344 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS(^17) Thus said Yahweh of hosts:
T .ook I am sending against them sword, famine, and pestilence, and I
will make them like horrid figs, which cannot be eaten they are so
bad.^18 And I will pursue them by sword, by famine, and by pestilence,
and I will make them a fright to all the kingdoms of the earth-a
curse, and a desolation, and an object of hissing, and a reproach
among all the nations where I have dispersed them-^19 inasmuch as
they have not listened to my words-oracle of Yahweh-which I sent
to them by my servants the prophets-constantly I sent-and you did
not listen-oracle of Yahweh.
(^20) Now you! Hear the word of Yahweh, all the exiles whom I sent away from
Jerusalem to Babylon:
(^21) Thus said Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, concerning Ahab son of
Kolaiah and concerning Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophe-
sying a lie to you in my name:
Look I will give them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Baby-
lon, and he will strike them down before your eyes.^22 From them will
be taken up a swearword for all the exiles of Judah who are in Baby-
lon: 'Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king
of Babylon roasted in the fire,'^23 because they did a scandalous thing
in Israel, yes, they committed adultery with the wives of their fellows
and have spoken a lying word in my name that I did not command
them. But I am he who knowsb and am witness-oracle of Yahweh.
RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION
MT 29:1-23 = LXX 36:1-23. The present chapter contains a letter sent by Jere-
miah to the exiles in Babylon (vv 1-23), to which has been appended another
letter fragment sent by the prophet later on (vv 24-28). That we have also a
subsequent letter is clear in that v 28 quotes v 5 of the first letter. The chapter
concludes by narrating the response in Jerusalem to letters that arrived from a
prophet in Babylon, and Jeremiah's judgment on that prophet (vv 29-32).
Chapter 29 balances chap. 24 in a rhetorical structure comprising 24, 27-29
(see Rhetoric and Composition for 24:1-10).
This main letter with its introduction is demarcated at the top end by the in-
troduction (vv 1-3), before which is a petubah in MA and ML and a setumah in
Mr before v 1. This is also a chapter division. At the bottom end, demarcation
is by a setumah in ML and a petubah in Mr after v 23. The MA for 29:9b-31:3 5a
is not extant; therefore, its sections after v 9b are not known. The ML (only) has
a setumah after v 3, setting off the introduction from the letter itself. After v 7,
ML has a petubah that separates the first two oracles in the letter. The MA, Mr,
and one MS in the Cambridge Genizah Collection (NS 58.46) have no section
bReading the Kt as ha' yodea' ("he who knows") with J. D. Michaelis (see Notes); Q hayyodea'
is "the one who knows."