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Stealing the Word

Stealing the Word 105 STEALING THE WORD Jeremiah's reproach to the false prophets that they were stealing "my words" (or possibly "my word") n?t? V'R (Jer. xxiii 30) has never made exegetes quite happy 1). What exactly were they stealing and from whom? If ".,:1, is taken in its most obvious sense, then YHVH's word is stolen. But since the latter is, on Jeremiah's premises, only with the 'true' prophets, it is from them that the false prophets, who are supposed to be without divine inspiration, appropriate their prophecies. This, in fact, is also the interpretation of Rashi and Kimhi, undoubtedly suggested to them by the expla- nation of the Rabbis b..Sa?che?rin 89a. The difficulties are obvious. True and false prophet could hardly be described as W"N, and moreover the contents of their burden was, as a rule, radically opposed. The alternative explanation says that the false prophets steal the word from YHVH, i.e. usurp the right to speak as prophets although YHVH has never sent them. But pi. 3M does not mean to usurp. Although they do indeed usurp the right to prophesy (ibid. v. 21), they definitely steal the word from one another. This may refer to the remarkable http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Vetus Testamentum Brill

Stealing the Word

Vetus Testamentum , Volume 6 (1): 105 – Jan 1, 1956

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1956 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0042-4935
eISSN
1568-5330
DOI
10.1163/156853356X00125
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

105 STEALING THE WORD Jeremiah's reproach to the false prophets that they were stealing "my words" (or possibly "my word") n?t? V'R (Jer. xxiii 30) has never made exegetes quite happy 1). What exactly were they stealing and from whom? If ".,:1, is taken in its most obvious sense, then YHVH's word is stolen. But since the latter is, on Jeremiah's premises, only with the 'true' prophets, it is from them that the false prophets, who are supposed to be without divine inspiration, appropriate their prophecies. This, in fact, is also the interpretation of Rashi and Kimhi, undoubtedly suggested to them by the expla- nation of the Rabbis b..Sa?che?rin 89a. The difficulties are obvious. True and false prophet could hardly be described as W"N, and moreover the contents of their burden was, as a rule, radically opposed. The alternative explanation says that the false prophets steal the word from YHVH, i.e. usurp the right to speak as prophets although YHVH has never sent them. But pi. 3M does not mean to usurp. Although they do indeed usurp the right to prophesy (ibid. v. 21), they definitely steal the word from one another. This may refer to the remarkable

Journal

Vetus TestamentumBrill

Published: Jan 1, 1956

There are no references for this article.