Texts in Conversation
Jeremiah 10 and Psalm 135 echo ancient Near Eastern traditions that depict a storm deity who commands wind, rain, and lightning. These traditions are associated with gods like Baal or Enlil and influenced early Israelite theology.
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Jeremiah 10:13
Hebrew Bible
11 You people of Israel should tell those nations this: ‘These gods did not make heaven and earth. They will disappear from the earth and from under the heavens.’ 12 The Lord is the one who by his power made the earth. He is the one who by his wisdom established the world. And by his understanding, he spread out the skies. 13 When his voice thunders, the heavenly ocean roars. He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain. He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it. 14 All these idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made. For the image he forges is merely a sham. There is no breath in any of those idols. 15 They are worthless, mere objects to be mocked. When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Psalm 135:7
Hebrew Bible
5 Yes, I know the Lord is great, and our Lord is superior to all gods. 6 He does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the ocean depths. 7 He causes the clouds to arise from the end of the earth, makes lightning bolts accompany the rain, and brings the wind out of his storehouses. 8 He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, including both men and animals. 9 He performed awesome deeds and acts of judgment in your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants.
Date: 6th-3rd Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The point of this observation is to note that the image of the storehouse is not a controlling device in Job 38, but rather an incidental detail, associated with just two of the elements (snow and hail). This contrasts with the Ethiopic and Slavonic Enoch material that we studied, where it is a developed concept by which the material is structured. Something similar may be said about Jeremiah 10:13. Here, the true and exclusive creative and providential activity of God is described, in order to assert his uniqueness over the false gods (see Jeremiah 10:11–12, 14–16) ... That closing expression is also encountered in Psalm 135:7. In both texts, the image of the storehouse in which the winds are stored is simply one detail among several stock meteorological images, piled up in order to emphasize the creative and providential uniqueness of God ..."
Macaskill, Grant
Meteorology and Metrology: Evaluating Parallels in the Ethiopic Parables of Enoch and 2 (Slavonic) Enoch
(pp. 79-99) Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Vol. 29, No. 2, 2019
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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