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

256 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS

from Jeremiah (Source A). Mowinckel (1914: 21) took only vv 15-16 and 27-

29 as Source A. Its formal structure in outline is the following:

Directive to Jeremiah in a vision, serving also as a superscription (vv 15-16)

Report saying that the directive has been fulfilled (vv 17-26)

II Directive to Jeremiah to speak a curse on the nations (v 27a)

Oracle preceded by a "thus said Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel"

messenger formula (v 27b)

III Directive to Jeremiah when the nations refuse the curse (v 28a)

Oracle beginning" ... look" (hinneh), preceded by a "thus said Yahweh

of hosts" messenger formula (vv 28b-29a)

Oracle followed by an "oracle of Yahweh of hosts" messenger formula (v 29b)

This formal structure has similarities to the formal structure in the narrative of

18: 1-12, where Yahweh sends Jeremiah to the potter's shop for an object les-

son, and then follows with divine oracles. There, as here, a directive is given,

and Jeremiah reports having carried it out. But the narrative here is a vision re-

port, where Yahweh and Jeremiah are in dialogue about the latter serving up a

cup of wrath to the nations ( vv 15-17). In this respect, it is more like the dia-

logues in other visionary reports ( l:l l-12, 13-14; 24: l b-3). Weiser correctly

points out that the oracles of vv 27-29 give the vision meaning. The same thing

occurs in chaps. l and 24, where oracles give fuller meaning to the visions. In

the present narrative Yahweh begins and ends the discourse; Jeremiah speaks

in the middle:

Yahweh speaks to Jeremiah

Jeremiah answers Yahweh

Yahweh speaks to the nations

vv 15-16

vv 17-26

vv 27-29

Here, as in 25:1-14, many have argued that the passage has undergone sub-
stantial revision: e.g., that the list of nations in vv 18-26, with or without v 17,
is a later insertion (Mowinckel 1914: 21; Volz; Bardtke 1935: 223; Weiser); that
the oracles in vv 27-29 are a later expansion (Cornill; Rudolph; Holladay; Mc-
Kane); and that the LXX omissions are in fact MT pluses of the revision. While
it is possible that the list of nations could be a later addition, it is unlikely. The
list is certainly not intrusive in the context, as argued by some. Such a list is al-
ready anticipated in v 15 (Rudolph). Cassuto ( l 973c: 218) says that only by
naming the nations as he does can Jeremiah convey to his audience the dread-
ful punishment coming from the hand of the Lord. Here, as elsewhere, we can
also set aside the fiction that Jeremiah is not a prophet to the nations, which
was argued by Duhm and survives still in McKane. As far as differences be-
tween the MT and LXX are concerned, things here are little different from
what we find in 25:1-14 and elsewhere. In the present verses there are nine
arguable cases for LXX haplography, in addition to which are other clear cases
in which the LXX has either misunderstood or misread the Hebrew. The