■ 7–10*
The first two verses set forth one possibility, the second two the opposite
one; either may happen. Two understandings are possible for the double
expression וְרֶגַע…רֶגַע
at the beginning of vv 7* and 9*. One is that found in T, which reads וּזְמַן…זְמַן
“one time…another time”; all lexica and twentieth-century commentators agree on
this meaning, though רֶגַע
does not occur correlatively in any other passage in the OT. The other is that
found in V, where the adverb in both
instances is given its meaning “suddenly” (repente,
v 7*; subito, v 9*), the same meaning
it carries in 4:20*; this is the meaning, I submit, which it also carries here.
The point of the passage is clearly not that Yahweh makes a judgment for some
nations and against others, almost as if it were a matter of whim; the point is
that whatever decision Yahweh has made about a nation, he is able “quickly” or
“suddenly” to reverse the decision if the conduct of that nation merits it.
That is to say, רֶגַע
“suddenly” modifies the apodosis of each expression, not the protasis (as
Naegelsbach pointed out). The fact that the syntax is paratactic, with protases
and apodoses only implied, makes the expression easier. Verses 7–8* are
literally: “Suddenly I shall speak concerning a nation to uproot and smash…,
and that nation turns from its evil…and I shall retract my decision concerning
the evil which I have intended to do to it.” Indeed the “suddenly” may refer to
the nation’s change of heart as much as to Yahweh’s change of plan, but the
main emphasis is on Yahweh’s sudden change. So with vv 9–10*. The phenomenon by
which רֶגַע
logically modifies only the last clause (here the apodosis) is analogous to the
same phenomenon with the negative לֹא, with פֶּן “lest,” with an introductory causal word
or with an interrogative word.
The preposition עַל cannot mean “against” (v 7*) but must mean
“concerning” (see v 9*). The pairing of “nation” and “kingdom” is a reflex of
those words in 1:10*, given the use of the series of verbs of that verse here
also. For those verbs, “uproot,” “demolish,” “build,” and “plant,” see 1:10*.
For נחם nip‘al “retract one’s decision” see 4:28*.
Zorell points out that the use of the verb here in v 10* is ironic: Yahweh is
not retracting a punishment but rather a gracious gesture. (William Lee
Holladay, Jeremiah 1: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah,
Chapters 1–25 [Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible;
Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986], 516)
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