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Editor’s Foreword There are few books of the Old Testament about which Walter Brueggemann has not written in some depth.The breadth of his work matches the prolific output of scholarly, relevant, and helpful interpretation of scripture in book, essay, sermon, and prayer. It would be difficult, therefore, to identify any one area or book as a primary sphere or subject of his interpretive activity. Nevertheless, I am bold to suggest that if there is any book that he has probed more deeply and tellingly than all the others , devoting his energies to both commentary and essay, writing for both the academy and the church, it is the book of Jeremiah. His commentary on this prophetic book, A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming, may well be the best of all his commentaries. At least, as someone who has also written a commentary on the book of Jeremiah, I can testify that no single work has provided more insight into the text or said what needed to be said in clear and helpful ways than Brueggemann’s commentary, despite a spate of fine Jeremiah commentaries over the last twenty-five years. What is there about this book that commands Brueggemann’s attention and brings out so much astute and meaningful interpretation? If one infers from his many writings about this prophet and the book attributed to him, several possibilities arise. One is the degree to which the book gives a searing portrayal of a prophet under the constraints of both his calling and his circumstances. Surely there is no more extended depiction of prophetic existence and its precariousness than the prophet Jeremiah. At one point, after giving a summary statement of what it means to be a prophet, Brueggemann says succinctly: “Jeremiah is the most extreme case.” Throughout the essays that follow here, one encounters the prophet in all his agony, doubt, and despair, and also in his relentless commitment vii to the calling he sought to avoid but could not. The reader will discern Brueggemann getting into Jeremiah’s skin and helping us do the same. As the book makes clear, the word of the Lord that comes through this prophet is intricately linked to his own experience. Brueggemann’s empathetic interpretation is such that often one cannot sharply separate the voice of the prophet and the voice of his interpreter. Jeremiah has always been a barrier against the purveyors of cheap grace, something Brueggemann abhors as much as did Bonhoeffer. He is as aware as Jeremiah that there are many who cry “Peace!” when all around there is war and suffering and death. Brueggemann’s continuing fascination with this prophet rests also in the fact that Jeremiah prophesied in a critical time in the history of Israel. As he puts it in one of his essays, Jeremiah “lived at a time of incredible headlines.” While there is much debate over when Jeremiah’s career started, there is no question that his prophetic work ranged from a time of grandeur and power in the Judean state through its downfall and into the time of exile. Jeremiah’s times were as momentous and formative for Israel’s story as any period in its history. So this prophet’s message is to be heard against the background of large political, social, and economic upheavals. However one decides about the redaction of the book and the assignment of any particular oracle to Jeremiah, his words of judgment and hope as they are presented in the book are clearly reflective of the circumstances in which he lived and prophesied. He moves from powerful oracles condemning a complacent elite—declaring the Lord’s intention to bring them down—to words of encouragement to those who have experienced God’s judgment that they learn to live in their place and time of exile and to live in hope that God will restore their fortunes. No prophet has conveyed more sharply the pathos of the prophetic calling to speak strong words to unwilling listeners and endure the consequences . His oracles and prayers, however, are also a vivid testimony to the pathos of the Lord who called him into his difficult ministry. Along with the powerful words of judgment against kings and other leaders who betrayed the covenantal demands of faithfulness are the tears of God over the people’s failure to live as God’s people, committed to ways of justice and righteousness, the care of the weak and the fear of the Lord. From...

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