Texts in Conversation
Jeremiah 8:19 closely echoes Deuteronomy 32:21 in its reference to Israel provoking God with worthless or foreign gods. Both texts use the same language to describe this offense, suggesting that Jeremiah deliberately draws on Deuteronomy to connect itself to its history.
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Deuteronomy 32:21
Hebrew Bible
20 He said, “I will reject them. I will see what will happen to them; for they are a perverse generation, children who show no loyalty. 21 They have made me jealous with false gods, enraging me with their worthless gods; so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, with a nation slow to learn I will enrage them. 22 For a fire has been kindled by my anger, and it burns to lowest Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and ignites the foundations of the mountains.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Jeremiah 8:19
Hebrew Bible
18 Then I said, “There is no cure for my grief! I am sick at heart! 19 I hear my dear people crying out throughout the length and breadth of the land. They are crying, ‘Is the Lord no longer in Zion? Is her divine King no longer there?’” The Lord answers, “Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?” 20 “They cry, ‘Harvest time has come and gone and the summer is over, and still we have not been delivered.’ 21 My heart is crushed because the daughter of my people55 are being crushed. I go about crying and grieving. I am overwhelmed with dismay.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Before I cite the parallels between Deuteronomy 32 and Jeremiah, I shall state my own conclusion: the poem clearly antedates Jeremiah. The parallels with Jeremiah's words offer substantial data for this conclusion. Not all of the parallels are of equal weight - some are persuasive and some only suggestive ... In Deuteronomy 32:20 Yahweh says, 'I will see what their end will be,' and in Jeremiah 12:4, Jeremiah has Israel's doubters say, 'He will not see our end'; again Jeremiah seems to have adapted the old phrase for a new purpose. In Deuteronomy 32:21 we have 'They offended me with their nothings (that is, idols), and in Jeremiah 8:19 Yahweh interrupts with 'Why have they offended me with their idols, with alien nothings?' ..."
Holladay, William Lee
Jeremiah 2: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapters 26-52
(pp. 90-91) Fortress Press, 1989
* 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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