envisioned as lying in ruins. The Kt nosaba, "it is ( un)inhabited" is the more