Speaking of Kings (21:1-23:8) 149fixed particles for the three mountain sites: hallebanon ... babbasan ...
me<abarfm, which appears to be intentional. "Lebanon" usually has the article
(22:6), although in poetry and in the Dead Sea Scrolls the article is often omit-
ted (18: 14; Hos l 4:8[Eng 14:7]; Nah 1:4; cf. KB^3 ). For the use of <a_[f without
e[, see <a_[f gi[<ad in 46: 11. "Lebanon" refers here to the mountains of Lebanon
in the far north, whereas in v 23 the term is a metaphor for the cedar-lined pal-
ace in Jerusalem. Reference is not to the Temple (pace T, which has "the
house of the sanctuary"). Jerusalem, personified as a woman, is being told to as-
cend the mountains of Lebanon, as well as two other mountain ranges, Bashan
and Abarim, and lament loudly so that everyone can hear. The reason: her
"lovers" are destroyed. She may also be lamenting before the foreign gods she
has been worshiping. She is definitely not going to the mountains to call for
help from her allies (pace Blayney; McKane). For mountains and hills as
places of lament, see 3:21; 7 :29; Isa 15:2; and Judg 11:38. The directive is bit-
terly ironic (Calvin): Jerusalem is embarassed over her helpless state and will
not want to do what she is asked. It would all be for nothing.
the Bashan. The name takes the article, as in German "die Schweiz" (for
Switzerland). Bashan is located north of Gilead in the Transjordan highlands
(50:19; 2 Kgs 10:33), where mountains also rise up (Ps 68:16[Eng 68:15]).
And scream from Abarim. Hebrew we$a<aqf me<abarfm. The Hebrew repeats
the verb $e<aqf ("scream") from the first line, whereas the LXX translates with
two different verbs: kraxon ("scream") and boason ("cry loudly"). Holladay
(p. 600) disapproves of the repetition ("not appropriate ... in parallelism")
and chooses two different English equivalents. But the Hebrew is perfectly
good poetry, and repetitions of this type, where words in one colon-often at
the end-repeat at the beginning of a subsequent colon, occur often in Jere-
miah (2:10, 13; 25:30; 31:9; 47:2; and 51:31). This is a bona fide rhetorical de-
vice, given the name anadiplosis by classical rhetoricians (see Rhetoric and
Composition for 51:27-33). The LXX, as in v 18, shows itself to have an aver-
sion to repetition.
from Abarim. Hebrew me<abarfm. The Abarim is a Moabite mountain range
that includes Mount Nebo (Num 27: 12; 33:47-48; Deut 32:49). Van Zyl ( 1960:
51) says that the term was initially used as an appellative (common noun) but
here has become a name designating the entire Moab highland. Thus we have
three mountainous areas to which Jerusalem is directed: one in the north, one
in the northeast, and one in the southeast. Jerusalem's lament will be heard
everywhere. The Versions do not render <abarfm as a proper noun. The LXX
has eis to peran tes thalasses ("to the other side of the sea"), which could pre-
suppose a Hebrew Vorlage that read me<eber yam (S: mn <br; ;m>; cf. Deut
30: 13) or could be simply a misdivision of consonants.
because all your lovers are broken. McKane, assuming that the calamity in
question has not yet occurred, says that the verb here has to be a prophetic
perfect. But that is unnecessary. If the passage is dated just before 597 B.C., as
is widely assumed, Assyria is no more and Egypt is back to defending its own
borders. The years between 605 and 597 were chaotic, with Babylon now the