A Whirling Tempest

Abstract

In comparison to research on the Psalms, Isaiah, and other prophetic books, the mythic portrayal of YHWH’s combat of chaotic opposition has received little attention in the study of Jeremiah. By drawing up a holistic profile of Jeremiah’s Chaoskampf, my article demonstrates that this theme is more central to this prophetic book than the scholarly landscape might suggest. Divine mastery of various manifestations of chaos plays a key role in how the book presents YHWH’s work in creation (past), YHWH’s judgment on Israel (present), and YHWH’s defeat of Israel’s enemies and the people’s restoration (future). In conversation with myth and trauma theory, I will argue that the tension between YHWH’s unleashing and quenching of chaotic forces is rooted in the flexible character of the combat myth and that it contributes to the book’s efforts of explaining the crisis of 587 BCE.