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

400 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS

and style are Jeremianic, and so also is the lex talionis sequence in v 16 (Holla-

day). Rudolph and Weiser take the oracle to be early Jeremianic preaching to

Northern Israel, but this means eliminating "Zion" from v 17 (see Notes).

Alonso-Schakel ( 1979: 2, 8), taking the same view that this oracle addresses

Northern Israel and that "Zion" in v l 7b is a gloss, argues that the poem con-

cludes with v 17 a because the "oracle of Yahweh" formula is there. But there is

no reason why a formula cannot be in the middle of the verse. Usually it comes

at the very end of the oracle but not always (cf. 2:9). "Zion," too, should not be

eliminated.

This poem has two stanzas, with the following repetitions and balancing key

words:

... all who consume you .....

and all your foes-all of them ....

Those who plunder you .....

and all who despoil you .....

II For ..........................

kol-'okelayik

wekol-§iirayik kullam

si5'sayik

wekol-bozezayik

kf

For.......................... kf

Catchwords connecting to the companion poem in vv 12-15:

v 17 I will bring up > a<a[eh

from your blows

I will heal you 'aruka Zak

Whom No One Cares About

v 12 blow

v 13 healing scar repu'6t te<aza

v 14 you, they care not about

blow ... I have struck you

NOTES

v 16

v 17

30:16. Hereafter all who consume you shall be consumed. Hebrew laken kol-
'okelayik ye'akelil. This first of three lex talionis phrases in the verse (cf. Isa
33:1; Ezek 39:10) varies the common double-root idiom in Jeremiah (see Note
on 11: 18). The present participles indicate a recent destruction by the enemy.
But those who have brought judgment and ruin to Judah will be victims of the
same. Then one will see a return to Yahweh's early care for his people, when
Israel was holy and all who "ate" ('kl) of his "firstfruits" met up with evil (2:3).
It has been something very different of late ( 5: 17; 8: 16; 10:25; 50:7, 17).
Hereafter. Commentators have been bothered by this laken since the term
normally means "therefore," announcing judgment after an indictment (see
Rhetoric and Composition for 22:18-19). Here in vv 12-15 the judgment is
upon Zion, but now in v 16 comes judgment for the nations and salvation for
Zion. Calvin said the logic was unsuitable, and others have agreed. The prob-
lem stems largely from a sequential reading of v 16 after vv 12-15, which is now
required since the poems in vv 12-15 and vv 16-17 are combined in the larger