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

374 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS

Jeremiah the concern is for Israel's "steadfast love/faithfulness" or lack

of the same toward God. See Hos 4:1; 6:4, 6; 10:12; 12:7; cf. Jcr 2:2.

9) 31:9, 18, 20: "Ephraim,'' meaning Northern Israel. The term is used

throughout the book of Hosea (37x). See also Jer 7: 15.

10) 31 :9: the "father/son" metaphor used for Yahweh and his relation to Is-

rael. See Hos 2:l[Eng 1:10]; 11:1; also Jer 3:4, 19.

11) 31:12, 14: the theme of Yahweh's "goodness" (tub). See Hos 3:5; 10:11;

cf.Jer2:7.

12) 31:15: "bitterest weeping." See "bitterness" (tamrur) in Hos 12:15; cf.

Jer 6:26. The term "weeping" (bekf) occurs again in Jer 31:9, 15-16,

and often elsewhere (Jer 3:21; 9:9[Eng 9:10]; 48:5; et passim).

13) 31:18-19: Ephraim's acknowledgment of sin and guilt. The same is an-

ticipated or actualized in Hos 3:6; 5:15-6:3; 14:3-4[Eng 14:2-3]; cf. Jer

3:13, 23-25; 14:20.

14) 31: 18: "like a young bull not trained." See Hos 10: 11.

15) 31:20: "Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he the child of delight? For more

than all my speaking against him, I will assuredly remember him still."

On God's inner tension about giving Ephraim up and the decision fi-

nally not to do so but to show mercy, see Hos 11:8-9.

16) 31: 27: "when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with

the seed of human and the seed of beast." See Hos 2:25[Eng 2:23].

17) 31:34: "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will not remem-

ber again." A reversal of terminology and idea in Hos 8:13, also Jer

14:10. See in addition Jer 33:8.

C. Jeremiah 30-31 and other Jeremianic discourse

1. 30:3: "(For) look, days are coming." Common oracle introduction in
   the Jeremiah prose; see Note for 7:32.


2. 30:5: "A sound of fright we have heard." The use of qol to denote
   "sounds" of war (4:19, 21; 6:17, 23; 8:16; and elsewhere), frightful hu-
   man "sounds" during war, or persons weeping is found throughout
   Jeremiah (see Notes for 3:21 and 30:5).


3. 30:6: "Ask, would you, and see." Imperatives with "see" (r>h) occur of-
   ten in Jeremiah (2:10, 19; 3:2; 5:1; 6:16; 7:12; 13:20).


4. 30:6: "Ask, would you, and see if a male can bear a child? So why do I
   see every man, his hands on his loins like a woman in labor?" Rhetori-
   cal questions with maddua<, usually threefold questions, are a signature
   in Jeremiah found nowhere else (see Note for 2:14). The term "like a
   woman in labor" is also one of many like expressions typically found in
   Jeremiah (6:24; 22:23; 49:24; 50:43).


5. 30:11: "For I am with you ... to save you." See Jer 1:8, 19; 15:20-21, al-
   though the verbs there for "salvation" are different.

6) 30: 11: "(For) I will make a full end of all the nations .... But of you I

will not make a full end." This is Jeremianic language; see Note for

4:27.