406 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTSand a citadel on its rightful place shall sit. I.e., where it belongs or where it
stood previously (mispato). Hebrew mispat may also mean "plan, specifica-
tion" (BOB, 1049; Exod 26:30; 1 Kgs 6:38); thus: "according to its (original)
plan." The term 'arm6n means "citadel, fortress, palace" (6:5; 9:20[Eng 9:211;
17:27; 49:27) and can also be a collective. But the structures here are com-
monly taken to be those that previously stood in Jerusalem. Rashi (following T)
says 'armon refers to the Temple (Vg: templum); Kim}:ii, the Temple and the
king's palace (Lam 2:5, 7); and Calvin, simply the palace. Heawood (1911-12:
70) thinks 'armon may mean "layout of city streets" (see Note on 6:5), which
would mean that city streets would once again be where they had been before
the destruction. The Babylonians were eager to destroy all of Jerusalem's cele-
brated buildings (6:5), and when they captured the city, they did precisely this
(39:8; 52:13 = 2 Kgs 25:9).- And from them thanksgiving shall go forth and the sound of merrymakers.
Out of Jacob's cities and dwellings, large and small, grand and modest, will be
heard songs of thanksgiving and the sounds of merrymakers. The "thanks-
giving" (toda) is here a song of thanksgiving, of which there are many in the
Psalter (e.g., Psalms 92, 95, 100, 105-7, 118, 136, 138). One "song of ascent"
contains these words:
When Yahweh restored the fortunes of Zion
we were like those who dream
Then our mouth was filled with laughter (seboq)and our tongue with a ringing cry ...
Yahweh has done great things with us
we are glad.
(Ps 126:1-3)"Merrymakers" (meiabaqfm) are happy folk singing and dancing to musical
instruments (2 Sam 6:5), boys and girls frolicking in the streets (Zech 8:5).
These are the very people Jeremiah shunned after accepting his prophetic
call (15: 17), and since then his ears have been flooded with terrible sounds,
sounds of war, primarily-anxious messengers reporting an approaching en-
emy, the ominous trumpet sound, battle shouts, the neighings and stamping
hooves of stallions, the clatter of chariots, their rumbling wheels, crashing
noises of all kinds, people writhing like women in labor, others lamenting
over their fallen houses-but these will be replaced by happy voices, singing
and dancing, and the joys commensurate with a restoration of community life
(31:4, 13; 33:11; cf. Isa 35:10; 51:3). Happy sounds will also break the silence
that has pierced Jeremiah's ears-no joyful voices of bride and groom, no
sound of grinding millstones in the morning, no sound of cattle on the hill-
sides; in the fields and on city streets are only an accumulation of bodies,
lying silently.
and (it) shall go forth. Hebrew weya~a'. The masculine verb predicates a
combined masculine and feminine subject. See v 18 above, where a masculine