150 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS
undisputed power broker in the region. Most commentators say the "lovers"
are nations with whom Judah has been allied (2: 18, 36), who are now ren-
dered helpless by Babylonian military might. Kiml)i and Calvin both name As-
syria and Egypt. The term "your lovers," me'ahabayik (here in pausal -ba.yik),
occurs only in this verse, in v 22, and in 30:14. In 30:14, they are imagined
friends turned foe, the case also in Ezek 23:5-9 and 22-23, where the Assyr-
ians, Babylonians, and other nations are named. The "lovers" ('aha.bfm) of
Hos 8:9-10 were similarly Assyria and other nations.
are broken. Hebrew nisbera. The term can mean "broken" in a physical sense
or "broken" in a psychological sense, i.e., "brokenhearted" (cf. 8:21; 23:9). Here
both meanings have applicability: neighboring nations have been rendered in-
capable of fighting their own or other nations' wars. 4QJerc has nspkw, "they are
poured out." The LXX's sunetribesan, "they were broken, crushed,'' supports
MT Compare Egypt's own plight in the judgment of Ezek 30:8.
- I spoke to you in your good times; you said, 'I will not listen.' Yahweh re-
fers here to his word that came to the people via the prophets and their refusal
to listen. The people's response is reported as being the same in 6: 17 and 19.
Adamant refusals by the people occur frequently in Jeremiah's early preaching:
"I will not serve" in 2:20; "I am not defiled, after the Baals I have not gone" in
2:23; "I have not sinned" in 2:35; "We will not walk" in 6: 16; and "We will not
give heed" in 6: 17. Jeremiah himself heard a refusal similar to the present one
from exiles in Egypt. They said regarding a word he spoke to them in Yahweh's
name: "We will not listen to you" (44:16). The charge that the people did not
listen to Yahweh, particularly his oracles spoken by the prophets, is a major
prose theme in the book (16:12; 25:3-4, 7, 8; 26:5; 29:19; 36:31; 37:2; 44:4-5).
The reason is that they were listening to prophets, diviners, and workers of
magic whom Yahweh had not sent (23:16; 27:14, 16; 29:8-9).
in your good times. I.e., when times were peaceful and secure. Hebrew
be8al6tayik. Rashi translates "when you lived in peace" (Sir 47:13 so character-
izes the reign of Solomon). The plural indicates that many such times existed.
A few Heb MSS and the Yrs (LXX, Aq, Symm, S, Vg) have a singular (which
omits the yod). The LXX's "in your transgression" (en te paraptosei sou) appears
to be contextually derived (McKane). Aquila and Symm: (en) te euthenia sou
("in your abundance").
This has been your way from your youth, that you have not listened to my
voice. The LXX omits the kf ("that"), which should be retained (see Rhetoric
and Composition). D. N. Freedman suggests the possibility of LXX haplogra-
phy if mn'wryk(y) was spelled with the archaic suffix ky (cf. Ps 103:5). "This"
(zeh) points back to the defiant "I will not listen" (Giesebrecht). Hebrew sm'
be means more precisely "to obey." The point about not listening to Yahweh in
the early days of the covenant relationship is made elsewhere in 32:23 and
34:14-in the first case subsequent to settlement in the land, and in the sec-
ond subsequent to Yahweh's making the covenant with Israel. There may or
may not be a conflict here with the romantic portrayals in chap. 2, where Yah-
weh speaks of Israel's "bridal (ne'urfm) devotion" in the Wilderness (2:2-3)
