Speaking of Kings (21:1-23:8) 153cation of the female addressee anywhere. The message is also less than
transparent due to metaphors, wordplays, words changing referents, and a gen-
erous amount of irony. Only an audience knowing the background against
which the poem was spoken could be sure of its message, and even then, the
message would still prove difficult for some. For later audiences, and for us, the
interpretation is based on what we know from other Jeremiah oracles.
It is generally agreed that Yahweh is addressing Jerusalem at the time of
Nebuchadnezzar's expedition against the city in 597 B.C. Some think the city
has not yet capitulated (Weiser; Boadt); others think it has (Volz; Rudolph).
This dating is arrived at, to some extent, by the location of the poem between
oracles against Jehoiakim (vv 18-19) and Jehoiachin (vv 24-30).
The divine speech can be interpreted as follows. Yahweh tells Lady Jerusa-
lem to ascend three mountain ranges-Lebanon in the north, Bashan in the
northeast, and Abarim in the southeast-and cry loudly from each over lovers
who have been broken. Who are these lovers? Since Lady Jerusalem is on for-
eign mountains, the lovers are perhaps foreigners. Foreign gods were doubtless
worshiped there. The directive is probably ironic, in which case the lamenting
could all be in vain. Yahweh says he spoke to Jerusalem in her good times, but
she said, "I will not listen." It became a habit with her from early times that she
would not listen to Yahweh's voice. For this reason, Yahweh says, the wind
shall shepherd her shepherds, and her lovers shall go into captivity. The shep-
herds are Jerusalem's rulers, and the lovers may now be the same; otherwise,
they are the foreign peoples and their foreign gods or both. All, in any case, will
go into captivity, with shame and disgrace becoming the bitter fruit of Jerusa-
lem's wickedness. The poem closes by addressing the inhabitant of "Lebanon
South," probably now Jerusalem's king and his royal entourage, who are com-
fortably nesting in their cedar-lined palace. Yahweh says that this elite group
(and everyone else in the city) will be strangely favored when pangs come
upon it like they come to a woman in labor.
This call to lament is an appropriate conclusion to the core collection of
22:6-23. There was judgment on the royal palace at the beginning (vv 6-7), an
indictment of Jehoiakim in the center (vv 13-17), and now a judgment on all
Jerusalem at the end, which will evoke grievous lamentation from everyone
(vv 20-23). We recall that the early foe-lament collection in 4:5-9:21[Eng9:22]
was so ordered that laments followed words of judgment (see Rhetoric and
Composition for 4:5-10).
9. Coniah: A Rejected Seal (22:24-27)
22 24 As I live-oracle of Yahweh-even if Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king
of Judah, be a seal on my right hand, surely from there I will tear you off.(^25) And I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life and into
the hand of those before whom you are in dread and into the hand of