562 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS
unusual, although they do occur in Deut 15:12. The designation "Hebrew"
('ibrf) appears only seldom in the OT, and when it does, it retains its older as-
sociation with slavery and occurs chiefly in the mouths of foreigners or when
an Israelite is identifying himself to a foreigner (Gen 39:14, 17; 40:15; 1 Sam
4:6; 14:21; cf. de Vaux 1965b: 83; Bright 1981: 93-95).
so that no person should make them serve a Judahite, his kin. Hebrew 'bd +be
means "make serve, enslave" (see Note for 25:14).
- And all the princes and all the people who entered into the covenant gave
heed to send away free each person his male slave and each person his female
slave, so that he should not make them serve again; and they gave heed and sent
them away. Duhm argued that this acceptance was simply a political move,
having nothing to do with laws of religion. During the siege, slaves would be of
no use to their owners, their work being in fields outside the city and the feed-
ing of them being a burden the owners could well do without. That the slave
owners may have acted from selfish motives is plausible enough, but there is
no reason why, at the same time, they might not have sought to remedy a
breach in covenant law. Duhm's view, reducing this incident to a strictly politi-
cal action, has met with little enthusiasm. More than likely motives were
mixed (Hyatt; Bright; Holladay).
all the princes. I.e., all the king's men. On sarfm meaning "princes," see
Note for 24:1.
gave heed. Hebrew yisme'u. The LXX has epestraphesan ("they turned
around"), which results from the loss of lOb and l la in its text.
free ... so that he should not make them serve again; and they gave heed and
sent them away. The LXX omits, which can be attributed to haplography (ho-
moeoteleuton: w ... w), assuming that another loss in v l la was independent
of the present loss (see BHS). The T and Vg have the words.
- Then they turned around after this and took back the male slaves and fe-
male slaves that they had sent away free. Another LXX omission attributable to
haplography (homoeoarcton: wy ... wy), if the loss is separate from the loss in
v lOb. The T and Vg have the words. The first yasubU is "they turned around";
the second yaszbU is "they took back." See another play on sub in vv 15-16,
where Jeremiah says "you turned around" (tasubu) in repentance, then "you
turned around (tasubu) ... and took back (wattaszbU)" the slaves you set free.
The slaves were probably reclaimed once the siege was lifted since they were
needed in the fields.
and subjugated them. I.e., back into slavery. The Kt is an H-stem, yakbfsum,
which occurs only here in the OT. The Q is a Qal, yikbesum, having the same
meaning (cf. v 16; Neh 5:5; 2 Chr 28:10).- And the word ofYahweh came to Jeremiah from Yahweh. The introductory
word of v 8 needs repeating because of intervening narrative (so Mezudath Da-
vid). The LXX, S, and an edition of T omit "from Yahweh" (me> et yhwh), but it
is present in Aq. Since other third-person superscriptions in this form lack
"from Yahweh" (see Note for 28: 12), the words here are probably secondary,
added perhaps from v 8 (Janzen 1973: 51; Holladay). Yahweh's word, in any