Book of the Covenant (30:1-31:40) 405the entire covenant people, of which only Judah remains. Elsewhere in the
book it has the inclusive meaning of "all Israel" (see Rhetoric and Composi-
tion for 30:1-3). The LXX lacks "tents," which may explain why it translates
"his captives" ( aichmalosian autou) instead of "his dwellings" in the colon fol-
lowing (cf. Isa 49:13). The term appears to be present (upon reconstruction) in
4QJd (Tov 1997: 196-97). "Tents" is an archaism for "dwellings" (cf. 4:30)
and should be retained because of the parallelism (cf. Num 24:5; Ps 78:60; and
Isa 54:2).
and on his dwellings I will have pity. This colon makes a syntactic chiasmus
with the prior colon. Judah's houses and other buildings are now in ruins, but
Yahweh cares about them (the verb is rbm, "to have compassion, pity").
A city shall be built on its tell, and a citadel on its rightful place shall sit. An-
other syntactic chiasmus in Hebrew, with verbs at the extremes. Yahweh's car-
ing is an active caring, which means that ruined cities and buildings will be
rebuilt. Since "city" and "citadel" are indefinite nouns, they are commonly
taken as collectives-i.e., cities and citadels generally (REB: "Every city will
be rebuilt on its own mound, every mansion will occupy its traditional site").
Except for those who take this oracle as originally addressing Northern Israel,
it is widely recognized that Jerusalem's prominent buildings are being called to
mind. A Hittite treaty between Suppiluliumas I of Hatti (ca. 13 50 B.C.) and
Kurtiwaza (= Shattiwaza) of Mitanni concludes with a blessing promising full
restoration to the vassal if it remains faithful to the treaty:
If you, Kurtiwaza, the prince, and (you), the Hurrians, fulfill this treaty
and (this) oath, may these gods protect you .... May the Mitanni country
return to the place which it occupied before, may it thrive and expand.
May you, Kurtiwaza, your sons, and your sons' sons (descended) from the
daughter of the Great King of the Hatti land, and you, the Hurrians exer-
cise kingship forever. May the throne of your father persist, may the
Mitanni country persist.
(ANET^3 206; cf. Beckman 1996: 44, 48)A city shall be built on its tell. Hebrew wi!nibneta <fr <al-tillah. The mascu-
line verb wnbnh in 4QJer^0 is permissible with collective and mixed subjects
(<fr, "city," is feminine; tel, "tell," is masculine; cf. GKC § 1450 ). Another mas-
culine verb, weya$a) ("and it shall go forth"), predicates a mixed subject in
v l 9a. KimJ:ii and Calvin follow T and take the city here to be Jerusalem.
Judah's capital city is further indicated by the mention of rulers' being raised
up in v 21 (Thompson). A "tell" is a mound of rubble left from a former occu-
pation. Cities are thus rebuilt on the rubble of prior cities, though sometimes
they are not rebuilt (49:2; Deut 13:17[Eng 13:16]; Josh 8:28; 11:13). At some
point, a tell becomes abandoned (Jerusalem is an exception), giving archaeol-
ogists opportunities to excavate, such as they enjoy today throughout the Near
East. For the rebuilding of Jerusalem and Judah's cities, see also 31:23-25,
38-40; Ezek 36:10, 33-36; 48:15-35; Isa 44:26-28; 49:16-17; 61:4.