Part 50
Although many different actual speakers may stand behind these texts (Reitzschel 1966), two 'implied' narrators appear in them. The first and most prominent is an omniscient thirdperson speaker who is authoritative and descriptive, often identified with Jeremiah's scribe Baruch, and who relates events in many of these chapters (26, 29, 32, 33, 36, 37-45; Holladay 1989: 16; but see Carroll 1986: 662—8; Clements
JEREMIAH 5IO
(26:1—16) The implied narrator reports a command to Jeremiah to preach in the temple (cf. 7:2) but adds thathe is not 'to trim a word' from the prophetic message for the people might still listen' (v. 3). This divine command parallels commissions to Moses (Deut 4:2; 13:1), except that Moses was prohibited from adding to the message. Jeremiah receives no such prohibition because this narrative does precisely that; it adds to the message. It adapts Jeremiah's preaching to the circumstances of exile assumed in the second half of the book. A radically abridged version of the temple sermon follows the commission (w. 4-6), revealing a process of selection and elaboration in the transmission and updating of prophecy, omitting the cultic delinquencies central to ch. 7, and attending, instead, to the consequence of the people's refusal to listen. For the audience that consequence has already occurred. The temple has become like Shiloh (see Jer 7). The exilic community itself must heed the call to repent (O'Connor 1989).
1988: 153; Nicholson 1970: 17). He describes events and quotes YHWH, Jeremiah, and other characters whose voices are filtered through his own. The theological, political, and ideological perspectives of this implied narrator are both obvious and conflictual. Jeremiah and his adherents alone carry YHWH's intentions for the survivors. Life will come through submission to Babylon. Sufferings of exile cannot be escaped but must be embraced. The second narrator is Jeremiah (chs. 27-8, 35). In the few chapters where he is principal speaker, additional authority accompanies the narrating voice by the impression that the prophet himself addresses readers.
Poetic voices reappear in a significant way in chs. 30-1 and in the Oracles Against the Nations (chs. 46-51). The sparsity of poetry sets it apart and gives it prominence. The poetic voices promise more than survival; they point to a radiant future and to divine overthrow of aggressive enemy nations. This part of the book, therefore, concerns hope, muted and distant, but as certain and ineluctable as tragedy was in chs. 1-25. Chs. 26-36 concern blame and hope. Chs. 26 and 36 create a literary frame around sub-units devoted to prophetic conflict (chs. 27—9), the little book of consolation' (chs. 30—3), and an example and counter-example for faithful living (chs. 34—5). Chs. 26-9 are loosely connected chapters concerning prophetic discord, and address disputes over which prophetic vision of the future will ensure the nation's survival message is true. Ch. 26 defends Jeremiah as the true prophet whose credentials are reaffirmed in the face of rejection and threats upon his life. Chs. 27-8 make the same point through Jeremiah's confrontations with lying prophets, and ch. 29 affirms Jeremiah's advice to the exiles over that of lying prophets. Hananiah, Ahab, Zedekiah, and Shemaiah die for their false prophecy. By contrast, Jeremiah's mysterious escapes from death (26:24; 36:26) witness to the truthfulness of his prophecy. But discernment of the true prophetic word, a major issue in exile, is a means to an end, not the end itself. Only correct discernment of and obedience to true prophecy ensure the community's survival. The content of the prophetic word in this sequence of texts is as important, therefore, as the debate over the true messenger. Narratives progress logically from the proclamation of Jerusalem's destruction and Jeremiah's survival (ch. 26), to directions to submitto the invaders (chs. 27—8), to advice for settling in for a long exile (ch. 29). The primary issue, therefore, is not prophecy itself (contra Kessler 1968), but survival. (26:1-24) A Second Commission Ch. 26 continues a midrashic reinterpretation of Jeremiah's temple sermon (7:1—8:3) and functions as a second call narrative (O'Connor 1989: 619). Some in the community accept Jeremiah's word, whereas priests, prophets, and especially King Jehoiakim reject it. A chronological note typical of the second half of the book dates the story to the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign
Multiple responses from the community follow in w. 7-16 and culminate in Jeremiah's trial. Initially, priests, prophets, and all the people respond to Jeremiah's threats to temple and city (v. 6) by capturing him and pronouncing a death sentence upon him (w. 7—9). A trial begins with priests and prophets acting as prosecutors and 'officials' and with the people acting as jury (w. 10-11). To charges against him, Jeremiah courageously reaffirms that YHWH sent (s-l-h) him and calls again for repentance (w. 12—13). He also comments on his own predicament. He is in their hands and they can do as they wish with him, but he is innocent for YHWH has sent him
(w. 14—15). The trial concludes with the 'officials and all the people' proclaiming his innocence (v. 16). Thus far, the narrative reaffirms Jeremiah's commission, reintroduces the call to repent, and reveals that Jeremiah has support among officials and people but not among religious leaders. Jeremiah himself, under a threat of death, remains steadfast and is vindicated. (26:17-23) muddies the narrative. Though the trial is finished, new speakers appear, 'elders' who continue the debate by presenting examples of two other prophecies of Jerusalem's destruction and their contrasting reception by kings. The first prophet is Micah (Mic 3:12) whose message was received by Hezekiah as a call to repent (w. 17-19). By contrast, the prophet Uriah's message was not simply rejected by Jehoiakim. The king sent a death squad into Egypt to extradite Uriah, killed him, and abused his corpse (w. 20-3). This comparison between kings underscores Jehoiakim's heinous disregard for the prophetic word from the beginning of his rule (v. i). Jehoiakim joins priests and prophets as enemies of the word, and by implication, they are together responsible for the fall of the nation.
Mysteriously Ahikam then rescues Jeremiah from death (v. 24). Some interpreters argue that the purpose of this verse is to illustrate the danger Jeremiah personally confronts as prophet (Hossfeld and Meyer 1973 35; Weiser 1960: 235; Thompson 1980: 528). But the people have already declared Jeremiah's innocence (v. 16) so that his rescue seems unnecessary. However, it creates a parallel to another account of Jeremiah's endangerment and rescue in ch. 36. These two chapters contain many similarities and thereby create a lit-
(v. i). Many interpreters use these dates to construct chronologies of the prophet's life but frequently overlook the date's symbolic import. The date indicates that, from the beginning of his reign, Jehoiakim rejected the prophetic word. Ch. 26 divides into three parts: w. 1-16, the trial; w. 17-23, the elders' intervention; v. 24, rescue. (On the many differences between LXX and MT, see Carroll 1986: 551.)
5" JEREMIAH
(27:12—22) Next Jeremiah interprets the yoke for Judah. He addresses the king but uses plural forms (v. 12), urging him to accept Babylon's yoke and not to listen to the prophets. They lie, for YHWH did not send them (w. 12-15). The prophets' lies become specific in a dispute over temple vessels carried to Babylon in 597 (w. 16—22; Seitz 1989/7: 184—9). Th£ prophets promised quick restoration of the vessels to the temple (v. 16), but Jeremiah contends that they and additional vessels and people will remain in Babylon indefinitely, until YHWH decides to think of them (w. 19—22). Strong ideological claims are being made here with the authority of Jeremiah's own voice. Prophets who anticipate a quick end to exile and oppose Babylon are not only wrong, they are liars who stand against God. The community must resist their vision or it will not survive (v. 17; see 21:8). (28:1-17) Interpretative conflict turns into a personal showdown in Jeremiah's encounter with Hananiah. In the same year, before priests, prophets, and all the people (w. 1—2), Hananiah announces a countermessage. YHWH will destroy the yoke of the king of Babylon and return vessels, king, and exiles within two years (w. 3-4); captivity will be short. Jeremiah reports his own ambivalence in response. He wishes it were so, but tradition stands against Hananiah's interpretation. Only time will tell if the message of peace is from God (w. 5-9). Hananiah parries with a symbolic act of his own. He breaks Jeremiah's yoke (w. 10—n) in an action designed to cancel Jeremiah's word and set a different word inexorably towards fulfilment. Jeremiah himself indicates that the true word is difficult to discern. He departs for some time (v. 12), then YHWH sends him back with an iron yoke (w. 13—14). Revelation cancels indecision. Hananiah's word is a lie and his death within the year stands as irrefutable Deuteronomistic proof (w. 12-17; Deut 18:20) To Jeremiah, Hananiah's message is more than wishful thinking; it is a theological and political path to death. Only by accepting Babylonian rule and enduring the suffering that accompanies it will they ultimately escape exile and find a future. Babylonian hegemony will surely end but not quickly. The text labels the antiBabylonian leanings in the surrounding nations, in Judah, and among exiles as vicious lies. For those living in exile, the story of Jeremiah's yoke offers instructions about survival. In their present circumstances, exiles must persist and endure, for the Creator who made the earth and its inhabitants will eventually bring about a reversal of fortunes. Hope, historically unspecific but theologically grounded, rests in the power of the Creator. (29:1-32) Letters This chapter develops themes of the previous two, but takes the form of letters reported by the thirdperson narrator. From Jerusalem Jeremiah writes to the exiles (w. 1-23) and responds to a letter about him from Shemaiah (w. 24-32). The epistolary literary device allows Jeremiah to remain the authoritative source of the prophetic message even though he is not present among the exiles. He becomes the author of written prophecy addressed to elders, priests, and prophets, to everyone taken to Babylon after the deportation of 597 (w. 1—2). Emissaries of Zedekiah, both among families of Jeremiah's supporters, are couriers (v. 3; Brueggemann 1991: 31). The letter's message is precise regarding the exiles' relationship to Babylon. Not only are they not to resist Babylon,
erary frame around chs. 27-35 (O'Connor 1988; Nicholson 1970: 55). Moreover, Ahikam is the first of a list of named rescuers in the 'second book', among whom the Shaphan family is central (Wilson 1989: 62-8; Boadt 1982/7: 15). Jeremiah is no longer alone. Named supporters probably point to a group in the exilic community who stand firmly in the Jeremiah tradition and resist monarchic authority (Brueggemann 1991: 12). Their support and rescue of Jeremiah is also support and rescue of his tradition. His rescue indicates that he is a true prophet because he does not die after its announcement as do false prophets (Deut 18:20).
Ch. 26 introduces the second book, therefore, by announcing themes central to the following chapters. It blames King Jehoiakim, priests, and prophets for resisting the prophetic word and failing to repent. It invites the implied exilic audience to join supporters of the prophet against the leadership and invites them to repent now. It presents Jeremiah as a model of exilic obedience who, while in the hands of his captors, holds steadfast in his confidence in YHWH's word. His rescue symbolically heralds a mysterious and surprising future rescue of the repentant exilic community and contrasts him with numerous false prophets in chs. 27—9 who come under the sentence of death for their lying ways.
(27:1—28:17) The Yokes In a prose account of symbolic actions Jeremiah narrates his conflict with other prophetic groups. At issue is how Babylon will control Judah, the exiles, and captured temple vessels. Conflict over interpretation of the divine will for Judah and the nations crystallizes in the encounters between Jeremiah and Hananiah. What is at stake between Jeremiah and the prophets is the imaginative envisioning of the future in order to affect behaviour in the present. The text contains three narrative panels that increasingly narrow the conflict from an international disagreement to a personal dispute between two prophets. The first panel contains Jeremiah's message to the nations and the contrary view of their prophets (27:1—11); the second narrows to Jeremiah's message to King Zedekiah and the opposition of Judah's prophets (27:12-22); the third funnels further down to the specific clash between Jeremiah and Hananiah (28:1—17).
(But see Carroll 1986: 523 for whom ch. 28 is a variant of ch. 27.) (27:1-11) The story begins in the firstyear of Zedekiah's reign, immediately after the first invasion of Judah by Babylon in 597. The date signifies the truth of Jeremiah's words. At the time of the first invasion, Jeremiah prophesied Babylon's triumph and eventual overthrow. His word was reliable regarding Babylon's ascent to power and will be equally reliable regarding Babylon's fall. The story of the yokes enacts and dramatizes this message. Jeremiah himself relates that he put a yoke around his neck at YHWH's command and delivered a message to the envoys of neighbouring kings. The yoke symbolizes enslavement of the nations to Babylon. As Creator of the earth, YHWH can direct events at will (Clements 1988: 162). Describing YHWH's creative activity, Jeremiah announces that Babylonian rule will extend through three generations and then will end (w. 2—7). Nations that do not comply with Babylon will lose their lands. They are forbidden to listen to their own prophets and mediators who counsel lies
(w. 8-11).
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begins to heal in the creation of a new future, a new narrative. Chs. 30—3 are not the book's conclusion, as modern readers might wish, but a glowing centre, a hidden life, yet to emerge in historical specificity. (30:1-31:40) Restoration YHWH is principal speaker in these poetic passages. The convergence of divine voice, poetic genre, and themes of hope set the chapters apart from surrounding materials, and draw attention to their presence at the book's centre. Because of their frequent use of the names Jacob and Israel some scholars assume that these poems originally addressed the northern kingdom alone (Rudolph 1947:159; Lohfink 1981; but see Carroll 1986: 571-2; McKane 1986: 752). In their present location, however, these titles contribute to a rhetoric of unity and harmony for a unified nation. Jacob/Israel was the eponymous ancestor of all twelve tribes (Gen 29-30). Whatever the original provenance of these poems, they are here closely linked with poems addressed to Judah and Zion (30:3, 4, 12—17; 3I:6, 12, 27, 31). After an introduction (30:1—4), the poems depict reversals of fortune (30:5-17), celebration (30:18-24), the journey home (31:1-14), the garden of delights (30:10-14), and in poetry and prose, the comforting of Rachel and the restoration of the broken marriage and family (31:15—40).
they are actively to seeks its welfare (salom). They are to settle there, to set up daily life and domestic relationships, and to seek the welfare of the city in which they are captive. In its shalom is their shalom (w. 4-7). This surprising advice, delivered at the very beginning of exile (v. 2), indicates that there is no escape, no way out, despite contradictory interpretations of the prophets among them. The prophets are lying (w. 8—9).
The letter encourages long-suffering and discourages rebellion or false confidence in an early release. Rescue will come, but only after seventy years (v. 10, cf 25:11—12). Clements (1988) thinks that seventy years means one generation, but it probably means the symbolic long time of biblical numerology (Newsome 1984: 121), since 27:7 promises three generations of Babylonian rule. What the narrator claims to be Jeremiah's own view, however, is that Babylon is acting as YHWH's agent and therefore their only choice is to co-operate actively. Eventually their suffering will end because YHWH has plans for their shalom (v. n). Then YHWH will relate to them differently, no longer hiding from them. YHWH will restore their fortunes and return them from the diaspora of exile (w. 10-14).
In this letter, the exiles alone are the fortunate, the chosen. Jeremiah promises curses of'sword, famine, and pestilence' upon those who stay in Judah (w. 15-18; see 24:8-10). Two false prophets among the exiles, Ahab and Zedekiah, will die like Hananiah under the Deuteronomic curse (28:17). Th£
(30:1—4) A narrator reports that Jeremiah wrote YHWH's words in a book or scroll. The device of the revelatory book allows the character of Jeremiah to speak to the implied exilic audience even though he is not among them, and it allows Jeremiah's traditionists to expand the message under his authority (25:13; 36:1-32; 45:1; 51:60; McKane 1986: 750 accepts the scroll's contents as 30:4-31:40). Using imagery from other parts of the book (Odashima 1989: 98—138), the 'little book' witnesses to the days when YHWH 'will restore the fortunes of Israel and Judah' (v. 3). The poems collected here shift between addressing male Jacob/Israel, and virgin/ daughter Israel/Rachel in a manner reminiscent of the account of the broken-marriage metaphor (JER 2:1—3:25). Here that broken family is healed and renewed.
letter totally discredits prophets of the anti-Babylonian group and of people who remained in the land. Nor will subsequent texts support those who stay in the land, a group that strangely includes Jeremiah himself (chs. 40—1). His choice to remain in the land (40:1—6) contradicts his advice to survivors.
w. 24-32, Shemaiah's letter: the narrator relates the contents of a second letter, written by one of the exiles named
Shemaiah to the high priest in Jerusalem. Shemaiah demands that the priest silence the madman Jeremiah because of his letter (29:1-23). When the high priest reads Shemaiah's letter aloud, Jeremiah curses Shemaiah and his family for false prophecy (w. 31—2).
(30:5-17) Two poetic panels, the first addressed to male Israel and the second to daughter Zion, depict reversals of fortunes in literary movements from panic (w. 5—7) to fearlessness (w. 10—n) and from incurable wounds (w. 12—15) to restored health (w. 16-17). m both instances, the reversal occurs without transition or explanation. Both panels imagine reversal as a change within YHWH, not within Jacob or Zion.
The altercations in chs. 26—9 create a marked contrast with the harmony and contentment envisioned in chs. 30-3.
(30:1—33:26) The Little Book of Consolation contains collections of poetry (chs. 30-1) and prose (chs. 32-3) that depict a complete reversal of fortune for the destroyed and exiled people. Using themes and motifs from previous parts of the book, these chapters envision an alternative future of healing, restoration, and renewed relationship between God and the people. Keown, Scalise, and Smothers (1995: 84-5) review efforts to determine and date core texts collected here. The placement of these chapters at the relative centre of the MT version of Jeremiah is puzzling. Texts that are largely accusatory and conflictual surround them, seeming to bury joyous hope in a cloud of terror and suffering, as if to dim the enthusiasm they are designed to inspire. The book's arrangement, however, like that of Lamentations, tempers hope for the exilic audience for whom restoration is not an imminent possibility (Kessler 1968). The universe imagined here does not offer a programme for escape. Rather, the text seeks to restore the community by recasting its narrative world. The 'narrative wreckage' (Frank 1995: 53) of their communal life
w. 5—11, in the opening verse a speaker announces the sound of a terrifying voice (qol). Pain grips men as suddenly as it does a woman in labour. An 'awful' (NEB) day of distress is upon them (see Carroll 1986: 574—5 on the day of YHWH). A prose comment (w. 8—9) inexplicably replaces terror with future hope and links this passage to the account of the two yokes (27:1-28:19). YHWH will remove the yoke of servitude, restore relationship with them, and raise up a king. In w. 10— n, YHWH comforts Jacob in the second person and responds to the panic and terror of w. 5-7. Like a woman who finally gives birth, male Jacob will survive. The appropriation of labour imagery for male terror appears elsewhere (4:31; 13:21; 49:24; 50:43), but only here does it lead to life rather than death (O'Connor 1992). From far away YHWH will save them and punish the nations. Rescue is a complete surprise,
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second-person feminine singular object pronouns). Using references to the journey out of Egypt and to Israel's devotion as a bride (Jer 2:2), YHWH reinterprets history. From 'far away', and despite having divorced her and her sister Judah (3:1—10), YHWH declares his 'everlasting love' and 'continued faithfulness' to her (v. 3). YHWH's words disregard her sordid past and transform her very being. She is no longer a faithless harlot but betulat, (virgin) Israel (v. 4). YHWH promises to 'build' her and she will plant (w. 4—5), recalling promises to Jeremiah (1:10). In joyous celebration, female Israel will sing and dance like Miriam and the women after the escape through the sea (31:4/7, cf Ex 15:20-1). Sentinels will call them and the people will return 'to the LORD our God' (v. 6). Before exile, female Israel refused to return, but at that time there had been conditions (JER 3:11-13). Here there are none.
but it comes with sobering caution for YHWH will also punish them justly (v. n). Exile still means just punishment for sin.
The second poetic panel (w. 12-17) also moves unexpectedly from desperation to salvation, but the metaphor shifts from panic to woundedness, and the addressee changes from male Jacob to female Zion (v. 17). w. 12—13 an(^ J5 return to language of Zion's incurable wound (8:21-2) and to her isolation, for all her lovers have abandoned her (v. 14). Daughter Zion is YHWH's unfaithful wife (2:1—3:25), and her wound is the consequence of her guilt (3:15). Like the previous panel, this poem explains destruction and exile as punishment for sin (v. 15). But rather than continuing with the expected description of her punishment, the poem reverses itself. It is her destroyers who will be punished (v. 16), and she who will be healed and restored to health. YHWH pities her in her abandonment (v. 17).
The second poem describes the procession home (w. 7-9). YHWH invites song on behalf of, and perhaps by, Jacob
(McKane 1986: 788) and provides words for intercession, 'Save, O LORD, your people, the remnant of Israel' (v. 7). This liturgical refrain may again dramatize the voice of the exilic community, bringing it into the text as expectant and hopeful. The poem assumes covenant relationship and YHWH's willingness to grant the request. Then YHWH announces the divine plan (w. 8-9). YHWH will bring them back from the place to which they had been sent, the land of the north and the farthest parts of the earth. YHWH will gather them and lead them by water on easy pathways. What is most significant is the description of the company. Among them are the most vulnerable people, the blind, the lame, the pregnant, and those giving birth. As vulnerable or disabled, this procession embodies the whole community, humbled and broken yet bringing forth new life. On their journey, YHWH will accompany them as the father of Ephraim, his firstborn. The broken family of 2:1—3:25 reappears here, restored and made whole. Ephraim symbolizes the generation of exiles, the faithless children who have repented and returned (3:22-5).
In w. 18—22 YHWH continues to speak, first about Jacob and then to him (v. 21, second-person masculine plural). Jerusalem may be included in the poem indirectly as the city and citadel rebuilt on the mound (v. 18; Thompson 1980: 561). If so, north and south are reunited in a burst of thanksgiving and new life. In a book particularly attuned to sounds, cries of battle, shouts of grief, panic, and terror, this poem creates a startling sonic reversal. A great crowd of merrymakers will make joyous noises of thanksgiving as they exchange shame for honour (v. 19). To counter fears that the people would dwindle and disappear in exile, YHWH promises to establish the children of merrymakers in the liturgical assembly. Besides signifying the certainty of a future for the community, mention of 'their children' also identifies the implied audience as children of the exiled generation (v. 20). Clements (1988: 176) points to the conspicuous absence of temple restoration in these promises of hope for the exiles. The community will, none the less, be restored as a worshipping people. YHWH will punish their oppressors; foreigners will no longer rule them. Divine initiative alone will restore covenant relationship for 'who would otherwise dare to approach' YHWH? (v. 21).
The third poem (w. 10-14), summed up by 'a watered garden' (v. 12), breaks out in lyrical celebration as the captive community returns to Zion. YHWH calls the nations as witnesses to, and proclaimers of, the new order imagined here. Gathering replaces scattering; bringing in overtakes thrusting away; the divine punisher becomes the redeemer who buys back the helpless slave (v. n). The returnees will sing, radiant over divine goodness, unanticipated, hardly believable. In this imagined future, life will be a watered garden, an oasis of refreshment, an Eden of delights. Land and flocks will be fertile. Women and men, old and young shall dance and be merry. Priests and people, all will be satisfied. As YHWH turns mourning into joy, sorrow into comfort, the painful realities of the present world will be totally reversed.
w. 23-4 close the chapter with a summary interpretation of national tragedy. YHWH's wrath came upon them as a raging tempest that will accomplish YHWH's plan (cf. Isa 55:10—11). Addressed directly, readers learn that they will understand 'in the latter days'. These verses suggest that there is little present understanding, only continued conflict among exiles regarding the meaning of events.
(31:1-14) Return The next three poems (31:2-6, 7-9, 10-14) envision and celebrate the journey home as a Utopian restoration of the entire people of Israel. A superscription (v. i) links this chapter to the previous one by continuing the motif of the eschatological future (30:24^ and by reusing the covenant formula (30:22). v. i explicitly names the human covenant partners as 'all the families of Israel'.
The visions of these poems must have been shocking to exiles and their reversals barely conceivable to a people held under Babylonian sovereignty. But even if Babylonian hegemony had already begun to weaken under pressure from Persia, these poems envision more than mere survival for Israel. They speak of a prodigal transformation of reality, of an eschatological Utopia that restores divine—human relationship, reaffirms Israel as the chosen people, and recognizes that Israel itself has been changed by its suffering.
The first poem (w. 2—6) continues the expansive vision of the restored community in which people of Samaria and Ephraim (w. 5-6) prepare to return to Zion (v. 6). Resonant with echoes of other texts, the poem continues divine speech from the previous chapter. The subject of the poem is the future survivors (v. 2), personified as female Israel (w. 3-5,
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Rachel and Ephraim. If so, then mother and son, the older unrepentant generation and the present exilic generation, are reunited; mother again surrounds, encompasses her child, thought dead but now living. Woman encompassing man is the mother and son reunited as she embraces her child. Alternatively this may be a biological promise in which bereaved Rachel encompasses a man sexually to give birth to a new generation (w. 27-8). Or the woman may be Jerusalem encompassing the returned nation (w. 23-6).
(31:15-3°) Rachel's Comfort Rachel and her son, historically her grandson, Ephraim, symbolize this transformation on many levels. They appear in a poem (w. 15—22; Trible 1978 140-50), which is followed by three prose comments that interpret its ambiguous conclusion (w. 23-30). Many scholars argue for an original northern provenance of this text because Ephraim symbolizes the northern kingdom (Thompson 1980: 573). But whatever its origins, Rachel is the quintessential bereaved mother who cannot recover from the loss of her children (v. 15). As Jacob's most beloved wife (Gen 29), she is matriarch of all Israel, and her two sons, Joseph and Benjamin, become fathers of northern and southern tribes (Holladay 1989: 187). Rachel's motherhood of northern and southern offspring suggests that she weeps not only for Ephraim but for all the children of Israel for whom there is no future (Brueggemann 1991: 64). Her characterization recalls the 'faithless' (3:22) first wife of YHWH, the wife from the north (3:1—13) who fails to repent. In 3:6—25, it is her offspring, not she, who return to the father, as does Ephraim here. She signifies the generation whose children are in exile, who face extinction as a people. Ephraim personifies the next generation, the implied exilic audience who gain in his portrayal another model of true repentance. He is their imagined future, but mysteriously she, too, is included.
w. 23-30 contain three prose pieces that, by juxtaposition, interpret the woman surrounding a man and continue promises for the days that are coming. Rather than pinpointing meaning, they accumulate multiple interpretations of v. 22. w. 23-6 appear as a revelation in a dream of a restored Jerusalem, though the city is not named. It will be a place of rest and replenishment for the weary. By juxtaposition with v. 22, these verses suggest that the woman surrounding a man symbolizes Jerusalem, the holy hill that protects and encompasses her returned inhabitants. By contrast, w. 27-8 promise human and animal fertility in the planting of seed, thus providing offspring and food for the nation. The woman encompassing a man to become pregnant personifies the future of the destroyed people. Finally, w. 29-30 offer yet another interpretation of v. 22. The proverb comments on the generational divide by insisting that children are responsible for, and suffer for, their own sins. The exiles cannot blame their parents' generation exclusively for their predicament. They themselves are accountable for their behaviour and, by implication, they must repent. Woman does not encompass a man; mother does not include child in her guilt. The children's guilt is their own.
Like many other characters in this book, Rachel's grief is unceasing and her weeping voice (qol) can be heard (v. 15). In the vignette created by this much discussed poem (Trible 1978; Anderson 1978; O'Connor 1992; Weems 1995), YHWH comforts her, seeks to dry her tears, recognizes her labour, and finally promises her a heart-stopping reward. The mother who believes her children are dead will see them return from the land of the enemy (w. 16-17). A more poignant announcement can hardly be imagined as the poet climbs into the persona of the mother who learns that, miraculously, her children live.
The prose comments of w. 23-30 seek to tame the radical, open-ended poem that precedes them, but the power of the text still breaks out. Whatever it may denote, it also reverses gender imagery from earlier parts of the book. Rachel, weeping mother, virgin daughter, faithless daughter, is invited home again by God/husband who divorced her. She symbolizes a new future. She is the restored Israel, mother of north and south, reunited with her children, laughing, not weeping, protecting, surrounding, embracing them, and finally leading them into a Utopian future of harmony and equality. The prose comment on the new covenant portrays that future.
YHWH hears another voice, a voice of shame and repentance, a voice of pleading (w. 18-19). Th£ mother weeps, but the child speaks. Ephraim interprets his suffering as his father's discipline of an untrained son. In the liturgical language that forms a leitmotif across the book (3:22-5; 8:14-15; 10:1-16, 22-5; 14:7-9, 19-22; 16:19-20; 17:12-23) Ephraim begs to be brought back 'for you are the LORD my God' (w. 18— 19). The stanza re-enacts and embellishes the scene where the children admit their shameful youth and return repentant to their Father (3:22-5). Unlike the earlier version, however, this account of repentance and return evokes a response from YHWH, who expresses delight in his son and insists with promises of mercy that he never forgot him (v. 20, Trible 1978; Anderson 1978).
(31:31-4) The New Covenant Following Ephraim's enactment of repentance, YHWH's acceptance of it, and the restoration of the broken family, YHWH proclaims a new covenant, a new way of relating within the reconstituted family. (For reviews of modern interpretations, see Herrmann 1986: 146-62 and McKane 1986: 817—27.) Among Christians, the new covenant passage is perhaps the most well-known and misread of Jeremianic texts. The new covenant prophecy does not cancel YHWH's covenant with Judaism in favour of Christianity
Reversing the broken marriage (2:1—3:25), YHWH also invites grieving mother and still 'faithless' virgin Israel to return
(w. 21-2). YHWH will create yet another surprise, 'a new thing on the earth: a woman encompasses a man' (v. 22). This is a difficult and astonishing verse. Translation oftesobeb is only part of the difficulty. It can mean 'protect', 'encompass', 'surround'. Holladay (1989: 195); Carroll (1986: 602-4); and McKane (1986: 807) discuss the problems. In addition, there remains the problem of understanding the 'new thing' God has created. In part that decision rests on who the woman and man symbolize. In the context of the poem they seem to be
(Brueggemann 1991: 69—71). Christians will, of course, place great significance on this short passage, using its language to express their faith that the newness of divine revelation in Jesus Christ stands in continuity with YHWH's covenant with Israel. When the book of Jeremiah speaks of the new covenant, however, it is referring to renewed relationship between Israel and YHWH.
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invasion and captivity. Clements (1996:128) believes that the land purchase holds a central position in Jeremiah's vision of hope. To the extent that the story serves as first step towards restoration, the narrative begins the fulfilment of the visions of 30:1—31:40.
That renewed relationship will differ from YHWH's covenant with Israel's ancestors rescued from Egypt (v. 32). They broke covenant even though, YHWH says, bffaltt: T was master over them' (Holladay 1989: 198), or T was their husband'
(Carroll 1986: 609 cf NRSV, NIV). This covenant language reaches back to the broken marriage and divorce between YHWH and his faithless wife (JER 2:1—3:25). The new relationship will be stronger than the previous marriages because YHWH will inscribe torn on their hearts (v. 33; Polk 1984: 3557). YHWH, not the community, will create love and fidelity so that everyone from the least... to the greatest' will know YHWH (v. 34). The new covenant, therefore, manifests itself as an egalitarian religious vision that embraces everyone in the community without hierarchical preferences of any kind. The new covenant restores the broken marriage, heals the wounded family, and creates a new story from Israel's narrative wreckage. Finally, the new covenant continues the development of the book's theodicy by inviting the implied audience to recognize their sufferings as discipline by a loving father and husband. YHWH will forgive them and remember their sins no more (v. 34). (31:35-7) The Covenant's Endurance In a spectacular reversal of the cosmic undoing of creation caused by sin (JER 4:23—8), this brief poem finds, in the permanence of the created order, assurance that Israel's offspring will receive divine acceptance forever (v. 36). In images that echo Gen i and Job 38:4-7, the Creator threatens to reject Israel's offspring (zercf, 'seed', w. 36c, 37c), but not until the fixed order of creation fails and the cosmos can be measured. Since this will never happen, YHWH promises an eternal covenant with restored Israel. (31:38-40) Jerusalem Rebuilt By returning to the image of the restored Jerusalem, this prose comment forms a frame with 31:23-6 (Keown, Scalise, and Smothers 1995). As the focus of exilic hope, the city will be rebuilt beyond its former borders to accommodate the population explosion among its inhabitants. Jerusalem will never again be uprooted or overthrown (v. 38). (32:1-33:26) In these two chapters, prose narrative supplants poetry; Jeremiah replaces YHWH as main actor; a narrator replaces YHWH as speaker. Both prose chapters prophesy a radical change of fortunes for the exiles; both are set during Jeremiah's confinement as the Chaldeans (Babylonians) invade Jerusalem; and both appeal to YHWH as allpowerful Creator whose portrayal changes unexpectedly from angry punisher to loving redeemer and healer (Perdue 1994: 145). (32:1-44) Jeremiah Redeems a Field In the previous two chapters Jeremiah appears only in the superscription (30:12) and as unnamed recipient of a revelatory dream (31:26). Both notices lend Jeremiah's prophetic authority to the message of renewal and restoration found there. In ch. 32, however, Jeremiah is chief agent and central character, and for the first time he has a companion, Baruch, to act as witness (v. 12; Brueggemann 1994). Jeremiah's symbolic action (w. 1—5) and sermon-like prayer (w. 16-25), to which YHWH responds (w. 26-44), confirm and give concreteness to the hopeful poetic vision of the previous chapters. During Jeremiah's imprisonment in the palace, he again serves as an exemplar for exiles by acting with obedient hopefulness in the face of
(32:1-15) The Purchase A superscription places Jeremiah's symbolic act in the reigns of Zedekiah and Nebuchadrezzar (v. i), during Babylon's most devastating invasion of Jerusalem (588/87 BCE; on dating, see Holladay 1989: 212 and Keown Scalise, and Smothers 1995: 150; on historical inconsistencies, see Carroll 1986: 622; McKane 1986: cbd). The chief importance of this chronological note is symbolic. It places Jeremiah's foolhardy purchase at the nadir of Judah's history. During the bleakness of invasion, Jeremiah acts and prays in ways that embody and announce a new future (Seitz 1989/7: 244). The dating of the narrative, therefore, assures the exilic audience that the seemingly unrealizable promises are already active in the divine plan.
The narrative itself is highly symbolic. Jeremiah prophesies Babylonian triumph and the resultant capture of Zedekiah for an indefinite period, until YHWH 'attends' to him (w. 2-5; cf. 27:19-22). To repress this treacherous message, Zedekiah, himself about to be imprisoned, imprisons Jeremiah. YHWH tells Jeremiah that his cousin Hanamel will ask him to redeem his uncle's field in Anathoth (w. 6-8). As next of kin, Jeremiah's responsibility is to redeem family property in case of debt (Lev 25:23—8; Ruth 4:1—10), but under the circumstances of the invasion such an act appears pointless. The narrative offers no details of the family predicament, but rushes, instead, to describe legal and monetary components of the transaction (w. 9—15). These details underscore the public, legal nature of the event. As executor, Baruch places the deeds in a jar to preserve them (w. 12-14). The last verse explains the meaning of the purchase. Life will resume in the land (v. 15), for YHWH will redeem it just as Jeremiah redeems the land of his kin.
The story of Jeremiah's land redemption affirms to the implied audience that life in the land will resume in a new future. Although the promise originated with Jeremiah, Baruch witnessed it, served as executor, and thus emerges as a reliable interpreter and developer of the Jeremiah tradition (Carroll 1986: 61-2). The narrative portrays no quick end to exile (v. 5), but only a promisory deed. In the meantime, Jeremiah emerges as a paragon of faithful obedience and hope in the midst of captivity.
(32:16—25) Jeremiah's prayer elaborates upon and parallels the story of the redemption of land. The prayer also revisits the grim hour of invasion as fulfilment of YHWH's word and finds in the reliability of earlier messages the basis for new hope. In first-person direct address, Jeremiah reminds YHWH of past divine treatment of Israel that distributed love prodigally and punishment sparingly (w. 17-19). Jeremiah addresses YHWH as Creator of the earth and Sovereign of history (Perdue 1994: 144). The 'impossibilities' God performed on behalf of the people in the past (Brueggemann 1991: 83) brought no obedience from them (w. 20-3). Jeremiah begs YHWH to 'see' that the promised invasion is underway (w. 20—4). In the thick of the siege, YHWH orders Jeremiah to buy the field in front of witnesses (v. 25). Hints of
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text's historical referrents cannot be determined. Rather, the poetic evocation of an empty, hostile wasteland sharpens the contrast between the seemingly hopeless present reality and the bustling, noisy, domestic, and worshipful future (Carroll 1986: 636).
conflict in the exilic community concerning the future float beneath the surface of this prayer. For some, resumption of life in the land is unthinkable. It is this hopelessness that the prayer seeks to overturn. (31:26-44) Divine Assurance If readers are not yet convinced that they will return to the land, YHWH's reply to Jeremiah's prayer assures them that they will. A third-person narrator introduces the divine speaker who tells Jeremiah that the God of all can do anything (w. 26-7). The passage parallels the narrative of land purchase and Jeremiah's prayer in describing the disaster (w. 28—90) and the sins that provoked it (w. 2gb— 35, cf 7:1—8:3), and in shifting to the good fortune ahead (w. 37-44). Even as the city falls into the hand of Babylon, YHWH announces the gathering of exiles (w. 36-7), their safe return, and the making of an everlasting covenant (cf. 31:31—4). YHWH's responsibility for the national tragedy is unusually explicit in this prayer (v. 42), but divine agency in the disaster provides confidence in promises regarding YHWH's new activities. YHWH will plant them, delight in them (v. 41), and restore their fields (w. 43—4).
(33:14—26) Davidic Monarchy Restored The book of consolation closes with an eschatological promise that a descendant of David will once again rule all Israel, a rule characterized by justice and righteousness (w. 14-16). The people will never again lack kings or levitical priesthood for eternal worship (w. 16—17). The new covenant is as eternal as the created order (w. 19-22). Nor will YHWH ever again reject the two families of Israel. (34:1-35:22) A Bad King and a Good Community The prose narratives of chs. 34 and 35 shift the temporal frame back abruptly from the eschatalogical, Utopian future to the reality of the recent past. Both chapters are set during the Babylonian invasion, but the behaviour they describe concerns survival in the exilic present. Ch. 34 portrays the failures of king and all the people to obey the divine word wholeheartedly, and it underscores the desolate consequences of those failures. Ch. 35, by contrast, narrates the dogged obedience of a small group of faithful Rechabites whose righteousness gains them a future. Together these chapters set forth an implicit choice between attitudes and behaviours from which readers must choose. The rhetoric is not subtle. Half-hearted obedience of king and people caused the nation's destruction; only heroic obedience in the present will issue in the survival of the faithful few. In both chapters a third-person narrator presents the speech of Jeremiah who, in turn, uses divine speech. (34:1-22) Half-hearted Obedience After Zedekiah makes a covenant with all the people (w. 8—20), they first obey and then disobey YHWH's word. The king's fate (34:1—7, 21—2) frames the failure of the community (34:8-20) during the invasion, described in both hyperbolic (v. i) and concrete terms (w. 6—7). Jerusalem is under attack from 'all the kingdoms of the earth' and all the peoples under Nebuchadrezzar's dominion (v. i). Only Lachish and Azekah remain among Judean cities (w. 6-7). (Archaeologists have found letters at Lachish, dating to the time of the Babylonian invasion.) This time-frame is critical for Jeremiah's prophecy (v. 8) for, at a truly grim moment, YHWH commands Jeremiah to announce the city's destruction and Zedekiah's capture and exile (w. 2—3). The story, however, modulates the terror for the king who will not be killed but will die in peace and be lamented with proper royal rituals (w. 4-5; cf. 52:1-11). Holladay (1989: 233-4) and Brueggemann (1991: 105) believe the passage relates an implicit choice for Zedekiah to surrender or die, while Carroll argues that the passage must mean that the royal burial will occur in Jerusalem, not in exile, since such treatment of captives is unthinkable.
All three units of this chapter follow the same literary and theological movement. They plunge down into invasion and devastation before turning upwards in hope. Narratively they meetthe exiles in their hopelessness and insist on a transformation grounded in divine initiative. YHWH commands the land redemption (32:1-5). YHWH is the mighty Creator who loves and does impossible things (32:16—25). YHWH will restore their fortunes (w. 37—44). In its attack on the people's sin and failure to listen, the passage defends God against charges of injustice, but YHWH also accepts responsibility (v. 42). YHWH undergoes a change of heart, reaffirms loving fidelity to the people, and in this part of the text, asks for nothing in return. (33:1-9) Restoration of Fortunes A superscription joins this chapter to the previous one for Jeremiah is still imprisoned (v. i). Reversing earlier prohibitions against intercession (11:14; I5:I~I5)> the Creator now invites prophetic mediation and promises to reveal things hitherto hidden (v. 3). This invitation reopens relationship between YHWH and the people, and the new revelations suggest further development of the tradition. The cause of the invasion and destruction was divine anger at the people's sinfulness. YHWH turned the divine face away, a momentary lapse during which the enemy wreaked havoc upon the city. Though the people's sin remains the root cause of the tragedy, divine inattentiveness suggests that punishment for the people's sin became excessive. But after that turning away, YHWH has made a full reversal by promising recovery, healing, and abundance for north and south (w. 6—7). YHWH will rebuild, cleanse, forgive. The city's glory will evoke awe from nations at the transformation YHWH will accomplish (v. 9). (33:10-14) Two brief comments emphasize the drama of the future transformation by describing the land as an empty wasteland (w. 10—n, 12—13). Because the land was never empty after the invasion nor at any point during exile, some commentators judge the depiction of the land as unpeopled to be propaganda on behalf of Babylonian exiles. The claim that they alone are left of Judah makes them heirs of the true Israel. Those remaining in the land become invisible. But the
The text is not conditional in its prophecy of Zedekiah's survival, however, nor does it refer to burial in Jerusalem. Instead, the text offers a picture of a slightly mitigated disaster, discerning in the royal survival a glimpse of the community's survival. That is the 'word' that Jeremiah speaks (v. 5, cf. v. 4). This passage, therefore, treats Zedekiah somewhat differently from other texts (21:1—7; 37:I~38:28), not only form-critically (Keown, Scalise, and Smothers 1995:178) but also narratively.
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the origins of the book of Jeremiah led to a diligent search for the contents of the Urrolle, the original scroll. Efforts to reconstruct the scroll's contents and thus to recover Jeremiah's original words have yielded little consensus (Perdue 1984: 21-2; Holladay 1989: 253). Carroll (1986: 662-8) has broken the interpretative log-jam by proposing that the scrolls are fictional elements of a narrative, based on 2 Kings 22:8-13 and designed to legitimate Baruch's scribal authority. Baruch himself, in Carroll's view, represents Deuteronomistic scribes who expand the Jeremianic tradition (see Dearman 1990 for a contrary view). Carroll is correct in insisting that the story's historical roots are not recoverable. The story's importance is symbolic, theological, and literary. Narrative parallels with ch. 2 6 suggest that the two chapters create a literary frame around chs. 27-35. Parallels between the two chapters include dating, the prophet's audience, lists of supporters, threats to Jeremiah's life and mysterious rescues, and virulent indictments of King Jehoiakim (O'Connor 1989: 626).
That Zedekiah might save his life by surrendering to Babylon is clearer elsewhere (Carroll 1986: 641—2). It is the certainty of his exile that this narrative stresses (w. 3, 21). It emphasizes the reliability of the prophetic word. In the larger context of chs. 26-36, Jeremiah's words of muted hope are as reliable in the midst of the siege as were his words of exile before the invasion. In the rest of this passage Zedekiah makes an attempt at righteousness that is thwarted by the citizens remaining in the land.
w. 8—22, a broken covenant: Zedekiah makes a covenant with the people of Jerusalem, apparently enforcing the release law for Hebrew slaves (Lev 25:10). The legal and historical backgrounds of this text are obscure (Keown, Scalise, and
Smothers 1995: 185—8), but they are not the main concerns of the narrative. The story uses the law of release, first, to indict the people for failure to listen and, second, to interpret exile as a reversal of the release law. Rather than depicting Zedekiah's vacillation (37:1—38:28), this text portrays the people's fickleness. At first the officials and 'all the people' obey the covenant, signifying their repentance (v. 15), but they reverse their course by taking back their slaves. In a form of poetic justice, therefore, YHWH will release them to the sword, pestilence, and famine (v. 17).
Ch. 36 authorizes developments in the Jeremianic tradition begun in ch. 26, partly by portraying Baruch as a faithful agent of that development. It may be best to think of Baruch as a reader of an earlier Jeremiah tradition who writes himself into the narrative to continue the story for new circumstances. In ch. 36, Baruch broadcasts Jeremiah's message in the temple and faithfully excludes nothing from the preaching of Jeremiah's entire career (v. 2). He is a reliable conduit of Jeremiah's prophetic message (McKane 1986: 912). The goal of his activity, directed by Jeremiah, is to bring about repentance in the community (v. 3). Besides providing Baruch with credentials, ch. 36 also validates the writing of the book (Brueggemann 1991: 129), itself designed to evoke repentance in the community. Finally, the story indicts royalty for rejecting the word, interprets the nation's fall as the monarchy's failure to listen, and explains the monarchy's collapse.
YHWH then describes an enactment of covenant ritual in which all the officials and people (v. 19) walk between the parts of a butchered calf (see Gen 17). Because that act signifies commitment to the covenant and brings a curse upon all who break it, YHWH announces the curse's fulfilment. Everyone in the community will be butchered like the sacrifical calf (w. 18—20). Although Zedekiah acts well in this story, w. 2i—2 reiterate his fate and the fate of the city. For the book's implied audience, the account illustrates the consequence of insincere repentance.
(35:1-19) The Rechabites By contrast to officials and people of Judah in ch. 34, the Rechabites are utterly steadfast. Their identity is uncertain (see Keown, Scalise, and Smothers 1995: 195—6), but what is clear is that they provide a counterexample to Judah's faithlessness in ch. 34. The narrative takes place during Jehoiakim's reign (v. i), earlier than events in ch. 34. Sequential chronology is not whatbinds these chapters.
The superscription (v. i) sets the story in Jehoiakim's fourth year. The narrative, related by a third-person narrator, unfolds in four scenes of intensifying drama that attend closely to the production of the scrolls and their fate. In the first scene (w. 4—10), Jeremiah dictates the scroll to Baruch, indicating that Jeremiah, not Baruch, was the source of the scroll's contents (cf v. 17). Because Jeremiah is barred from the temple, Baruch must read on his behalf to 'all the people' on the chance they may repent and thereby avert the promised disaster (w. 5-8). The second scene (w. 9-18) occurs a year later. Baruch reads the scroll 'to all the people' in the temple chamber of Gemariah, a member of the Shaphan family of Jeremiah supporters (JER 26:1—24). Another member of the Shaphan family hears the reading, seeks out named officials, and reads the scroll to them. Alarmed by the scroll's contents, they in turn decide to read it to the king, but not before sending Baruch and Jeremiah into hiding (w. n—18). The written text, that is, the book, must carry the full power of the prophetic message, since neither its speaker nor its writer are present.
The Rechabite event follows the style of a symbolic act. Jeremiah receives a command to go to the house of the Rechabites and bring them to the temple. There he is to offer wine to a community that abstains from drinking (w. 1—3) and that disdains urban, settled ways such as house-building and agriculture (w. 6—10). Out of loyalty to their ancestor Jonadab, they refuse the wine and explain their presence in the city as a security measure during the Babylonian invasion (w. 6—n).
w. 12—19 explain the Rechabites' temperance. It teaches a lesson to the people of Judah and Jerusalem (v. 13). Stalwartly, the Rechabites refuse to break their traditions for the sake of loyalty to a mere human ancestor. By contrast, the people of Judah persistently disobey YHWH despite continual divine efforts to speak to them through the prophets. Their failure to listen will bring disaster (w. 12-16), but the Rechabites will
The third scene (w. 20—6) reveals that writing has not dulled the power of the prophetic word. The officials who are among Jeremiah's protectors leave the scroll and report to the king who, in turn, sends Jehudi to get it and read it to him. These minute arrangements for the king to hear the scroll highlight his agency in the unfolding events. The scroll must be brought to his attention, he must consent, and then
survive in God's presence for all time (w. 18-19). Th£ text unequivocally calls for repentance as the only path to survival.
(36:1—32) The Two Scrolls The long-held scholarly assumption that the story of the scrolls is a historical report of
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passion. Kremers's approach has been rightly criticized for imposing Christian language and thought on the OT without first letting the text stand on its own. Jeremiah's absence from chs. 40-1 and 45, moreover, make it difficult to see his portrayal as a primary key to the narratives. Opposition to Kremers's view, however, has obscured the immense symbolic import that stories of Jeremiah's suffering, imprisonment, and rescue would have had for an exilic audience.
he must send for the document (w. 20-1). As it is read to him, he deliberately cuts off the columns and, despite efforts to stop him, casts them into the fire until the entire scroll is consumed. The king's cutting and burning of the scroll is a symbolic act designed to cancel the uncontrollable power of the written word by making it disappear. As further evidence of the king's disobedience, he orders the arrest of Jeremiah and Baruch, whom YHWH miraculously protects from discovery.
Taken together, the chapters show the exilic audience how to survive the suffering brought on by the invasion and its aftermath. In doing so they provide a history of rejection and fulfilment of the prophetic word (Kessler 1968; Nicholson 1975) and reveal conflictual interpretations among survivors about both the nature of prophecy (Diamond 1993) and how to face the national crisis (Seitz 1989/7). Jeremiah's instruction to submit to Babylon cuts through the political alternatives.
The final scene of the narrative (w. 27—32) forms a frame with the first (w. 4—10). Jeremiah receives a divine command to write a second scroll, containing the words of the first. Only now are the king's words upon the burning of the scroll revealed, and they provide the only clue as to the scroll's message. Babylon will destroy the land and the life in it (v. 29). This short verse summarizes 'all the former words' (v. 28), the entire prophetic message, in highly abstracted, reduced form. In this narrative, it is not the potent images, metaphors, calls for repentance, and lamentations that matter, but only the fact of invasion by Babylon. The king's rejection of the scroll means the end of the monarchy and disaster for all (w. 30—1).
Survival cannot be achieved in their own land nor in Egypt but only by submission to Babylon (Brueggemann 1991: 121—8). The stories characterize Jeremiah as a model of faithful submission who faces utter hopelessness but once again survives with his life (cf 26:24; 36:26). His suffering is iconic of the suffering of the exilic people. His support and rescue by Ebedmelech and the Babylonians creates hope of rescue for exiles. Like them, Jeremiah is imprisoned and carted off to exile against his will. He keeps his life and promises those who submit to Babylon that they will keep their lives as a prize of war (38:2; 39:18; 45:5). Both his word and actions in the midst of suffering signify their possibilities of survival.
The king cannot cancel the prophetic word, for Jeremiah and Baruch create a second scroll and add 'many similar words' as well. Brueggemann (1991: 129) calls the scroll 'emblematic' of the canonical book. This story validates the scroll as scribal expansion of the tradition and keeps that tradition alive so that later generations can read it. Ch. 36 also introduces the narrative complex, traditionally ascribed to Baruch, that continues through ch. 45 (Reitzschel 1966: 95—110).
Holladay (1989: 286-7) notices the great amount of realistic detail found in these stories. He also observes that Jeremiah is not portrayed as a hero, nor his enemies as villains, nor is Jeremiah's death reported. If, however, the accounts are not biography in a modern sense but concerned with showing exiles a way into the future, a report of Jeremiah's death would destroy the narrative's effect. It is Jeremiah's survival in captivity and his confidence that justice will be done among the nations that are central to the prophet's portrayal in these final narrative sections of the book. Whereas the little book of consolation promises that future life will be radiantly idyllic, the Baruch document focuses on immediate problems of brute survival. (37:1-39:18) Life as a Prize of War King Zedekiah imprisons Jeremiah on two separate occasions (chs. 37—8), but ironically the two characters exchange places when the Babylonians invade the city (ch. 39). Puzzling similarities between chs. 37 and 38 have led some interpreters to see them as duplicate accounts of the same story (Condamin 1920: 275). In both chapters Jeremiah is arrested, accused of treason before princes, imprisoned, and released, and in both he consults with Zedekiah in similar terms (Thompson 1980: 636). The chapters are not identical, however: ch. 38 advances the narrative by increasing the gulf separating king and prophet and by setting into motion the fulfilment of the prophetic word. An unidentified third-person narrator, presumably Baruch, relates events and portrays dialogues between characters but provides no lengthy speeches in the voices of either YHWH or Jeremiah. Although divine speech moves to the background in these stories, it is, none the less, the potent force behind events.
The Baruch Account (chs. 37-45)
In these chapters a third-person narrator, identified as Baruch (45:1), relates events that occur in the land during and after the Babylonian invasion. Chs. 37—8 contain two stories of Jeremiah's imprisonment and meetings with Zedekiah during the invasion, and ch. 39 describes the invasion and Jeremiah's release. Chs. 40-1 portray anarchy in the land under Gedaliah, and chs. 42—4 relate events surrounding the forced exile of Jeremiah and Baruch to Egypt. The chapters close with the commissioning and comforting of Baruch (ch. 45). Interpretation of the chapters has focused on historical matters of Baruch's authorship and the invasion and on the search for unifying themes of the chapters. Brueggemann (1991: 121—8) provides a succinct survey of viewpoints. The narratives, whatever their historical content, are richly symbolic.
Although Baruch is portrayed as writer of the tradition (45:1; 36:32), he receives little attention in the intervening chapters. In ch. 45, however, Jeremiah disappears from the story and Baruch replaces him as sufferer, survivor, and bearer of the community's hopes and traditions. Baruch is an underdeveloped character whose function is to interpret and preserve the Jeremiah tradition in the absence of Jeremiah (see Carroll 1986; Brueggemann 1994).
Efforts to find thematic unity in the chapters have not reached consensus because the collection of narratives is quite multifaceted. Kremers (1953) offered the most controversial interpretation by calling chs. 37-45 a 'passion narrative' of Jeremiah's suffering and rejection in the manner of Jesus'
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archy's true condition, Ebed-melech gets help and lifts Jeremiah out of the cistern. Jeremiah does not gain immediate freedom but against all expectations has gained his life. Ebedmelech's name, meaning 'servant of the king', is probably ironic here. What king does he serve, Zedekiah or YHWH? As a non-Israelite and an African slave, without explanation Ebed-melech risks his own life to save Jeremiah. Does his intervention indicate the possibility of survival (Carroll 1986: 690) for the exiles? Does his deed signify that rescue of exilic captives will occur with equal surprise from quarters they can barely imagine?
(37:1-21) The superscription (w. 1-2) dates the two chapters to Zedekiah's rule during the siege. This date reveals that, from the beginning of his reign, Zedekiah was no better than his predecessor Jehoiakim. He neither obeys the prophetic word (Carroll 1986: 671) nor fulfils his responsibility to lead the nation to listen (v. 2). Ch. 37 contains three scenes: two of Zedekiah's consultations with Jeremiah (w. 3—10, 17—21) frame the scene of Jeremiah's imprisonment (w. 11-16). Even the chapter's literary structure, therefore, artistically hints at the king's efforts to squeeze a desirable word from the prophet and to suppress the true word.
w. 3-10 (Consultation), on the occasion of Egyptian efforts to deflect the Babylonian army from Jerusalem, Zedekiah sends messengers to request prayer from Jeremiah. This international power struggle gives Zedekiah hope that Egypt will overcome Babylonian hegemony and avert the threat to Judah. Jeremiah's reply to Zedekiah is unequivocal. Babylon will prevail because that is YHWH's plan. Even if the Babylonian army had no one left but the wounded, they would miraculously rise up and burn the city (v. 10). w. 11-16 (Captivity), after this emphatic crushing of false hope, Jeremiah attempts to leave Jerusalem to visit his property in Benjamin (JER 32). A sentinel believes Jeremiah is deserting (v. 13). When the sentinel refuses to listen, he illustrates the point made in 37:2. Officials, even more disrespectful ofthe prophet and the word, beat and imprison Jeremiah and thereby attempt to repress the divine word (w. 15—16). w. 17—21 (Consultation), Zedekiah's second consultation with the prophet is held in secret. The king claims to desire a word from YHWH but not the word Jeremiah offers. Faithful to his mission despite the danger he faces, Jeremiah does not waver in his message (v. 17). Instead, he protests his illegal imprisonment (v. 18; Diamond 1993), chides the king regarding his lying prophets, and survives with his life.
w. 14-28 (Consultation), prophet and king meet for secretive conversation. Both are in danger: Jeremiah from Zedekiah and Zedekiah from the invaders. Zedekiah secretly swears by the God who lives' to protect Jeremiah's life (nepes, v. 16). Jeremiah, in turn, promises Zedekiah that he will save his own life (nepes) and city, if he surrenders to Babylon (w. 1718). Zedekiah is afraid of the Babylonians and Jeremiah assures him of his safety (nepes) if he surrenders (w. 19-20). Jeremiah then reports a vision that reveals the consequences of refusal and foreshadows the reversal of fortunes that occurs in ch. 39. The women of the king's house will be captured and will taunt the king with poetry that echoes the language of Jeremiah's enemies. The king's friends have seduced and overcome him (cf. 20:7-11). Now the king's feet are stuck in the mud (v. 22). In Jeremiah's vision, he and Zedekiah exchange places. The one who caused Jeremiah's capture will himself be captured and sink in the mud. Consultation ends in a stalemate. The king orders Jeremiah to keep their exchange secret and Jeremiah obeys, remaining in the court of the guard until Jerusalem falls. At this point, the narrative appears to drift off in indecision, but in quiet understatement the last phrase announces the king's failure and the prophet's triumph (v. 28). The fall of the city results in Jeremiah's release, the king's capture, and the fulfilment of the prophetic word. (39:1-18) The Fall of Jerusalem Ch. 39 follows ch. 38 chronologically and thematically. In unadorned prose it describes Babylon's invasion of Jerusalem and its consequences, particularly for Zedekiah (w. i—10) and Jeremiah (w. n—18). Anticipated role-reversals occur here. In this narrative the invasion serves as background to larger issues (Carroll 1986; see Jer 52:4—16 and 2 Kings 25:1—12). w. i-io (Zedekiah captured), w. 1-3 telescope events from the invasion's beginning in the ninth year of Zedekiah to the capture and occupation of the city by Babylonian officials two years later. The narrative's main interest is not the battle but the king's cowardly behaviour, escape, and capture (w. 4-5). The prophetic word proves inescapable. Zedekiah's offspring are killed and he is blinded, thus marking in his flesh what had already been true of his spirit. The fate of city and inhabitants follows that of the king. Houses are burned and people are exiled. Only the poor remain, and Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, then gives them land (w. 8-10). w. 11-18 (Jeremiah freed), as Zedekiah is imprisoned by Nebuzaradan, Jeremiah simultaneously gains release and protection from the same captain at the command of Nebuchadrezzar
(38:1—28) does not flow easily from the previous chapter because there Jeremiah is captive, but here he is freely preaching to the people and taken captive again without being released in between. Although 38:9 implies a lapse of time between arrests, chronological depiction of events is clearly not a purpose of these chapters. Chapter 38 contains three scenes: capture, rescue, and consultation.
w. 1-6 (Capture), four officials hear Jeremiah's admonitions to the people about survival. Any one who stays in the city will die, but those who surrender will save their lives 'as the prize of war' (v. 2). The officials charge Jeremiah with lowering morale and seeking harm instead of shalom (v. 4). Diamond (1993) observes that the story contains conflicting views of prophecy. The officials believe that the prophet's role is to secure the state's safety, but Jeremiah's intercession secures its doom. The king, in turn, listens to the officials rather than to the prophet and allows them to imprison Jeremiah in a cistern, where he sinks in the mud (v. 6). The literary detail of the mud reveals that Jeremiah has reached the nadir of suffering and humiliation. All is lost. Death awaits and future hopes are extinguished, w. 7—13 (Rescue), inexplicably and with no prior narrative intimations, an Ethiopian servant ofthe king, named Ebed-melech, dramatically rescues Jeremiah from certain death. Using ropes made of rags from the king's wardrobe, perhaps a signal ofthe mon-
(w. 11-13). Jeremiah is put under the protection of Gedaliah, the Jewish governor appointed by Babylon, and son of
JEREMIAH 520
mael's craven wickedness as he brutally assassinates Gedaliah and massacres pilgrims on the way to offer worship (w. 4—7). Although Jeremiah is under the protection of Gedaliah, he is conspicuously absent from this narrative and appears again only in ch. 42. Were the narrative to portray Jeremiah's death, he would not save his life as a prize of war, and would not function as a clear model for the exiles. Whatever historical memories underlie this narrative of conflict among survivors, the intentions of the text are to ridicule the anti-Babylonian survivor of the royal family whose 'crimes' (v. n) reveal his brutal resistance to the prophetic word.
Ahikam (see JER 26:24). Jeremiah goes home with his people
(v. 14), contradicting the report that all but the poor were left in the land (v. 10). But the importance of Jeremiah's release and return home are symbolic. Jeremiah's behaviour illustrates how to survive. By submitting to Babylon, he has escaped with his life as the prize of war and returned home (w. 11—14). Th£
Ebed-melech sequel (w. 15—18) lends strength to this interpretation. After his release, Jeremiah receives a divine message for his Ethiopian rescuer (see 38:7-13). Although the fate of the city is sealed, Ebed-melech will escape with his life as a prize of war because he trusted in YHWH (v. 18). It is that confidence that the exiles must emulate, and they too will gain a future. The many themes of these narratives unite in this rhetorical effort to persuade the exiles to submit to Babylon as the only avenue forward.
Ishmael and his followers assassinate Gedaliah and his companions at Mizpah. They choose a mealtime for their deed, when covenant community is celebrated and the guard is down (w. 1-2). Next they murder 'all the Judeans' and Babylonian soldiers at Mizpah (v. 3). Then they slaughter eighty Israelites on pilgrimage to the temple and desecrate their bodies by dumping them in a cistern with an ancient sacred tradition, thus also desecrating the cistern (w. 4-9). Opportunist that he is, Ishmael spares only men with food stores (v. 8). After making hostages of people remaining at Mizpah, the royal claimant tries to escape to his foreign supporters in neighbouring Ammon (v. 10; cf. 40:11). Johanan son of Kareah and military forces pursue him and rescue the happy hostages (v. 13), but Ishmael escapes to Ammon (v. 15). The bloodbath leaves its survivors in terror of the Chaldeans
(40:1—41:18) The Monarchy's Perversity These chapters describe events in the land after the Babylonian invasion. They continue to urge submission to Babylon and depict chaos in the occupied land.
(40:1—6) retells the story of Jeremiah's release (39:11—14) with significant alteration and elaboration of detail, indicating again the narrative's lack of concern for precise biographical reporting. In this version, Jeremiah is released, not from the court of the guard (39:14) but from among the fettered captives in Ramah who are about to be exiled. With great prescience, Nebuzaradan interprets the fall of Judah in Jeremianic terms, treating Jeremiah as if he were one of the sinners responsible for the nation's fall rather than the one who called for repentance (w. 2-3). This passage fully identifies Jeremiah with the exiles. Nebuzaradan gives him the choice of remaining in the land or going into exile, but if he stays in the land he must give his loyalty to the Babylonian appointee, Gedaliah (w. 4—5). Unlike ch. 24 where Jeremiah portrays those who stay in the land as bad figs, here Jeremiah chooses to be among them, and they are portrayed as faithful people, except for the remnants of the royal family and followers. Submission to Babylon, however, remains a constant requirement for survival. (40:7-12) Peace in the Land Numbers of people, poor and notable, as well as a remnant of the troops, come under Gedaliah's protection and experience temporary prosperity and peace in the land (w. 7—9). In terms reminiscent of Jeremiah's letter to the exiles (29:4-6), Gedaliah urges the survivors to serve the Chaldeans without fear. Returnees from neighbouring countries gather under Gedaliah's protection and live with abundance ofwine and summer fruit (w. 10—12). Once again survival and a future depend upon submission to Babylon whether in the land or out. But Ishmael, a descendent of the royal family, destroys the possibility of peace in the land (w. 13—16). When Gedaliah learns about Ishmael's plot against him, he shows himself to be trusting and loyal. He disbelieves the threat and defends Ishmael. The contrast between the Babylonian appointee and the monarchical family survivor could not be more pointed, lending credence to Pohlmann's view that these narratives support the Babylonian exiles over those who remain in the land. (41:1-17) Chaos in the Land In graphic terms, this chapter portrays treachery, conflict, and betrayal within the Jewish community after the fall. Details of the narrative reveal Ish-
(v. 18) and sets in motion forces that are played out in the next chapters. The remnant intends to escape to Egypt (v. 17).
(42:1-44:30) Emigration to Egypt Divine rejection of emigration to Egypt unifies these chapters. Paradoxically, Jeremiah and Baruch are forced to join the condemned group. Pohlmann (1978); Nicholson (1975); and Carroll (1986) view these chapters as propaganda in favour of the Babylonian exiles over against groups that remained in Judah or went to Egypt. McKane (1986: 1064) proposes that the text attacks Egypt, not the exiles, but ch. 44 argues against that view. These chapters create close parallels between the fate of the Egyptian emigres and the fate of the citizens of Judah before the fall (Keown, Scalise, and Smothers 1995: 250—2). They refuse to listen, engage in idolatry, and serve the queen of heaven, and they are promised a dreadful fate even as they search for safety. At the same time Jeremiah and Baruch, though faithful, suffer forced exile. Ch. 42 portrays the survivors' rejection of the prophetic word (Brueggemann 1988: 174—5); ch43 portrays Jeremiah's forced emigration, and ch. 44 denounces idolatry.