Jeremiah 1-25, Volume 26

Peter C. Craigie, Paige Kelley, Dr. Joel F. Drinkard, Bruce M. Metzger, David Allen Hubbard, Glenn W. Barker, John D. W. Watts, James W. Watts, Ralph P. Martin, Lynn Allan Losie

• Verlag: Zondervan Academic
• Jahr: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780310588719
• Thema: Theology & Religion
• Thema: Biblical Commentary

The Word Biblical Commentary delivers the best in biblical scholarship, from the leading scholars of our day who share a commitment to Scripture as divine revelation. This series emphasizes a thorough analysis of textual, linguistic, structural, and theological evidence. The result is judicious and balanced insight into the meanings of the text in the framework of biblical theology. These widely acclaimed commentaries serve as exceptional resources for the professional theologian and instructor, the seminary or university student, the working minister, and everyone concerned with building theological understanding from a solid base of biblical scholarship.

Overview of Commentary Organization

• Introduction—covers issues pertaining to the whole book, including context, date, authorship, composition, interpretive issues, purpose, and theology.
• Each section of the commentary includes:
• Pericope Bibliography—a helpful resource containing the most important works that pertain to each particular pericope.
• Translation—the author's own translation of the biblical text, reflecting the end result of exegesis and attending to Hebrew and Greek idiomatic usage of words, phrases, and tenses, yet in reasonably good English.
• Notes—the author's notes to the translation that address any textual variants, grammatical forms, syntactical constructions, basic meanings of words, and problems of translation.
• Form/Structure/Setting—a discussion of redaction, genre, sources, and tradition as they concern the origin of the pericope, its canonical form, and its relation to the biblical and extra-biblical contexts in order to illuminate the structure and character of the pericope. Rhetorical or compositional features important to understanding the passage are also introduced here.
• Comment—verse-by-verse interpretation of the text and dialogue with other interpreters, engaging with current opinion and scholarly research.
• Explanation—brings together all the results of the discussion in previous sections to expose the meaning and intention of the text at several levels: (1) within the context of the book itself; (2) its meaning in the OT or NT; (3) its place in the entire canon; (4) theological relevance to broader OT or NT issues.
  • General Bibliography—occurring at the end of each volume, this extensive bibliographycontains all sources used anywhere in the commentary.

I. Preface to the Book of Jeremiah (1:1–3)

Bibliography

Levin, C. “Noch einmal: die Anfänge des Propheten Jeremia.” VT 31 (1981) 428–40. Overholt, T. W. “Some Reflections on the Date of Jeremiah’s Call.” CBQ 33 (1971) 165–84. Tucker, G. M. “Prophetic Superscriptions and the Growth of the Canon.” In Canon and Authority. Ed. G. M. Coats and B. O. Long. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977. 56–70. Vogt, E. “Verba Jeremias Filii Helciae.” VD 42 (1964) 169–72.

Translation

1The words of Jeremiah,a son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin,2to whom the LORD’s word came in the time of Josiah, son of Amon, the King of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3And it continued in the time of Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son, King of Judah, until the enda of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, King of Judah; that is, until the deportation of the people of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

Notes

1.a. LXX has a longer text: “The word of God which came to Jeremiah.”

3.a. Heb.

, “end, completion,” is omitted in LXX, perhaps because it was thought to be inconsistent with the reference to the “fifth month.” But the regnal year was probably different from the calendar year (lunar) indicated in the reference to the month.

Form/Structure/Setting

The opening three verses of the Book of Jeremiah may be entitled loosely a preface. With respect to modern conventions in the production of books, they fall somewhere between the title page and the preface, being longer than the title page (though incorporating the title) and shorter than many modern prefaces.

Within the biblical prophetic books, there are certain common elements in all such prefaces; there are degrees of variation between them, however, and they are not structured rigidly but adapt the general framework to the particular character of the book. In general terms, the four following elements may be present in a preface to a prophetic book: (i) the specification that it contains a word or vision from the Lord (thereby defining the substance as prophecy); (ii) the name of the person or prophet through whom the word was delivered; (iii) the time and place at which the word was given, or the period during which the prophet ministered; and (iv) the subject or theme of the prophetic word. Of these four points, the first two are common to all the prophetic books, though they may occur with more or less specific detail (possibly the only exception being Malachi, which may provide the title, not the name, of the prophet). The occurrence of the latter two elements, namely chronology and subject matter, varies considerably from one prophetic book to another. The preface to Jeremiah contains three of the four conventional elements. (i) The book is entitled “the Words of Jeremiah” (1:1), though it is specified that it was the Lord’s word which came to him (1:2). (ii) The person through whom the word was delivered is specified in more detail than is the case with some prophetic books; we are provided with his name, his father’s name and profession, and the place in which his family lived. (iii) The historical period is specified from three perspectives, namely the regnal year in which the prophetic ministry began (1:2), the reigns of the kings through which it continued, and the approximate close of the prophetic ministry (1:3). (iv) No specific information is provided as to the subject matter of the divine word, as is done in some other prophetic prefaces (e.g., Isa 1:1; Amos 1:1).

The comprehensive chronological perspective indicates that the preface was written and added to the collection of oracles after the major activity of collecting the material together in the form of a book had taken place. That is, the latest date specified (the “deportation”) is the date after which the preface was written, though how long afterwards it was written is not known. Nor can there be absolute certainty whether the preface was written after the completion of the whole book of Jeremiah as we now know it, or after the collection of one or more of the smaller “books” which now form a part of the whole.

Comment

1 The subject matter. The principal subject matter of the book is defined as “words”; they are the words of Jeremiah, but Jeremiah in turn spoke the Lord’s word which he received as a prophet. Thus the book contains prophecy, for prophecy is none other than the word of God addressed to the people of God through a prophet, the Lord’s spokesman. Defined as such, the authority of the substance of the book becomes clear. It does not contain simply the social and religious critique of a remarkable man who lived during the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.; rather, his message has its source and origin in God, even though the message itself comes through the medium of a human speaker. Jeremiah, as a prophet, gives the message its distinctive form, couching it in his own words which are inevitably colored by his personality and character, but the message comes from God and has the authority of its divine source.

The content or specific focus of the words is not given in summary form, as it is in the prefaces to certain other prophetic books, perhaps because the length of the ministry and diverse objects of the message were too large to encapsulate in a summary statement.

The prophet. The prophet’s name is Jeremiah; the name is not uncommon in Hebrew, though its precise significance is uncertain. It probably means “the Lord exalts” (see V. Maag, “Jeremia,” BHH 2, 812–14), though the sense could be “the Lord loosens.” His father, Hilkiah, is described as one of the priests who lived in the small village of Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. (The implications of Jeremiah’s priestly background are examined in more detail in the Comment on the following section: 1:4–10.)

Anathoth, Jeremiah’s home town, was situated about three miles northeast of Jerusalem. The name survives in the modern village of ʿAnata, though the site of the original Anathoth was in all probability just southwest of ʿAnata at Ras el-Kharrubeh (see C. E. DeVries, ISBE I, 121–22). Though Anathoth was situated close to Jerusalem, it was located nevertheless at the very edge of the wilderness; to the east of Anathoth, the land falls away into the desert of the great rift valley in which the Dead Sea is located. And, if we are to judge by the language of the prophet, that wilderness region had exerted its influence on the mind and personality of the prophet. “The vision of that desert maze was burnt into the prophet’s mind, and he contrasted it with the clear, ordered Word of God” (Sir George Adam Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land [1894, repr. London: Collins, 1966] 212–13). In this respect, there are certain parallels between Jeremiah’s home and that of his predecessor Amos, who had lived in Tekoa, further south than Anathoth, but also bordering the great wilderness region.

2–3 The chronological framework. Three specific pieces of information are then provided with respect to the period of history in which Jeremiah undertook his prophetic ministry: (i) the ministry began in the thirteenth year of King Josiah; (ii) it continued through the reign of King Jehoiakim; and (iii) it lasted until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. Each of these chronological statements must be examined in more detail.

As Josiah’s reign extended from 640 to 609 B.C., the initial date in the preface refers to the year 627 B.C. as the beginning point of the prophet’s ministry. Following the death of Josiah, King Jehoahaz reigned for three months (in 609 B.C.), but, perhaps because of the brevity of his reign, no reference is made to him in the dating process which goes by regnal years.

King Jehoiakim ruled in Judah from 609 to 598 B.C., and the prophet’s ministry continued throughout his reign. Jehoiakim died in 598 B.C., and was succeeded, for about three months, by his eighteen-year-old son, Jehoiachin, but no reference is made to him in the preface to Jeremiah.

Jehoiachin was replaced as King by Zedekiah (Mattaniah), who reigned from 597 to 587 B.C. as the last king of Judah prior to its ultimate and total defeat by the Babylonian armies in 587 B.C.

The chronological references in Jer 1:1–3 set the broad framework of history within which the prophet’s ministry is to be interpreted; there remain however a number of problems with respect to the significance of the chronological framework. The first pertains to the precise significance of the year 627 B.C. as the beginning of the prophet’s ministry; the second pertains to the difficulty of forming an assessment of the extent of the prophet’s ministry after the chronological period specified in the preface.

The year 627 B.C. is specified as the year in which the Lord’s word came to Jeremiah. In view of the statement that Jeremiah was set aside for a prophetic ministry even before his birth (1:4; see the Comment on the following passage), there have been a few scholars who interpret the year 627 B.C. as the year of the Jeremiah’s birth. For an analysis and critique of such views, see particularly J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah, 50–56. With respect to the text under consideration, such a view is highly unlikely; the words of the preface would more naturally imply the point at which Jeremiah became conscious of the divine vocation and message. Thus, we may suppose that 627 B.C. was the year of the prophet’s awareness of vocation, and perhaps also the year in which his ministry began. Since we do not know precisely his age at the time of vocation, the most we can assume is that the prophet was born sometime before 640 B.C.

Though the preface indicates that the prophet’s ministry extended to the year of the deportation (587 B.C.), it is clear that in a limited fashion, the prophet continued to exercise some kind of ministry in Egypt (Jer 42–44). Although the absence of any reference to this period of the prophet’s life in the preface may indicate that the preface was written and added to the book before the addition of sections concerning the Egyptian sojourn, it is equally likely that the purpose of the preface was simply to specify the period of the prophet’s national ministry. The last part of his life in exile may have been viewed merely as an appendix to the principal period of prophetic ministry.

Thus, the prophetic ministry of Jeremiah extended over a period of more than forty years (627–587 B.C.). There has not survived a complete record of that ministry in the book named after the prophet, but rather excerpts from various periods in the ministry. The book contains portions of oracles and sermons delivered during the ministry, though precise dating of each passage is not possible; hence, while the general historical background to the prophet Jeremiah is well known, the specific background to the respective portions of his book cannot always be determined precisely. The historical and biographical narratives in the collection can normally be dated rather more precisely, and hence the background can be reconstructed more fully with the aid of other biblical and Near Eastern texts.

Explanation

The preface to a book merely sets the stage; it rarely has a dramatic character but rather provides the fundamental data that are necessary for reading what follows. The preface to Jeremiah certainly provides these fundamental data; the book contains the words of Jeremiah of Anathoth, who in turn was a prophet speaking the word of the Lord. But, although it contains only fundamental data, there is an element of drama in the preface, which may elude us, given our separation in time from that period of history; the drama is provided by the references to the kings during whose reigns the prophet ministered.

Jeremiah’s long ministry extended through a period of human history in which radical and violent changes were taking place. When he began his ministry, Josiah was king. On the surface, it was a bright time in history for the Hebrew people. The great Assyrian Empire, remembered in later history for the violence of its militarist policies, was in a state of decline; for centuries, it had been a threat on the northern horizon, sometimes a conqueror and sometimes a restless neighbor. Assyria’s decline, which was complete with the defeat of its capital Nineveh in 612 B.C., could be taken as a source of encouragement to the Hebrews, who had frequently suffered at Assyria’s hands. Indeed, it was precisely the decline of Assyria during the early part of Josiah’s reign that made so much change seem possible. Judah became independent again; it freed itself of foreign religious influences and reformed its worship; it expanded its land holdings, retaking some of the lands that had belonged long ago to the northern state of Israel, but which Assyria could no longer control. Jeremiah began his ministry in a period of buoyancy and hope, though he perceived more clearly than did others that it was a false hope.

The decline of Assyria from imperial power not unnaturally left a vacuum in international politics of the time. Judah’s brief prosperity early in Josiah’s reign was a consequence of that vacuum of power, but it was only a matter of time until new (and renewed) superpowers emerged to engage in a struggle for the supremacy once held by Assyria. Egypt, which at the beginning of the seventh century B.C. had been little more than a vassal of Assyria, began to flex its muscles again; under the Pharaohs Psammetichus (663–609 B.C.) and Necho (609...