Friday, June 17, 2022

Dalit Rom-Shiloni on "Mental Anthropomorphisms"

The following comes from:

 

Dalit Rom-Shiloni, Voices from the Ruins: Theodicy and the Fall of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2021), 156-57

 

Mental Anthropomorphisms

 

Mental anthropomorphism covers a wide range of actions, emotions, desires, and so on. In the area of thought, Jeremiah uses the epithet גדל העצה (“wondrous in purpose,” 32:19). Divine omniscience is expressed in Jeremiah through ידע and חשב, as in‎ כי אנכי ידעתי את־המחשׁבת אשׁר אנכי חשׁב עליכם נאם־יהוה מחשׁבות שׁלום ולא לרעה (“for I am mindful of the plans I have made concerning you—declares YHWH—plans for your welfare, not for disaster,” 29:11, 23; similarly 1:5; 18:8, 11; P[rophecies]A[gainst]N[ations] Jer 48:30). ידע occurs also in Ezek 11:5 as divine knowledge of the people’s thoughts (compare the repeated demand to know God [e.g., Jer 9:23; 24:7]). God plans his destructive deeds, זמם, and is determined to activate his מזמות accordingly, so as to reach a complete and hazardous calamity (Jer 4:28; 23:30; 30:24; PAN Jer 51:12) [1]. God remembers (זכר) the distant and obedient past (2:2) as well as the present, long-lasting obedience (31:34), and this divine ability guarantees future salvation in a consolation prophecy (31:20) [2]. In Lam 2, God plans and executes the destruction (2:2, 17). With respect to the quality of understanding, evildoers in Ps 94 are quoted as casting aspersions on God’s understanding: ‎לא יראה־יה ולא־יבין אלהי יעקב (“the LORD does not see it, the God of Jacob does not pay heed [literally: does not understand],” 94:7). Common in communal laments are references to God as (not) remembering and forgetting (לא זכר/שכח in Pss 10:11; 42:10; 44:25; Lam 5:1, 20).

 

The realm of emotions comprises manifestations of divine anger (e.g., Lam 5:22) as well as references to mercy and benevolence (3:22, 32), למען הכעיסני (Jer 7:18, 19; 8:19) is one phrase in the rich inventory of rage phraseology, as for instance theparallel noun קצף and זעם (10:10) or the triad אף, חמה, and קצף (21:5; 32:37; only קצף in PAN Jer 50:13) [3]. The period of the destruction and exile blatantly demonstrates the absence of divine grace and mercy:לא חמל לא חס ולא רחם (e.g., Jer 13:14; see Ps 77:10). God gathers his favor, grace, and compassion away from the people: ‎אספתי את־שׁלומי מאת העם־הזה נאם־יהוה את־החסד ואת־הרחמים (“for I have withdrawn My favor from that people—declares YHWH—My kindness and compassion,” Jer 16:5); and while his quality as עשה חסד is repeated (9:23; 32:18), this is clearly inactive during the critical time of destruction. God’s mercy . . . for his people is saved for prophecies of consolation to Israel (12:15; 30:18; 33:26), and it is depicted by means of the metaphor of a father’s relationship to his son (31:20). God’s anguish and sorrow are given expression by means of rhetorical questions in Jeremiah (e.g., 2:31-32) and in the prophetic passages that mix complaint and accusation (e.g., 3:19-21; 8:4-7; 18:13-15) (See Fretheim, Suffering of God, 115-26). Such expressions of divine sorrow do not appear in Ezekiel; God’s sorrow is not referred to in the quotations within Jeremiah and Ezekiel nor in the laments within Psalms and Lamentations.

 

With respect to will, Jeremiah’s definition of the divine role in the time of the destruction of that ויהוה לא רצם (“so YHWH has no pleasure in them,” 14:10, 12). More common are descriptions of divine remorse, reversal of an initial plan and intention, expressed in the phrase ניחם יהוה על (42:10) and in pleas within communal laments (Pss 90:13; 106:45) [4].

 

Footnotes for the Above (renumbered):

 

[1] This planned evil action is thus the source of protest in Lam 2:17. זמם occurs thirteen times in the Hebrew Bible; in sex of them God is the agent initiating destructive deeds or restoration (also Zech 1:6; 8:14, 15). Of the nineteenth occurrences of מזמה in the Hebrew Bible, on the three occurrences in Jeremiah and in Job 42:2 refer to God as agent.

 

[2] The verb זכר (לא) occurs often in Jeremiah and in Ezekiel, where the people are accused of not remembering God (Jer 17:2; Ezek 6:9; 16:22, 43, 61, 63; 20:43; 21:28, 29; 23:19; 36:31; Lam 1:7, 9). Once, in an individual lament (Jer 20:9), the prophet raised the hypothetical option that he would not remember God, would not be his messenger.

 

[3] To give some statistics: forty-seven of the fifty-four occurrences of the verb כעס in the Hebrew Bible refer to the anger of God, and only seven use כעס to convey a human reaction (as in 1 Sam 1:6). However, only four of the twenty-one occurrences of the noun כעס refer to divine anger (1 Kgs 15:30; 21:22; 2 Kgs 23:26; Ps 85:5). The hiphil infinitive form להכעיס את-יהוה (as in 1 Kgs 14:9; 16:13) is common in Deuteronomistic compositions; see Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School, 340. The other occurrences of this construction in Jeremiah are 11:17; 25:6, 6; 32:29, 30, 32; 44:3, 8. The verb קצף occurs sixteen times as a divine action and the noun קצף appears twenty-seven times as a divine emotion of fierce anger. The verb קצף does not appear in Jeremiah, but the noun repeats four times in the book; and see Lam 5:22.

 

[4] ניחם is the meaning “regretted” or “turned away from his initial intent” occurs in Judg 2:18; 1 Sam 15:35; and more. Regret as a human quality occurs in Jer 8:6; 31:19; Ezek 14:22; PAN Ezek 32:31. In its second meaning, “to be appeased from anger,” this verb only rarely occurs in reference to God. An exception is Ezek 5:13; the two meanings function together in a closed context in Ezek 14:22-23 and in Jer 31:13.