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

Book of the Covenant (30:1-31:40) 435

Holladay), but some commentators (Duhm; Volz; Rudolph; Bright) take Jere-

miah to be the speaker, which on the basis of content is likely. Jeremiah ap-

pears to be the one hearing Ephraim's lament in vv 18-19. What we have in

the present case are companion poems forming a dialogue: Jeremiah hears

Rachel's lament in v 15, then Yahweh answers the lament in vv 16-17. The

messenger formula in v 15 can thus be retained (Rudolph), since dialogue

oracles in which Jeremiah and Yahweh alternate as speakers often have mes-

senger formulas at the beginning.

The present poem has nice repetition:

weeping ..................

......... weeping over her sons

she refuses ...... over her sons

.............. they are not

bekf

mi!bakka 'al-baneyha

me>ana ... 'al-baneyha

>enenm1

There is a chain effect in "weeping ... weeping over her sons ... over her

sons" (called "stairlike parallelism"; see Note for 4: 13 ), which precludes delet-

ing the first "over her sons;' with the LXX (pace Blayney; Cornill; Ehrlich

1912: 321).

Catchwords connecting to the prior oracle:

v 15 is heard v 10 Hear

to be comforted v 13 and I will comfort them

This poem is the third in a row to begin with the verb sm' ("hear").
Catchwords connecting to the companion oracle following:

v 15 vozce

weeping (2x)

her sons (2x)

v 16 your voice

weeping

v 17 sons

NOTES

31:15. The voice oflament is heard in Ramah. "The voice/sound (qol) is heard"
is a signature expression of Jeremiah (see Note for 30:5). Also, the Jeremiah
poem frequently begins with the word qol, as is the case here (see Note for
3:21). The present colon contains a broken construct-chain, "voice ... la-
ment," leading some modern Versions (AV; RSV; JB; NJV; NIV) to join "la-
ment" (nehf) with "bitterest weeping" in the second colon. Calvin sees here an
example of the rhetorical figure "personification" (Gk: prosopopoiia; Lat: con-
formatio), where the speaker represents an absent person as being present (ad
Herennium iv 53). Making the dead speak was also called eidolopoiia by the
classical rhetoricians. The absent (dead) Rachel is here present to lament the
loss of her sons.