A Scroll for Future Days (36:1-32) 597
have called the fast (LXX; T; RSV; NEB; NJV). But some commentators (Ru-
dolph; Bright; Jones) think that the leaders will have called the fast, not the
people. Rudolph says "all the people" is not the subject but the object and
takes the verb qr> as having a double accusative (cf. GKC § 117 gg). In his view,
the authorities are calling 1) a fast; and 2) people from everywhere to come
into Jerusalem. The Hebrew is admittedly awkward, but Rudolph's translation
is open to question. Not a whole lot is at stake. A national emergency will call
forth a broadly-based decision to proclaim a fast.
The present fast was most likely called in response to a military threat posed
by the Babylonians, or else to a drought (Calvin; Duhm). Some think that
Judah was experiencing a drought (so Ehrlich 1912: 334; Rudolph), in which
case a mandate is cited in the Mishnah (Taanith 1:5) calling for three days of
fasting if no rain has fallen by the first day of Kislev (November/December).
We know thatthe liturgy in 14: 1-10 was said in response to a drought, and the
mention of fasting in 14: 11 could relate to this same emergency. But it seems
more likely here that the fast is called in response to the military threat now
posed by the Babylonians (Zimmerli 1995: 428), who in 604 B.C. are already in
Philistia destroying Ashkelon and Ekron. Since Jeremiah anticipated this fast a
year earlier, it is more likely that he envisioned a military threat following the
Babylonian victories at Carchemish and Hamath than a weather condition and
its damaging effects, unless, of course, it had already not rained for some time.
The fast, in any case, was a spontaneous response to some crisis facing the
nation. In the United States, for example, spontaneous services of prayer took
place in New York (Yankee Stadium) and Washington (the National Cathe-
dral) following the terrorist tragedy of September 11, 2001.
and all the people who had come in from the cities ofludah-in Jerusalem.
The LXX has only "the house of Judah" in what appears to be a defective
text. Here McKane cannot give either MT or LXX a vote of confidence. If
the Hebrew Vorlage to the LXX lacked the entire phrase, the omission could
be attributed to haplography (whole word: byrwslm ... byrwslm or homoeo-
arcton: w ... w).
- And Baruch read aloud from the scroll the words ofleremiah in the house
of Yahweh. Duhm says this had to be the greatest day in Baruch's life. Here the
scroll is said to contain "the words of Jeremiah"; in v 11 it is "the words of Yah-
weh." In prophecy the two become one.
in the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan, the scribe. "The scribe" identi-
fies Shaphan, not Gemariah, although the latter is also trained in the profes-
sion, since he comes from a family of scribes (see "The Scribal Family of
Shaphan" following the Notes to 26: 1-24) and has his own seal (see below).
Shaphan served as scribe for King Josiah, a high position comparable to the
modern-day "secretary of state." He is also the logical person to have headed a
scribal school in Jerusalem. The current state scribe is Elishama (Giesebrecht;
Peake; Rudolph; Bright; McKane), who in the next verse is reported as sitting
in his palace chamber with other royal officials. Gemariah appears not to have
succeeded his father, being simply a member of the council of princes (Peake).
