06_Biblica_AN_Leuchter_269_279 15/07/14 12:22 Pagina 277 277 INTER-LEVITICAL POLEMICS 277 land to which they were sent 38. The same chapter carries indications of what obtains in Jeremiah 24, the vision of the good and bad figs which makes abundantly clear that the homeland groups were unworthy of divine patronage, while the gola group received divine favor 39. In addition, Ezekiel seems to have developed a pro-gola ideology already before the fall of Jerusalem, which persists in subsequent oracles conceived shortly after the city’s destruction and the resulting waves of migration to the east 40. Thus well before the geographical separation between Levites on ei- ther side of this divide, foundations for the gola ideology were already laid by authoritative prophets working before the end of the monarchy. That a large corpus of Jeremianic material developed in Babylon is cred- ited (at least symbolically) to Baruch ― who is last reported to be in Egypt (Jeremiah 43) ― is suggestive of interchange throughout the region during the exilic period 41. If this is the case, it is likely that homeland Ju- dahites were aware of the growing exclusivist rhetoric developing among their former countrymen now residing in Babylon. This is especially the case if, as per Lipschits’ observations, the majority of the homeland pop- ulation lived in a territory proximate to the administrative center at Miz- pah, where reports from the heart of the empire would have circulated 42. The composition of Nehemiah 9 should be viewed against this social and historical backdrop. Its contents establish a discourse that counters the proposed privilege of returning exiles by tapping into motifs predating ― and thus trumping ― the captivity and displacement wrought by Baby- lon on both groups. 38 M. LEUCHTER, “Personal Missives and National History: The Relationship between Jeremiah 29 and 36”, Prophets, Prophecy and Ancient Israelite Historiography (eds. M.J. BODA – L.M. WRAY-BEAL) (Winona Lake, IN 2013) 275-293. 39 Jeremiah 24 may be a Persian period composition; see D. ROM-SHILONI, “Group Identities in Jeremiah: Is it the Persian Period Conflict?” A Palimpsest. Rhetoric, Ideology, Stylistics and Language Relating to Persian Israel (eds. E. BEN ZVI – D.V. EDELMAN – F. POLAK) (Piscataway, NJ 2009) 17-21. However, it develops ideas already associated with the prophet’s teachings as suggested by the shared motif in Jeremiah 29. 40 D. ROM SHILONI, “Ezekiel as the Voice of the Exiles and Constructor of Exilic Ideology”, HUCA 76 (2005) 1-45. See also BLENKINSOPP, Judaism, 125-159. 41 J.R. LUNDBOM has noted a Babylonian military incursion into Egypt ca. 582 BCE as discussed by Josephus (Jeremiah 37–52 [AB 21C; New York 2004] 208, 215), which points to an administrative/communicative network in advance of the campaign and no doubt following it as well. 42 LIPSCHITS, Fall and Rise of Jerusalem, 109-112, 258-271.