31 THE TEARS OF GOD IN THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH Of the various examples of deities weeping noted above, the tears of Anat over Baal seem particularly parallel to this passage. M.S. Smith proposes that a literary topos of a deity lamenting on the steppe underlies both Jer 9,9 and KTU 1.5 IV 25–1.6 I 7 21. In the Ugaritic text, the goddess Anat searches for the body of her deceased beloved Baal. She searches every mountain and every hill (kl.ǵr; kl.gb‘) which corresponds to “mountains” (~yrhh) in Jer 9,9, finds him on the steppe (dbr; cf. rbdm), and weeps for him (bk; cf. ykb). She then avenges his death by killing Mot. Smith notes the main modification of the topos in Jer 9,9 is that for YHWH the beloved and the enemy are one and the same. YHWH weeps for Israel’s suffering and is the agent of that suffering. The term “wailing” (yhn) occurs often in this chapter and indicates something audible and associated with weeping (Jer 9,9; 31,15) and may be understood as a “dirge” in 9,17.18.1922. The term “lament” (hnyq) in 9,9 strengthens the sense that the weeping of YHWH coincides with an intelligible lament which is quoted after yk. YHWH weeps over the emptiness of the land in v. 9 and promises in v. 10 to make Jerusalem similarly empty. These two verses show how the punishment that YHWH brings to the people is doubly painful to YHWH. YHWH weeps, wails, and laments over the loss of a cherished relationship, and weeps too because YHWH must inflict the angry blows that threaten the relationship (9,11-15). The text describes these tears, which should cause the Israelites to repent and repair their relationship with YHWH to end the divine tears and save themselves. 2. Jeremiah 8,23 Attempts to discern multiple speakers in Jer 8,18-23 so that Jere- miah rather than YHWH weeps in 8,23 are unconvincing. The principal aim of discerning several changes of speaker is first to separate the voices of YHWH and Jeremiah, and second to make Jeremiah, not YHWH, the one who weeps in 8,2323. J.M. Henderson makes explicit SMITH, “Jeremiah IX 9”, 97-99; followed by CRAIGIE, Jeremiah 1–25, 145; 21 FISCHER, Jeremia, 1.354. The motif is common in Mesopotamian laments. See, for example, COHEN, Canonical Lamentations, 184, 331, 336, 381, 531. The term is missing from LXX Jer 9,9. 22 RUDOLPH, Jeremia, 65; THOMPSON, Jeremiah, 301-302; MCKANE, Jer- 23 emiah, 1.188-193; SCHMIDT, Jeremia, 201; ALLEN, Jeremiah, 111; LUNDBOM, © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati