Jeremiah 21-36 A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary by (Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries)

Book of the Covenant (30:1-31:40) 449

This poetry concludes the poetic core, its final line in v 22b making a key word

inclusio with 30:6 of the opening poem (Lundbom 1975: 32-34 [ = 1997: 47-49]):

31:22b For Yahweh has created a new thing on earth:

the female protects the man!

30:6 Ask, would you, and see

if a male can bear a child?

So why do I see every man

his hands on his loins, like a woman in labor?

nifqeba ... gaber

zakar

geber

Catchwords from sub link this poetry not to the oracle immediately preceding

but to its companion poem in vv 18-19:

v 21 Return (2x)

v 22 turnable

v 18 Bring me back so I may come back

v 19 my turning away

Catchwords from sub also link the poetry to the prose following:

Return ................ subf ... v 2lc

return .................. subi ...

turnable ............... hassobebfi v 22

when I restore ... bifsubf v 23

NOTES

31:21. Set up road-markers for yourself. The Hebrew is sonorous, with the first
and third words sharing a dominant consonant and two long "i" vowels: ha$$fbf
... $fyyilnfm. Five imperatives in the verse also produce asyndeton (see Note
for 4:5). The "road-markers" ($fyyilnfm) are stone pillars, which also serve as
markers for burial places (2 Kgs 23:17; Ezek 39:15). The LXX misreads this
term as Sion ("Zion"), with Aq and Symm doing only slightly better with sko-
pian ("watchtower"), the term carried over into the Vg (speculam). The partial
4QJerc reading ($yw) supports MT, although with the spelling $ywnym. "Virgin
Israel" is being told here in "Hansel and Gretel" fashion to mark the way into
exile so she may find the way home.
make for yourself signposts. Hebrew tamri1rfm, translated "signposts," is an
OT hapax legomenon whose derivation is unclear. A word with the same spell-
ing means "bitterness" in 6:26 and 31: 15, and the T in an embellished read-
ing translates the term "bitterness." The LXX is a bit closer with timorian,
which can mean "vengeance," but also "help." However, this rendering may
simply be a transliteration of the Hebrew (KB^3 ). Giesebrecht emended to
timorfm, "(artificial) palm trees" ( = signposts), being anticipated here by
both Rashi and Blayney, who took the derivation to be from tamar, "palm
tree." The tamer in 10:5 is a "post" or "scarecrow." The rendering "signposts,"