Book of the Covenant (30:1-31:40) 399MESSAGE AND AUDIENCE
In language Jeremiah used to described his own broken condition and the bro-
ken condition of his people, Yahweh now portrays his bruised, sick, and aban-
doned wife, Zion, telling also why she has come to such a lamentable state. He
speaks to her directly, pronouncing her brokenness desperate and her crushing
blow incurable. She also has an undiagnosed infection, which either resists
treatment or indicates a hopeless condition. The wished-for scar that would in-
dicate healing does not appear. Yahweh notes also that Zion has no visitors.
Posturing friends from the distant and recent past have all forgotton her. Now
when she needs them most, they care nothing about her condition. Yahweh
says he is the one who has struck Zion this cruel blow. But punishment has a
reason. Zion's cup of iniquity is full, yes overfull. Yahweh concludes by asking
Zion why she is crying. Zion cannot answer. So Yahweh answers his own ques-
tion, repeating once again that because of her iniquity and sin he has done
these things to her.
The present oracle could date from any time around the fall of Jerusalem,
possibly just before the fall, when Egyptian help fizzled and Zion's situation
became hopeless (Boadt); otherwise, just after the fall (Hyatt; Bright). Because
of the immediacy of the poem, its audience can only be people of Jerusalem
and Judah. An original audience of Northern Israel in Josiah's reign has to be
ruled out.d) But from Your Blows I Will Heal You (30: 16-17)
30 16 Hereafter all who consume you shall be consumed
and all your foes-all of them-into captivity shall go
Those who plunder you shall be for plunder
and all who despoil you I will give for spoil(^17) For I will bring up new flesh for you
and from your blows I will heal you
-oracle of Yahweh-
For they have called you an outcast:
'That Zion Whom No One Cares About'
RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION
MT 30: 16-17 = LXX 37:16-17. The present poem has no section markings at
the top end, but a messenger formula in v 17 suggests an oracle independent
from vv 12-15, which has its own "thus said Yahweh" formula. Delimitation at
the lower end is marked in MP and 4QJer° by a petubah and in ML by a setu-
mah after v 17. For the pairing of this poem and the poem in vv 12-15 in the
larger poetic core, see Rhetoric and Composition for 30:4-7. Most commenta-
tors (except Duhm and McKane) credit this oracle to Jeremiah. Its vocabulary