Speaking of Kings (21:1-23:8) 131Neco (Bewer; Malamat 1975: 126), and the pro-Egyptian Jehoiakim was made
king. "Shallum" is a common OT name (32:7; 35:4; 1 Kgs 22:14; 2 Kgs 15:10),
having turned up also on the Lachish and Arad ostraca, and on twenty or more
contemporary seals, bullae, and jar handles (see Appendix I).
fosiah. 4QJer" spells the name without the final waw in its first occurrence
within the verse; 4QJerc the same in its second cccurrence.
king off udah. Hebrew melek yehuda. Lacking in the LXX but present in
4QJer°. If "Josiah" was spelled without the final waw in the Heb Vorlage to the
LXX, the omission could be attributed to haplography (homoeoteleuton:
h ... h), and not be secondary expansion, as suggested by G. Greenberg (2001:
233).
his father. Spelled >abfhu in 4QJer°.
11 b-12. He will not return there again. For in the place where they exiled him,
he will die, and this land he will not see again. This was stated also in the la-
ment (v lOb).
For. Some Heb MSS, T, and the Versions heighten the contrast with an
adversative, kz->im ("But").
they exiled him. The LXX and Vg read "I exile him," which has Yahweh
speaking in the first person. This reading, which need not be original, never-
theless supports the view that vv 11 b-12 are a divine oracle.MESSAGE AND AUDIENCE
This lament calls on people to weep not for the dead but for him who goes
away. Specification is lacking, but the original audience would have known the
referents. We, for our part, may reasonably take the dead to be Josiah and the
one going away to be Jehoahaz. People at the time were still making lamenta-
tion over Josiah, but Jeremiah says they should be weeping more over Jehoa-
haz. A mere youth, he has gone away from Jerusalem and will never return to
see the land of his birth.
The audience then hears an oracle having much the same message, intro-
duced by an expanded messenger formula stating that the oracle concerns
Shallum, i.e., Jehoahaz, who reigned briefly in place of his father but who has
since departed Jerusalem. The lament can be dated to the late summer or early
fall of 609 B.C. (Holladay), which was three months after the death of Josiah
and just after Jehoahaz left Jerusalem to face Neco at Riblah. The oracle can
be dated about the same time.
In the larger context, this lament and oracle will anticipate the oracle of
non-lament over Jehoiakim in vv 18-19, the present expression being one of
genuine grief, the expression in vv 18-19 being one of uncompromising judg-
ment. The contrast is even sharper. Here people are told not to lament the
good Josiah because a lamentation over Jehoahaz is more necessary. Inv 18,
people will not lament Jehoiakim because this king was unworthy of royal of-
fice, and his ignoble death and nonburial will not bring them to a state of grief.