Indictment ofludah and the Nations (25:1-38) 251
Judah in v 9. Calvin correctly recognized that Babylon, at least when taken by
Cyrus in 539 B.C., was not reduced to a perpetual ruin. The city remained safe
and for many ages was celebrated for its great splendor. Calvin said that here
the prophet simply exceeded the limits of truth in this prophecy. A perma-
nently desolated Babylon is predicted also in Isa 13:20. The masculine 'ot6,
"it, him,'' refers back to "that nation" (Holladay). Emendation to the feminine
'otah, "it, her,'' which assumes the antecedent to be "the land of the Chal-
deans" ('ere$ is feminine), is unnecessary (pace Ehrlich 1912: 308; Rudolph).
The LXX has a masculine plural, autous ("them").
- And I will bring against that land all my words that I have spoken against
it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the na-
tions. The LXX concludes the verse with "everything written in this book,''
after which come the Foreign Nation Oracles (LXX 25:14-31:44). In the LXX
arrangement, "this book" appears to have referred originally to the Babylon or-
acles only (Rashi), which were written on a separate scroll (51:59-64). Then
later reference was to all the Foreign Nation Oracles (Kim}:ii), also probably
written on a separate scroll. In the MT, where the Foreign Nation Oracles have
been relocated to chaps. 46-51, "this book" refers to a Jeremiah book of 51
(and finally 52) chapters. In both cases "this book" is forward-looking; refer-
ence is not back to Jeremiah's collected Judah utterances in l:l-25:13a (see
Rhetoric and Composition). Furthermore, "that land,'' ha'are$ hahf', in both
MT and LXX refers to Babylon, not Judah (pace Hyatt) and ought not to be de-
leted (pace Holladay) or changed to "this land,'' ha' are$ hazzo't (pace Rudolph;
Weiser; Bright). These are simply additional attempts to reinterpret the oracle
as being only for Judah. "That land" refers clearly to "the land of the Chal-
deans" mentioned in v 12 (G. Fischer 1991: 482).
which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. These words are lacking in
CBS, although in some LXX MSS osa epropheteusen Jeremias epi pan ta ta ethne
appears as a subscription at the end of the Foreign Nation Collection (LXX
32: 13; Rahlfs prints it in the main text; Ziegler lists it as a marginal reading).
Holladay thinks that the LXX uses these words to introduce the Elam oracle,
which according to its arrangement comes immediately after "all that is writ-
ten in this book." But this is doubtful, since the Elam oracle has an introduc-
tion also in MT 49:34a, differing there only slightly from the introduction in
the LXX. Birkeland ( 1939: 45-46) took the present words as a superscription to
25:15-38 (bound together by v 14), a view that found favor with E. Nielsen
( 1954: 76) and one that has found its way into the translations of JB and NJB.
Whether the present words were part of the original oracle is unclear. It is sur-
prising, surely, to hear Yahweh refer to Jeremiah by name in a divine oracle,
which may indicate that the phrase is a later addition.
- Indeed many nations and great kings shall make them serve-even them!
And I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their
hands. The LXX omits, for which reason many commentators delete. But the
loss can be attributed to haplography (homoeoarcton: k ... k with koh, not kf,
or homoeoteleuton: m ... m). Aquila, Theod, T, and Vg all have the verse;
