Speaking of Prophets (23:9-40) 205Balaam (in a dream) in the night (Hoftijzer and van der Kooij 1976: 173, 179,
186; CS II 142), which correlates nicely with the biblical account of a noctur-
nal visit to this same individual by God (Num 22:20). On dreams in the ANE,
see Oppenheim ( 1956); Butler ( 1998); and Husser ( 1999); on dreams in the
Mari letters, see Moran ( l 969a) and Sasson ( 198 3). Dreams in the OT are dis-
cussed by E. L. Ehrlich (1953); and in the OT and later Judaism by Zeitlin
( 1975). Dreams and dreamers are also well documented in classical sources
(see Oppenheim and Husser). In the Bible, Deut 13:2[Eng 13: l] legislates
against (Canaanite) prophets and "dreamers of dreams" (l:zolem f:zalom), stat-
ing that if such individuals, regardless of what success they have enjoyed, at-
tempt to lead people in the direction of other gods, they are to be shunned
and put to death. This legislation is repeated almost verbatim in the Qumran
Temple Scroll (llQT 54:8-16; 55:17-18; Yadin 1983: 243-45).
Discussion of the present text has focused on whether dreams themselves are
being discredited or whether dreams have become intolerable because they
are lying dreams. Lindblom (1965: 201) points out that the classical prophets
did not attach much value to dreams, and the present polemic, in his view, is
against dreams vis-a-vis the divine word. The former is chaff, the latter grain.
This is the view expressed also by Rudolph, Weiser, McKane, and the majority
of commentators. But Kimi.ii and Calvin both find nothing wrong with dreams
per se, nor do they see the polemic here as a contrast of dreams to the divine
word. For them the polemic is against dreams containing lies, which stand
over against revealed words that are true. Overholt ( 1970: 66-68), noting no
disparagement of dreams in v 28a, thinks the contrast made between dream
and word is overdrawn and that "dreams mislead not because of what they are,
but because of what they contain." Husser (1999: 142) says that, except for
vv 28-29 and 32, Jeremiah's criticism is not of dreams as such but of dreams
that lead people to forget Yahweh. But in a reading that includes vv 28-29 (he
assumes a later redaction of the text), dreams are disqualified entirely when
compared to the divine word.
Nevertheless, it is still the case that dreams are noticeably absent in revela-
tions of the classical prophets, whereas these same prophets commonly report
visions-Husser (p. 145) says there are 24 vision accounts in the prophetic cor-
pus if one includes the two visions of Micaiah ben Imlah (1Kgs22:17, 19-23).
Jeremiah himself experiences visions ( 1:9, 11-14; 24:1-3 ), although the "vi-
sion" (bazon), just like the dream, comes under censure by him for being a lie
or being self-originating (14:14; 23:16). Compare Ezek 13:6-7, 23; 21:34[Eng
21:29]; 22:28; and Lam 2:14. And one can only wonder what lies behind Jere-
miah's comment in 31:26, following an oracle predicting Judah's restoration:
"At this I awoke and looked around, and my sleep was pleasant to me." One
gets the impression, nevertheless, that ancient peoples could and did distin-
guish between "vision" and "dream" (Husser 1999: 28, 151 ), so when the terms
occur together in biblical parallelism, as they often do (Num 12:6; Joel
3: 1 [Eng 2:28]; Job 20:8), one should not assume that they mean the same
thing. Yet there is evidence that in the Hellenistic period, some in texts from