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

610 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS

The present narrative follows the other narrative segments in the chapter

naturally; it is not the contribution of a later redactor (pace Duhm, who is in-

fluenced by homiletical prose in the oracles). Verse 31 of Oracle II makes an

inclusio with v 3 of the firsl 11arrative segment (see Rhetoric and Composition

for 36:1-8). While the present segment reports a revelation to Jeremiah after

the first scroll was burned, the date in v 9, the fifth year of Jehoiakim, appears

to apply to it also.

The expanded formulas to the two oracles have this inversion:

I And concerning Jehoiakim, king of Judah ... Thus said Yahweh:

II ... thus said Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim, king of Judah:

NOTES

v 29

v 30

36:27. And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah after the king burned the roll.

On this third-person superscriptional form, see Note for 28: 12. The present

revelation must have come after Jeremiah went with Baruch into hiding.

the words. The LXX has "all the words."

28. Once again, take for yourself another roll and write on it all the former
    words that were contained on the first roll, which Jehoiakim, king of Judah,
    burned. Weiser says the contempt of kings cannot deter the might of God. On
    this common divine command using qa~ ("take!"), see 36:2 and Note for 43:9.
    The verb sub is an auxiliary, meaning"( once) again." The LXX contains four
    omissions: "on it" after "and write," "the former" and "the fi1sl," and "king of
    Judah" after "Jehoiakim." The u111issiu11 of "the former" can be attributed to
    haplography (homoeoteleuton: ym ... ym), so also the omission of "the first"
    (homoeoteleuton: m ... m); however, the omission of similar, but not identi-
    cal, words in close proximity may ~equire another explanation.


29. And concerning Jehoiakim, king ofludah. Another LXX omission, doubt-
    less due to haplography (three-word: yhwyqym mlk-yhwdh ... yhwyqym mlk-
    yhwdh). Haplography is considered possible by Rudolph, Holladay, and Keown
    et al. The words are present in T and Vg.
    You, you have burned this roll. The added pronoun has the usual function of
    giving emphasis, whether or not Jehoiakim himself burned the scroll.
    'Why have you written on it "the king of Babylon will surely come and de-
    stroy this land and make to cease from it human and beast"?' Here is the reason
    for Jehoiakim's destruction of the scroll, which the earlier narrative does not
    provide. On the expression "human and beast" in Jeremiah prose, see Note
    for 21:6.


30. He shall not have one to sit upon the throne of David. Jehoiachin did
    succeed Jehoiakim but was deposed almost immediately and taken to Baby-
    lon. Kim]:ii says that since Jehoiachin reigned only three months he was not
    regarded as having sat on the throne. Calvin the same thing. Yet Jehoiachin
    does carry on the messianic line according to Matt 1: 11-12 (J echoniah =
    J ehoiachin).