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

Jeremiah Meets Hananiah (28:1-17) 329

The entire narrative contains an inclusio as well, which can be assigned to the

narrating scribe, perhaps Baruch. It consists of the following repeated key words:

In that year

In that year

bassana haht' v 1

bassana haht' v 17

Lys adds to this the collocation of specific dates in the verses, which further

links the end with the beginning, but his large chiasmus for the chapter cannot

be sustained.

NOTES

28:1. And it happened in that year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah,
king ofludah, in the fourth year in the -fifth month. This superscription is agreed
to have undergone expansion, but just what its original form was we cannot
say. The T supports MT in all essential respects, but the LXX has a shorter ver-
sion: "And it happened in the fourth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the
fifth month." Omitted in the LXX is "in that year," which connects this chap-
ter's events with those in chap. 27, in addition to making an inclusio with "in
that year" of v 17 (see Rhetoric and Composition). Mowinckel ( 1914: 9) be-
lieves "in that year" to be original. The LXX also omits "in the beginning of the
reign,'' which makes for more continuity with 27: 1, although here the MT and
LXX both correctly name "Zedekiah" as the reigning king (MT in 27: 1 has
"Jehoiakim"). Janzen (1973: 15) thinks MT is a conflated text. The LXX has
both "the fourth year" and "the fifth month,'' which in MT concludes the su-
perscriptional data and could be a latter add-on stating more correctly when
the events of chap. 28 (and chap. 27) took place. However, since specific dates
are given also in v 17, both dates may have been integrated into the narrative
from the beginning. In any event, the fourth year of Zedekiah, which was 594-
593 B.C., is taken by most scholars to be the correct date for events in both
chapters. There is still a problem in harmonizing this rather late date with the
phrase "in the beginning of the reign,'' even though the latter does not mean
"in the accession year" (see Note for 26: 1 ).
in the fifth month. The fifth month is Ab (July/August) and is no doubt
mentioned because Hananiah's death occurred in the seventh month of the
same year (v 17).
Hananiah son of Azzur, the prophet who was from Gibeon, said to me in the
house ofYahweh in the presence of the priests and all the people. We are prepared
for this confrontation after hearing Jeremiah's warning to the foreign envoys,
King Zedekiah, and the priests and the people that they not listen to prophets
and seers of other description who are preaching rebellion against Nebuchad-
nezzar (27:14-18). Hananiah now steps forward to represent Jerusalem's proph-
ets in challenging Jeremiah's prophecy. The "priests and people" making up
the audience were the last to be addressed in 27:16-22. It could be that the
present confrontation occurs soon after the concluding address in chap. 27.