Language:
English
Year of publication:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
Violence in the Hebrew Bible; Between Text and Reception
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2020) 295-314
Keywords:
Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
God Biblical teaching
;
Oracles Biblical teaching
;
Violence in the Bible
;
Laments in the Bible
;
Compassion Biblical teaching
;
Moab (Kingdom)
Abstract:
Among the “texts of terror,” the oracles against the nations stand out as documents which vehemently attest human and divine violence. In the collection of these oracles in the book of Jeremiah, the prophecy concerning Moab (Jeremiah 48), with its extraordinary length and its remarkable accumulation of reused prophetic material (from, i.a., Isaiah 15–16), proclaims a merciless divine judgment. No future is left for Moab; a total annihilation is envisaged (v. 42).An intriguing feature in this chapter, however, is that this oracle, much more than the others in the section in Jeremiah 46–49, has a theological interest. The prophetic announcement of Moab’s destruction shows an idiosyncratic alternation of judgment and lament. Both fierce divine anger and divine regret, divine judgment and wailing over Moab are part of the oracle. A detailed analysis shows that in several texts in Jeremiah 48, Yhwh is most probably the subject of weeping. This chapter points out that this language of divine grief is not to be interpreted in a figurative sense, as an “ironic inversion of the lamentation” (Brian C. Jones), but as a sign of divine compassion (Terence E. Fretheim). The theological significance of this oracle in Jeremiah 48 is far-reaching.
DOI:
10.1163/9789004434684_016
URL:
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