Discerning the Dynamics of Jeremiah 25–52 (MT)

Mark A O'Brien

• Publisher: ATF Press Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781925679342
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Estudios bíblicos

Before outlining my understanding of the Dynamics of Jeremiah 25–52, it may be of use to readers to summarise the Dynamics of Jeremiah 1–25 as presented in my preceding volume. The book begins with Jeremiah appointed by YHWH over Judah and the nations 'to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant' (cf 1:10). The accompanying announcement that YHWH is summoning invaders from the north against Judah and the nations implies that any planting and building will only occur after the existing (dis)order has been plucked up and pulled down, destroyed and overthrown. Jeremiah's preaching commences in chapter 2 with a review that employs the metaphor of a perfect marriage that subsequently went awry due to the infidelity of wife Israel. Because the review has to cover the period of the divided kingdom, in 3:5–11 and following there is a discrete shift from the marriage metaphor to that of the two sisters, Israel (northern kingdom) and Judah (southern kingdom), apparently in order to avoid portraying YHWH with two wives. These sisters are the rebellious children of parent YHWH, with 'false Judah' compared unfavourably with her sister 'faithless Israel'. Given the setting of Jeremiah's ministry in the final days of Judah and its capital Jerusalem, one is not surprised to find this nation and its capital city as the focus of a series of indictments in 4:3–6:20. The most sacred place in Judah and Jerusalem is the temple, and the series of indictments reaches a dramatic climax in a sermon that Jeremiah delivers at the gate of the temple in 7:1–8:3. Here he declares on YHWH's authority that the most sacred place in the land will be destroyed like the northern shrine of Shiloh, and the people will be cast out of YHWH's presence. A number of passages in chapters 4–10 signals the stress this message causes the prophet, a stress that reaches crisis point in his first lament or complaint in 11:18–12:4. If a key issue in chapters 2–10 is whether a disobedient Judah can or should remain in the place (land and temple) that was gifted by YHWH, Jeremiah's lament introduces a second major issue, namely time. Given that YHWH is Sovereign over place and time, the two realms in which human beings live out their relationship with God and one another, why—Jeremiah asks in 12:1-4—has YHWH not intervened earlier to stop the corruption in Judah from reaching such a crisis point? On my reading, YHWH responds to this by instructing Jeremiah via a series of three lessons that are presented in chapters 13–15; the first involves the sign of the ruined loin-cloth in chapter 13, the second that of drought in chapter 14, and the third that of war in chapter 15. The lessons conclude with YHWH's challenge to Jeremiah that he can only continue as YHWH's mouthpiece if 'you utter what is precious and not what is worthless (15:19b). Jeremiah then receives further commissions in chapter 16 to which he responds by declaring that YHWH alone is 'my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble' (16:19). This is followed by a further lesson about YHWH's just rule over all the nations, with Judah providing the paradigm example of the sinful nation (17:1–13). Jeremiah expresses his complete commitment to YHWH in 17:14–18, after which he is commissioned to stand in the gates of the city and warn the people about the need to honour YHWH as the Lord of time (17:19–27). Keeping the Sabbath is identified as the key sign of such loyalty because it marks their passage from slave time in Egypt (no distinction between work and rest) to life in the designated land/place, where they have time to work and time to rest, and to honour YHWH for this great gift. YHWH's sovereignty over time is underscored by a series of signs and words in chapters 18–19, culminating in Jeremiah smashing a pottery jug before witnesses as the sign that Judah's time in the land is at an end. For this he is imprisoned by the priest Pashhur at the gate of the temple, the sacred place, but, on being released he declares that Passhur and his kind are the real prisoners—of the king of Babylon, the first naming in the book of the foe from the north who is being summoned to punish Judah (20:1–6). The impending end of Judah triggers a final lament from Jeremiah in 20:7–20 but he now sees the truth of YHWH's earlier promises (1:17–19; 15:20–21), namely that if he remains loyal YHWH will protect him from all enemies. In v 13 he praises YHWH because he realises that what he has received is in keeping with the way YHWH responds to all those in need of deliverance from evildoers (20:13). But this in turn triggers a painful final question that echoes the book of Job; what is the point of being born if it is only to 'see toil and sorrow'? The imminent end of Judah's time in the land and temple is signaled by the report in 21:1–2 of a delegation from king Zedekiah to Jeremiah to intercede with YHWH against the Babylonian siege that has begun. Despite the prospect of seeing more toil and sorrow, Jeremiah reaffirms the conquest of the city and its inhabitants, in line with his preceding announcements. The only way out of this crisis is to obey YHWH's word and surrender to the Babylonians (21:9). Jeremiah is then instructed, as with the sermon in the temple, to go to the gates of the royal palace and there proclaim what YHWH requires of the kings in order for them to continue on the throne of David. Except for loyal Josiah, all the subsequent kings are exposed as failures and condemned in 22:10–30. But, as a sign that the plucking up and pulling down will be followed by building and planting, a woe against 'the shepherds' of YHWH's flock in 23:1–2 is followed by a promise that YHWH will gather the scattered flock and install a successor to David who will 'execute justice and righteousness'. This sequence of woe and promise, which recalls Jeremiah's commission in 1:10, is followed by a series of passages against false prophecy. Within the context, the thrust of this is that there is no alternative prophecy about Judah and Jerusalem to the one that Jeremiah has consistently proclaimed in the preceding chapters. Chapter 24 confirms Jeremiah's words via the sign of good and bad figs. The good figs are those who have presumably obeyed the injunction in 21:9 to surrender to Babylon and have been taken into exile. They will form the core of those whom YHWH will bring back to the land in order to build and plant. The sight of the good figs that YHWH provides for Jeremiah (and the reader) can also be read as a response to Jeremiah's lament in 20:18—the loyal, suffering prophet is privileged by YHWH to 'see' beyond the toil and sorrow. The bad figs are king Zedekiah and those who did not obey the injunction. In line with YHWH's decree, they will be 'utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their ancestors' (24:10)....

Part One: Jeremiah 25:1–36:32

Decree of YHWH’s Plans to Purge Judah and Surrounding Nations of Evil via Babylonian Conquest and Seventy-Year Servitude

Chapter 1: Jeremiah 25:1–26:24: Jeremiah Proclaims YHWH’s Decree. Hostile Response Contrasted with Right Response to earlier Prophet Micah (26)

Chapter 2: Jeremiah 27:1–29:32: Jeremiah’s Urges Acceptance of Decree of Seventy-Year Servitude to Babylon. Alternatives Exposed as False

Chapter 3: Jeremiah 30:1–31:40: Prophecy of Restoration in the ‘Book of Consolation’

Chapter 4: Jeremiah 32:1–33:26: Encounters Between Jeremiah and Zedekiah Confirm no Restoration Before Purge

Chapter 5: Jeremiah 34:1–36:32: Reversal of Sabbath Release Exposes Falsehood (34), in Contrast to Loyalty of Rechabites (35). Decree Confirmed by being Inscribed on Scroll and read by loyal Baruch (36)

Chapter One

Jeremiah 25:1–26:24

The preceding Outline identified chapter 25 as a pivotal text. In vv 1–11a Jeremiah recalls how the people of Judah have refused to heed the words YHWH commissioned him to proclaim from the thirteenth year of Josiah, just as they had refused to heed the words of ‘all his servants the prophets’. Because of this YHWH has summoned another ‘servant’, Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, to bring to an end the time of Judah and the surrounding nations in their lands. The following vv 11b–14 proclaim that this will be followed by a seventy-year period of subjugation to Babylon, after which Babylon and its king will in turn be punished for their deeds. As pointed out in the Outline, the conquest of Judah and surrounding nations, their seventy years of subjugation to Babylon, and the punishment of Babylon after this period, are stages in the unfolding of the one divine plan to pluck and pull down, to destroy and overthrow the existing disorder (1:10). Their integral relationship is emphasised by the accompanying sign of the cup of the wine of wrath that Jeremiah is instructed in 25:15–29 to make Judah, the surrounding nations, and finally the king of Babylon himself, drink.¹

Chapters 26–29 take up these stages of the unfolding of YHWH’s plan in the following ways. Chapter 26 provides confirmation of the announcement of the end of Judah in 25:1–11a via the ploy of chronological reversal. It reports a sermon by Jeremiah in the temple that took place before his review in 25:1–11a, namely ‘At the beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim’. The sermon and its aftermath confirms Jeremiah’s claim in v 3b that he has spoken the same message ‘persistently’ to the people but they have not heeded it or repented. The decreed end of Judah is therefore completely justified. This also provides an appropriate prelude to chapters 27–29 that follow and that deal with the new element of a seventy-year period of subjugation to Babylon, after which Babylon itself will be subjugated. Although YHWH provides instruction for Judah and the surrounding nations via Jeremiah as to how they can live and even thrive during this seventy-year period, their response is depressingly similar to their earlier refusal to heed YHWH’s warnings about the end of Judah’s time in the land.

Two recent studies disagree with the view that chapter 25 is a pivotal or hinge text in the book, one by AJO van der Wal, and the other by Daniel Epp-Tiessen.² For van der Wal, the book falls into two major sections, chapter 1–23 and 24–51, with 52 as an appendix. He notes how 1:1–12, 13–14 and chapter 24 are both about things YHWH shows Jeremiah and their significance; namely the almond tree and boiling pot in the former passages, and the baskets of figs in the latter. He also notes how chapter 23 and 51 share the terminology of ‘plucking up’ and ‘throwing down’ in relation to Judah and Jerusalem (23:39) and Babylon (51:64), and how chapters 25 and 50–51 deal respectively with the rise and demise of Babylon, a theme introduced in 25:12–14.³ While I would agree that there are thematic and linguistic links between chapters 25:12–14 and other verses in the chapter, Wal does not pay sufficient attention to 25:1–11a which review the preceding chapters of Jeremiah’s preaching about the conquest of wicked Judah and the surrounding nations at the hands of Babylon. As well as this, the setting of chapter 25 in the thirteenth year of Josiah is a clear reference to the beginning of the book (1:2). One may also note that the connections he rightly draws between 1:11–14 and chapter 24 could just as well point to the latter as the conclusion of a section (chapters 1–24) rather than the commencement of a new one.

According to Epp-Thiessen, chapter 25 forms part of a section that runs from 23:9 to 29:32 that is principally about true and false prophecy. The section has a 7-part concentric structure with chapter 26 forming the centrepiece. The outer frames of this structure (A and A’) are 23:9-40 and 29:20–32. The section thus begins with condemnation of false prophets in general and concludes with condemnation of specific false prophets (those named in this section of Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in chapter 29). The B and B’ sections of the structure are 24:1–10 and 29:1–19. These portray Jeremiah as the true prophet, via the vision of the figs and accompanying words in 24:1–10, and via his letter and accompanying words in 29:1–19. The C and C’ sections are two further presentations of Jeremiah as the true prophet, namely 25:1–38 and 27:1–28:17. According to Epp-Tiessen these two passages are related by symbolic actions; the cup in 25:15–29 and the yoke in 27:1–28:17. The focus of both is the work of YHWH’s servant Nebuchadrezzar. The central chapter 26 (D) is made up of three parts. The initial account of Jeremiah being threatened with death in vv 1–16 is matched by the account of king Jehoiakim’s execution of Uriah the prophet in vv 20–24. These frame vv 17–19; the account of Micah inspiring repentance in the time of Hezekiah, the centrepiece of both chapter 26 and the whole section.⁴

While there is much that is insightful in this study, I do not think Epp-Tiessen’s arguments are sufficient to displace the consensus that the book falls into two main parts with chapter 25 as a pivotal or hinge text. It seems odd that a major section of the book would commence, as he claims, with the introduction to 23:9, which has the Hebrew preposition ‘to’ prefixing the word ‘the prophets’; hence ‘to/concerning the prophets’. He would also seem to weaken this claim by linking 23:9 to 21:11, which begins with the same preposition (‘to/concerning the house of the king of Judah’). The inclusion of chapter 25 as part of a larger structure that commences with 23:9 also looks odd, for two reasons. One is that the chronological setting in the fourth year of Jehoiakim occurs also in 36:1; 45:1 and 46:2, and all of these are regarded as marking or introducing important sections of the book. The second is that Jeremiah commences his sermon in 25:3 by announcing that he has been preaching since the thirteenth year of Josiah, the same year named for the commencement of his preaching in 1:2. While I would agree there is a connection between chapter 25 and chapter 27–28, this is due more to the way the latter chapters portray Jeremiah proclaiming and defending the seventy-years of exile decreed in 25:11b than to parallel symbolic actions. Moreover, the order of symbolic action and accompanying words in chapters 27–28 is the reverse of chapter 25. In the latter the words come first and are backed up by the symbolic action, whereas in the former the symbolic action is followed by words that explain its significance.

Hence, while I do not find persuasive Epp-Tiessen’s thesis that 23:9–29:32 comprise a carefully structured section of the book with chapter 26 as its centre, his analysis of chapter 26 is insightful and helps the reader to discern its functions within the book. As noted in the initial Outline of this study, a key function is the parallel it forms with chapter 35. Both provide a model of a people who heed a word and obey. In chapter 26 it is king Hezekiah and the people of his day who heed the preaching of Micah and repent; in chapter 35 it is the Rechabites who heed the command of their founder Jonadab and obey it. Both models provide a powerful contrast to those condemned in the preaching of Jeremiah.

Whereas for Epp-Tiessen chapter 26 is the centre of a section that commences in 23:9, for Louis Stulman, Joelle Ferry and Gary E Yates, it commences a section of the book. Stulman and Ferry identify the section as chapters 26–36 but according to Yates it embraces chapters 26–45 and is in two sub-sections, namely chapters 26–36 and 37–45.⁵ Stulman and Ferry propose somewhat differing chiastic structures for the section but agree that a prophecy of restoration forms the centerpiece—chapter 31 (Stulman) and chapters 30–31 (Ferry). According to Yates, the beginning and end of each sub-section (26–36 and 37–45) is demarcated by chronological information about the reign of Jehoiakim.⁶ He identifies parallels within these two sub-sections that effectively form an overall concentric structure. Thus chapter 36 parallels 26 as ‘Jehoiakim’s response of hostile unbelief to the prophetic word’ (so A and A’); 37–39 parallels 27–29 as ‘the issue of submission to Babylon during the reign of Zedekiah’ (B and B’); 40–43 (‘The aftermath of exile: a word of judgement for the Judean survivors of exile who go down to Egypt’) parallels 30–33 (‘The aftermath of exile: the promise of Israel’s glorious future restoration’) (C and C’); and 44–45 parallels 34–35 as ‘The issue of covenant unfaithfulness: national judgement and a word of hope for Baruch/Rechabites’ (D and D’).⁷

While each of these studies provides valuable comments on chapter 26–36 and 37–45, I do not think the proposed structures pay sufficient attention to chapter 25 and how subsequent sections of the book follow the arrangement of vv 11–14. Nor do I think that Stulman and Ferry pay sufficient attention to Zedekiah’s interrogation of prisoner Jeremiah in 32:1–5 or Jeremiah’s purchase of a field in 32:6–15. My analysis will seek to discern how these passages relate to the surrounding context. What these various hypotheses demonstrate is that no interpretation of a complex book such as Jeremiah can claim to have taken all the evidence into account and therefore be definitive. Our perceptions, from whatever angle, are limited. Readers will make their own judgement as to which interpretation, or interpretations, is the more acceptable.

Jeremiah 26 is linked to the preceding chapter 25 both chronologically and thematically. As noted in the Outline, chapter 25–26 are an example of chronological reversal in the book, whereby those who assembled the book enhance the authority of its prophetic message—in this case 25:1–11a with its announcement of doom for Judah and the surrounding nations—by claiming it is in continuity and agreement with Jeremiah’s earlier preaching. Evidence for this is provided by chapter 26 which is set at the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign and so earlier than chapter 25. It also provides confirmation of Jeremiah’s assertion in 25:3b that ‘I have spoken persistently to you but you have not listened’. If the focus of chapter 26 is the impending doom of Judah and Jerusalem, the focus of chapter 27–29 is the decreed seventy years of subjugation for Judah and the surrounding nations that will follow their conquest by Babylon, along with the condemnation of false prophets who challenge this. But equally certain as the seventy years of subjugation to Babylon is the subsequent subjugation of Babylon itself and the liberation of Judah. This is affirmed three times in chapters 27–29; namely 27:7, 22 and 29:10. These aspects of chapters 27–29 relate to and develop the thrust of 25:11b–14. As noted in the earlier Outline, the prophecies of the conquest of Judah and the surrounding nations by Babylon, their seventy years of subjugation to Babylon, followed by Babylon’s own demise, are backed up by the symbolic action of the cup of the wine of YHWH’s wrath in 25:15–29.

After the end of Babylon and in YHWH’s good time, Judah will again be built and planted as is proclaimed in chapters 30–33. As will be pointed out below, chapters 34 and 35 serve to confirm the thrust of cha...