442 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTSCatchwords derived from the verb silb also connect not to the companion
oracle (v 20), but to the concluding poetry in vv 21-22:v 18 Bring me back so I may come back v 21 Return (2x)
v 19 my turning away v 22 turnableNOTES
31:18. I can indeed hear Ephraim rockin' in grief Rachel's weeping was heard
in v 15; now it is intense lamenting from Ephraim, who represents the sons of
Rachel. Ephraim is lamenting his sin (Weiser), although T says it is because he
is exiled. No doubt it is both. The Hithpolel of nild is an intensive form mean-
ing "to shake (the head) back and forth (in a lament)" (cf. H-stem in 18:16).
The Qal means "waver" (4:1) and "console, condole" (15:5; 16:5; 22:10; and
elsewhere; cf. Note for 15:5). The Vg follows T with transmigrantem ("wander-
ing"), although in his commentary Jerome lists lamentantem ("lamenting") as
an alternative reading.
You disciplined me and I was disciplined. This double occurrence of a root
( multiclinatum) is a signature of Jeremiah (see Notes for 11:18 and 31:4). An-
other occurs in the next line. The verb ysr means "to correct, discipline, pun-
ish." Here Ephraim admits to having accepted discipline from Yahweh, which
Kiml;li says came with many years in exile. Preaching discipline to Judah met
with no success. In 6:8, Jerusalem was told to "correct yourself" (hiwwaserf),
but Jeremiah learned to his sorrow that people simply refused to take "correc-
tion" (milsar; see Note for 2:30).
like a young bull not trained. An 'egel is a bull calf, here one as yet untrained
to wear the yoke or who breaks the yoke (AV: "as a bullock unaccustomed to
the yoke"). The imagery may derive from Hosea (Hos 4:16; 10:11; 11:4; cf.
K. Gross 1930: 12). Ephraim has come around to confess its rebellion, and in
light of v l 9b ("the reproach of my youth") perhaps the nation's long-standing
rebellion referred to in 2:20. Jerusalem-to the person-is said to have broken
Yahweh's yoke in 5:5.
Bring me back so I may come back. Or "restore me so I may be restored." This
double root occurrence is with the verb silb-the first an H-stem and the sec-
ond a Qal. Ephraim has already confessed and will confess some more, but for
him to be restored, which is what this supplication is all about, Yahweh must
act. But Yahweh is not necessarily being called upon to aid the process of re-
pentance, however much this idea may be inferred from other texts. M. Green-
berg (1997: 736) says that in Jeremiah there is a vacillation between affirming
on the one hand that human repentance can precede and induce divine for-
giveness (26:3; 36:3) and on the other that repentance is a process involving
God's cooperation (24:7; 32:40). Here Greenberg recognizes that Ephraim is
already contrite but says nevertheless that he is imploring God's help in repen-
tance. The verb is silb, which in its second (Qal) occurrence could be ren-
dered "and I will repent." But that does not seem quite right if repentance has