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

Jeremiah Buys Land in Anathoth (32:1-44) 501

satisfaction. It seems to me that this prayer, even more than the report of the

field purchase, has all the marks of a genuine eye-witness account. The doubt

and uncertainty expressed here would surely have been smoothed out in later

narrative, where real-life complexities are subsequently overshadowed or for-

gotton once the symbolic action is fulfilled. But here Jeremiah seems not to

have grasped the significance of what he has just done.

Older and also more recent attempts to show sources or redaction in the

chapter must be judged unsuccessful; the same goes for attempts to date por-

tions of the chapter in the postexilic period. While it is clear that the narrative

and the oracles are brought together here by a compiler-most likely Baruch,

who figures prominently in the transaction and is entrusted with the safekeep-

ing of the prophecy (cf. chap. 36)-it is just as clear that the chapter contains

a structure that has gone unrecognized by those dividing it into sources. The

chapter, to be read properly, must be seen as a unified composition:

Superscription

Narrative and prior oracles to Zedekiah

Oracle I-Judgment on Zedekiah

Oracle II-Judgment on Zedekiah

Narrative and oracles on the field purchase

Oracle III-Salvation for the nation

Oracle IV - Salvation for the nation

Jeremiah's prayer to Yahweh

Yahweh's answer to Jeremiah

Oracle V-Judgment on the nation

Oracle VI-Judgment on the nation

Oracle VII-Salvation for the nation

Oracle VIII-Salvation for the nation

vv 3b-4

v5

v 14

v 15

v I

vv 2-5

vv6-15

vv 16-25

vv 26-44

vv 26-29

vv 30-35

vv 36-41

vv42-44

Jeremiah's prayer to Yahweh is at the center, on either side of which are placed
four oracles. There are eight oracles in all: two judgment oracles for Zedekiah
(I and 11) balancing two salvation oracles for the nation (III and IV); and in
Yahweh's answer, two judgment oracles for the nation (V and VI) balancing
two salvation oracles for the nation (VII and VIII). We noted earlier in the
poetic core that two judgment oracles (30:5-7, 12-15) had two balancing salva-
tion oracles (30:10-11, 16-17). Some commentators (Volz; Rudolph; Bright;
Mc Kane) have failed to recognize v 14 as a separate oracle (III), deleting or
judging inappropriate the messenger formula in v l 4a. There is no warrant for
this deletion. In the view of Gevaryahu (1970: 370-72; 1973: 211-13), the nar-
rative in w 6-15 is an expanded colophon attached to the document Baruch
put away for safekeeping.
Three of the oracles begin with the familiar "Look I" plus a participle (see
Note for 1:15):

I Look I

V Look I

VII Look I

hinenf

hinenf

hinenf

v 3b

v 28

v 37