336 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS
prophecies of peace. The issue turns finally on whether Yahweh has truly
"sP-nt" the prophet, as we know from judgments elsewhere against the peace
prophets (23:21, 32; 27: 15), from Jeremiah's parting word to Hananiah (28: 15),
and from Jeremiah's trial, where his defense rested on the testimony that Yah-
weh had "sent" him (26:12-15). On Yahweh's disclaimer about not having
"sent" the peace prophets, see Note for 23:32. The legislation of Deut 18:21-
22, which probably does figure in here, is repeated in the Qumran Temple
Scroll (l lQT 61:2-5; Yadin 1983: 277).
when the word of the prophet comes to be. The LXX omits "the prophet," even
though it is not a title here. The Vg also omits, but not T. Here the verb bo'
means "comes to be, is fulfilled" (Rabinowitz 1972-73: 130).
l 0. Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke bar from upon the neck of Jere-
miah the prophet and broke it. Duhm says: "Kurz und biindig!" ("Short and
decisive!"). Hananiah carries out a symbolic action just as Jeremiah does, and
for those looking on, it may appear as though this has rendered Jeremiah's
prophecy ineffective. On the other hand, symbolic action, however efficacious
in bringing prophecy to pass, has no power if Yahweh is not behind it. We see
symbolic action come to nothing when Zedekiah son of Chenaanah parades
before Ahab and Jehoshaphat with his horns of iron and strikes the prophet
Micaiah on the cheek for an opposing word from Yahweh (1 Kgs 22: 11-12,
24-28); also when Jehoiakim burns the Jeremiah scroll (36:23). On symbolic
action elsewhere in the book of Jeremiah, see Note for 13: I. The LXX and S
have "yoke bars," plural, which is the reading in vv 12-13. The LXX also
adds "in the sight of all the people" after "Hananiah," which is not present in
TorVg.
and broke it. Hebrew wayyisbereha. Some scholars (Cornill; Ehrlich 1912:
313; Rudolph) emend the masculine suffix ha to a feminine ha, which one ex-
pects in light of the feminine noun mota ("yoke bar"). The final waw could be
accidental dittography (D. N. Freedman). Rudolph wonders too whether the
narrator may have had 'ol ("yoke") in mind.
- Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, within
two years' time from upon the neck of all the nations. The LXX omits "within
two years' time,'' butAq, Theod, T, and Vg all have the words. Malamat (1975:
137 n. 32) translates be'od senatayim yamfm as "in another two years" (T: "at
the end of two years"), which from the present would have been ca. 591 B.C.
and would connect with the date given in Ezek 20: l ( 1975: 138-39). Ezekiel 20
reports a visit of elders to Ezekiel, possibly to inquire of Yahweh about the
release of exiles. Sarna (1978: 95-96) dates the Jerusalem conference and the
incident here to 597 B.C., pointing out that two years would put Hananiah's
prophecy at the actual date of the rebellion in Babylon, i.e., 595 B.C. Hana-
niah, in any case, is wrong to say "within two years,'' and it is the time factor
that makes his prophecy false and Jeremiah's true. The exile would not end in
two years. It is not that Hananiah held out hope for the covenant people
whereas Jeremiah held no hope. Hananiah simply failed to see the dreadful
fall of the nation to Nebuchadnezzar, whereas Jeremiah did see it. For Jere-
