Jeremiah, Jehoiachin, and the Survival of Israelite Religion (original) (raw)
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There is an oft-neglected oracle in Jeremiah 22:24-30 that announces Jehoiachin's exile and the end of the Davidic kingship line that has run throughout the entire Deuteronomic history until the time of the exile. 1 Only four verses separate it from the enigmatic promise of the Branch in 23:5, and it plays the pivotal role in the collection of oracles against the final four kings of Judah prior to this unspecified age of the Davidic monarchy in the future. Yet the oracle has generated scant attention from scholars. I've counted no more than a handful of articles and only passing mention in commentaries that deal with it. 2 Yet, while most critical scholarship is, for many important reasons, focused on the exile associated with the final deportation under Zedekiah in 587/6 B.C.E., the canonical and post-canonical tradition focuses almost exclusively on the second deportation under Jehoiachin as the marker of the beginning of the Jewish exile. 3 Thus, there appears to be a gap in scholarly literature on the theological concern of the 1 There is near-universal agreement that Jeremiah 22:24-30 is the oracle directed against Jehoiachin. Only Driver argues that 18-23 should also be included.
The Trial of Jeremiah and the Killing of Uriah the Prophet
Jewish Bible Quarterly, 2014
The editing and composition of the Book of Jeremiah have been a matter of debate among scholars. They agree, however, that Jeremiah 7 and 26 are two accounts of Jeremiah's Temple sermon. Chapter 7:1-5 details his sermon in the Temple and chapter 26 provides a summary of the sermon and the audience's response. According to Jeremiah 26:1, the Temple sermon occurred At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah. king of Judah. 1 Jehoiakim became king in succession to Jehoahaz, Josiah's second son, who was deported to Egypt after reigning in Jerusalem for three months. Jehoiakim was placed on the throne by Egypt's ruler, Pharaoh-Neco (II Kgs. 23:34; II Chron. 36:4). In his sermon, Jeremiah declared that the people had violated the demands of the covenant by not living according to God's Torah (Jer. 26:4), by breaking several of the stipulations of the Decalogue (Jer. 7:9), and by believing that they were safe from the consequences of their actions (Jer. 7:10). As a result of their continual rejection of God's Torah and their belief that the Temple would guarantee their safety, Jeremiah announced that the Lord would destroy the Temple of Jerusalem in the same way he had allowed the sanctuary at Shiloh to be destroyed. Like the Temple in Jerusalem, Shiloh was God's house, the place where he chose to put His name and make His habitation (Jer. 7:12). However, because of the wickedness of the people, God allowed His house at Shiloh to be destroyed. Jeremiah warned the people that they had failed to obey the injunctions of the Torah, and, for this reason, the Lord could no longer guarantee the safety of the city and deliver the people from the threat posed by the enemies of Judah. In the view of the religious authorities, however, Jeremiah's sermon was blasphemous and treasonable. Chapter 26 mentions three prophets: Jeremiah, Micah, and Uriah (called Uriyyahu in the Hebrew text). One significant aspect of this chapter is the attempt to legitimate Jeremiah as a true prophet and validate his word as true Full text of articles from Volumes 1-41 is available for download on our website: http://jbq.jewishbible.org/jbq-past-issues/
Jehu's Coronation and Purge of Israel
Vetus Testamentum
The Jehu tradition (2 Kgs 9-10) is complex and difficult. Some interpreters basically accept the text's deuteronomistic perspective, viewing Jehu as committed to "Yahweh's continuing mastery over Baal and the political machine promoting Baal worship." From this point of view, Jehu is merely and a purgation tool in the hands of Yahweh. Others see him as a political revolutionary. When Jehu kills the royal families of both Judah and Israel, this suggests to some that a Yahwistic minority has become desperate enough to use terrorism as a political weapon, and only later is this behavior creatively translated into religious terms and theological categories. Relatively few address what I believe to be the narrator's most pressing goal; viz., to articulate a prophetic theology of reform within a violent, oppressive, highly Canaanized religio-political context.
‘But Fear not, O Jacob my Servant!’ Place and Function of the Salvation Oracle Jeremiah 46:27–28 MT
‘“But Fear not, O Jacob my Servant!” The Place and Function of the Salvation Oracle Jeremiah 46:27-28 MT’, in: Koert van Bekkum, Gert Kwakkel en Wolter H. Rose (eds.), Biblical Hebrew in Context. Essays in Semitics and Old Testament Texts in Honour of Professor Jan P. Lettinga , 2018
The historical novel Höret die Stimme (1937) of the Austrian-Jewish author Franz Werfel sketches, in a vivacious way, the life and ministry of the prophet Jeremiah.2 In his literary imagination, the author even let Jeremiah visit the power centers of his world, in Memphis and Babylon. Although the Book of Jeremiah does not mention any such journey, it does make clear that the final decades of the history of the kingdom of Judah were overshadowed by the imperial ambitions of both superpowers, Egypt and Babylon. Egypt and Babylon: these two theo-political entities have a pivotal role in the Book of Jeremiah, against the background of Judah's history in the closing seventh and the beginning sixth centuries bce. The main line of this history is as follows. The decline of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (fall of Haran, 609) leaves a power vacuum in Syria-Palestine, which is initially filled by Egypt. Pharaoh Necho II, having defeated king Josiah in the battle at Megiddo (609), enthrones Jehoiachim as his vassal-king. Within a few years, however, Egypt's dominion comes to an end, when the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar II defeats the Egyptian army in the battle at Carchemish (605). Some time later, king Jehoiachim submits to Nebuchadnezzar as his new suzerain (in 604, cf. 2 Kgs 24:1). In 601, the situation seems to change, when Necho stops the Babylonian army at the border of Egypt; the next years, Nebuchadnezzar does not interfere with Egypt. In this period, Jehoiachim rebels, breaking his vassalage with Babylon. This leads to a forceful reaction from Babylon: in 597 Jerusalem has to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar, who deports king Jehoiachin, together with a large group of exiles, to Babylon. Eventually, his successor decides to again rebel against
Jephthah—Victimizer and Victim: A Comparison of Jephthah and Characters in Genesis
Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society, 2017
Jephthah is very much an atypical judge. He is the only one of Israel's deliverers who was not appointed by God, but by human beings, the elders of Gilead, after protracted negotiations between them. The Lord's involvement in the liberation of Israel from the Ammonite yoke is extremely limited (in stark contrast to the Gideon cycle) and associated chiefly with the tragic side of the story-the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter to the Lord, as a result of Jephthah's vow. Yairah Amit sees Jephthah as a disappointing judge: he is not appointed by God; he utters a rash and irresponsible vow that at the very least includes the possibility of a human sacrifice, 1 thereby bringing down catastrophe on himself and on his daughter. On the national plane, he is not wise enough to prevent a civil war against the Ephraimites (unlike Gideon in a similar situation). Amit contends that the editor of the Book of Judges places the stories of Jephthah and Samson-another disappointing judge-toward its end, in order to prepare readers for the corrective of the monarchy, explicitly foreshadowed in the two narratives that constitute the "appendices" to the book. 2 Jephthah is a hybrid character in many senses: in terms of his status and role he may be one of the major judges or one of the minor judges. 3 With regard to his ancestry-his father was a Gileadite named Gilead (a piece of information that sharpens
Biblical Theology Bulletin, 2019
Late 19 th-early 20 th-century German biblical scholarship, because of its connections with Protestant liberal theology and the search for myth in modern Germany, lost the category of disempowered king in its treatment of one of the final kings of Judah, Jehoiachin, in the book of Jeremiah. While current scholarship has already moved beyond Protestant liberalism, it has not yet recovered the hermeneutical category of disempowered king as a way to understand Jehoiachin and later expectations of kingship. I suggest ways for contemporary critical scholars to build on the work of more recent scholarship and engage the canonical shape of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah as yhwh’s Stronghold (Jer 1:18)
Vetus Testamentum, 2014
In the book of Jeremiah, the prophet proclaims that Jerusalem will be destroyed by a foreign nation. According to the call narrative, however, Jeremiah himself is transformed into “a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall” (Jer 1:18). While these architectural metaphors have often been explained with regard to Egyptian royal ideology, the article further explores their meaning and function within their literary context. Comparing characterizations of both the prophet and personified Jerusalem, the essay argues that Jer 1:18 offers a late comment to the book: Jeremiah functions as a stand-in for yhwh’s favorite city. A text-critical investigation of Jer 1:18 demonstrates—in contrast to former studies—that the mt pluses deliberately elaborate the prophet’s role by rendering him a substitute for the temple.