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

Book of the Covenant (30:1-31:40) 461

three verbs to be MT expansion, but Becking ( l 994a: 151) thinks the LXX has

contracted four standard Jeremiah verbs, "to uproot, to pull down, to over-

throw, to destroy," into one verb kathairein, "to destroy." But the LXX is proba-

bly shorter as a result of two haplographies: l) the loss of lintos welint0$ we, "to

uproot and to break down, and" (homoeoarcton: l ... l); and 2) the loss of

Uleha'abfd, "and to destroy" (homoeoarcton: wlh ... wlh). On the six common

verbs of destruction and restoration in Jeremiah, see Note for 1: 10. The Jere-

mianic theme of "building and planting" is discussed in Note for 24:6.

29. In those days they shall not again say. This antithesis usually appears with
    a messenger formula (see Note for 3: 16). Jeremiah's prophecy on retribution is
    future oriented; the comparable prophecy in Ezekiel 18 has immediate appli-
    cation (May 1961: 114-16).
    Fathers have eaten sour grapes, and children's teeth become set on edge. An ex-
    isting proverb being quoted widely in Judah and in Babylon among the exiles
    following the 586 B.C. disaster (Lam 5: 7; Ezek 18:2). A striking parallel exists in
    a Neo-Assyrian prayer from one who has a disease that may have come from a
    wrong he did not commit but that someone else committed. It too shows that
    sin can be punished to the second or third generation. The petitioner prays:

Loosen my disgrace, the guilt of my wickedness; remove

My disease; drive away my sickness; a sin I know (or)

know not I have committed;

On account of a sin of my father (or) my grandfather, a

sin of my mother (or) my grandmother,

On account of a sin of an elder brother (or) an elder

sister, on account of a sin of my family,

Of my kinsfolk (or) of my clan ...

The wrath of god and goddess have pressed upon me.

(Mullo-Weir 1929b: 765; Sigerist 1951: 445)

In another expiation ritual, the petitioner prays for deliverance from a sin

any number of possible individuals close to him may have committed, possibly

one of his children or a friend:

Make thou the angered god and angered goddess to

be at peace with me

The wrath of god and goddess relax for me;

The sin of the wrongdoing of father, mother, brother,

sister, son, daughter, man-servant, or maid-servant,

Of comrade, associate, male friend, female friend, or ...

.......................... and I will sing thy praises.
(Mullo-Weir l 929a: 282)

The proverb here in Jer 31 :29 had obvious currency at the time (Kilpp 1985;
Waldman 1989-90: l ), just as it did whenever the need arose to explain Israel's