Book of the Covenant (30:1-31:40)who stirs up the sea so its waves roar
Yahweh of hosts is his name:(^36) If these statutes depart
from before me-oracle of Yahweh
Then the seed of Israel shall cease
from being a nation before me - all the days.
(^37) Thus said Yahweh:
If the heavens above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth explored to the depths
Then I, I will reject all the seed of Israel
because of all that they have done
-oracle of Yahweh.
RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION
483
MT 31: 3 5-3 7 = LXX 38: 3 5-3 7. The present verses contain two oracles ( vv 3 5-
36; v 37), the first preceded by an expanded messenger formula that doubles as
a hymnic introduction (v 35). This division is confirmed by section markings,
which delimit the unit at the top by a setumah in ML and a petu/:iah in MP be-
fore v 3 5 and at the bottom by a setumah in MA, ML, and MP after v 3 7. The me-
dieval codices also divide after v 36, where MA and ML have a setumah, and MP
has a petu/:iah.
The unit also appears to be delimited within its context by being poetry, al-
though this judgment is not unanimous. Some commentators (Condamin;
Volz; Rudolph; Weiser; Bright; Thompson) and most of the modern Versions
take all three verses as poetry, but McKane and Keown et al. follow the REB
and take only v 3 5 as poetry; vv 36-37 are taken as prose. The NEB took v 36 as
poetry, and vv 35 and 37 as prose. The NJV takes vv 35-36 as poetry and v 37 as
prose. Holladay judges all three verses to be postexilic prose. Those taking v 37
as prose may be influenced by the prose particle >aser ("that") in that verse.
Older commentators (Hitzig; Giesebrecht; Peake; Duhm; Cornill; Hyatt;
and others) denied these verses to Jeremiah, assigning them to a postexilic au-
thor. The reasons: 1) similarity in style and thought to Second Isaiah; 2) resto-
ration preaching, here said to be a strident "nationalism" unlikely to emanate
from Jeremiah; and 3) a less-elevated prophecy coming after the "new cove-
nant" oracle, which was viewed as anticlimactic. Added to these were lesser
arguments about the verses being un-metrical, and v 37 being perhaps a mar-
ginal gloss since in the LXX it comes before v 35. None of the arguments car-
ries much weight. Similarities to Second Isaiah boil down to one verse, Isa
51: 15, about which influence can be argued either way. Rudolph thinks that
Isa 51:15 imitates Jeremiah. Alleged "creation" parallels to Second Isaiah (Isa
40:12, 26; 42:5; 44:24; 45:7, 18) are also indecisive (so Peake), since material of
the same sort is found in Jeremiah (5:22; 10:12-16 [ = 51:15-19]). The argument