Texts in Conversation
Jeremiah 32:41 closely echoes Deuteronomy 28:63 by reusing its language of divine delight in both blessing and destruction. This reversal of joy, from multiplying the people to uprooting them, forms part of a broader pattern in which Jeremiah repeatedly draws from the curses in Deuteronomy 28.
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Deuteronomy 28:63
Hebrew Bible
62 There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, because you will have disobeyed the Lord your God. 63 This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, so he will also take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess. 64 The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Jeremiah 32:41
Hebrew Bible
40 I will make a lasting covenant with them that I will never stop doing good to them. I will fill their hearts and minds with respect for me so that they will never again turn away from me. 41 I will take delight in doing good to them. I will faithfully and wholeheartedly plant them firmly in the land.’ 42 “For I, the Lord, say: ‘I will surely bring on these people all the good fortune that I am hereby promising them. I will be just as sure to do that as I have been in bringing all this great disaster on them.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Deuteronomy 28 is pronounced by Moses and contains ‘blessings’ (v2) and ‘curses’ (v15), the respective sections being v1–14 and 15–68. Once again, and even more than in Leviticus 26, the section mentioning the dire consequences of disobedience is larger by far, and it forms the conclusion – differing from Leviticus 26, where v39–45 allow us to surmise a positive outcome. As in the case of Leviticus 26, Jeremiah takes up more the punitive part of Deuteronomy 28, and much more intensively. In fact, there is no other book of the Bible that uses Deuteronomy 28 more than Jeremiah does. Deuteronomy is the scroll upon which Jeremiah relies the most, and there is no chapter of Deuteronomy that serves more as a source for Jeremiah than 28. All these aspects underline the importance of Deuteronomy’s curses for the understanding of Jeremiah ..."
Fisher, S.J.
The Book of Jeremiah: Realisation of Threats of the Torah – and also of Promises?
(pp. 1-9) Verbum et Ecclesia 40(1), 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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