Description
Book SynopsisTable of ContentsList of Illustrations xiii
Series Editors’ Preface xix
Acknowledgments xxi
Testimonia xxv
Jeremiah the Man xxv
The Book xxvii
Actualizations xxix
Introduction 1
Theory and Practice of Reception History 3
Jeremiah in Three Guises 4
Jeremiah in Antiquity 5
Medieval Jeremiahs 17
Early Modernity 24
Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 47
Practical Notes for Using the Commentary 64
Jeremiah 1 67
Word of the Lord or Words of Jeremiah? (Jer 1:1) 67
Jeremiah Before Birth (1:4–5) 69
A Prophet to the Nations (1:5) 77
Resisting God (1:6) 77
Filling Jeremiah’s Mouth 81
The Job Description (1:10) 82
God’s Pun (1:11–12) 84
What’s Cooking? (1:13–16) 88
Jeremiah 2 93
God’s Lawsuit (2:1–13) 94
Leaky Cisterns or Living Water? (2:12–13) 95
A Puzzling Verb Becomes a Word of Salvation (2:20) 98
Prophetic Pornography (2:20–25) 99
Jeremiah in the Synagogue (2:4–28) 101
Jeremiah 3 103
A Rare Allusion to God the Father (3:4,19) 103
Holy Forgetting (3:15–18) 105
3:24–25 106
Jeremiah 4 107
A Subversive Translation (4:1–2) 107
The Circumcised Heart (4:4) 108
Reading Metaphor (4:7) 109
Does God Deceive? (4:9–10) 110
Body and Soul (4:19–22) 110
Apocalypse Now (4:23–28) 112
Contradiction as Problem and Opportunity (4:27) 113
Dressing Down a Gussied‐Up Female (4:29–31) 113
Jeremiah 5 115
Nothing Bad Will Happen to Us (5:12) 115
Divine Fire Consuming Human Wood (5:14) 116
An Appalling and Horrible Thing (5:30–31) 118
Contents ix
Jeremiah 6 119
Two Roads Diverged (6:16) 119
Buying Salvation (6:20) 120
Jeremiah as Fortress and/or Refiner (6:27) 120
Jeremiah 7 123
A Den of Thieves (7:1–15) 123
A Troubling Contradiction (7:21–24) 124
Jeremiah 8 127
Reading Jeremiah as Science (8:7) 127
The Balm of Gilead (8:22) 130
Jeremiah 9 135
A Fountain of Tears (9,1,18) 135
Internalizing the Prophet’s Cry (9:2) 140
Death Climbs in the Windows (9:21) 141
Jeremiah 10 145
Superstition and Science (10:2–5) 145
Who Will Not Fear You? (10:7) 147
Wise Fools (10:12–16) 147
Humans Are Not Masters of Themselves (10:23–24) 149
Correct Me, O Lord (10:24) 151
Pour Out Thy Wrath (10:25) 151
Jeremiah 11 153
Let Us Put Wood in his Bread (11:19) 153
Jeremiah 12 157
A Lawsuit Against God (12:1–4) 157
Shameful Revenues (12:13) 160
Jeremiah 13 161
Jeremiah’s Loincloth (13:1–11) 161
Jeremiah’s Tears (13:17) 164
Unsettling Images (13: 22–27) 164
Jeremiah 14 167
The Inn and the Manger (14:7–9) 167
Jeremiah 15 169
Saints Alive (15:1) 169
Woe is Me, My Mother (15:10) 170
Changing Fashions in Prayer (15:15) 171
Is Jeremiah Blasphemous? (15:18) 172
A Divine Reprimand Reconsidered (15:19) 174
Jeremiah 16 177
Prophetic Celibacy (16:1–4) 177
Hunters and Fishers (16:16–18) 179
Jeremiah 17 181
Misplaced Trust (17:5) 181
Is the Human Heart Deep, or Depraved? (17:9–10) 182
The Partridge (17:11) 185
Jeremiah 18 187
The Surprise of Divine Freedom (18:1–12) 187
Jeremiah 19 193
Jeremiah Smashes a Jug 193
Jeremiah 20–21 197
Jeremiah in the Stocks (20:1–6) 197
Divine Deception (20:7) 199
Whose Violence and Destruction? (20:8) 207
A Reproach and a Derision (20:8) 207
A Burning Fire (20:9) 208
Do Saints Curse? (20:13–18) 212
Jeremiah 22 219
The Burial of an Ass (22:18–19) 219
Jeremiah and the Lost Ark (22:29) 220
Jeremiah 23 223
The Righteous Branch (23:5–6) 223
False Prophets (23:9–40) 226
Jeremiah 24 229
Two Baskets of Figs (24:1–10) 229
Jeremiah 25 231
The Cup of the Wine of Wrath (25:15–31) 232
Jeremiah 26–28 235
Jeremiah’s Yoke (Jer 27:2; 28:1–17) 235
False Prophets 237
Jeremiah 29 239
Build and Plant (29:1–6) 240
Praying for the Enemy (29:7) 240
Seventy Years (29:10) 242
God’s Inscrutable Plans (29:11) 244
Jeremiah as Contemporary Prophet (Jer 29:19) 245
Jeremiah 30–31 247
Hope in the Midst of Trauma (30:1–3) 247
Rachel Weeps in Every Century (31:15–17) 248
Gender‐Bending (31:22) 250
The New Covenant (31:31–34) 252
Jeremiah 32–33 257
A Strange Real Estate Deal 257
Jeremiah 34 259
Taking Back the Gift of Freedom (34:8–22) 259
Jeremiah 35 261
Jeremiah 36 267
Free Will and Divine Omniscience (36:3, 7) 268
Word, Scroll, Book (36:2, 5, 18) 268
Jehoiakim as Perennial Tyrant (36:20–26) 269
Words and the Word (36:27) 272
Jeremiah 37–38 277
Dungeon and Cistern 277
Ancient Allegories (38:1–13) 278
A Model for Political Resistance (38:1–16) 280
The Cistern as Spiritual Prison (38:1–6). 285
Ebed‐Melek Rescues Jeremiah (38:7–13) 287
Jeremiah’s Lie (38:24–27) 295
Jeremiah 39 299
Zedekiah Captured (39:4–7) 299
Ebed‐Melech Becomes Abimelech (39:15–18) 301
Jeremiah 40–43 303
How Did the Prophet Escape the Burning City? (40:1–6) 304
The Murder of Gedaliah (40:7– 41:17) 305
How Long, O Lord? (42:7) 305
The Stones of Tahpanhes (43:8–13) 306
Jeremiah 44 309
Uppity Women (44:15–19) 310
Martyrdom of Jeremiah 312
Jeremiah 45 319
Jeremiah 46–51 323
Babylon, the Golden Cup in God’s Hand (51:7) 325
Jeremiah Speaks to a War‐Torn Twentieth Century (51:11) 326
Thus Far the Words of Jeremiah (51:59–64) 328
Glossary 329
Brief Biography 333
Bibliography 341
Index 357
