Book of the Covenant (30:1-31:40) 463tition of the yo'merfl ("they shall say") in v 29 (Schoneveld 1963: 341; Kamin-
sky 1995: 147-49), since kf 'im constructions introduce new declarations in
7:32; 16:14-15 [== 23:7-8]; and 19:6. Schoneveld's reading here is, "But they
will say, 'Each person in his own iniquity shall die.'" According to this inter-
pretation, people in future days will speak a new proverb in place of the old
one. See also 3:16b-l 7, where another new declaration will replace an old one
in future days.
Every human who eats sour grapes. The LXX omits "every human" (kol-
ha'adam); however, the phrase is well attested in the Yrs (Aq, Theod, Symm,
CL, S, T, Vg) and should be retained (Giesebrecht). It links the first and last
prophecies together (see Rhetoric and Composition).
MESSAGE AND AUDIENCE
Yahweh in this first oracle says that he will sow a united Israel and Judah in the
future with the seed of humans and the seed of beasts. In a second oracle, this
promise of a population increase is supplemented by a promise that the land
too will be restored-new plantings and new buildings. The third promise,
probably also a divine oracle, is that the future will differ from the past and
present, in that people will no longer speak the proverb about fathers eating
sour grapes and the children's teeth being set on edge. Instead, each person
will die in his own iniquity, which is to say, the one who eats sour grapes will
have his own teeth set on edge.
These oracles postdate the fall of Jerusalem, because people are currently
using the cited proverb to explain the catastrophe of 586 B.C. But they are
spoken soon after, since vv 29-30 are directed to the future. The Persian pe-
riod is too late for the final prophecy (pace Carroll; Holladay), because its
subject matter has already become a current issue for Ezekiel and the Baby-
lonian exiles.
The mention of iniquity in v 30 will introduce to an audience hearing the
first Book of Restoration the "new covenant" oracle coming next, where the act
of grace said to undergird the new covenant is the forgiveness of sins (v 34). In
the present verses, however, sin will be punished, not forgiven. These verses
then, vv 29-30, are a foil for the new covenant prophecy. Similarly, Ezekiel's
teaching about "the soul that sins shall die" concludes with an exhortation that
Israel get itself a new heart and a new spirit (Ezek 18: 31 ).
The Roman poet Horace (65-68 B.C.) believed that sin multiplied with the
generations, yet he expressed this hope in Augustus, whose rule promised sta-
bility and good government (Odes iii 6):
Delicta maiorum immeritus lues
Romane, donec templa refeceris
aedesque labentes deorum et
foeda nigro simulacra fumo