Book of the Covenant (30:1-31:40) 443
already occurred or if this is a plea for restoration, which it seems to be.
Peake and Hyatt both note that repentance is already in evidence. Hut their
point about the return being a return from exile is not as convincing, unless
we assume for sub a double meaning (Trible 1977: 273; 1978: 42). Ephraim ad-
mittedly wants to return to its land but is asking primarily to be restored to Yah-
weh's favor. The concluding plea in Lam 5:21 asks for the same: "Restore us
(hasfbenu) to yourself, Yahweh, that we may be restored (wenasuba Q)." Re-
pentance in exile and subsequent restoration is anticipated in Deut 30: 1-10.
for you are Yahweh my God. Or if we read "Yahweh" as a vocative: "for you,
Yahweh, are my God." Compare the corporate confession in 3:22.
- For after my turning away I repented. The verb nf:im appears to mean
more than "being sorry," which is how it is sometimes translated (8:6). Repen-
tance goes beyond being sorry. Hebrew subf ("my turning away") denotes re-
bellion. The LXX has aichmalosias mou ("my captivity"), which appears to
translate either the verb shh ("to take captive") or the noun sebf ("captivity");
compare the LXX reading of shh instead of sub in 30:3. Becking (1994a: 162)
says that the LXX may have had sbyy in its Vorlage, but the MT reading is
supported by swby in 4QJer^0 • Aquila has to epistrepsai me, "my turning (from
error)," i.e., my returning. Ephraim here says that he was genuinely sorry for
his rebellion. Jeremiah, however, complained that no one in Judah was sorry
(nf:im) about his evil (8:6).
And after I came to understand, I hit upon my thigh. D. W. Thomas (1934:
- thinks the verb yd< ("to know") in the N-stem means in this instance "to
become quiet, submissive" (REB: "now that I am submissive"), but the usual
rendering, "to be instructed, come to understand" (BOB; KB^3 ; Volz), is per-
fectly acceptable, even preferable. Pastor David Bartlett ( 1978: 76) comments
on the verse here: "Punishment is seen not just as punishment, but as instruc-
tion. Remorse ends not simply in guilt, but in a deeper self-understanding."
Such a view belies the popular notion that punishment does no good. With
some it does no good, but with others it brings new self-undertanding. Hitting
one or both thighs is an ancient expression of emotional pain or sorrow (Ezek
21:17[Eng 21:12]; Parunak 1975: 519), attested also in the Sumerian text "De-
scent of Ishtar to the Nether World" (reverse, line 21; ANET^3 108; cf. Lipinski
l 970b ), and in Homer (Iliad xv 397-98; xvi 125; Odyssey xiii 198-99). The LXX
does not reproduce the expression in a translation that takes in the following
verb: estenaxa eph' hemeras aischunes ("I groaned during days of shame").
Read the MT.
I was ashamed and also disgraced. Hebrew boStf wegam-niklamtf. Kim}:ii says
that the second verb (klm) denotes more intense shame, thus the wegam ("and
also"). The verbs occur in combination also in 14:3 and 22:22. In 22:22 Judah
is promised what Ephraim is now confessing, since in its brazenness it knows
no shame (3:3; 6:15 [= 8:12]). But in Isa 54:4 the promise is reversed:
Do not be afraid, for you will not be ashamed
and do not be humiliated, for you will not be abashed
