Freeing the Burden of Prophecy 355 echoes of the language of Jeremiah (14,1–15,4) in the account of the crisis over prophecy and idolatry in Zech 10,1-2 (43). There we read of false prophecy in the form of visionary divination linked to idolatry which offers comfort where there is no hope. Later in Zechariah 9–14, in 13,2-6, the text looks to a day when false prophets and their idols will be removed from the land. Petersen, followed by many others, has seen here, however, echoes of the rejection of prophecy as a means of new revelation, similar to Jer 23,33-40 (44). The language, however, used in Zech 13,2-6 is language associated with false prophecy (“told lies”, “deceive” [4]), punishments associated with false prophets (“his own parents will stab him”), and allusions to idolatry (2) (45). Reference to “every prophet” who “will be ashamed of his prophetic vision” clearly indicates prophets who “put on a prophet’s garment of hair in order to deceive” (v. 4). Similar vocabulary and connections also appear in the prophetic criticism of Zech 10,1-2: “deceit”, “false”, “in vain”, “idols”, “diviners”, “vision”, “dreams”. In all of this, however, there is no indication that prophecy as a means of revelation has been eradicated; only that false prophecy linked to idolatry is the problem. Zechariah 9–14, thus, cannot be used to substantiate a continuance of the earlier Jeremianic tradition in which prophecy, in particular ma¢¢˝’, has been silenced. As with Jeremiah there is deep concern over false prophecy and idolatry, a concern which in the days of the tradents of Jeremiah led to the curtailment of the prophetic process. But this should not be interpreted as a final rejection of prophecy, for there is no indication in Jer 23,33-40 that the restriction on ma¢¢˝’ would endure ad infinitum any more than that the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah was eternal. All we are told is that in the approach and wake of the exilic judgment, prophetic revelation was to cease. Furthermore, the term ma¢¢˝’ itself is used to introduce and structure the Zechariah —————— 2007); M.J. BODA, “Oil, Crowns and Thrones: Prophet, Priest and King in Zechariah 1:7–6:15”, Perspectives on Hebrew Scriptures (ed. E. BEN ZVI) (Piscataway 2006); M.J. BODA, “Hoy, Hoy: The Prophetic Origins of the Babylonian Tradition in Zechariah 2:10-17”, Tradition in Transition (ed. M.J. BODA – M.H. FLOYD) (London forthcoming). A key and influential section of Jeremiah is the literary complex of Jeremiah 22–25. (43) M.J. BODA, Haggai – Zechariah (Grand Rapids 2004) 437-440 and literature cited there; see also BODA – PORTER, “Third Degree”, 215-254. (44) PETERSEN, Prophecy, 33-38; see more recently PETERSEN, Zechariah 9–14. (45) BODA, Haggai – Zechariah, 490-494.