Jer 23:33:
You are the burden. The
Masoretic Text reads ʾet-mah-masa’, which yields something
unintelligibile: accusative-particle-what-burden. A simple redistribution of
consonants produces ʾatem hamasa’, “you are the burden,” and this
reading is confirmed by the Septuagint and the Vulgate. The question about the
burden of prophecy, then, in the mouths of the followers of false prophets is
turned back against them in a response that stigmatizes them as the real
burden. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton
& Company, 2019], 2:940)
Jer 23:39:
I will surely lift you as a
burden. The Masoretic Text has nashiti nasho’, which would mean “I
will surely forget you.” But some Hebrew manuscripts as well as two versions of
the Septuagint and the Vulgate read nasa’ti naso’, “I will surely lift
you.” It is definitely in accord with Jeremiah’s style to insist on this
already repeated verbal stem inscribed in the word for “burden,” here turning
it into an expression of measure-formeasure justice. (Robert Alter, The
Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 2:941)
