266 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS
terms' not taking the definite article. Still, emphasis is created by the use of two
different Hebrew words: ha>are$ ("the earth, world"), and ha>adama ("the
ground, earth"). 4QJerc has ha> are$, but most commentators and modern Ver-
sions delete, in the interests of a smoother reading.
And the king of Sheshak shall drink after them. This phrase is also lacking in
the LXX, but present in 4QJerc (reconstructed). Again, many delete, as a later
add-on (Giesebrecht, citing Kuenen, Schwally, and Movers before him;
Duhm; Cornill; Volz; Rudolph; Janzen 1973: 122; Tov 1985: 221; Holladay;
McKane), but the loss could also be due to haplography (homoeoarcton:
w ... w). The king of Sheshak is the king of Babylon, and he is last to drink.
Note also that the Babylon oracles conclude the Foreign Nation Collection
in MT (chaps. 50-51) where, as here, they are climactic. Babylon, once the
golden cup in Yahweh's hand, will suddenly fall and be shattered (51:7-8).
Sheshak. Hebrew sefok is a cipher for Babylon, occurring again in 51:41.
The Rabbis called this an atbash, because the last letter of the alphabet (l"l) is
substituted for the first(~), the penultimate (tz.i) for the second (:J), and so on.
Thus, 1lVlV yields 7:i:i, Babylon. The atbash cipher is used for Chaldea/Chal-
deans in 51: 1. Noegel ( 1996) thinks the atbash functions simply as a wordplay,
not being necessarily a cryptic device, which is how Jerome and others since
have interpreted it. Since "Babylon" and the "the king of Babylon" are spoken
about openly in the Pashhur oracle (20:4-6) and in the prior oracles of the
present chapter (25:9, 11, 12), all of which are dated roughly to the same time
as the utterance here, there is scarcely a reason not to write the name of Baby-
lon. Steiner ( 1996: 81-84), nevertheless, favors a cryptic interpretation, argu-
ing that the atbash served as a mock lament added later in Babylon. But a
mock lament is just as possible in Jerusalem during the reign of Jehoiakim,
when indeed there was no need to conceal Babylon's name.
- Yahweh of hosts. The LXX translates $eba>6t ("of hosts") pantokrator, as it
does occasionally in Jeremiah (see Appendix VI). Inv 29, "of hosts" is omitted,
and in v 30 it is omitted with the entire messenger formula.
Drink and be drunk, yes, vomit and fall, and you shall never rise. Five verbs in
rapid succession make for asyndeton, on which see Note for 4:5. The impera-
tive form, qeyu ("vomit"), is discussed in GKC §76h. The le/ in welc/ taqumu
is emphatic: "And you shall never rise!" (cf. GKC §1070). This fifth verb is an
imperfect, since ancient Hebrew does not use a negative imperative. That the
nations will fall and rise no more indicates that this is not ordinary drunken-
ness, the effects of which will wear off. However, this does not mean that the
wine must be poisoned (pace McKane). In their drunken state, the nations be-
come easy victims for attack by the sword. These words are spoken as the cup
is given to each nation. Compare the spoken words uttered by celebrants of the
Christian Eucharist as they offer another the wine: "Drink this cup, all of
it. ... "This cup makes one a participant in the death of Christ, whose death in
contrast to the present death, becomes the way to life.
- And it will happen that they will refuse to take the cup from your hand to
drink. The particle kf is not a conditional "if," as the AV and most modern Ver-
