06_Biblica_AN_Leuchter_269_279 15/07/14 12:22 Pagina 276 276 MARK LEUCHTER 276 monarchic society in both passages suggests a conscious tapping of an established Levite formulaic criticism. The sense is retrospective in Neh 9,25 whereas Deut 32,15 presents a second person invective against an (imagined or ostensible) contemporaneous audience, but both presuppose a common egregious disregard for the source of their agrarian sustenance. These motifs appear in texts that are decidedly gola in orientation (Hag- gai, for example), indicating that the gola community built them into an ideology consonant with their own exilic experience. However, in Ne- hemiah 9, the reference to these traditions is set alongside the prayer’s overt rejection of exile as somehow bestowing honor or blessing: Yet many years did you extend mercy to them, and forewarned them by your spirit through your prophets; yet would they not give ear; there- fore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. (v. 30) Contrary to the ideology of the gola group, the exile is not conceived here as a space or experience where law and covenant could take root. Rather, it is evidence of a rejection of covenantal principles and proof that those who endured it turned away from prophetic instruction. We there- fore see several factors that shed light on the manner in which Levitical ideology developed among the homeland Levites during the period of the exile that are reflected in the prayer. The broad range of topics has much in common with texts and concepts that clearly grew among those Levites who were settled in Babylon (e.g., Jer 31,31-34; Deut 30,1-10) 37, but the orientation or angle of vision appears to constitute some form of response to that event. Put differently, the rhetoric of Nehemiah 9 seems to be well aware of the gola ideology that those taken into exile were somehow closer to YHWH’S good graces and that the deity had rejected those who remained behind. IV. The Origin of the Confrontation While this rhetorical stance might reflect unpleasant confrontations between homeland and gola groups in the early years of the Persian pe- riod, the origins of this divisive social view may be traced to a period an- tedating even the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. Jeremiah 29 contains messages offered to the captives of 597 that YHWH was still in dialogue with them, specifying that they should seek the welfare of the 37 M.Z. BRETTLER, “Predestination in Deuteronomy 30.1-10”, Those Elusive Deuteronomists. The Phenomenon of Pan-Deuteronomism (eds. L.S. SCHEARING – S.L. MCKENZIE) (JSOTSS 268; Sheffield 1999) 171-188.