Speaking of Kings (21:1-23:8) 127MESSAGE AND AUDIENCE
Yahweh in the present oracle addresses the royal palace, comparing its build-
ings to Gilead and the mountain ranges of Lebanon. Their beauty resides in-
side, where cedar beams resting on cedar pillars and cedar paneling from floor
to ceiling are a sight to behold. Yahweh has unconcealed pride, also a sense of
ownership in this show of splendor alongside his own house, comparably
adorned; nevertheless, he swears that he will reduce it to a wilderness, an as-
semblage of cities uninhabited. Indeed, he has commissioned destroyers to
wage holy war against the place. With axes in hand, they will cut down the ce-
dar and burn it into nothingness.
Sometime later a question-and-answer dialogue is added (vv 8-9), which
gives the audience a reason for the judgment that the oracle itself does not
give. This need not be initially for a middle or late exilic audience, although it
is suitable enough for audiences then as well as later. The imagined dialogue
could precede the fall of Jerusalem and thus come from the same time as the
oracle-otherwise soon afterward. Volz dates the oracle at about the same time
as the oracle in vv 1-5, i.e., early in the reign of Jehoiakim. In his view, first
comes a friendly either-or admonition; then, when that is not heeded, holy an-
ger and judgment (cf. 7:3-14 and 21:11-14). The oracle cannot date from the
very beginning of Jehoiakim's reign because some time must pass, allowing for
this ambitious king to begin work on a new palace. A date of 607-605 B.C. is
about right.5. Lament Jehoahaz, Not Josiah! (22:10-12)
22 10 Weep not for the dead^2
and condole not for him
weep continually for him who goes away
Because he will not return again
and not see the land of his birth.l!For thus said Yahweh to Shall um son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned in
place of Josiah his father, who departed from this place:
He will not return there again.^12 For in the place where they exiled him, he
will die, and this land he will not see again.RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION
The present verses consist of a lament for Jehoahaz (v 10), followed by an or-
acle for the same (vv 11-12). In the latter, the young king of only three months
is called by his given name, Shallum. The lament is in poetry; the oracle in
prose. Berridge ( 1970: 100) takes the poetic verse, rather, as a "call to lament"
"Repainting MT lemet, "for a dead (man)," to lammet, "for the dead (man)" with LXX and S.