46 DAVID A. BOSWORTH YHWH in Jeremiah without abandoning his belief in the impassibil- ity of God because he lived in a context in which the impassibility of God was not seriously challenged. My argument that YHWH weeps in Jeremiah rests on the lan- guage of the texts and the cognate literatures in which divine weep- ing is clear and common. My argument is not intended to contribute to the debates about the impassibility of God, and the divine weep- ing in Jeremiah should not be used as a “prooftext” for divine pass- ibility. Indeed, I argue that the exegesis of Jeremiah has suffered because it has been implicitly connected to this theological debate. Jeremiah speaks of YHWH weeping, but this language, like anthro- pomorphic language about God generally, is not easy to interpret. In his discussion of anthropomorphic language in ancient Near Eastern texts, M.S. Smith concludes “On the one hand, the deities are rendered in the image and likeness of their adherents. On the other hand, the treatment of the deities clearly shows an awareness that divinity is not the same as humanity” 64. The Catholic University of America David A. BOSWORTH 620 Michigan Ave, NE Washington, DC 20064 – USA SUMMARY The article analyzes several passages in Jeremiah in which God weeps in order to understand the function of divine weeping in the book. Atten- tion to the distribution of weeping in the book finds that God’s weeping (8,23; 9,9.17; 13,17; 14,17) gives way to divine anger and refusal to hear the petitions of the people (15,1; 16,5-7). LXX and many modern com- mentators have attempted to deny that God weeps in these passages. How- ever, several texts clearly depict God weeping, and weeping deities are common in ancient Near Eastern literature. M.S. SMITH, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism. Israel’s Polytheistic 64 Background and the Ugaritic Texts (Oxford 2001) 103. Also D. GRANT, “A Brief Discussion of the Difference between Human and Divine hmx”, Bib 91 (2010) 418-424, notes, in an analysis of divine emotion, how human and divine anger are spoken about differently in OT texts. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati