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

Speaking of Prophets (23:9-40)

Therefore .........................

Therefore .........................

.................. I gave to you ...

And I will put upon you ...........

la ken

la ken

natattf lakem

wenatattf 'alekem

215

v 38b

v 39

v 40

A single verb ties the two discourses together, making an inclusio for the

whole:

I and I will cast you off

II and I will cast you out

NOTES

wenatastf

wenataStf

v 33

v 39

23:33. Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you: 'What is the bur-
den of Yahweh?' then you shall say to them: 'You are the burden, and I will cast
you off!' Yahweh in this oracle is telling Jeremiah what to say when ordinary
people, prophets, and priests taunt him with the question "What is the burden
of Yahweh?" Anticipated questions paired up with divine answers in readiness
occur elsewhere in Jeremiah, as well as in Ezekiel (13:12-14; 15:1-4; 16:10-
13; Ezek 21:12[Eng 21:7]; 37:18-19; cf. Long 1971: 134). Some questions and
answers are for a later time (see Note for 5: 19, with a parallel from the Annals
of Ashurbanipal). The answer here is clarified by the readings of the LXX and
Vg, which preserve Jeremiah's sharp reply, "You are the burden, and I will cast
you off!"
You are the burden. J. D. Michaelis (1793: 200) saw already that the correct
Hebrew reading was >attem hammassa>, "You are the burden!" which most
commentators and modern Versions now adopt. Michaelis also considered
that a long form of the pronoun with terminal he> might be used in the expres-
sion, in which case the reading would be "You are a burden!" This suggestion
has been made more recently by Wernberg-M0ller (1956), who said after not-
ing the long form in the Qumran scrolls that the form was in fact ancient. The
MT has an incomprehensible >et-mah-massa> ("What burden?" preceded by

et), which may be a deliberate redivision and repointing of consonants to sup-
press a reading judged infelicitous (Walker 1957). The MT reading, in any
case, is corrupt ( GKC § l l 7m note), and the translations of the AV ("What bur-
den?"), NJV ("What is the burden?"), and NIV ("What oracle?") perpetuate
the corruption. The reconstructed Hebrew preserves a wordplay on massa>,
which literally and metaphorically means "burden" in the sense of a load and
"burden" in the sense of a divine oracle (Casanowicz 1893: #234; Yellin 1933-
34: 3). It is generally agreed that two separate nouns derive from the verb ns>,
"to lift (up), carry" (BOB; KB^3 ), which makes the terms homonyms (McKane).
A massa> is something "lifted up" (2 Kgs 9:25: "Yahweh lifted up [nasa>] this
burden [massa>] against him"). The literal meaning, not used in the present
verse, is the amount of weight a beast is able to carry (Exod 2 3: 5; 2 Kgs 5: 17;