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

248 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS

T: "I will consume them"; and Vg: "I will destroy them" (interficiam eos). But Aq

and Symm both have a stronger "I will devote them," anathemati(s)o autous.

a desolation, an object of hissing, and ruins forever. More accumulatio. On

land and city curses in Jeremiah, which repeat in vv 11, 12, and 18, see Note

for 48:9.

a desolation. Hebrew ifamma. A very common term in the poetry and prose

of Jeremiah (see again vv 11, 18, and 38), occurring often in strings of curse

words (see Note for 24:9).

an object of hissing. Hebrew sereqa. Another common Jeremiah curse word

(18:16; 19:8; 25:9, 18; 29:19; 51:37), included often in curse-word strings (see

Note for 24:9).

and ruins forever. Hebrew uleborb6t <olam. The singular borba ("ruin") oc-

curs in vv 11, 18, and often in Jeremiah (7:34; 22:5; 27:17; 44:2, 6, 22), fre-

quently in strings of curses (see Note for 24:9). The plural is intensive (GKC

§ 124e), such as we have in simmot <olam ("desolations forever") of v 12. The

LXX's oneidismon ("reproach") appears to presuppose Heb berpat; cf. 23:40

(berpat cozam); 24:9; and 29: 18. Holladay prefers the LXX reading, saying that

the inhabitants of a city can hardly become rubble. But in support of MT's bor-

b6t, it should be noted that the coming destruction will be upon both inhabi-

tants and the land. The term <ozam ("forever") is not meant in an absolute

sense, for it is later qualified by a reference to "seventy years" of Babylonian su-

zerainty (Calvin; Brueggemann). Calvin says Jeremiah is correcting himself,

thus mitigating his earlier judgment.

10. And I will banish from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the
    voice of the groom and the voice of the bride. This curse ending joyful sounds in
    the land occurs elsewhere in 7:34 and 16:9. See also Bar 2:22-23. In Ezek
    26: 13 we read: "And I will stop the music of your songs, and the sound of your
    lyres shall be heard no more." All are standard treaty curses, having numerous
    Akkadian parallels (Hillers 1964: 57-58; Weinfeld l 972b: 141). An Esarhaddon
    inscription contains this curse: "No joyful man enters its streets, no musician
    is met." And in the older balag city laments of ancient Mesopotamia (M. E.
    Cohen 1988: 721, 723, et passim), these stereotyped lines appear:

That city, where its young girls are no longer happy!

That city, where its young men do not rejoice!

The dancing places are filled with ghosts

The street is not sated with its joy.

(pp. 245, 336)

In the Deir 'Alla texts (Combination II 7) we find this line: "A traveller will not
enter a house, neither will enter there a bridegroom a house," which appears to
mean that in a devastated country no wedding will take place (Hoftijzer and
van der Kooij 1976: 174, 180, 226; CS II 144). But the day will come when joy-
ful sounds will again be heard in Jerusalem and other cities of Judah (33:11 ).