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

596 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS

and a setumah in ML. Delimitation at the bottom end is by a setumah in MA

and ML and a petu~ah in MP after v 26. Another setumah exists in MA and a

petu~ah in ML and MP after v 18, the purpose of which is unclear.

Volz put v 9 before v 5 of the previous segment, which m;ikes everything in

vv 5-8-most importantly, v 8-occur in the fifth year of Jehoiakim. The same

transposition is made in the JB [but reversed in NJB] and the NAB. This trans-

position should be rejected, however, because it fails to recognize vv 1-8 as

originally an independent narrative with a concluding summary statement.

Verses 9-26 are another independent narrative detailing Baruch's reading of

the scroll and what happened afterwards. This narrative, having its own date,

was added to vv 1-8 later (see Rhetoric and Composition for-36:t=8f

The present narrative segment is given its structure by action statements that

repeat the verb qr> + be>ozne(nulhem), "read aloud + in the hearing of I our

hearing I their hearing" (cf. Abrego l 983a: 4; l 983b: 25):

And Baruch read aloud the scroll ... in the hearing of all the people

... and read it aloud in our hearing

And Baruch read it aloud in their hearing

... and Jehudi read it aloud in the hearing of the king and in the

hearing of all the princes

NOTES

v 10

v 15

v 21

36:9. in the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah. The LXX adds

"King" before Jehoiakim but lacks the patronym and "kiug uf Judah." The

omission of "son of Josiah, king of Judah" can be attributed to haplography

(homoeoarcton: b ... b ). Perhaps "King" was added before the name to

compensate for the omission (cf. 26:21-23). The fifth year of Jehoiakim was
604 B.C. The LXX^85 have "the eighth year" of Jehoiakim, i.e., 601 B.C., a read-
ing with nothing to commend it. The "fifth year" is supported by the other
Versions, Josephus (Ant x 93), and virtually all commentators, many of whom
point out that a four-year interval between the preparation of the scroll and its
reading is too long. Only Holladay (following Lohfink) accepts an "eighth
year" date, since it fits into his dubious scheme of Jeremiah making counter-
proclamations to a public reading of Deuteronomy every seven years at the
Feast of Booths (cf. Deut 31:10-13). The Deuteronomy reading and these
counter-proclamations, according to Holladay ( 1983; 1985), would have oc-
curred in the years 608, 601, 594, and 587 B.C. The idea is totally unsupport-
able and should be abandoned.
in the ninth month. I.e., the month of Kislev (November/December). By
then the first rains will have come, and the weather in Jerusalem is probably
cold and wet (cf. Ezra 10:9).
they called a fast before Yahweh-all the people in Jerusalem and all the peo-
ple who had come in from the cities ofludah-in Jerusalem. The Hebrew reads
as if the people in Jerusalem and those entering the city from outlying areas