From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John

Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture

Jane Austen
(A Biography)

Solomon Among the Postmoderns

The Baptized Body

1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary

The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter

A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons

Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature

Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen

The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism

A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel

Against Christianity

From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution

Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy

Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper

A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament

Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature

Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church

|

Bible - OT - Lamentations: Breath of Israel

Jeremiah describes invaders chasing Israel across the mountains of the land, pursuing them as swiftly as eagles (Lamentations 4:19).  They can’t keep going; out of breath, they are ambushed and taken into exile.

Why are they breathless and weak?  Because “the breath of our nostrils . . . was captured in their pits.”  Who or what might that be?  The parallel phrase in verse 20a tells us: “the breath (Heb., ruach) of our nostrils, Yahweh’s anointed.”  That is, Judah’s king is Judah’s breath.  Judah’s king is a new Adam sharing breath with Judah.  Judah’s king encourages warriors who have exhausted their strength, fills the noses of Judah’s warriors with battle-rage, gives life and breath to His people.

All of Judah’s kings, every anointed one, communicated ruach to the people.  That’s what kings do.  And that’s what Jesus does.

Bible - OT - Lamentations: Feminine city

Chrisi Maier gave an interesting paper on the feminine conception of space in Lamentations. Jeremiah speaks of Jerusalem in turn as widow, as violated virgin, and as mother bereft of children. There is an intriguing asymmetry between these three images. The first two have an obvious literal referent: The city is violated because rapist enemy soldiers have broken through the walls, and the city’s children have really been deported. But the first image doesn’t have so obviously a “literal” referent: A literal referent would imply that, in some sense, the city’s husband Yahweh has died. When I asked Maier about this, she suggested that the point is that Jeremiah is describing the three main forms of feminine suffering, of feminine loss: of husband, virginity, children. But the text also raises the intriguing possibility that the destruction of the city is also, in some sense, the death of Yahweh – foreshadowing the NT’s linkage (in Mark, for instance) between the destruction of Jerusalem and the crucifixion of Yahweh incarnate.

Maier also noted a number of parallels between Lamentations 1-2 and Isaiah 40-55. Isaiah’s prophecy point by point reverses the suffering of Daughter Zion – she’ll have children, her husband will be restored, and she’ll be considered pure. Of course, Maier thinks that “Deutero-Isaiah” came later than Lamentation, but the intertextual connections are there. This may help to explain the strange unfinished quality of Lamentations: Jeremiah ends with Israel still in mourning, but he writes against the background of Isaiah’s promise that tears will be turned to joy.

|