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

Book of the Covenant (30:1-31:40) 485

Then the seed of Israel ....... gam zera< yi8ra>e[ ...

from ... before me-all the days mi ... lepanay kol-hayyamfm

II If the heavens ............... ) zm. ... v-samayzm. v 37

..... the earth .............. ... >ere$

Then ... all the seed of Israel ... gam ... kol-zera< yisra>e[

. .. .. all .................... .. kol ...

The feminine and masculine terms for "statutes," f:iuqqot and f:iuqqfm, link

Oracle I to its introduction. The use of masculine and feminine forms of the

same noun results in a merismus, indicating totality. For another merismus

using the same Hebrew word, see Psalm 119, where the feminine plural in v 16

balances off the masculine plurals used throughout the rest of the psalm (D. N.

Freedman). The word "seed" (zera<) links Oracles I and II. "Seed" is also a

catchword back to v 27, balancing the present oracles and the oracles in vv 27-

30 in a chiastic structure within the first Book of Restoration (see Rhetoric and

Composition for 31:23-26).

Catchwords connecting to the final oracle:

v 37 be measured yimmaddu v 39 measuring hammidda

NOTES

31:35. who gives the sun for light by day. Yahweh is the God of Creation, the
one who placed (ntn) the sun in the heavens to give light upon the earth (Gen
1:14-18). In Gen 1:17 the verb ntn is also used (Thompson; H. Weippert 1981:
38). Compare Pss 19:2-7[Eng 19:1-6]; 136:8.
statutes of the moon and stars for light by night. Continuing Yahweh's work
of placing night lights in the heavens, acknowledged here as one of Yahweh's
statutes within the created order (cf. 5:24; 33:20, 25), for which praise is due
(cf. Ps 136:9). With a mention of "statutes" (buqqot), the emphasis is not on
creation as such, but on Yahweh's orderly regulation of the universe. The term
"statutes" is lacking in one Hebrew MS and in the LXX. Some delete metri
causa (Giesebrecht; Duhm; Cornill; Bright; Janzen 1973: 49; Holladay; Mc-
Kane; cf. NEB [but changed in REB]); others emend to the participle boqeq,
"who decrees" (Volz; Rudolph; Keown et al.), which then balances n6ten,
"who gives," in the prior colon. The latter adjustment does not improve the
sense, since according to Gen 1: 16-17 Yahweh "makes" (<sh) the moon and
stars and "places" (ntn) them in the heavens; he does not "decree" them. And
deletion metri causa is a dubious solution. "Statutes" is well represented in the
Yrs (Aq, CL, S, T, Vg) and recurs in a similar context in 33:25. Here the term
is a link to haf:iuqqfm ha>elleh ("these statutes") in the oracle (see Rhetoric and
Composition) and should be retained.
who stirs up the sea so its waves roar, Yahweh of hosts is his name. The line re-
curs in a divine self-asseveration in Isa 51:15, where "Yahweh of hosts is his