Tranen in Gods ogen. De keerzijde van het oordeel in het boek Jeremia

Samenvatting

Among the biblical ‘texts of terror’, the prophetic oracles against the nations stand out in their depictions of human and divine violence. Jeremiah’s lengthy oracle of merciless divine judgment against Moab (Jer. 48), centrally focuses on the curse ‘on him who keeps his sword from bloodshed’ (vs 10). Total annihilation leaves Moab without a future (vs 42). More than the other oracles of Jeremiah 46-49, chapter 48 has a theological interest. The prophetic announcement of Moab’s destruction shows an idiosyncratic alternation of judgment and lament, i.e., fierce divine fierce anger and his regret, divine judgment and his wailing over Moab. Detailed analysis shows that YHWH is most likely the subject of weeping several times in Jeremiah 48. This essay seeks to interpret this language of divine grief not figuratively as an ‘ironic inversion of the lamentation’ (Jones), but as a sign of divine compassion (Fretheim). The appearance of God’s tears in the midst of divine violence, inspires the hope that destruction will not have the last word, thereby pointing to a future the New Testament reveals.