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

548 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS

24:1-10). It is an independent piece, brought in and placed next to chap. 35

in order to contrast the unfaithfulness of Zedekiah and the people of Jerusalem

in reneging on their covenant with the faithfulness shown by the Rechabites in

keeping a covenant made with their father, Jonadab the Rechabite, not to

drink wine (Lundbom 1975: 111[=1997: 145]; 1997b: 46-47). The whole of

chap. 34 is tied together by this inclusio:

Look I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon,

and he will take it and will burn it with fire.

Look ... I will bring them back to this city, and they will fight

against it and take it, and they will burn it with fire.

v2

v 22

This present portion of narrative is delimited at the top end by a superscrip-
tion in v 1, before which comes a petubah in MA and MP and a setumah in ML.
This is also a chapter division. At the bottom end, delimitation is by a petubah
in MA, ML, and MP after v 7. Verse 8 begins the second portion of narrative
with a new superscription. MA and ML also have a setumah and MP a petubah
after v 5, which separates Oracle II from the closing summary.
Although Mowinckel (1914: 31) took these verses to be Source C, the con-
sensus among commentators expressing themselves on genre, composition,
and authorship is that the prose derives ultimately from Baruch and can be
taken to be historically reliable (Giesebrecht; N. Schmidt 1901 b: 2387; Peake;
Streane; Rudolph; Weiser). Even Duhm, Hyatt, and Thiel (1981: 38) find
"Deuteronomic" editing to be minimal, perhaps just v 1. The one dissenting
voice is McKane, who doubts Baruch's authorship and the narrative's historic-
ity on his "lack of coherence" principle, manifesting itself here as an unre-
solved tension between vv 2-3 and vv 4-5. The tension is only apparent. Verses
2b-3 and vv 4b-5 are separate oracles and need only complement one an-
other, which they do. All the verses are prose, not poetry (pace Lipinski 1974;
Thompson).
The first portion of the narrative has this tie-in between beginning and end:

The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh when Nebuchadrezzar, v I

king of Babylon, and all his army ... were fighting against Jerusalem

and against all its cities.

And the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem v 7

and against all the cities of Judah, the ones remaining to Lachish and

to Azekah ....

NOTES

34:1. The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh. On this superscription,
which occurs again in 34:8, see Notes for 7: 1 and 21: 1. The T expands to "word
of prophecy."