The Cost of Prophetic Preaching (26:1-24) 287
will be an occasion when people from all the outlying cities will be coming to
Jerusalem (cf. 36:6).
Do not hold back a word. I.e., do not in any way diminish the message. He-
brew )al-tigra< dabar. The expression occurs in Deut 4:2 and 13:l[Eng 12:32]
as l{)1 tigriNl I tigra< mimmennu ("Do not hold back from it"), which Weinfeld
( l 972b: 360, # 14) lists among idioms of Deuteronomy that may have influ-
enced Jeremiah. Compare in the NT, Rev 22: 19. Yahweh issues this warning
because Jeremiah may have been tempted not to speak the divine word in full
(see Note for 50:2). Prophets of Yahweh must speak "the word, the whole word,
and nothing but the word." The same holds for writing up a scroll of Yahweh's
revelations ("all the words" in 30:2). The reason for wanting to scale down a
word of judgment, needless to say, would be a fear of possible consequences.
Jeremiah had been forewarned that this could happen ( 1: 17). On a later occa-
sion, King Zedekiah admonished Jeremiah not to keep a word from him
(38: 14). Then after Jeremiah did tell him the undiminished word from Yah-
weh, which he did not want to hear, Zedekiah, in fulfillment of an oath he had
sworn to Jeremiah, arranged for the prophet to hold back part of their conver-
sation when critics questioned him later (38:24-26). Once again after the fall
of Jerusalem, when people asked Jeremiah to petition Yahweh about where
they should go after leaving Mizpah, he promised to give them Yahweh's an-
swer and keep nothing back ( 42:4). This message, too, was one the people did
not want to hear, which means it took courage as well as commitment for Jere-
miah to speak the whole of Yahweh's word.
- Perhaps they will listen and return each person from his evil way and I will
repent concerning the evil that I am planning to do to them on account of their
evil doings. Bedrock Jeremiah preaching (18:11; 25:5; 35:15; 36:3, 7). Note the
individualizing tendency in "each person (1fs) from his evil way and I will re-
pent," which is common in Jeremiah and becomes even more pronounced in
Ezekiel (Ezek 18:21-23, 27-28; 33:11-20). In the divine word given at the
potter's house (18:1-12), Yahweh made it clear that if the people repented of
evil, it would bring about a corresponding change in his plans to do evil (see
Note on 18:8). The LXX, perhaps to avoid an anthropomorphism, translates "I
will repent" with a euphemistic "I will cease," pausomai (see again vv 13, 19).
Aquila has "I shall be encouraged concerning the evil" (paraklethesomai peri
tes kakias ). After "I will repent;' many MSS have <al instead of )el, particles that
alternate throughout the chapter. On the frequent interchange of )el and <al
in the book of Jeremiah, see Note for 11:2.
on account of their evil doings. A stereotyped phrase in Jeremiah, which has
turned up in the Qumran Temple Scroll (see Note for 21:12).
- And you shall say to them. Hebrew we)amarta )alehem. The LXX omits "to
them," which can be explained as an inner-Greek haplography of pros autous
after ereis (homoeoteleuton: s ... s). Aquila, Symm, and Theod all have pros
autous.
If you do not listen to me. Hebrew Jim-le/ begins the protasis; the apodosis
comes in v 6. Compare the arguments in 12:17; 17:27; and 22:5. Oracle I in
