108 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS2. Oracles to the Royal House (21:11-14)
a) Execute Justice in the Morning! (21:11-12)
21 11 Toa the house of the king of Judah: 'Hear the word of Yahweh,^12 house of
David.'
Thus said Yahweh:
Execute justice in the morning
and rescue the robbed from the oppressor's hand!
lest my wrath go forth like fire
and burn so none can quench it
on account of theirb evil doings.b) Indictment for Royal Pride (21: 13)
(^13) Look I am against you, sitting one of the valley
rock of the tableland-oracle of Yahweh
Those saying, 'Who can come down upon us
and who can enter into our habitations?'
c) Judgment on Royal Deeds (21:14)
(^14) But I will reckon upon you
according to the fruit of your doings
-oracle of Yahweh
And I will kindle a fire in her forest
and it will consume everything around her.
RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION
The present verses contain three brief oracles delivered for the benefit of
Judah's royal house (v 12a~-bc; v 13; v 14), preceded by an introduction to the
King Collection and a superscription to the three oracles (vv ll-12aa). Each
oracle has a messenger formula, which is to say that vv 13-14 are two oracles,
not one, as many commentators assume. Rudolph's omission of the formula in
v 12 (on metrical grounds) is to be rejected, and the omission of the formula in
v 14 by the LXX forms part of a larger loss attributable to haplography (see
Notes). Taken as a cluster, the three oracles show a progression from admoni-
tion to accusation to judgment, just as the three oracles of 7: 3-14 do (see Rhet-
oric and Composition for 7:1-15):
I Admonition to royal house about executing justice
II Accusation against Jerusalem for boasting impregnability
III Judgment on the royal house
"Deleting the copulative as a later addition (see Notes).
bReading the Kt (cf. 26:3); Q has "your doings" (cf. 4:4b).
v 12
v 13
v 14