Book of the Covenant (30:1-31:40) 393tions are also told that they cannot hope to escape the divine punishment
(Jer 25:29; 49:12).MESSAGE AND AUDIENCE
Yahweh in Oracle II (v 10) emphatically tells the covenant people, who are
now called "my servant," not to be afraid and not to be broken, which assuredly
they are. He will save them and their offspring from the faraway places to
which they have been taken captive. Jacob will return and live undisturbed in
his land, with no one frightening him there. Oracle III (v 11) gives the grand "I
will be with you" promise, with Yahweh saying once again that he will save his
people. The nations to which they have been scattered will receive their "full
end," but of the covenant people Yahweh will not make a "full end." Correc-
tion meted out to them will be just, but they will not go unpunished. In the
past, Yahweh warned often enough that punishment would come if the cove-
nant was not kept and, if the people do not remember those warnings, they will
know now about punishment from personal experience.
Both oracles could have been spoken originally to a Northern Israelite audi-
ence during the reform years of Josiah, but in answering the judgment in vv 5-
7 they now address both Israel and Judah-possibly before the destruction of
Jerusalem (Berridge 1970: 187); otherwise, soon after. They were spoken in
Jerusalem (v 10: "from afar ... from the land of their captivity"), not in exile.
In Oracle I (vv 8-9), Yahweh says that on a future day he will break the Baby-
lonian yoke from upon the nation's neck, and its straps of bondage will be torn
away. No longer will strangers make them serve; instead the covenant people
will serve Yahweh and a Davidic king Yahweh will raise up for them. This or-
acle is later, after the fall of Jerusalem when "that day" of v 7 has ceased to be
a day of distress and is now an anticipated day of salvation. When all three sal-
vation oracles are heard following the judgment word of vv 5-7, the final "and
from it shall he be saved?" in 7b is changed in tone to mean "yet from it he
shall be saved!"
c) Your Blow Is Incurable (30:12-15)
30 12 For thus said Yahweh:
Your brokenness is desperate
your blow incurable(^13) There is none to diagnose your case of a sore
a healing scar there is not for you
(^14) All your lovers have forgotten you
you, they care not about
For the blow of an enemy I have struck you
punishment of a cruel one
Because your iniquity was much
your sins were numerous