For Whom Does Rachel Weep?

Before the destruction of Judah in 586 BCE, Jeremiah wrote a series of oracles consoling his northern brethren. After the destruction of Judah, a supplementary layer was added to console the southern Judahites as well.

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"For Whom Does Rachel Weep?" (2016, September 28). TheTorah.com. https://www.thetorah.com/article/for-whom-does-rachel-weep

Prof. Marvin A. Sweeney
For Whom Does Rachel Weep?

Tomb of Rachel, Jerusalem, Holy Land Date between 1890 and 1900.  Library of Congress.

Published: September 28, 2016

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Last Updated: September 7, 2026

  1. [1] For commentary on Haftarat Rosh Hashanah Yom Sheni, see esp. Michael Fishbane,Haftarot (JPS Bible Commentary; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2002/5762) 377-383; cf. Marvin A. Sweeney, “Jeremiah,” The Jewish Study Bible (ed. A. Berlin and M. Brettler; Oxford and New York, 2003) 988-990.

    [2] For contemporary critical commentaries on Jeremiah 30-33, see esp. Jack R. Lundbom,Jeremiah 21-36 (AB 21B; New York: Doubleday, 2004) 368-546; Leslie C. Allen, Jeremiah: A Commentary (OTL; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008) 330-380.

    [3] Sigmund Mowinckel, Zur Komposition des Buches Jeremia (Kristiania: Jacob Dybwad, 1914) 45-48.

    [4] For detailed redaction-critical analysis of Jeremiah 30-31, see esp. my “Jeremiah 30-31 and King Josiah’s Program of National Restoration and Religious Reform,” Form and Intertextuality in Prophetic and Apocalyptic Literature (FAT 45; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005) 109-122.

    [5] For detailed redaction-critical analysis of Jeremiah 30-31, see esp. Sweeney, “Jeremiah 30-31”; idem, King Josiah of Judah: The Lost Messiah of Israel (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001) 225-233.

    [6] Editor’s note: Some confusion about the numbering exists here, since in traditional printings of the Tanakh, the last three verses are 26, 30, and 37 respectively. And this is also how they are numbered on the Bar Ilan Responsa Project database. ZIF

    [7] Jacob is a name typically given to the northern kingdom of Israel in antiquity.

    [8] For accounts of Josiah’s reign, see 2 Kings 22-23; 2 Chronicles 34-35.

    [9] According to 2Chron 35:20-25, Necho killed Josiah because he had attempted to prevent the Egyptians from supporting their Assyrian allies, the same Assyrian empire that had destroyed Israel a century earlier and had subjugated Judah ever since, and Jeremiah composed laments in his honor.

     
Prof. Marvin A. Sweeney is Professor of Hebrew Bible at the Claremont School of Theology at Willamette University, Salem, Oregon. His Ph.D. is from Claremont Graduate University. He is the author of sixteen volumes, such as Tanak: A… Read More
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