Verb position in Jeremiah 26:18 "Septuagint"

[Stirling Bartholomew]

I spent a few hours reading recent secondary literature on clause final verbs in Hebrew poetry but couldn't find any patterns discussed that were identical to what we see in this passage where we see parallelism joining two constituents with a single verb in final position.

Jer. 46:18 חי־אני נאם־המלך יהוה צבאות שׁמו כי כתבור בהרים וככרמל בים יבוא

Jer. 26:18 ζῶ ἐγώ, λέγει κύριος ὁ θεός, ὅτι ὡς τὸ Ἰταβύριον ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσιν καὶ ὡς ὁ Κάρμηλος ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ ἥξει.

Checking the various translations I noted a change in the updated New American Bible 2011.

NAB* 1970, 1986, 1991

*New American Bible with Revised New Testament Copyright © 1991, 1986, 1970 by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 3211 4th Street, NE, Washington, DC 20017-1194.

Jer 46:18
As I live, says the King
whose name is LORD of hosts,
Like Tabor among the mountains he shall come,
like Carmel above the sea.

NAB 2011

Jer 46:18
As I live, says the King
whose name is LORD of hosts,
Like Tabor above mountains,
like Carmel above the sea, he comes.

The following demonstrate a clause final verb pattern joining parallel clauses each with its own verb(s):

Jer. 31:14 ורויתי נפשׁ הכהנים דשׁן ועמי את־טובי ישׂבעו נאם־יהוה ס

Jer. 38:14 μεγαλυνῶ καὶ μεθύσω τὴν ψυχὴν τῶν ἱερέων υἱῶν Λευι, καὶ ὁ λαός μου τῶν ἀγαθῶν μου ἐμπλησθήσεται.

Jer. 31:25 כי הרויתי נפשׁ עיפה וכל־נפשׁ דאבה מלאתי

Jer. 38:25 ὅτι ἐμέθυσα πᾶσαν ψυχὴν διψῶσαν καὶ πᾶσαν ψυχὴν πεινῶσαν ἐνέπλησα.

What sort of analysis would you apply for the first example Jer. 46:18?

[RandallButh]

Stirling,

The last two half-lines are a 3x3 meter, the syntax is rather simple having only two clause constituents:

Focus (for like T. in mountains and K by sea) + Verb (he will come).

However, because of the poetic pause between the two half-lines, one may treat this practically as two pre-verbal constituents, though equally Focus rather than the typical "Contextualizing Constituent + Focus" when two constituents are placed before a verb:

Focus (for like T...) + Focus (and like K...) +Verb (he will come).

[Stirling Bartholomew]

The last two half-lines are a 3x3 meter, the syntax is rather simple having only two clause constituents:

Focus (for like T. in mountains and K by sea) + Verb (he will come).

However, because of the poetic pause between the two half-lines, one may treat this practically as two pre-verbal constituents, though equally Focus rather than the typical "Contextualizing Constituent + Focus" when two constituents are placed before a verb:

Focus (for like T...) + Focus (and like K...) +Verb (he will come).

Hello Randall,

OK,
Assuming we read this as two clauses sharing a single verb, where would we expect to see the “missing” verb in the first clause? Clause initial position? (This is not really two clauses, rather a compound construction.)

Concerning the ellipsis of a repeated word known as “gapping”, if this is a cognitive phenomenon where information that has already been supplied is subsequently assumed and thus omitted, it would appear to follow that this pattern cannot be inverted.

While ellipsis in general is particularly frequent in poetry, there is one form of ellipsis which is characteristic of verse. This is verb gapping. Gapping is the omission of a word in a second clause when it is identical to a word used in the first.

Wilfred G. E. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry: A Guide to Its Techniques, 2004, p.48,

In this compound construction, placing the only verb at the very end attracts attention. I'm not talking about focus, just some sort of increase in salience, Hebrew being a language where verbs often appear early.

[RandallButh]

Why are you reading this as two predications, two clauses?

My analysis was based on reading the last six words as one clause.

[Stirling Bartholomew]

Why are you reading this as two predications, two clauses?

My analysis was based on reading the last six words as one clause.

Yes, one clause. I was trying out several different options on how to read it. So we really have only one verb to move around. The two clause analysis failed on several counts.

Curious that both the NRSV and NAB 2011 changed the position of the verb in ENGLISH but that is probably a reflection of a change in translation strategy for the NRSV toward a more English like expression.

[RandallButh]

I would say that "like Tabor... and like Karmel..." has been fronted in a verb-initial language system. As mentioned, in this poetic context, it is as a Focus Constituent rather than as a Contextualizing Constituent.

It makes for fast easy reading and easy recognition of the author's signals to help us process this text on the fly.

then we mull it over, and let it simmer.