Jeremiah

PAIN AND PROMISE

Kathleen M. O’Connor

Fortress Press

Minneapolis

JEREMIAH

Pain and Promise

First Fortress Press paperback edition 2012

Copyright © 2011 Fortress Press. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Visit http://www.augsburgfortress.org/copyrights/contact.asp or write to Permissions, Augsburg Fortress, Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440.

Cover image: Dead Tree, Gray Sky © iStockphoto.com / Mike Elliott

Cover design: Joe Vaughan

Author photo: Scott Chester

Book design: PerfectType, Nashville, TN

ISBN 978-0-8006-9930-7

The Library of Congress cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

O’Connor, Kathleen M.

Jeremiah: pain and promise / Kathleen M. O’Connor.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8006-2040-0 (alk. paper)

1. Bible. O.T. Jeremiah—Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.

BS1525.52.O26 2011

224’.206—dc22

2011009347

In loving memory of my brother Bill O’Connor (1941–2006)

and

My brother-in-law Bob O’Keefe (1946–2008)

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Wounds without Words

1 Imagining Lives: Historical Context

2 Hearts of Stone: Disasters and Their Effects

3 A Relentless Quest for Meaning: The Book of Jeremiah

4 A Family Comes Undone: The Metaphor of a Broken Family

Jeremiah 2:1–4:4

5 Fragmented Memories of Trauma: The War Poems

Jeremiah 4:5–6:30; 8:16–17; 10:17–22; 13:20–27

6 If Only Tears Were Possible: The Weeping Poems

Jeremiah 8:22–9:11

7 Telling a Life: Biographical Stories

Jeremiah 1; 16:1–9; 20:1–6; 26; 32; 37:11–38:13; 40–43

8 Survive by Praying: The Confessions

Jeremiah 11:18–12:6; 15:1–21; 17:14–18; 18:18–23; 20:7–13, 14–18

9 Encoding Catastrophe: The Sermons

Jeremiah 7:1–8:3; 11:1–14; 17:19–27

10 Rekindling Hope: The Little Book of Consolation

Jeremiah 30–31

11 Running Out of Strength: Endings

Jeremiah 45; 50–51; 52

12 Confusion as Meaning-Making: The Composition of the Book

Epilogue: A Work of Hope and Resilience

Abbreviations

Selected Bibliography

Index of Scriptural Passages

Index of Names and Subjects

PREFACE

This book is not a commentary on the biblical book of Jeremiah. It is an interpretation of aspects of Jeremiah using insights drawn from contemporary studies of trauma and disaster. Trauma and disaster studies investigate how overwhelming violence and debilitating losses afflict minds, bodies, and spirits. In Jeremiah every passage anticipates disaster, speaks about it, or searches for ways to cope with its enduring consequences. A full-throttle response to a multileveled calamity, the book of Jeremiah addresses the victims of the Babylonian assaults on Judah in the sixth century b.c.e., including invasions, displacements, and deportations. Trauma and disaster studies examines the impact of such violence and the less visible wounds upon the life of the community ...