List of Illustrations xiii Series Editors'' Preface xix Acknowledgments xxi Testimonia xxv Jeremiah the Man xxv The Book xxvii Actualizations xxix Introduction 1 Theory and Practice of Reception History 3 Jeremiah in Three Guises 4 Jeremiah in Antiquity 5 Medieval Jeremiahs 17 Early Modernity 24 Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 47 Practical Notes for Using the Commentary 64 Jeremiah 1 67 Word of the Lord or Words of Jeremiah? (Jer 1:1) 67 Jeremiah Before Birth (1:4-5) 69 A Prophet to the Nations (1:5) 77 Resisting God (1:6) 77 Filling Jeremiah''s Mouth 81 The Job Description (1:10) 82 God''s Pun (1:11-12) 84 What''s Cooking? (1:13-16) 88 Jeremiah 2 93 God''s Lawsuit (2:1-13) 94 Leaky Cisterns or Living Water? (2:12-13) 95 A Puzzling Verb Becomes a Word of Salvation (2:20) 98 Prophetic Pornography (2:20-25) 99 Jeremiah in the Synagogue (2:4-28) 101 Jeremiah 3 103 A Rare Allusion to God the Father (3:4,19) 103 Holy Forgetting (3:15-18) 105 3:24-25 106 Jeremiah 4 107 A Subversive Translation (4:1-2) 107 The Circumcised Heart (4:4) 108 Reading Metaphor (4:7) 109 Does God Deceive? (4:9-10) 110 Body and Soul (4:19-22) 110 Apocalypse Now (4:23-28) 112 Contradiction as Problem and Opportunity (4:27) 113 Dressing Down a GussiedUp Female (4:29-31) 113 Jeremiah 5 115 Nothing Bad Will Happen to Us (5:12) 115 Divine Fire Consuming Human Wood (5:14) 116 An Appalling and Horrible Thing (5:30-31) 118 Contents ix Jeremiah 6 119 Two Roads Diverged (6:16) 119 Buying Salvation (6:20) 120 Jeremiah as Fortress and/or Refiner (6:27) 120 Jeremiah 7 123 A Den of Thieves (7:1-15) 123 A Troubling Contradiction (7:21-24) 124 Jeremiah 8 127 Reading Jeremiah as Science (8:7) 127 The Balm of Gilead (8:22) 130 Jeremiah 9 135 A Fountain of Tears (9,1,18) 135 Internalizing the Prophet''s Cry (9:2) 140 Death Climbs in the Windows (9:21) 141 Jeremiah 10 145 Superstition and Science (10:2-5) 145 Who Will Not Fear You? (10:7) 147 Wise Fools (10:12-16) 147 Humans Are Not Masters of Themselves (10:23-24) 149 Correct Me, O Lord (10:24) 151 Pour Out Thy Wrath (10:25) 151 Jeremiah 11 153 Let Us Put Wood in his Bread (11:19) 153 Jeremiah 12 157 A Lawsuit Against God (12:1-4) 157 Shameful Revenues (12:13) 160 Jeremiah 13 161 Jeremiah''s Loincloth (13:1-11) 161 Jeremiah''s Tears (13:17) 164 Unsettling Images (13: 22-27) 164 Jeremiah 14 167 The Inn and the Manger (14:7-9) 167 Jeremiah 15 169 Saints Alive (15:1) 169 Woe is Me, My Mother (15:10) 170 Changing Fashions in Prayer (15:15) 171 Is Jeremiah Blasphemous? (15:18) 172 A Divine Reprimand Reconsidered (15:19) 174 Jeremiah 16 177 Prophetic Celibacy (16:1-4) 177 Hunters and Fishers (16:16-18) 179 Jeremiah 17 181 Misplaced Trust (17:5) 181 Is the Human Heart Deep, or Depraved? (17:9-10) 182 The Partridge (17:11) 185 Jeremiah 18 187 The Surprise of Divine Freedom (18:1-12) 187 Jeremiah 19 193 Jeremiah Smashes a Jug 193 Jeremiah 20-21 197 Jeremiah in the Stocks (20:1-6) 197 Divine Deception (20:7) 199 Whose Violence and Destruction? (20:8) 207 A Reproach and a Derision (20:8) 207 A Burning Fire (20:9) 208 Do Saints Curse? (20:13-18) 212 Jeremiah 22 219 The Burial of an Ass (22:18-19) 219 Jeremiah and the Lost Ark (22:29) 220 Jeremiah 23 223 The Righteous Branch (23:5-6) 223 False Prophets (23:9-40) 226 Jeremiah 24 229 Two Baskets of Figs (24:1-10) 229 Jeremiah 25 231 The Cup of the Wine of Wrath (25:15-31) 232 Jeremiah 26-28 235 Jeremiah''s Yoke (Jer 27:2; 28:1-17) 235 False Prophets 237 Jeremiah 29 239 Build and Plant (29:1-6) 240 Praying for the Enemy (29:7) 240 Seventy Years (29:10) 242 God''s Inscrutable Plans (29:11) 244 Jeremiah as Contemporary Prophet (Jer 29:19) 245 Jeremiah 30-31 247 Hope in the Midst of Trauma (30:1-3) 247 Rachel Weeps in Every Century (31:15-17) 248 GenderBending (31:22) 250 The New Covenant (31:31-34) 252 Jeremiah 32-33 257 A Strange Real Estate Deal 257 Jeremiah 34 259 Taking Back the Gift of Freedom (34:8-22) 259 Jeremiah 35 261 Jeremiah 36 267 Free Will and Divine Omniscience (36:3, 7) 268 Word, Scroll, Book (36:2, 5, 18) 268 Jehoiakim as Perennial Tyrant (36:20-26) 269 Words and the Word (36:27) 272 Jeremiah 37-38 277 Dungeon and Cistern 277 Ancient Allegories (38:1-13) 278 A Model for Political Resistance (38:1-16) 280 The Cistern as Spiritual Prison (38:1-6). 285 EbedMelek Rescues Jeremiah (38:7-13) 287 Jeremiah''s Lie (38:24-27) 295 Jeremiah 39 299 Zedekiah Captured (39:4-7) 299 EbedMelech Becomes Abimelech (39:15-18) 301 Jeremiah 40-43 303 How Did the Prophet Escape the Burning City? (40:1-6) 304 The Murder of Gedaliah (40:7- 41:17) 305 How Long, O Lord? (42:7) 305 The Stones of Tahpanhes (43:8-13) 306 Jeremiah 44 309 Uppity Women (44:15-19) 310 Martyrdom of Jeremiah 312 Jeremiah 45 319 Jeremiah 46-51 323 Babylon, the Golden Cup in God''s Hand (51:7) 325 Jeremiah Speaks to a WarTorn Twentieth Century (51:11) 326 Thus Far the Words of Jeremiah (51:59-64) 328 Glossary 329 Brief Biography 333 Bibliography 341 Index 357.