Speaking of Kings (21:1-23:8) 125
difficult reading (cf. 6:8), and if original, it may be taking "cities" in a distribu-
tive sense: "cities, each one uninhabited." See "destroyers ... each person" in
v 7. The Q would then be a correction to make the verb agree with the subject
noun. The Versions all read a plural, "they are (un)inhabited." "Cities" plural
is actually the problematic term, and some modern Versions (Moffatt, AmT,
RSV, JB [but not NJB], NAB, and NRSV) read "city" or "town." J. D. Michaelis
( 1793: 175) suggested emending 'arfm ("cities") to 'erya ("bareness"), which
requires the change of only one letter. His reading: "But will I not make you a
wilderness, bareness, not inhabited." Another possibility would be to take 'arfm
as a "surface plural" (GKC § l 24b ), where the meaning would be "a (flattened)
city." The metaphor, in any event, is "language at a stretch" and may just as
well be left "as is."
- So I am sanctifying destroyers against you. Jeremiah's use of weqiddastf
("So I am sanctifying") introduces holy war language (Weiser; Soggin l 975b ),
where the "destroyers" (mas/:zitfm) are attacking forces of the Babylonian army
(cf. 4:7). On the sanctifying of armies for holy war, and Yahweh's engagement
now in a holy war against Judah, see Notes for 6:4 and 21:4-5. Weiser imagines
that the destroyers are supernatural "angels of death," similar to those working
evil in Exod 12:23 and 2 Sam 24:16, but Berridge (1970: 84) and Lindstrom
(1983: 63) rightly reject this interpretation. The destroyers here are human
agents.
each person ... the fire. The Hebrew appears to have a wordplay between >fs
and ha> es.
his axes. Hebrew kelayw. For the general word kelfm, the present image re-
quires tools used to fell trees, which will in fact be wielded by the enemy to
wreck the palace's wooded interior. "His axes" is then a more suitable transla-
tion than "his weapons" (T has "his weapon" singular). In 21:4 kele does mean
"weapons." The LXX has kai ton pelekun autou, "and his axe" (singular). From
Ps 74:5-7 we learn that the Babylonians wrecked the Temple with axes, hatch-
ets, and hammers before setting it afire, and we may assume that they did the
same to the royal palace.
your choicest cedars. I.e., the cedar interior of the palace. David resided in a
house of cedar (2 Sam 7:2), and Solomon built "The House of the Forest of
Lebanon," another grand building of cedar interior in the royal complex
(I Kings 7). Now more recently, Jehoiakim has planned, begun, or already had
built for himself a spacious palace building with cedar interior (22: 13-14 ). The
"choicest cedars" then do not refer to chief men of state (pace Duhm; Streane),
which can be traced to Jerome, who has "strong ones and princes of the city"
(Hayward l 985b: 111), and ultimately to T, which has "the best of your strong
men." On the palace of Baal, which is described as a "house of cedar" in the
Baal and Anath Cycle, see Note for 22:14.
and fell them upon the fire. The king's palace was burned by Nebuzaradan
after the city was taken in 586 B.C. (39:8; 52:13 = 2 Kgs 25:9).
8-9. These verses are an adaptation of Deut 29:23-25[Eng 29:24-26], which
envisions the curses of the Sinai covenant as having fallen on the covenant
