Jeremiah and Gender

This chapter explores salient features of gendered language and gender performance in Jeremiah from a feminist perspective. At first sight, the book witnesses a patriarchal world of male privilege and female subordination, which is expressed by gendered language and sexualized metaphors. The personification of Jerusalem—Judah as adulterous wife of YHWH and the devastation of her female body—generates horrific images that express the shame and humiliation of its ancient audiences, but are unbearable for postmodern readers. Inspecting some passages more closely, this chapter reveals flaws in this rhetoric of shaming and breaches in gender performance that help to deconstruct an allegedly rigid gender hierarchy and to seek ways to alternative interpretations of the divine-human relationship.