Book of the Covenant (30:1-31:40) 419North and South (Bright; Jones). Jeremiah is not yet openly hostile to Temple
worship. After 586 B.C., a reunited Israel and Judah with Jerusalem as the cultic
center became a revived hope (3:14-18).
to Yahweh our God! This confession of Yahweh as Israel's God is climactic,
coming as it does at the end of the oracle. On climactic asseverations of the
divine name in Jeremiah and elsewhere in the OT, see Note for 10:16.MESSAGE AND AUDIENCE
Jeremiah begins Oracle II by stating an ancient truth once again seen to be op-
erative: a people has survived the sword only to find grace in the wilderness,
and after a period of wandering they go to find their rest. It is Yahweh's revela-
tion to Israel from long ago, now repeating itself in the exile of the Northern
tribes to Assyria. Jeremiah says that Yahweh has appeared to him from afar with
some very comforting words. Yahweh loves Israel with an eternal love, for
which reason he has faithfully drawn the nation along. Speaking with uncon-
cealed warmth and affection, Yahweh says he intends to build up virgin Israel
so that she can once again dress for the festival and put nimble fingers to the
drum, as people gather to sing and dance. Again she will plant vineyards on
Samaria's mountains and be there to enjoy the fruit of the harvest. Jeremiah
concludes the oracle by saying that the day will come when watchmen will as-
cend Mount Ephraim to call loudly for the people to begin their pilgrimage to
Zion, and there they will worship Yahweh their God.
Oracle II can be dated to Jeremiah's early career, i.e., in 622 B.C. or after-
ward, when people from Northern Israel were being summoned to festivals in
Jerusalem (2 Kgs 23:1-23), and Israelite exiles in faraway Assyria could look
forward to the day when they too would be doing the same.
To this oracle has been attached Oracle I, reaffirming the covenant. After
586 B.C., the two oracles together addressed a broad audience of Israelite and
Judahite exiles, assuring them that Yahweh in future days would be God to all
the tribes of Israel, and they would all be his people.
h) Yahweh Will Return the Remnant of Israel (31:7-9)
31 7 For thus said Yahweh:
Cry with gladness for Jacob
and scream over The Head of the Nations
Proclaim, praise, and say:
'Yahweh has saved your people
the remnant of Israel!'(^8) Look l will bring them
from the land of the north
And I will gather them from remote parts of the earth
among them the blind and the lame