{"id":70532,"date":"2020-02-22T15:49:16","date_gmt":"2020-02-22T13:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=70532"},"modified":"2023-10-16T12:30:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T09:30:54","slug":"o-inhabitants-of-the-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/o-inhabitants-of-the-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"O Inhabitants Of The Valley!"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[391,635],"acf":{"old_id":"70532","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"421","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Must not be Jerusalemites\u2026..\r\n\r\n","content":"

The essence of this chapter, whose theme is the futility of defending Jerusalem against the Babylonians (4-7), can be summed up in the words of two of its verses: <\/span><\/p>\n

And to this people you shall say: Thus said the LORD: I set before you the way of life and the way of death. Whoever remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but whoever leaves and goes over to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live; he shall at least gain his life (8-9).<\/span><\/p>\n

The Israelites have forfeited God\u2019s help on account of their perversion of justice, so Jeremiah was instructed to address the royal household and urge them to \u201crender just verdicts morning by morning; rescue him who is robbed from him who defrauded him\u201d (12). The translation of the word <\/span>la-boker<\/span><\/em> here as \u201cmorning by morning,\u201d follows the commentary of Shadal*: \u201cDaily, i.e., perpetually\u2026 meaning every morning.\u201d An alternative translation, \u201cexecute justice in the morning,\u201d is consistent with the commentary of Radak who assumed that courts went into session in the morning, as evidenced by Moses who \u201csat in judgement of the people, who stood about Moses from the morning until evening\u201d (Exodus 18:13).<\/span><\/p>\n

The warning continued by addressing the people\u2019s false sense of security: \u201cI will deal with you, O inhabitants of the valley, O rock of the plain\u2014declares the LORD\u2014 You who say, \u201cWho can come down against us? Who can get into our lairs?\u201d (13). To the inhabitants of which valley did Jeremiah speak? Rashi said it was Jerusalem, \u201cwhich is situated in a valley.\u201d Since anyone who has visited Jerusalem knows that it is not exactly so, we can only assume that Rashi, who had never been there, was influenced by Psalm 125:2: \u201cJerusalem is surrounded by mountains.\u201d Shadal*, however, argued that \u201cthe [exegetes] all got it wrong because the prophet is not addressing Jerusalem but the royal family, which he compared to someone standing on an elevated point from which he presumes that an enemy cannot overthrow him.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

*For an explanation of our objectives in studying Shadal\u2019s commentary, <\/span>see our introduction<\/span><\/a> in Jeremiah chapter 1.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Charles O\u2019Donnel, The ancient city of Jerusalem with Solomon’s Temple, c. 1871 \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":70533,"id":70533,"title":"jer21-ancient_city_of_Jerusalem","filename":"jer21-ancient_city_of_Jerusalem.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer21-ancient_city_of_Jerusalem.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/o-inhabitants-of-the-valley\/jer21-ancient_city_of_jerusalem\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer21-ancient_city_of_jerusalem","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":70532,"date":"2020-02-22 13:48:42","modified":"2020-11-18 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