Jeremiah Buys Land in Anathoth (32:1-44) 503
(pace Holladay); rather, during the summer of 587 B.C., a year before the
city fell.
the court of the guard. Jeremiah's final place of confinement in the royal
palace (see Note for 37:21), where he enjoyed a measure of freedom (see v 8
below).
- because Zedekiah ... confined him saying: 'Why are you prophesying
... ?'The oracles to follow (vv 3b-5) were spoken earlier; they are brought in
here to explain Jeremiah's confinement in the court of the guard. The account
in chap. 37 states things a bit differently, although there an unhopeful wur<l tu
the king (v 17) does precede Jeremiah's being remanded to the court of the
guard (v 21). The oracles here compare with the oracle given earlier to Zede-
kiah in 34:2-3.
Look I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take
it. A prediction made by the prophet on many occasions (see Note for 34:2).
- And Zedekiah, king of Judah, will not escape from the hand of the Cha/-
deans-indeed he will surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and
his mouth shall speak with his mouth and his eyes shall see his eyes. It is Nebu-
chadrezzar's mouth that will speak to Zedekiah's mouth, and the eyes of the
Babylonian king that will look into the eyes of Judah's beaten king. Zedekiah
may or may not be given an opportunity to speak, and he would probably just
as soon avoid eye contact with Nebuchadrezzar if at all possible. The expres-
sion is rhetorically a synecdoche (the encounter will be more than eye to eye
and mouth to mouth) and grammatically a syntactic chiasmus ("and it shall
speak I his mouth with his mouth //and his eye his eye I shall see"). This
"mouth to mouth" and "eye to eye" encounter, predicted also in 34:3, did in
fact happen (39:5; 52:9).
- And to Babylon he shall make Zedekiah walk, and there he will be until I
reckon with him. Zedekiah is promised a Babylonian exile also in 34:3, which
was fulfilled (39:7; 52:11). But what does Yahweh mean when he says that
"there [Zedekiah] will be" (LXX: "dwell there") until he "reckons with" him?
The verb pqd ("visit, attend to, reckon with") occurs frequently in Jeremiah
(see Note for 5:9), its usage often yielding an understatement or a statement
having deliberate ambiguity. The verb can mean "visit to deliver" (15:15;
29: 10) but more often means "visit to punish." The Tin this case has "until his
memorial comes in before me," which points to Zedekiah's death (cf. Rashi;
Kiml;i; GA: apothaneitai, "to die"). Death in a foreign land, whether for a king
or any other person, is neither a desired nor an honorable end (20:6; 22: 12, 26).
But Calvin thinks that Yahweh intends to reckon favorably with Zedekiah,
since he will at least get a burial.
And to Babylon. The preposition "to" is omitted by ellipsis (see Note for 24:1).
5-6. until I reckon with him-oracle of Yahweh-for though you fight the
Cha/deans, you shall not succeed? And Jeremiah said. The LXX omits the
concluding words of v 5 and, except for the final waw on the name "Jere-
miah," omits the words "and Jeremia[h] said" that begin v 6. Commentators
are divided over whether the words in question are an MT plus (Cornill;
