Structure and Composition of Jeremiah 50:2 - 51:58

Using rhetorical, textual, form, and redaction criticism, six individual poems can be discerned in Jeremiah 50-51, each with its own distinctive structure, theme, and image patterns. The delimination of the six poems leads to a significant number of exegetical gains and makes better sense of these chapters in their parts and as a whole. Although the material in Jeremiah 50-51 has often received negative assessments from scholars, the poetry when carefully analyzed no longer seems disjointed or overly repetitious. The poetry has received scant scholarly attention, perhaps because of the vengefulness that characterizes it. In addition, within this material the popular theologies of the time are challenged and the sovereignty of God is emphatically affirmed.