498 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTSb) Away with This City! (32:30-35)
(^30) Indeed, the children of Israel and the children of Judah have been doing
only what is evil in my eyes from their youth. Indeed, the children of Israel
have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands-oracle of Yah-
weh.^31 Indeed, with respect to my anger and my wrath, this city has become
to me-from the day that they built it up until this day-in order to remove
it from my presence,^32 on account of all the evil of the children of Israel and
the children of Judah, which they did to provoke me to anger-they, their
kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, also the men of Judah
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.^33 They faced me with the back of the neck,
and not the face, although I taught them-constantly taught-but they did
not listen to take correction.^34 And they set up their wretched things in the
house upon which my name is called to defile it.^35 And they built the high
places of Baal that are in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom to give over their sons
and their daughters to Molech-which I did not command them, nor did it
enter my mind for them to do this abomination-in order to make Judah sin.f
5. Yahweh's Promised Salvation (32:36-44)
a) The Eternal Covenant (32:36-41)
(^36) But now after this, thus said Yahweh, God of Israel, to this city of which you
are saying, 'It has been given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword and
by famine and by pestilence':
(^37) Look I am going to gather them from all the lands where I dispersed
them in my anger and in my wrath and in great fury, and I will bring them
back to this place and settle them in security.^38 And they will be a people
to me, and I, I will be God to them.^39 And I will give them one heart and
one way to fear me all the days, for their own good and for their children
after them.^40 And I will cut for them an eternal covenant, in which I will
not turn away from them to do good to them; and the fear of me I will put
in their hearts so they may not turn away from me.^41 And I will rejoice over
them to do them good, and I will truly plant them in this land, with all my
heart and with all my soul.
b) Fields Will Again Be Bought and Sold (32:42-44)
(^42) For thus said Yahweh:
Even as I brought to this people all this great evil, so I am going to bring
upon them all the good that I am speaking concerning them.^43 The field
shall be bought in this land, of which you are saying, 'It is a desolation,
without human or beast; it has been given into the hand of the Chai-
fReading the Q habatf' (see Notes).