404 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTSidentifies it as such. Holladay (p. 179) does not think the last line of v 21 is po-
etry (he calls it a pious add-on), a view that is reflected also in the translations
of JB and NJB. It does contain the nota accusativi, a recognized prose particle.
But other modern Versions take the line to be poetry, which it can be. Since
the line falls within the oracle proper, i.e., before the messenger formula, it
probably is not later comment. Furthermore, v 2lbc has a repetition of "(to)
me" (see below), which is another indication that 2 lc is original.
Commentators are divided on questions about the date, authenticity, and
provenance of this oracle. Duhm placed it in the Maccabean period, but other
proponents of a postexilic date (Peake; Cornill; Hyatt; Carroll; McKane) regard
this as too late. Many credit the oracle to Jeremiah (Volz; Rudolph; Weiser;
Bright; Thompson; Holladay; Jones; Keown et al.), which is defensible in spite
of priestly and messianic ideas seemingly present. The oracle cannot, however,
be considered one-time preaching to Northern Israel (pace Volz; Rudolph;
Hertzberg 1952: 597; Boadt; Holladay). It is unlikely that Jeremiah would sup-
port the rebuilding of Samaria and a restoration of political, social, and cultic
life there, particularly if he was backing Josiah's program of centralized worship
in Jerusalem. It is best to take the oracle as Jeremianic preaching to a Judahite
audience just after the fall of Jerusalem (Bright). In the poetic core, this oracle
and the covenant formula appended to it address an enlarged audience of
Israelite and Judahite exiles (30:4).
The oracle has four stanzas with good parallelism and numerous syntactic
inversions. These repetitions are also present in Stanzas II and IV:II ..... and shall go forth v 19
IV ......... shall go forth v 2lbc
................ (to) me
................ (to) me 'elay
Catchwords connecting to the poem following (Keown et al.):v 18 Look I hinent v 23 Look hinneh
restore sab goes forth ya~e'a
v 19 and shall go forth weya~a' v 24 does not tum back lo' yasub
v 21 shall go forth ye~e'NOTES
30:18. Look I. Hebrew hinenf. The very common beginning (with a participle)
of a Jeremiah oracle (see Note for 1:15).
I will restore the fortunes oflacob's tents. Other occurrences of the expression
"I will (surely) restore the(ir) fortunes" are in prose (see Note for 29: 14). For
the importance of this phrase in the Book of Restoration, see Rhetoric and
Composition for 30: 1-3. The reference to "Jacob" is not an indication that the
oracle is addressing Northern Israel. Here (and also in 30:7) "Jacob" denotes