If vv. 25–32 are
explicable as a prose commentary on the preceding poetry, there is a
presumption that they were originally contiguous with vv. 16–22 and that this
connection has been broken by the subsequent insertion of vv. 23f. which
contain an affirmation that God is all-seeing and misses nothing. It may have
been thought that this had some appositeness as a theological comment: God was
not deceived by the activities of prophets who falsely laid claim to his
authority for what they said; there was no way of throwing dust in his eyes or
making him suppose that a spurious prophetic activity was a genuine one. There
is a need to work very hard in order to establish the relevance of the
insertion and the person responsible for it may not have been so greatly
exercised about its relevance. At any rate vv. 23f. are not concerned with
transcendence and immanence in relation to God (pace Volz, Rudolph,
Weiser, Nicholson) and these verses have no intrinsic connection with any
context in chapter 23. (William McKane, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary
on Jeremiah, 2 vols. [International Critical Commentary; Edinburgh: T&T
Clark International, 1986], 1:587, emphasis in bold added)
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