Jeremiah 21-36 A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary by (Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries)

Speaking of Kings (21:1-23:8) 155

The beginning clauses of the verses make yet another inversion, rendering less

likely the proposed deletion of the definite article on ha' are$ ("the earth") in

v 26 (see Notes):

v 26a .................... 'al ha' are$ ... 'aser

v 27a we'al-ha'are$ 'aser ...................

v 26a ............... to the land ... where

v 27a So to the land where ..................

The change of audience at the beginning and end of the oracle has troubled

commentators but should be taken here as elsewhere as a bit of drama added to

the Jeremianic discourse. One sees the same thing happening again in the next

oracle. Here Yahweh addresses the following audiences:

Yahweh speaks to an unidentified audience

Yahweh speaks to Jehoiachin directly

Yahweh speaks to an unidentified audience

v 24a

vv 24b-26

v 27

There are no catchwords to the poem preceding, confirming the view that

v 23 was at one time the end of a collection (see Rhetoric and Composition for

22:20-23). Catchwords connecting to the next oracle are the following:

v 24 Coniah

v 26 I will throw you

land (2x)

v 28 Coniah

are they thrown

vv 28-29 land (4x)

NOTES

22:24. As I live ... even if Coniah son oflehoiakim, king ofludah, be a seal on
my right hand, surely from there I will tear you off Coniah may or may not be
the seal on Yahweh's hand; regardless, Yahweh will tear him off. Uncertainty
stems from the fact that kf 'im is not usual in oath formulas, and one is also not
entirely sure how to translate the oath when a subsequent kf occurs. Jeremiah
uses a kf 'im ... kf construction in his court defense (26: 15), but that translates
easily into a protasis-apodosis argument: "Only know for sure that if (kf 'im)
you put me to death, then (kf) you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves."
In the present verse the AV (following LXX, T, and Vg) takes the investiture of
Jehoiachin as possible but not actual: "though ... Coniah were the signet ring
on my right hand, yet I would tear you off." More recent Versions and most
commentators translate similarly. Exceptions are the NEB, which assumes that
Jehoiachin is being rejected at the outset ("Coniah ... shall be the signet-ring
on my right hand no longer"), and Thompson, Holladay, and McKane, who
follow NEB's interpretation. McKane explains kf 'im as a rare variant of 'im,
which in oath formulas means "certainly not" (GKC § 149). But the REB
changes the NEB's reading, assuming now that Jehoiachin currently is the sig-
net ring on Yahweh's finger but will be torn off. Events behind this divine