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1. Investigating Structure 43
1. 2.27b-28a. The pattern is abcba. Here the outer limits (a) are
indicated by the phrase 'in the time of their trouble', the next
ring (b) has the verbs 'arise' and 'save', and the centre (c) is
'but where are the gods which you made for yourselves?'
(onyn nun[i]; imp'/naip; and •piPBjv/uirtfini respectively).
2. 4.19c-21. This seems to be a+bc*dd*c'b+a. The corresponding
key words are: laitf 'Tip; nantfK/'rmtf; 03/nurin; Vrmtf.
The most substantial part of the book deals with chiastic poems (of
about four verses or more) and with chiasmus in the larger book of
Jeremiah. 1
In the latter section Lundbom introduces a new type of chiasmus,
arguing that in chs. 25-26 and 35-36 there is a 'Jehoiakim cluster'
patterned as follows:
a ch. 25 4th year of Jehoiakim
b ch. 26 the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign
b' ch. 35 in the days of Jehoiakim
a 1 ch. 36 4th year of Jehoiakim
Both ch. 26 and ch. 35 deal with Jeremiah in the Temple. Lundbom
regards 36.9-32 as a later addition to vv. 1-8, which was intended as
Baruch's signature at the end of an earlier edition of the book.
Similarly a 'Zedekiah cluster' may be detected:
a ch. 24 after the exile of Jeconiah
b ch. 27 beginning of Zedekiah's reign
b' ch. 28 beginning of Zedekiah's reign
a' ch. 29 after the exile of Jeconiah
Lundbom argues that the two clusters were interspersed because in
this way it was possible to keep ch. 36 at the end, and ch. 24 (which
shows significant parallels to ch. 1) at the beginning of the series.
Chapters 30-33 is taken to be a separate section added later still, and
this may be accepted. 2
This is, in some ways, an attractive theory, but it does involve quite
a number of suppositions that are difficult to prove. For example:
1. Lundbom, Jeremiah, pp. 70-96, 96-112 respectively.
2. Lundbom, Jeremiah, pp. 107-112.