Jeremiah 5:20-22

These vv. are in whole or in part rejected as a later addition by Stade, Du., Co., Gi., because (i) "declare" and "publish" are in the plural, which is unusual (but see Jeremiah 4:16); (ii) the illustration of Jehovah's greatness by the phenomena of nature belongs to the later period, cp. Job 38:8-11 (but see Amos 4:13; Amos 5:8; Amos 9:6); (iii) they resemble the suspicious passages Jeremiah 31:35 ff., Jeremiah 32:17 ff.; (iv) there is a needless embellishment of style. These reasons, however, seem insufficient to warrant the rejection of the whole. Moreover (unless we accept Du."s view, see note on Jeremiah 5:18), to omit them, and thus join Jeremiah 5:23 immediately to Jeremiah 5:19, involves injury to the sequence of thought. This is obviated by the retention of the first part of Jeremiah 5:21, and of Jeremiah 5:22 to "my presence." So Co. Jeremiah 5:20 is in any case probably an addition, as there is no parallel in Jeremiah for this kind of introduction to an utterance.