Indictment of Judah and the Nations (25:1-38) 243
the first regnal year of the king, not an accession year (Begrich 1929: 60-
61 n. 2).
- which Jeremiah the prophet spoke concerning all the people ofludah and to
all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Because Jeremiah is still moving freely about
Jerusalem, this preaching must precede the scroll writing of chap. 36, which is
dated in the same year (Streane; Jones). When the scroll is dictated, Jeremiah
cannot enter the Temple area (36:5). The LXX omits kol ("all") in the phrase
"and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem," which may be due to haplography
(homoeoteleuton: l ... l). Cornill, Janzen ( 1973: 66), and Holladay take the
particle as an MT plus. For a discussion of kol, which occurs over 500 times in
the book of Jeremiah and is sometimes omitted and sometimes added, see Jan-
zen 1973: 65-67.
Jeremiah the prophet. The LXX omits, as it does in 28:12; 38:9, 10, 14, and
elsewhere (see Appendix VI B). Often it will retain "Jeremiah" and omit "the
prophet," making it difficult to know if the title here is original. Schwally
( 1888: 178 n. 1 ), Giesebrecht, Duhm, Peake, Cornill, Bright, and Holladay
omit it as an MT plus; Volz, Rudolph, Weiser, and McKane retain. The LXX
omission has no effect on interpretation, since v 1 names Jeremiah as the sub-
ject for "which he spoke" (hon elalesen).
- From the thirteenth year oflosiah son of Amon, king ofludah, yes, until this
day-this is twenty-three years-the word of Yahweh has come to me, and I have
spoken to you-constantly I spoke-but you have not listened. It has been 23
years since Yahweh's word first came to Jeremiah in his call, which was 627
B.C. ( 1 :2). Jeremiah is not claiming to have been preaching for 23 years, for the
prophet's public ministry did not begin until 622 B.C., or soon after. For this re-
vision of the traditional chronology, see §Introduction: Prophetic Ministry. It is
then for a lesser number of years, say about 18, that Jeremiah has been preach-
ing and the people not listening.
From the thirteenth year. Hebrew min-ifelos <efreh sana. The LXX has "in the
thirteenth year" (en triskaidekato etei); Aq and Symm "from the thirteenth
year" (apo triskaidekatou etous).
the word ofYahweh has come to me. Hebrew haya debar-yhwh >elay. Compare
the first-person superscriptions in 1:4, 11, 13; and elsewhere (see Note for 1:4).
The LXX omits, and once again many take the words as an MT plus. Here the
omission combines with other LXX readings in vv 3-5 to make Yahweh, not
Jeremiah, the speaker. The omission may then be part of a larger editing. But
this does not make the LXX the better or more original text. Aquila and Theod
have the omitted words. Also, there is no messenger formula in vv 3-5 indicat-
ing a divine oracle. In fact, vv 1-2 introduce Jeremiah as addressing a Judahite
audience, and the concluding le>mor ("saying") in v 2 introduces his speech,
not Yahweh's. More important, if LXX's omission of "the word of Yahweh has
come to me" be accepted, the text will then read as if Jeremiah has been
preaching for 23 years, which, as we have said, cannot be right. He has been
preaching for 18 years at most. The omitted words should therefore be re-
tained, with MT (Volz; Rudolph; Weiser).
