186 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTSCatchwords connecting to the oracle following:v 14 evildoers ... from his evil vl7 Evil
NOTES
23:13-14. Now ... but. The initial waws set up a contrast, not a comparison, as
the AV translates ("and ... also"). Coordinating waws commonly mean
"both ... and" (BDB; KB^3 ), but here a contrast is intended between Samaria's
bad prophets and Jerusalem's prophets, who are worse. Many of the modern
Versions leave the waw of v 13 untranslated (Giesebrecht says it is an error),
and Overholt ( 1970: 52) takes it to be a connective to the prior verse, which it
is not. Holladay (following Calvin) translates the two waws as "Indeed ... But,"
which gives the first waw an unusual asseverative meaning but produces the
same effect as the translation here.- Now in the prophets of Samaria I have seen a foolish thing: They prophe-
sied away by Baal and led my people Israel astray. Reference may be to the large
number of Baal prophets residing in Samaria during Ahab's reign, who were
undone by the contest on Mt. Carmel featuring Elijah, the great Yahweh
prophet (1Kings18). These cannot be the prophets playacting before Ahab and
Jehoshaphat in 1 Kings 22 (pace Overholt 1970: 53), who are Yahweh prophets.
I have seen a foolish thing. Hebrew tipla ("a foolish thing") means, lit.,
"something unseemly, lacking in (moral) taste" (Job 1:22; tapel in 6:6). The
prophets of Samaria are belittled here, not censured, as are the prophets of
Jerusalem. The REB translates "a lack of sense." Although the same term de-
scribes false prophetic visions in Lam 2: 14, it is still weaker than the §a'arura
("horrible thing") of v 14 (Calvin; Giesebrecht). Calvin says the stronger
§a'arnra is reserved for Jerusalem's prophets, who thought themselves infi-
nitely better. Further, the prophets of Samaria require no strong censure,
since they were condemned long ago, and now no one would defend them.
They prophesied away by Baal. The verb hinnabbe>u is a contracted Hithpael
(GKC §54c; cf. Ezek 37:10), which occurs uncontracted in some Heb MSS
(Blayney). The term means "to rave on as a prophet" (see Note for 14: 14). Jere-
miah himself is charged with frenzied prophesy in 29:26-27, although this
comes from someone who is trying to discredit him.
and led my people Israel astray. Hebrew wayyatu >et-et-yisra>el. Ho-
sea leveled the same charge against the clergy of Northern Israel (Hos 4: 12),
which amounts to a breach of covenant. In Jerusalem, Yahweh prophets with
their lying dreams are doing similarly (v 32) and along with other leaders have
been misleading an indiscerning populace for a century or more (Mic 3:5; Isa
3: 12; 9: l 4-l 5[Eng 9: 15-16]). Duhm, Cornill, and Rudolph delete "Israel" as a
gloss, for which there is no warrant. The term should be retained. - But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: Committing
adultery and walking by the lie, they even strengthened the hands of evildoers.