Book Reviews / Horizons in Biblical Theology 33 (2011) 191-206 201

Jeremiah 48 as Christian Scripture. By Julie Woods. Princeton Theological Monograph Series 144. Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2011. 355 pp.

Jeremiah 48 as Christian Scripture is the published form of Julie Woods PhD dissertation completed under the supervision of Dr. Walter Moberly at Durham University in 2009. The Princeton Theological Monograph Series did well in deciding to publish it. As Moberly writes in the Foreword, “The oracles against nations other than Israel occupy a substantial part of the prophetic books of the Old Testament. But they are arguably the least congenial and most perplexing portions of those books. As a matter of ancient history it is unclear what the nature and purpose of these texts was; and in terms of enduring significance as Scripture for Jews and Christians it is unclear what believers should do with them” (p. ix) Dr. Woods, with this monograph, has made a challenging and interesting contribution to the discussion of these matters. In the opening chapter Woods presents an overview of the study of the genre of oracles against the nations (OANs henceforth), concentrating especially on Jeremiah’s OAN.s. She notes that, while Jeremiah’s oracle against Moab (48) is, with the exception of the oracle against Babylon (50-51), the longest, it has not received very much attention. During the nineteenth century and much of the twentieth this can be explained by the fact that the older literary criticism was often preoccupied with establishing the authenticity of texts. Early on Jeremiah 48 came to be viewed as a non-authentic (i.e. not spoken/written by Jeremiah), addition to the book, and as such was not examined carefully. Later, under the influence of form criticism and then rhetorical criticism, more interest began to be shown to the OANs. In the 1980s a shift took place. Woods notes that William Holladay, Robert Carroll, and William McKane renewed the study of Jeremiah and devoted more attention to the OANs than previously had occurred. Gerhard von Rad, Norman Gottwald, Duane Christensen, John Hayes, Walter Brueggemann, and Martin Kessler, among others, also made significant contributions to the study of the form, composition, and rhetoric of the OANs. Literary and synchronic readings of Jeremiah began to take precedence. Woods singles out the work of Paul Raabe [“Why Prophetic Oracles against the Nations?” in Fortunate the Eyes that See] as especially helpful in identifying the need to separate the rhetorical form of the speech used in the OANs and the scope of the ultimate judgment that is envisioned. Chapters Two and Three present two sets of comparison. Chapter Two deals closely with the oracle concerning Moab as preserved in the MT (ch. 48) and in the LXX (ch. 31). The different place of the Moab oracle in the sequence of the OANs and the placement of the OANs within the MT and LXX as a whole is discussed carefully. The additions or expan- sions of the MT in comparison to the LXX are considered. Woods concludes that while the oracle in the MT is more vivid and intense than that in the LXX, the differences are not so great as to suggest that there is a different theology at work. Rather, each text has developed in its own manner though possibly sharing a common base tradition. Chapter Three presents a similarly careful analysis of the Moab oracle in Jeremiah (ch. 48) in comparison to that in Isaiah (chs. 15-16). There is, of course, a high degree of similarity. But the differences are such that Woods sides with those commentators who consider Jeremiah to have drawn from Isaiah or from a third source upon which Isaiah also

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/187122011X593217 202 Book Reviews / Horizons in Biblical Theology 33 (2011) 191-206 depended. Each of the two treatments has its own purpose. Woods does not expound the aim of Isaiah beyond noting that in Isaiah the major subject is Moab’s grief over the scope and intensity of the destruction that has befallen. Detailed development of the intent of Jeremiah’s oracle, however, is reserved for later chapters of the book. Chapters Four and Five are devoted to a consideration of the work of several scholars who have written generally on the prophetic literature as a whole and on Jeremiah 48 in particular. In Chapter Four the work of three contemporary U.S. scholars, Walter Bruegge- mann, Terence E. Fretheim, and Patrick D. Miller, is considered: In Chapter Five the work of two UK theologians, Douglas Jones and Ronald Clements, is explored. Woods does an excellent job of summarizing and contrasting the positions of these five scholars. What is especially helpful is the way she has considered the wider corpus of work each has done to clarify what she finds in relation to Jeremiah 48. In several of her sources, because of page limitations imposed by the commentary series in which the authors were writing, the mate- rial on Moab was somewhat limited. By utilizing other sources by the author in question, however, a fuller understanding of the author’s approach and interpretation was made pos- sible. The summary of the work of these five contemporary critics is very useful and pro- vides an excellent introduction to the study of the OANs and especially to Jeremiah 48. In Chapter Six Woods turns to the most often quoted and, in her opinion, generally misunderstood verse in Jeremiah 48, namely verse 10. Woods offer the following literal translation of the verse: “Cursed (is) the one doing (the) work of YHWH (in) slackness and cursed (is) the one holding back his sword from blood.” (p. 188) The verse is enigmatic in a number of ways. Whether it is prose or poetry is debated. Whether it was original to the composition or added after the fact is disputed. The tone seems to shift in this verse from that in the surrounding verses. The identity of the one wielding the sword is unclear. Woods sides with those who consider 48:10 a probable prose gloss, but makes two interpre- tive suggestions regarding its purpose. On the basis of Psalm 149:6-9 she understands the wielding of the two-edged sword as connected with the judgment decreed on the nations in Jeremiah 25:13. The slaying of King Eglon of Moab by Ehud (Judges 3:15ff ) with a two-edged sword may have provided a narrative inspiration for the metaphor. Second, the scribe may well have inserted this gloss as an exclamation in anticipation of an eschatologi- cal day of judgment. At the conclusion of Chapter Six Woods notes that Christians have had two major ways of dealing with such a verse as 48:10. One has been to read it literally which has lent sup- port to some violent actions in the name of God. The second has been to treat it meta- phorically with the result that it has usually lost its concrete sharpness entirely. She concludes her study in Chapter Seven with an explicit consideration of how Chris- tians may read Jeremiah 48 with all its concreteness and all its ambiguities. She takes the reader through each section of Jeremiah 48 offering insights based on her close study of the text and reflecting much that she has previously presented. She commends a “figural” read- ing of the text over against either a literal or metaphorical approach. Two of her conclusions are especially noteworthy. She draws special attention to the pain that the destruction of Moab brings to God (48:31-36). Though not all would agree that it is YHWH who is pictured as weeping in these verses, Woods believes that it is and that this is quite in keeping with a Christian understanding of God. She parallels the mourning of