Book of the Covenant (30:1-31:40) 447that in the present passage "(exclusively) female imagery abounds." And it is a
"quantum leap" to go from "innards" and the verb "to show mercy" (r/:zm) in
the next line to a conceptualization of "Mother Yahweh" in the mind of Jere-
miah (so Trible and Carroll), which would have made the most irreverent of
persons in ancient Israel blush. The LXX has "therefore I eagerly long for him"
(dia touto espeusa ep' auto), which effectively does away with the anthropo-
morphism (Becking l 994a: 16 3). For other examples of passionate divine love
in the Bible, where one also finds anthropomorphic language being used, see
Schildenberger 1963.
I will assuredly have mercy on him. Here the verb is r/:zm, which means sim-
ply "show mercy, compassion." It may indeed denote "mother love" (Trible),
but is also love shown by a father (Ps 103:13). Showing mercy is nothing less
than an attribute of Yahweh (Exod 34:6; D. N. Freedman 19 5 5), and in future
days Yahweh promises to display this attribute to his people (33:26).MESSAGE AND AUDIENCE
Yahweh in this oracle asks an unspecified audience-though it may be Juda-
hite-whether Ephraim is still his dear son, whether he is the child who once
gave him such delight? Perhaps the audience will remember Saul's tender
words to David. If so, it will know that here the roles are reversed: Yahweh is
the gracious and innocent father; Ephraim is the guilty and contrite son. Yah-
weh continues by saying that however much he has spoken against Ephraim,
he will nevertheless remember him and with human-like passion waits excit-
edly to show him mercy.
This oracle like its companion poem in w 18-19 could have been directed
to Northern Israelite exiles during Josiah's reign. A Judahite audience hearing
it would then know that on the other side of judgment is a God of grace and
mercy waiting expectantly to receive his wayward child back again.
When both poems in w 18-20 are heard following the poems in w 15-17,
Rachel's weeping will be balanced by the tearful confession of Ephraim, and it
will be understood that Rachel's sons are not gone but simply languishing in
exile. Both laments receive comforting answers, with Yahweh making clear his
intention to bring the exiles home and restore them to favor. In the NT, the
contrite return of the wayward son and God's ready compassion are shown viv-
idly in Jesus' parable of the Lost (Prodigal) Son (Luke 15: 11-32).
William Cowper's great hymn, "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" (1774),
contains this verse:
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense
But trust him for his grace
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face
(HAMR 1981 #181)