Friday, April 26, 2024

Gary Edward Schnittjer on the use of Micah 3:12 in Jeremiah 26:18

 

26:18//Mic 3:12 (Micah’s prophecy against Jerusalem). Jeremiah faced a death sentence for preaching a sermon against the temple (Jer 26:4-6; cf. 7:1-15). The elders defend his message by citing Micah’s message of doom against Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah (italics signify verbatim citation with one term spelled differently, bold signifies verbal parallels, and broken underlining signifies marking):

 

[Micah said] Then I said . . .”This is what Yahweh says . . . ‘Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.’” (Mic 3:1a, 5a, 12)

 

[The elders said] Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah. He told all the people of Judah, “This is what Yahweh Almighty says: ‘Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.’” (Jer 26:18)

 

Micah blames the establishment of Jerusalem for its imminent doom at the end of a horrific oracle, Micah uses ironic language of the temple mount becoming an “overgrown high place” (בָּמוֹת יָעַר), using a term which connotes false worship (Mic 3:12). This may build on “What is Judah’s high place [בָּמוֹת]? Is it not Jerusalem?” (1:5) as well as set up a simile wordplay of the hope of Jacob like a lion among “beasts of the forest” (בָּמוֹת יָעַר) (5:8[7]). The important issue of the elders trying to clear Jeremiah turns on the absence of the fulfillment of Micah’s threat of judgment. The standard of prophetic messages’ accordance with reality stands in the background (Deut 18:22) as does the ever-present exception clause “unless they turn back” (Jer 26:3). The success of prophetic threats ironically results in avoidance of the judgment they threaten (26:19). The narrative of the death of the prophet Uriah for his Jeremiah-like message against the city reinforces the theme of a constituency refusing to listen (26:20-23). As the next narratives continue emphasizing true versus false prophecies, Jeremiah states an important principle to Hananiah: “From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by Yahweh only if his prediction comes true” (28:8-9, emphasis mine). (Gary Edward Schnittjer, Old Testament Use of Old Testament: A Book-by-Book Guide [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Academic, 2021], 277-78)