Speaking of Prophets (23:9-40)- Prophets without Portfolio (23:18-22)
23 18 For who has stood in the council of Yahweh?
then let him see and let him hear his word!
who has hearkened to my worda and heard?(^19) Look! the tempest of Yahweh
wrath goes forth
yes, a whirling tempest
Upon the head of the wicked it whirls
(^20) the anger of Yahweh does not turn back
until it does and until it fulfills
the purposes of his heart
In the days afterward
you will consider the meaning in this.
(^211) did not send the prophets
yet they, they ran
I did not speak to them
yet they, they prophesied
(^22) Now if they had stood in my council
and caused my people to hear my words
Then they would have turned them from their evil way
and from the evil of their doings.
RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION
193
Delimitation here has been a problem for commentators, not only because
there is no section marking or other indicator of a break at the upper end, but
also because vv 19-20 are duplicated in 30:23-24, suggesting to some that they
intrude in the present context. Peake and Hyatt rightly note that vv 19-20
break the connection between vv 18 and 21. But others (Giesebrecht; Cornill;
Volz; Condamin; Rudolph; Thiel 1974: 251; McKane) take v 18, with or with-
out vv 19-20, as more supplementation, which it is not. This verse is also not
prose (pace BHS; JB; NJB; NSB), even though it does contains the nota accu-
sativi before debaro ("his word"). Prose particles are known to appear in po-
etry, but less often (D. N. Freedman 1982). Clarification of these verses and a
solution to the delimitation problem come once it is recognized that v 18
combines with vv 21-22 to form a nicely-balanced self-standing poem, into
which has been inserted another self-standing poem, vv 19-20 (Lundbom
1975: 89-90 [ = 1997: 118-20]). The upper limit of the present unit can then
be set at v 18. The lower limit is marked by a setumah in MA and ML after v 22.
The MP has no section here.
'Reading the Kt "my word"; Q has "his word"; see Notes.