276 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS5. Wail, 0 Shepherds, and Cry Out! (25:34-38)
25 34 Wail, 0 shepherds, and cry out
and roll about, 0 nobles of the flock
Because your days for slaughter are fulfilled
and you will be scattered
and you will fall like a vessel of great value(^35) Flight shall vanish from the shepherds
escape from the nobles of the flock
(^36) The sound of a scream of the shepherds
and the wailing of the nobles of the flock
because Yahweh is devastating their pasturage
(^37) Yes, the peaceful pastures lie silent
before the burning anger of Yahweh
(^38) Like a young lion he left his lair
indeed their land became a desolation
Before the oppressive burning
before his burning anger.
RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION
MT 25:34-38 = LXX 32:34-38. The present verses are delimited at the top end
by a return to poetry in v 34. Verse 3 3 is add-on prose to the prior unit. Delim-
itation at the bottom end is by a petubah in MA, ML, and MP after v 38, which
is also the chapter division. For the relation of vv 34-38 to the whole of vv 30-
38, see Rhetoric and Composition for 25:30-31.
This poem has no messenger formula and no first-person pronouns to iden-
tify it as a divine oracle. It may then be taken as a judgment utterance of the
prophet, perhaps originally mocking the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, and
then later reused to mock leaders of all nations. No mention is made of the na-
tions such as there is in the two preceding oracles (vv 31, 32). Calvin said he
had no doubt but that the prophet was now turning to address his own nation.
Jones has suggested also that the kings here might be Judah's kings, but he rec-
ognizes that the utterance in its present context must refer to the kings of the
nations.
The poem has three stanzas with the following repetitions and balancing key
words:
...... shepherds...
.... nobles of the fiock
Because .....................
....... .. the shepherds
....... the nobles of the fiock
v 34kfv 35