Book of the Covenant (30:1-31:40) 383prophetic utterances not likely to be divine oracles (9:16[Eng 9:17]; 17:5). In
the present case, it could be that the compiler took Jeremiah's poem in vv 5-7
and Yahweh's answer in vv 10-I I as a single divine word (so Bright). Many of
the Jeremianic oracles are in fact dialogical in form, containing both the
prophet's voice and the voice of Yahweh (e.g., 4:5-8, 13-I 7; 5:I0-13; and 6: I-
7). See also the prophet's complaint and Yahweh's answer in 4: 19-22. So in the
larger composition this messenger formula probably applies to the poems as a
pair, one spoken by the prophet, the other spoken by Yahweh-this, despite
two other "oracle of Yahweh" formulas in vv 10-I l.
A sound of fright we have heard. Hebrew qOl barada sama'm1. The term
barada and its cognate verb in v IO denote a state of deep fright (lit., "trem-
bling"), the sort coming uninvited to a defeated people or a people fearing de-
feat at the hands of its enemies (I Sam 14: 15; Isa 2 I :4; Ezek 26: I 6; cf. Becking
I 989: 65). The "sound" (qol) is then of panic-stricken voices in the prophet's
ears, heard on other occasions when a battle was raging or envisioned as raging
(4:29, 3I; 9:I8[Eng 9:19]; I0:22; 25:36; 48:3; 49:2I; 50:22, 42, 46; 5I:54). The
term qOl could be rendered "voice" (AV) or "cry/cries" (RSV; NEB; JB; NAB;
NJV; NIV). Jeremiah is hearing battle-weary soldiers crying out like women
giving birth. There is no warrant for emending "we have heard" to "I have
heard" (pace Volz; Rudolph; Weiser; JB [but not in NJB]), which reproduces "I
have heard" in 31: I 8 and creates an unneeded consistency with "I see" in v 6.
The LXX's "you will hear" has not won adherents (Duhm and Volz: "based on
a misunderstanding"). The NEB translated it, but this was abandoned in REB
for the reading of MT Aquila, T, and Vg all support MT, whose reading should
be retained.
terror, and no peace. Hebrew pabad we^1 en salom, with salom having the
fuller meaning of personal and community well-being. People generally, both
good and bad, want for themselves peace and the fruits of peace (cf. 4: IO; 5: I 2;
6: I 4; 8: I I), but when Yahweh unleashes holy terror on wicked humanity, it
matters not that the human desire is otherwise (Isa 48:22; 57:21). Jeremiah
himself spoke about hoping for peace and seeing only terror (8:15; I4:I9).
Compare Isa 2I:4: "My desired twilight turned for me into fright (barada)."
Hebrew pabad ("terror") is an ancient term deriving from holy war (see Note
on 49:5), promised now in later days to a disobedient covenant people (Deut
28:67; cf. Isa 2:IO, I9, 2I). On the language of horror and terror in Jeremiah,
see Muilenburg I 970b: 50-54.
- Ask, would you, and see if a male can bear a child? So why do I see every
man, his hands on his loins, like a woman in labor? A variation of the famil-
1ar. J eremiamc.. hv a... Jā¢ zm ... ma ddA ua c ("If ... 1 'f ... so w y.... h ?) argument,
modified here by containing a directive in the first member instead of a rhe-
torical question. On the three-question form, see Note for 2: I 4. Ginsberg
( 1946: 3 5) argued that the^1 im ("if") beginning the second colon seemed to re-
quire a double rhetorical question, which would make the form here like
others in Jeremiah and like the examples he observed in Ugaritic. He thus took
the form here to be defective. Held (I 969: 78-79) cited Ginsberg's proposal