454 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTSwhich indicate that Israel and Judah's future will contain both continuity and
discontinuity with the past. Verbs with "again" in v 23 and "not again" in v 34b
make an inclusio for the whole (Lundbom 1975: 34-36 [ = 1997: 50-52]). The
overall structure is then:
Again they shall say this word ... 'od yo'men1 ... v 23Look, days are coming ... when I will sow... hinneh yamfm ba'fm... v 27
they shall not again say... lo'-yo'men1 'od... v 29Look, days are coming ... when I will
cut a new covenant ...
And they shall not again instruct each
person his fellow ...... and their sin I will not remember again
hinneh yamfm ba'fm... v 31welo' yelammedu 'Od... v 34a... lo' 'ezkar-'od v 34b
In days to come, old sayings about Zion will again be spoken, old proverbs
about accumulated sin will not be spoken, and most important of all, a new
covenant will be cut with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, unlike
the Mosaic covenant that the people broke and that ended tragically with
Israel's loss of nationhood in 586 B.C. For antitheses of a similar type, see 3:16-
17 and 16:14-15 [= 23:7-8]. Similar images of reversal and promised restora-
tion are found in the ancient Mesopotamian city laments (Dobbs-Allsopp
1993: 38-41).
In a second stage, the poetry of vv 35-37 was added, and after it a prose
prophecy (vv 38-40), the first part of which is framed in the same manner as
the prophecies added in stage one:Look, days are coming ... when the
city shall be rebuilt ...
And the measuring line shall go out
again ...hinneh yamfm ba'fm ... v 38
weya§a' 'od qaw hammidda ... v 39
The second part of this prophecy (v 40) makes an inclusio with 30:3, bringing
the first Book of Restoration to completion:
30:3 For look, days are coming ...
31 :40 and it shall not again be overthrown ...kf hinneh yamfm ba'fm ...
welo'-yehares 'odThe "new covenant" promise, instead of concluding the expansion, is now
situated in the center (see Rhetoric and Composition for 31:31-34), and the
expansion has new thematic continuity between beginning and end: the
prophecies in vv 23-26 and vv 38-40 look ahead to a rebuilt and reconsecrated
Jerusalem, with the key words haqqodes ("the holy") in v 23 and qodes ("holy")
in v 40 creating the linkage. To this correspondence can be added another-
namely, the prophecy about sowing Israel and Judah with seed in vv 27-30 and