More on Restoration and Covenants (33:1-26) 529typed Deuteronomic phrase "great cities fortified sky-high" (Deut 1:28; 9: 1 ). A
few MSS, K°R, and T have une$ilr8t (from n$r), which translates as "and
guarded, secret things" (cf. Isa 48:6). The two meanings are not that different.
The term be$ilr8t can also mean "inaccessible things," and the question there-
fore is whether any secret or inaccessible things come in the oracles that fol-
low. If we expect something extraordinary, for example, something similar to
the new covenant promises of 31:31-34 and 32:n-4 l, the answer will probably
be in the negative. However, there is no reason why anything above and be-
yond the more usual promises in the Book of Restoration must be anticipated.
The oracle of restoration in vv 6-9 might easily suffice (Thompson; Holladay).
All genuine prophecy is hidden or inaccessible until Yahweh reveals it to his
prophet. On prophets' hearing the hidden things of God in divine council, see
Note for 23:18.
MESSAGE AND AUDIENCE
Yahweh in the present oracle announces himself as the one responsible for the
entire creation, telling Jeremiah therefore to call upon him so he can tell him
great and previously hidden things he has not known. The oracle will doubt-
less be shared with a Judahite audience during the dark days of the siege, and
they too, perhaps, will want to be privy to these marvelous things. Audiences
after the fall of Jerusalem will also be in need of something hopeful to cling to,
and so they are invited along with Jeremiah and others to call upon Yahweh in
their moment of great need.
As the editorial note states, this oracle comes to Jeremiah while he is con-
fined to the court of the guard. It follows, therefore, the directive that Jeremiah
buy his cousin's field atAnathoth (chap. 32). If the field purchase is in the sum-
mer of 587, this revelation comes between then and the summer of 586 B.c.,
when Jerusalem falls.
2. Healed City, Healed People (33:4-9)
33 4 For thus said Yahweh, God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city
and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah that were broken down
toward the siege ramps and toward the sword,^5 those coming to fight the
Chaldeans only to fill them with the corpses of men whom I struck down
in my anger and my wrath, and because I hid my face from this city on ac-
count of all their evil:(^6) Look I am going to bring to it new flesh and healing, and I will heal
them and I will reveal to them the sweet smell of peace and security.
(^7) And I will surely restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Is-
rael, and I will build them as at first.^8 And I will cleanse them from all
their iniquity by which they sinned against me, and I will forgive all"
their iniquities by which they sinned against me and by which they
'Reading the Q lekol ("for all"); Kt has a longer form, lekol.