39 THE TEARS OF GOD IN THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 5. Jeremiah 14,17 Here again commentators understand these tears as Jeremiah’s 48. However, the speech is introduced as YHWH’s words and YHWH is the one who weeps. Thus, YHWH speaks through Jeremiah in 14,17- 18 49. Perhaps Jeremiah also weeps and thereby embodies YHWH’s weeping here as in 8,23, but Jeremiah’s participation is less clear 50. Consequently, I prefer to say that (as in Jer 9,9) YHWH weeps, but Jeremiah does not. In 14,19-22, the people speak in response to YHWH’s words, as indicated by the shift to a first-person plural speaker and second-person masculine singular addressee. Since YHWH speaks, the tears belong to YHWH: Let my eye flow with tears (h[md yny[ hndrt) night and day and without ceasing As in 13,17, LXX modifies the text to read “your eyes”. Again, LXX understands that YHWH speaks these words but seeks to present YHWH as not weeping, while modern commentators read the MT as spoken by Jeremiah. As in 8,23, YHWH desires to weep both “night and day”, so the language stresses the continuity of weeping. Also like 8,23, 14,17 speaks of “my (virgin) daughter people” and her “wound” (8,21), which indicates that YHWH weeps for the suffering of the people which YHWH also inflicts. Unlike 8,23, however, this passage employs the poetic idiom “my eyes flow with tears” (also in 9,17 bis; 13,17). The context indicates that this speech is aimed par- ticularly at the prophets who have been telling the people that there will be peace and rains will soon end the drought. The tears of YHWH here explicitly contrast with the optimistic preaching of the prophets. In response to YHWH’s tears, the people offer a lament of their own in which they acknowledge their guilt and seek divine assistance in RUDOLPH, Jeremia, 102; HOLLADAY, Jeremiah, I, 436; MCKANE, Jere- 48 miah, I, 329; THOMPSON, Jeremiah, 385; CRAIGIE, Jeremiah 1–25, 203; LUND- BOM, Jeremiah, I, 712; ALLEN, Jeremiah, 174. CARROLL, Jeremiah, 316, identifies the weeper neutrally as “the speaker”. ROBERTS, “Motif of the Weeping God”, 141; FRETHEIM, Jeremiah, 224; 49 FISCHER, Jeremia, 484; JEROME, Jeremiah, 92. FRETHEIM, Jeremiah, 224, speaks of YHWH weeping here, but not Jere- 50 miah. STULMAN, Jeremiah, 144, thinks the voices of Jeremiah and YHWH are too intertwined to separate. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati