Book of the Covenant (30:1-31:40) 385ment, which came climactically in Jerusalem's fall to the Babylonians. There
is no way this poem could originally have been addressed to Northern Israel
(pace Lohfink 1981 ), since its "Day of Yahweh" was in the distant past. On the
"Day of Yahweh," see Note for 4:9. Medieval Jewish commentators (Rashi,
Kimi.ii, Abarbanel) interpreted the "day" eschatologically (cf. "Gog and Ma-
gog" in Ezekiel 38-39; Dan 12:1; BT Sanhedrin 98b). The original procla-
mation was surely without messianic ideas (Calvin; Volz), but we see the
beginnings of such in the interpolated vv 8-9, where "that day" has become
transformed (along with v 7b) into a future day of salvation, and David is once
again reigning as king.
there is none like it. The MT reads me> ayin kamohu, "from where is like it?"
but if me> ayin is repointed to me> en, the reading becomes "there is none like
it" (cf. 10:6-7) or "without any like it" (cf. 4:7; 26:9; 46:19), which nicely bal-
ances w<ten ("and no") in v 5 (see Rhetoric and Composition). The meaning
is the same: the coming day of Yahweh will have nothing to which it may be
compared.
Yes, a time of distress it is for Jacob. The expression "time of distress, trouble"
('et $0.rd) occurs also in 14:8 and 15: 11; in 16: 19 it is "day of trouble" (y8m
$0.rd). "Distress" is associated with childbearing also in 4:31; 6:24; 49:24; and
50:43. While "Jacob" may have referred originally to just Northern Israel in
30: 10 and 31: 7, and 11, here and in 30: 18 it means the entire covenant people,
of which only Judah remains (Giesebrecht; Jones). It has the same broader
meaning in 10:16, 25, and later in Second Isaiah (Isa 40:27; 41:8, 14, 21; 42:24
et passim). Northern Israel's distress occurred in 722 B.C. at the hands of the
Assyrians.
and from it shall he be saved? This colon has been universally taken as a
declaration of divine deliverance, being read this way in all the Versions, an-
cient and modern, and interpreted as such by most all commentators. Calvin
saw the day of distress as Jerusalem's destruction; still, he maintained that
here at the end of the verse the prophet gives the hope of divine mercy, even
deliverance from the distress. This word of hope is also seen by many as mak-
ing a fitting transition to vv 10-11, where salvation is promised in a divine
oracle, and to the interpolated vv 8-9, where "that day" becomes the day when
Yahweh will break the enemy's yoke of servitude. Giesebrecht, however, says
that this sudden announcement of rescue together with the punishment is
unprophetic, and he is right. This lament cannot end by announcing a mirac-
ulous deliverance such as Jerusalem experienced in 701 B.C. In 586 B.c. Jacob
(= Judah) was not saved. The suggestion therefore put forth by Holladay
(1962a: 53-54; 1974: 111-12; 1989: 172-73) that the words were originally
posed as a question to which the answer was a resounding "No!" is clearly the
right interpretation. There is no he> interrogative here, but questions can be
posed without one (Mitchell 1908). What we have then is another concluding
question like "and would you return to me?" in 3: 1, which originally required
a "no" answer but over time came to be a statement celebrating Israel's repen-
tance (see Note for 3:1).