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

226 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS

the passages in their respective contexts present no contradiction at all.

Moreover, the approval given the exiles who went to Babylon pertains not

at all to their moral character (Holladay; Jones).

•Another conflict is said to exist between Jeremiah's attitude in 34:1-5,

where it is predicted that Zedekiah will die in peace, and here, where

Zedekiah and others are promised expulsion from Jerusalem and destruc-

tion by sword, famine, and pestilence (May). This, again, is no conflict,

since Zedekiah was not killed after being captured, and he along with

others met the very fate of expulsion from the land that is described here

(Holladay; Jones).

• The preaching of "alternatives" (good figs versus bad) is said to be a
  "Deuteronomistic" feature (Zimmerli, citing Thiel), which, even if it did
  characterize "Deuteronomic" preaching, would not be an argument
  against its appearing in bona fide Jeremiah discourse. Krafovec ( 1984: 89),
  who prefers to speak of "antithesis," points out that what occurs here is
  present also in the narrative that reports Jeremiah's visit to the potter's
  house (18:1-10). Moreover, there is the preaching of alternatives in
  27:4b-8; 38:2, 17-18; 39:16-18; 42:9-12 and 15-18, and a better example
  yet is in 1: 13-19, where, after a vision like the present one, Yahweh gives
  two oracles: one promising judgment upon Judah, the other promising
  salvation to Jeremiah. It would be a great surprise if Jeremiah did not
  manifest this very common mode of thinking.

The two oracles here have nicely-paired rhetorical structures, showing
among other things that the numerous deletions by Volz, Niditch (1983: 53-
70), and Holladay are wholly unnecessary. One notes collocated repetitions
and key words, inversions, and alternating perfect and imperfect forms of the
verb. The covenant formula in the second part of Oracle I appears strategically
at the center:

Thus said Yahweh, God of Israel:

Like these good figs

so will I regard the exiles of Judah

whom I sent away from this place

to the land of the Chaldeans-for good

and I will keep my eye upon them for good

and I will bring them back to this land

and I will build them up and not overthrow

and I will plant them and not uproot

koh-,amar yhwh

kaWPenfm hattob8t

sillabtf

Zetoba

Zetoba

wahasibotfm

v 5

v6

And I will give them a heart to know me

for I am Yahweh

Zeb v 7

and they will be a people to me

and I, I will be God to them

for they shall return to me

with their whole heart

kf

wehayu-lf [e<am

we>anokf >ehyeh lahem Ze>lohfm

kf

libbam