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5 Well-Being or Disaster—The Case Argued
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99 5 Well-Being or Disaster— The Case Argued Chapters 21–39 The tragic plot of prophecy may be traced to the undermining of the false security of those ruling Israelites who unheedingly build their domains of power at the expense of community, only to see them come crashing down in military and political defeat. The tragedy of these leaders is sometimes viewed as “unknowing,” but it is finally stigmatized as willful and culpable ignorance, a choosing not to know at one level what is known at another. Norman Gottwald, “Tragedy and Comedy” As we have done with the complex material of Jeremiah 11–20—looking through it twice so as to catch more detail and significance, so we will consider this long section of Jeremiah 21–39 twice: first, to suggest an overall pattern into which the material seems to fit—a nonsymmetrical chiasm; second, to offer a closer examination of Jeremiah’s interactions with King Zedekiah and eventually of his relationship with the community already living in Babylon. As throughout, our main focus is the characterization of the prophet and the nature of his contribution to God’s project with Judah. As we concluded the previous unit, comprising both prose material, where deity and prophet worked together with a nonresponsive populace, and also poetry, where each soliloquized repeatedly, I suggested God was heard concluding that any salvific moves to be made must be at divine prompting, since the humans consistently showed themselves radically incapable of healthy initiative. The material of chaps. 11–20, marking themes of the overture of 2–10, made clear that certain options were not viable: to refuse acknowledging the crisis, to resist responding to it, to remain in Judah hoping for some reprieve, to be removed from the land though lapsing from relationship with YHWH. The choice remaining appears to be a quasi-voluntary resettlement while maintaining trust in YHWH, God’s strange ways notwithstanding. The urgent question now is whether and how the prophet will be involved in communicating and catalyzing 100 well-being or disaster that choice effectively, if only for a few. Jeremiah’s laments showed him forthright with God, angry and retaliatory toward his human opponents, but finally and somewhat inexplicably in deepening partnership with God so as to continue his mostly bleak ministry. My claim in this chapter is that the prophet becomes more explicit in clarifying options to Judah and Jerusalem—leaders primarily but people as well—and that those various choices both ramify and atrophy as they are engaged. As Jeremiah becomes more insistent and clearer on the generally poor but uneven paths available, and as his addressees generally coalesce into those resolutely remaining in Judah and others finding themselves anomalously removed to Babylon, those two main paths grow more distinct from each other even as variations within each clarify. At base is the question of how Jeremiah will understand God’s plans, can help his peers to do so as well, muster their collaboration. In this present chapter we will survey the whole set of material, leaving fuller consideration of the Jeremiah-Zedekiah relationship and the situation of those resettled in Babylon to the next two chapters. In this long set of material we have a rough chiasm, where the pieces can be shown to correspond in content though not so closely in any other way. As is readily evident to any consulting scholarly opinion, there is no consensus about the arrangement of the material, implying that its plan is not obvious or amenable to questions asked of it so far. A sampling of views shows almost as many opinions as opiners. But consider the units here, sketched as A–F, with a center called G, complemented by a F’ through A’ match to their partner pieces: A hinge: Jeremiah imprisoned: 20 B warnings to kings and other leaders: 21–23 C demonstrations of alternative outcomes: 24–26 D prophetic words interpreted, contested: 27–28 E timing and true liberation: 29 F words of hope: 30–31 G land deed needed: 32 F' words of hope: 33 E' timing and false liberation: 34 D' prophetic words contested: 35–36 C' liberation contested: 37–38 B' the end of monarchic Judah: 39 A' hinge: Ebed-Melek released: 39. For the most part, the second “half” is briefer than the first, though the enactments are clustered more prominently in the second structural portion with fewer in the first. Though there is no shortage of poetry, the action takes...