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

332 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS

troublesome ambiguity into the text, and it is a wonder that the full form

should be nowhere attested in the book. Volz and Weiser retain "to me," which

is a perfectly acceptable reading (cf. 27 :2).

in the presence of the priests and all the people. See 27: 16. This may have

been a Sabbath or other occasion when a large number of people would be

present at the Temple.

2. Thus said Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel. Hananiah, being a Yahweh
   prophet, uses the same messenger formula as Jeremiah. The LXX here and in
   v 14 omits "of hosts, God of Israel," as it does elsewhere (see Appendix VI).
   I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. The verb is a prophetic perfect.
   When the prophecy is repeated in vv 4 and 11, an imperfect verb is used.
   Weiser says we now hear "God's word against God's word." Hananiah's preach-
   ing echoes the preaching of Isaiah:

Indeed the yoke of his burden, and the bar on his shoulder, the rod of one

oppressing him, you shattered as on the day of Midian.

(Isa 9:3[Eng 9:4])

And it will happen in that day: his burden will be removed from your

shoulder, and his yoke from your neck will be destroyed.

(Isa 10:27)

And his yoke will be removed from them, and his burden from his shoulder

removed.

(Isa 14:25)

However right this message was coming from Isaiah, it is now wrong. Von Rad
( 1965: 129) points out that the prophetic message is not timeless truth but a
"particular word relevant to a particular hour in history." When lifted from its
context, it can become a lie (v 17). On Hananiah and the preaching tradition
of Isaiah, see Quell (1952: 59-60), Kraus (1964: 90-91), Overholt (1967: 244-
45; 1970: 40), Buber (1968: 168), and Zimmerli (1995: 420-21). Jeremiah met
up with a similar opposition when his Temple Oracles questioned Zion the-
ology and preaching from Isaiah (see Note for 7 :4).

3. Within two years' time I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the
   house of Yahweh that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took from this place
   and brought to Babylon. Another explicit contradiction of what Jeremiah said
   in 27:16. What Hananiah promises here did not happen.
   Within two years' time. Hebrew be<od senatayim yamfm. Or "within two full
   years" (AV; cf. GKC §13ld; Gen 41:1; 2 Sam 13:23). Prophecies stating a defi-
   nite time of fulfillment are rare, yet Jeremiah is similarly specific in prophesy-
   ing Hananiah's death (v 16: "This year you will die").
   all the vessels. Hebrew >et-kol-kele. The LXX omits "all," which could be at-
   tributed to haplography (homoeoarcton: kl ... kl). Giesebrecht considers hap-
   lography a possibility, noting that CL, Vg, S, and Tall have the term. The LXX