Letters to the Exiles (29:1-32) 355and I will restore your fortunes. Heb wefobtf 'et-sebUtekem (Q). The Kt
sebftkem is an alternate spelling. A sonorous expression of silb with a cognate
accusative (E. L. Dietrich 1925: l; Fitzmyer 1958: 463; Holladay 1958: 110-
14). On the cognate accusative, see Note for 22:16. The expression occurs
eleven times in Jeremiah (29:14; 30:3, 18 [poetry]; 31:23; 32:44; 33:7, 11,
26(Q); 48:47 [Moab]; 49:6 [Ammon] and 39Q [Elam]), and often elsewhere,
e.g., in Deut 30:3;Amos 9:14; Hos 6:11; Zeph 2:7; 3:20; Lam 2:14; and Ps 126:1.
Of the Jeremiah occurrences, six are H-stem (32:44; 33:7, 11, 26[Q]; 49:6,
39[Q]), which may be for purposes of intensification: "I will surely restore
the(ir) fortunes" (see Note on 2:26 for the internal H-stem). The expression be-
comes thematic in the Book of Restoration (see Rhetoric and Composition for
30:1-3). It has also turned up in a mid-eighth-century B.C. Aramaic Sefire
Treaty found near Aleppo, Syria in 1931 (Fitzmyer 1958: 449-51, 463-64;
Greenfield 1981: 110-12; CS II 217). The inscription says: "the gods have
brought about the return (hSbw 'lhn sybt) of my father's house" (Sefire III 24).
Here in the present verse, "fortunes" doubtless refer not simply to the Temple
vessels carried off to Babylon, which were chiefly at issue in chaps. 27-28, but
to the land and treasures left behind in the land. These would include houses
and gardens in Judah, which building and planting in Babylon would seem to
render a lost possession forever. Rubinger (1977: 89) points out that those ex-
iled to Babylon represented the upper social and economic strata of society,
the very people who left behind homes and gardens now taken over by others
in Jerusalem (Ezek 11: 15). But the promise here is that Yahweh will restore
the exiles' fortunes; one day houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought
in the land (Jer 32:15, 43-44; Ezek 11:17). Words of restoration like those oc-
curring here are commonly found in the ancient Mesopotamian city laments
(see Note for 48:47). In modern times, Napoleon, after defeating Prussia and
occupying Berlin in 1806-8, took the quadriga (a four-horse chariot of Victo-
ria, the goddess of victory) atop the Brandenburg Gate and brought it to Paris.
But after Waterloo, it was returned to Berlin. Similarly, the High Altar at
St. Mary's Basilica in Cracow, Poland, was dismantled and hidden before Au-
gust, 1939, but the Germans found it and transported it the next year to Ger-
many. After the war, it was discovered in the Nuremberg Castle and in 1946
was returned to Cracow.
- Because you have said, 'Yahweh has raised up for us prophets in Babylon.'
On the uncertainty over the location of this line in the letter, see Rhetoric and
Composition. This boast coming now from Babylon is more than what appears
on the surface. The exilic community is claiming for itself bona fide Yahweh
prophets, who are preaching a word contrary to the word Jeremiah is preach-
ing. Two of these prophets are Ahab and Zedekiah, for whom Jeremiah has a
harsh word in vv 21-23. The T has "the Lord has raised up teachers for us in
Babylon," which reflects the view of postexilic Judaism that one of the most im-
portant duties of the prophets was to call Israel back to the teaching of the
Torah (Hayward l 985a: 215). On the substitution of "scribe" for "prophet" in
T, see Note for 6:13.