142 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTSby the truckload arriving steadily. Other Zairians, meanwhile, had little money
and very little to eat. The Kinshasa airport was littered with inoperable planes
that had been cannibalized for spare parts; not a single bus ran on the city
streets-they were lined up, as far as the eye could see, in multiple junkyards-
and not a single traffic light worked. The open market was a veritable war zone.
Mobuto, however, rested comfortably in his plush presidential palace and for
enjoyment had his own private zoo. Like King Jehoiakim, this self-indulgent
leader came to a sad but deserving end. He knew nothing about justice and
caring for the poor. On the abuse of power by other African political leaders,
see Ka tho 2001: 156-58.7. A Non-lament for Jehoiakim (22: 18-19)
22 18 Therefore thus said Yahweh to Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:
They shall not lament for him
'Woe, my brother!
Woe sister!'
They shall not lament for him
'Woe lord!
Woe his majesty!'(^19) The burial of an ass he will be buried
dragged away and cast off
beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION
The present verses contain an oracle of non-lament for Jehoiakim, who is
named in the expanded messenger formula of v 18a. Delimitation at the top
end is indicated by a setumah in 4QJerc (reconstructed; Tov 1997: 191-92), MA,
and ML and a petubah in MP prior to v 18. Delimitation at the bottom end is
indicated by a petubah in 4QJerc (reconstructed; Tov 1997: 181) and a setumah
in MA and ML after v 19. The MP has no section there.
The oracle is two lines with verbatim repetitions typical of the Jeremiah
poetry (4:23-26; 5:4-5, 15, 17; 23:21; 50:35-38; 51:20-23). With verbatim repe-
titions, other terms in the poetic line must vary. Here the laments are repro-
duced so that only the first and last terms contain the possessive pronoun:
Woe my brother!
Woe lord!
Woe sister!
Woe his majesty!
Various attempts have been made, ancient and modem, to add or substract the
pronouns of a given term, but these should be set aside and the present ar-
rangement left intact (see Notes).
The "woe ... therefore" (hay ... la ken) sequence in vv 13-19 is an important
prophetic speech form, occurring in Amos 6: 1-7; Isa 5:8-25; Mic 2: 1-5; and else-