Jeremiah 32:5 (39:5 LXX)
Jer 32:3b-5 MT |
Jer 39:3b-5 LXX |
3 . . . כה אמר יהוה |
3. . . Οὕτως εἶπεν κύριος |
3 . . . Thus says Yhwh: |
3 . . . Thus says Yhwh: |
As for its general context, one is immediately struck by the contradiction
between this passage and 2 Kgs 24:18-25:7. According to 2 Kgs 25:7, Zedekiah’s
sons were killed in front of his eyes, after which he was blinded and sent to
Babylon in shackles. His later whereabouts are not mentioned in 2 Kings, but it
is implied that he was left imprisoned and forgotten. Jeremiah 32:4-5 gives a
much more positive impression about the fate of the last king of Judah.
Although it also deals with Zedekiah’s fate, there is no reference to his sons
being killed and the imprisonment in shackles is also not mentioned. The lack of
reference to the blinding is highlighted by the explicit reference to Zedekiah
seeing the king of Babylonia eye to eye. It appears that the author of Jer
32:3bβ-5 was unfamiliar with 2 Kgs 24:18-25:7 or he intentionally contradicted
this passage. . . . Our interest culminates in Jer 32:3bβ-5 (LXX
39:5) and its phrase עד-פקרי אחו. It is not immediately clear what is meant by פקר.
The word is used in various meanings, but they are basically two alternatives.
It could refer to a punishment:” and he will take Zedekiah to Babylon and there
he will remain until I punish him,” or, alternatively, it refers to the
reversal of Zedekiah’s fate: “and he will take Zedekiah to Babylon and there he
will remain until I attend to him.” Although semantically possible, the first
alternative is improbable in this context, because the loss of kingship and
expulsion to Babylon is already a very severe punishment, perhaps this ultimate
punishment for a king. A reference to an upcoming punishment would make little sense
here, especially since no further punishment is mentioned. עד-פקרי אחו is
comprehensible only if it refers to the opposite of what has been described in
the previous text, to the reversal of Zedekiah’s fate. The misery of imprisonment
and shame as described in Jer 32:5aα would continue in Babylon until Yhwh attends to him,
implying that Zedekiah’s fate would be reversed. This interpretation is well in
line with other passages in Jeremiah, which imply that Zedekiah’s fate was more
positive that what is described in 2 Kgs 25:7.
A reference to the reversal of Zedekiah’s
fate was the main problem with Jer 32:5. The influence of 1-2 Kings (and
Deuteronomistic conceptions in general) is evident in many passages in
Jeremiah. When the book of Jeremiah was later harmonized with the conceptions rising
out of 1-2 Kings, the contradiction between 2 Kgs 25:7 and Jer 32:5 became
evident. This is probably the main reason for the omission in the LXX
tradition. The conceptions about what happened to Zedekiah were harmonized and
this necessitated an omission in Jer 32:5. There appears to be a general development
in the LXX version of Jeremiah to make Zedekiah a more evil king, as shown by
Hermann Josef Stipp (“Zedekiah in the Book of Jeremiah: On the Formation of a Biblical Character,
CBQ 58 [1996]: 612-638), which further suggests that the LXX is
secondary in Jer 32:5. In comparison, the late addition of a reference to the
reversal of Zedekiah’s fate in the MT would make little sense, because on the
basis of 2 Kgs 25 Jehoiachin’s line gradually came to be regarded as the only
legitimate one, and this interpretation is also represented in literature
(for example, according to 1 Chr 3:17, Shealtiel was son of Jehoiachin
[Jeconiah]. Through him the line would have continued to Zerubbabel. The same conception
is also found in Matt 1:12-13). Consequently, the reference to the reversal of
Zedekiah’s fate in the MT probably derives from a period when there was at
least some hope for that Zedekiah’s dynastic line could continue and when there
were still supporters of his dynastic line. The shorter LXX, would then have to
be seen as a later development where the conceptions of 1-2 Kings have established
themselves and Jehoiachin’s dynastic line is seen as the only legitimate one.
(Juha Pakkala, God's Word Omitted: Omissions in the Translation of the
Hebrew Bible [Forschungen zur Religion und Lieratur des Alten und Neuen
Testaments 251; Bristol, Conn.: Vandenhoeck and Reprecht, 2013], 113-16,
emphasis in bold added)