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

More on Restoration and Covenants (33:1-26)

VII Covenants with David and Levi Remain Intact

And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah:

Thus said Yahweh:

If you could break my covenant of the day

and my covenant of the night ...

then could my covenant be broken with David ...

also with the Levitical priests ...

VIII Seed of Jacob and David to Continue

And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah ...

Thus said Yahweh:

If indeed I have not established my covenant of

daytime and night ...

then the seed oflacob and David, my servant,

I will reject ...

527

vv 19-22

v 19

v 20

v 21

vv 23-26

v 23

v 25

v 26

The main break in the chapter, so far as oracles are concerned, comes after

v 13, where the LXX omission begins. But this is not necessarily the point at

which a later expansion occurs. If there are later expansions, and this is still a

debatable point, they are best correlated with the superscriptions in vv 19 and

23. From a compositional point of view, there are three identifiable segments
    in the chapter (Parunak 1994: 514) introduced by three superscriptions:

1) vv 1-18

2) vv 19-22

3) vv 23-26

"And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah a second time"

"And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah"

"And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah"

(v 1)

(v 19)

(v 23)

Although some early and more-recent critical opinions deny the whole of
chap. 33 to Jeremiah, dating it in the exilic or postexilic periods (Duhm; Cor-
nill; Volz; Thiel 1981: 37; Carroll; McKane), Giesebrecht did assign v 1 and
vv 4-13 to his Baruch source. Verses 2-3 were attributed by Movers and
Hitzig to Second Isaiah because of supposed "Deutero-lsaianic phraseol-
ogy." Streane agreed that vv 1-13 appear to have a considerable amount of
editorial addition; however, he said that the case against these verses was far
from proved, and more recent scholars have agreed. Rudolph, Weiser, Bright,
Boadt, Holladay, and others have restored part or all of vv 1-13 to Jeremiah.
Rudolph says that most of vv 1-13 is prophetic, not apocalyptic, as Duhm al-
leged. In his view, vv 10-12 presuppose the fall of Jerusalem but can be dated
shortly after. Weiser does not think any of vv 1-13 presupposes the fall of
Jerusalem and takes the verses to emanate from Jeremiah. Bright says vv 1-13
are similar in tone to chap. 32, developing further the theme of 32:15. How-
ever, most scholars take vv 14-26 to be a later addition, largely because the
verses are lacking in the LXX. Yet vv 14-16 repeat with little change the
prophecy in 23:5-6, which the majority of scholars credit to Jeremiah.
The present verses are prose, although NJV prints vv 2-3 as poetry. Delimi-
tation at the top is by an introductory formula and a petu~ah in MA, ML, and