ir compilation is
due to a late editor who has arranged his materials progressively so that
the whole is a unity;(614) that many of these materials are obviously from
the end of the exile in the style then prevailing; but that among them are
genuine Oracles of Jeremiah recognisable by their style. These are
admitted as his by the most drastic of critics. It is indeed incredible
that after such a crisis as the destruction of the Holy City and the exile
of her people, and with the new situation and prospect of Israel before
him, the Prophet should have had nothing to say. And the most probable
date for such utterances of hope as we have now to consider is not that of
his imprisonment but the breathing-space given him after 586, when the
Jewish community left in Judah made such a promising start.(615)

From its measure and vivid vision the first piece might well be
Jeremiah's; but it uses Jacob, the later literature's favourite name for
Israel, which Jeremiah does not use, and (in the last two verses) some
phrases with an outlook reminiscent of the Second Isaiah. The verses
describe a day when the world shall again be shaken, but out of the
shaking Israel's deliverance shall come.

[The sound of trembling we hear, XXX. 5
Dread without peace.
Enquire now and look ye, 6
If men be bearing?
Why then do I see every man(616)
With his hands on his loins?
All faces are changed, and
Livid become.(617)
For great is that day, 7
None is there like it,
With a time of trouble for Jacob.
Yet out of it saved shall he be.
It shall come to pass on that day-- 8
Rede of the Lord--
I will break their(618) yoke from their(619) neck,
Their(620) thongs I will burst;
And strangers no more shall they serve,(621)
But serve the Lord their God, 9
And David their king,
Whom I will raise up for them.]

The next piece is more probably Jeremiah's, as even Duhm admits; verses 10
and 11 which precede it are not given in the Greek.

Healless to me is thy ruin, 12
Sick is thy wound,
Not for thy sore is remede, 13
No closing (of wounds) for thee!
Forgot thee have all thy lovers, 14
Thee they seek not.
With the stroke of a foe I have struck thee,
A cruel correction.
Why criest thou over thy ruin, 15
Thy healless pain?
For the mass of thy guilt, thy sins profuse
Have I don