“Call Narratives”

“The call narratives…are not primarily pieces of autobiographical information but open proclamations of the prophet’s claim to be Yahweh’s agent at work in Israel” (Norman Habel, p. 317).

Call Narratives

• Confrontation

• Introductory word

• Commission

• Objection

• Reassurance

• Sign

Jeremiah 1.1-3

“The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of Yhwh came in the days of Josiah son of Amon of Judah in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah son of Josiah of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month”

Jeremiah 16.1-2

“The word of Yhwh came to me: You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.”

Jeremiah 16.3

For thus says Yhwh:

Regarding the sons and regarding the daughters

those born in this place

and regarding their mothers

those bearing them

and regarding the fathers

those begetting them

in this land.

Jeremiah 16.4

“They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried; they shall become like dung on the surface of the ground”

Jeremiah 36.2

“Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah and until today”

Psalms of Lament

• Complaint

• Petition

• Outline of troubles

• Confidence

• Praise

The Confessions

• 11.18-12.6

• 15.10-21

• 17.14-18

• 18.18-23

• 20.7-18

Jeremiah 20.7-18

• Complaint 20.7

• Petition 20.12

• Outline of troubles 20.10, 14-18

• Confidence 20.12

• Praise 20.13

The Rise of Babylon

• Fall of Ninevah, 612 BCE

• Nebuchadnezzar• Jehoiakim’s

rebellion crushed• Zedekiah• Destruction of

Jerusalem 587/6 BCE