Originally published as D.J.A. Clines
and D.M. Gunn, ' "You tried to persuade me" and "Violence!
Outrage!" in Jeremiah xx 7-8', Vetus Testamentum 28 (1978),
pp. 20-27, and and reprinted with the agreement of David M. Gunn
and the permission of E.J. Brill.
1. On the nature and interpretation of this passage see further
D.J.A. Clines and D.M. Gunn, 'Form, Occasion and Redaction in
Jeremiah 20', ZAW 88 (1976), pp. 390-409 (reprinted above).
2. For example, in 20.7, 10 we Þnd 'deceive' (rsv), 'dupe',
'trick' (neb), 'dupe', 'trap' (nab).
3. E.g. jb; John Bright, Jeremiah (AB; Garden City, NY: Doubleday,
1965), p. 132; Wilhelm Rudolph, Jeremia (Tübingen: J.C.B.
Mohr, 3rd edn, 1968), p. 131; A.H.J. Gunneweg, 'Konfession oder
Interpretation im Jeremiabuch', ZTK 67 (1970), pp. 395-416 (409-10).
André Aeschimann, Le Prophète Jérémie
(Neuchâtel: Delachaux & Niestlé, 1959), p. 129,
Þnds séduire insufÞciently direct, 'car il
y a de bonnes et de mauvaises séductions. Le terme hébreu
est le même que dans Ex. 22.16 où il désigne
l'acte d'un homme qui débauche une jeune Þlle'; he
would translate, 'Tu m'as "eu", et je me suis laissé
avoir'.
4. John Maclennan Berridge, Prophet, People, and the Word of Yahweh
(Zürich: EVZ Verlag, 1970), pp. 151-55.
5. Abraham Joshua Heschel, Die Prophetie (Krakow: Nakladem Polskiej
Akademji Umiejetnosci, 1936), pp. 92-93; cf. his The Prophets
(New York: Harper & Row, 1969), pp. 113-14: 'O Lord, Thou
hast seduced me, / And I am seduced; / Thou hast raped me, / And
I am overcome'.
6. Cf. S. Marrow, 'Óåmås ("violentia")
in Jer. 20, 8', VD 43 (1965), pp. 241-55 (249-55).
7. James Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1961), p. 218.
8. So William McKane, Proverbs (London: SCM Press, 1970), p. 574;
but, we argue, it is unnecessary to add: 'In order to achieve
his ends he is prepared to commit perjury'.
9. Hence translations such as 'þatter' (rsv, jb nab) or
'beguile' (neb). Note A.A. Anderson, Psalms (NCB; London: Oliphants,
1972), I, p. 570: 'they tried to deceive God' (our italics).
10. This verse could of course, mean 'Abner has come to deceive
you and to Þnd out . . . all that you
are doing', but it could equally well mean 'Abner has come to
win you over [cf. 3.12] and (at the same time) to Þnd out . . . '
11. In neither passage in Judges is any deceit employed by Samson's
wife or Delilah; 'coax (neb) or 'cajole' (jb) is more appropriate.
12. Nothing in this context indicates that the prophet who is
pittâ'd into delivering an oracle is deceived; rather he
'lets himself be induced by the wish to please or by a calculated
compromise' (Walther Eichrodt, Ezekiel: A Commentary [London:
SCM Press, 1970], p. 183 = Der Prophet Hesekiel. Kap. 118
[Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1959], p. 105). The
'coaxing' of the prophet is, according to this verse, ultimately
Yahweh's 'inducing' (pittâ).
13. See J.L. Austin, How to do Things with Words (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1962), pp. 99-103. Two of his examples are:
1. Illocution: He urged me to shoot
her.
Perlocution: He persuaded me to shoot her.
2. Illocution: He protested against
my doing it.
Perlocution: He pulled me up, checked me.
14. So e.g. J. Bright, 'Jeremiah's Complaints: Liturgy, or Expressions
of Personal Disaster?', in J.I. Durham and J.R. Porter (eds.),
Proclamation and Presence (London: SCM Press, 1970), pp. 189-214
(212).
15. So e.g. neb, nab, Sheldon H. Blank, Jeremiah, Man and Prophet
(Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1961), pp. 125, 134.
16. So e.g. Bernhard Duhm, Das Buch Jeremia (Tübingen: J.C.B.
Mohr [P. Siebeck], 1901), p. 165; Walter Baumgartner, Die Klagedichte
des Jeremia (BZAW, 32; Giessen: A. Topelmann, 1917), p. 64; Rudolph,
Jeremia, p. 120; cf. Gunneweg, 'Konfession oder Interpretation',
p. 409. That the cry is taken as addressed to Yahweh is, in most
cases, only implied by scholars. Few spell out precisely their
exegesis of this phrase. On åmås as a cry for deliverance,
see H.J. Stoebe, ThWAT, cols. 584-85.
17. The situation in Hab. 1.3 is different: there the prophet's
cry of åmås to Yahweh does not accompany his utterance
of a 'word of Yahweh'. The prophet is simply identifying himself
with the oppressed of his people.
18. Marrow, 'Óåmås ("violentia")',
p. 255; Berridge, Prophet, People, and the Word of Yahweh, pp.
153-55.
19. Marrow, 'Óåmås ("violentia")',
p. 248. Cf. Gunneweg's understanding of pittâ in the context
of a worshipper who complains that Yahweh has not fulÞlled
his promise delivered through an oracle ('Konfession oder Interpretation',
pp. 409-10).
20. See Claus Rietzschel, Das Problem der Urrolle (Gütersloh:
Gütersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn, 1966), p. 125.
21. This is more precise than Berridge's observation that 'Jeremiah
bitterly laments the nature of his prophetic ministry, drawing
attention to the full control which Yahweh exercises over his
life' (Prophet, People, and the Word of Yahweh, p. 155).
22. Marrow, 'Óåmås ("violentia")',
p. 255, also notes the irony here, though he is arguing that the
protest is directed against a broken promise.
23. This is a conceptual analysis, following the syntax of the
line. The mechanics of the parallelism in the line do not correspond
completely to its logical structure.
24. As is recognized also by Berridge, Prophet, People, and the
Word of Yahweh, p. 155.