Jeremiah 21-36 A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary by (Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries)

Oracle V

Jeremiah:

Jeremiah and the Yoke Bars (27:1-22)

"Do not listen to the words of your prophets

who are prophesying to you ... 'Look,

the vessels of the house of Yahweh will

be brought back from Babylon now

shortly.' Indeed a lie they are prophesying

to you." (v 16b)

"Do not listen to them; serve the king of

Babylon and live." If they are prophets,

let them pressure Yahweh not to send

Jerusalem's remaining treasures to

307

Babylon (vv 17-18)

Oracle VI All remaining treasures in Jerusalem will

go to Babylon until the day Yahweh

brings them back (vv 19-22)

The whole hangs together as a coherent discourse, with inversions to break the

monotony of repetition and words of hope integrated into messages that are

otherwise judgmental. One notes that in the message presented to Zedekiah,

Jeremiah's own word comes first and the divine oracle second. This is reversed

in the message presented to the priests and the people, where the divine oracle

comes first; then comes Jeremiah's own word. Here, too, is a final oracle, mak-

ing three oracles for the foreign kings and three oracles for the king and people

of Jerusalem. Also to be noted are the balancing of judgment and hope themes

in Oracles I and III, and again in Oracle VI.

The message to the priests and the people-Oracle V and Oracle VI with its

prior superscription (v 21)-contains an inclusio, which is seen somewhat dif-

ferently by Goldman (1992: 184):

V the vessels of the house of Yahweh

will be brought back from Babylon ...

VI the vessels ... in the house of Yahweh ...

To Babylon ... until ... I bring them back ...

NOTES

v 16

v 21

v 22

27:1. In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son oflosiah, king ofludah, this
word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh. The MT reads "Jehoiakim," even though
events of the chapter belong to Zedekiah's reign (w 3, 12; 28:1). The T also
has "Jehoiakim," for which reason medieval Jewish interpreters took the direc-
tive to Jeremiah from Yahweh as occurring before Zedekiah became king
(Rosenberg). Calvin, too, took the divine word to Jeremiah as distantly antici-
pating the action to be carried out (Vg also has "Jehoiakim"). The "Jehoiakim"
reading was carried over into the AV, but most modern Versions (except NAB,
NJV, and NSB) correct to "Zedekiah." The LXX omits the verse, but it is