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Oracles Against the Nations in Jeremiah

The situation regarding the Oracles Against the Nations is the most challenging part of comparing the Septuagintal and Masoretic versions of Jeremiah. There are two significant revisions in addition to the kind of revisions found through the book.

First, the Oracles Against the Nations is located in chapters 25‑31 in the Septuagintal version and in chapter 46‑51 in the Masoretic version. When the Oracles Against the Nations were relocated in the Masoretic version (as seems to be the case; see, e.g., Watts, Pietersma, “Excursus”), the original framework for the Oracles remained where it was and was spliced together by 25:13b‑14 MT. The framework in the Septuagintal version remains in 25:1‑13 and 32:1‑24 LXX, before and after the Oracles Against the Nations

Why were the oracles against the nations relocated within the MT version of Jeremiah? One suggestion is that “the [LXX] placement has the effect of informing the readers earlier in the book that Israel’s enemies will perish. The Hebrew text forces Israelite readers to face their own destruction and its causes before taking heart in their opponents’ demise.”[1] Another suggestion is that the MT arrangement has the two fall of Jerusalem accounts (chaps. 37-39; 52) framing the oracles against the nations (chaps. 46-51). Other reasons are also plausible. Another suggestion, somewhat more common, is that by shuffling the Oracles and placing them at the end of the book, the book ends with the fall of Babylon (see essays in Kessler, ed.).

Septuagintal		Masoretic
25:15-19	Elam	46	Egypt
26	Egypt	47	Philistia
27-28	Babylon	48	Moab
29:1-7	Philistia	49:1-6	Ammon
29:8-23	Edom	49:7-22	Edom
30:1-5	Ammon	49:23-27	Damascus
30:6-11	Kedar	49:28-33	Kedar
30:12-16	Damascus	49:34-39	Elam
31	Moab	50-51	Babylon

Second, the Oracles Against the Nations are arranged differently in the two versions as noted in the table above. Why were the oracles against the nations themselves rearranged as they are in the MT (see list above)? Perhaps the MT arrangement aligns them better with the order of the nations listed in 25:19-26 MT. And/or there is an eastward movement beginning with Egypt and ending in Babylon (see geographic layout). And/or this arrangement may have hoped to place the oracle against Babylon in the final and climatic position of the oracles and the book as a whole. What is more difficult to explain is the rationale, if there is one, behind the original LXX arrangement of the oracles against the nations.[2]

The LXX arrangement, especially with the framework to the Oracles separated by the Oracles in between 25:1‑13 and 32:1‑24 and the location of the oracle against Babylon in third rather than final position, accents one of the most significant differences with respect to Jeremiah considered as a book. Studies of Jeremiah generally work with the book in the Masoretic tradition and note the structural significance of chapters 25 and 50‑51 to the book as a whole (see, e.g., essays in Kessler). The oracle against Babylon provides a climactic literary function, to the Oracles Against the Nations and to the book of Jeremiah as a whole in the Masoretic version. Reading the Septuagintal version in its native structure suggests a different view of the Oracles Against the Nations and Jeremiah as a book. The structure of the LXX version may be a “retrospective” orientation, ending by looking back to the fall of Jerusalem and the fate of those who remained, while the MT version may offer a “prospective” orientation, ending with God’s judgment on Babylon (see Sweeny 2005, 91-93). Sweeny regards the former as explaining reasons for the fall of Jerusalem and the latter as offering hope to the faithful remnant

[1] House, “Plot,” 305, n. 22. Also see House, Old Testament Theology, 590, n. 53.

[2] See Jack R. Lundbom, “Jeremiah, Book of,” ABD (Doubleday, 1992), 3: 707-8.