Indictment of Judah and the Nations (25:1-38) 249
the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. An expansion of the usual
Jeremianic list of joyful sounds, occurring only here. Hebrew re~ayim is a
dual, indicating a pair of millstones. The LXX:'s osmen murou ("scent of
myrrh") in place of "sound of millstones" cannot be right (Cornill: an inner-
Greek confusion of murou, "of myrrh," and mulou, "of a millstone"). With
bread being baked every day, grinding is a daily activity, done in the early
morning by women (Isa 47:2; Job 31:10; cf. Homer, Odyssey xx 105-9). Two
women sit facing each other at the hand mill, both of them holding the handle
by which the upper stone is turned on the lower one (Matt 24:41; Luke 17:35).
Lamps are lit at the onset of darkness, and throughout the evening hours their
soft light can be seen. The two images symbolize domestic life. They are also
complementary: one is heard in the morning, the other seen in the evening. In
the Talmud (Sanhedrin 32b) the sound of the mill is said to refer to the time of
circumcision, the light of a lamp to a time of festival-both joyous occasions
(Morris 1929-33). On oil lamps in the time of Jeremiah, see R. H. Smith
(1964) and P. J. King (1993:178-79). The cessation of millstone sounds is an-
other curse. An Esarhaddon treaty states (#443-45; Borger 1961: 188; Hillers
1964: 58; Weinfeld l 972b: 141-42; ANET^3 538):
May there be no noise of millstone and oven in your houses
May you experience a constant lack of grain for grinding.
In Rev 18:22-23, the curse on Babylon redivivus (=Rome) includes both the
cessation of millstone sounds and the light of a lamp.
- And all this land will become a ruin and a desolation. Reference here is
to the land of Judah ("this land" means Judah also in v 9). The LXX omits
"this" and "(for) a ruin," but both words are present in Aq, Symm, Theod, T,
and Vg, which argues for their retention (pace Schwally 1888: 181 n. 2; Cor-
nill; Rudolph; Bright; Janzen 1973: 45; Holladay). Ehrlich (1912: 308) sup-
ports the whole of v 11 as preserved in MT.
and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. The 70 years
here and in 29: 10 refer not to the length of Judah's exile or to "Jerusalem's des-
olations" but to Babylon's tenure as a world power (Duhm). KimJ:ii says that
Cyrus attacked Babylon after 70 years of Babylonian rule. The idea that Jeru-
salem and the Temple lay in ruins for 70 years is postexilic (Zech 1:12; 7:5;
2 Chr 36:21; Dan 9:2) and not implicit in Jeremiah's prophecies (Orr 1956:
304-6; Weinfeld l 972b: 144). The number 70 is stereotyped, thus no more
than an approximation. If it corresponds to anything, it is the conventional de-
scription of a full life-span (Ps 90: 10). Tyre is forgotton for 70 years, then re-
membered (Isa 23:15-17). The Black Stone of Esarhaddon (d. 680 B.c.) makes
reference to an anticipated 70-year period of Babylon's desolation, which, how-
ever, was not carried out due to special favor shown by Marduk (Luckenbill
1924-25: 166-68; Weinfeld 1972b: 144-46). As far as Babylon's tenure as a
world power is concerned, 70 years turned out to be a good approximation:
From the fall of Nineveh (612 B.C.) to Babylon's capture by Cyrus (539 B.c.)
