A Woman Will “Encompass” a Man 381 verses, it has been claimed that in “Jer 31, 22 wird von einem „Neuen“ gesprochen, augenscheinlich im Zusammenhang mit dem „Neuen” Jer 31,31, ...” (10). What is of interest in the history of interpretation of this obscure phrase (rbg bbwst hbqn) in Jer 31,22b are mainly two aspects: (1) the wide divergence in renderings between the MT, on the one hand, and the LXX and Targum, on the other hand (11); (2) the variety of interpretations which has been offered to solve this problematic passage. An investigation into the scholarly literature on the passage reveals that originally solutions such as those explaining it as a gloss or by taking recourse to an emendation were most popular (12). Hopefully the analysis below is convincing enough to show that there is no need for such measures. The text as it stands makes perfect sense. Recent suggestions are, however, of a more intertextual (13) and cultural nature. Especially significant in the latter respect is the proposal to explain the pronouncement in terms of the well-known cultural phenomenon of gender role reversal, a suggestion going as far back as Umbreit (14). Proponents of the last explanation are most probably on the right track, but what they fail to demonstrate satisfactorily is how this proclamation on role reversal in Jer 31,22b relates (1) to the multiple other ancient Near Eastern cultural contexts (literary, social-political and religious), where the same principle of reversal (mundus inversus, world upside-down, verkehrte Welt) is likewise attested, and (2) how this oracle on gender reversal in Jer 31,22b is connected with a related announcement on symbolic role inversion at the beginning of this rhetorical unit (Jer 30,5-6) (15). In order to argue this case, I will firstly make a can a male bear children? Why then do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in travail”. (10) R. NORTH, vdh , TWAT II, 771. (11) For solving this crux, however, these versions are not of any interpretive help, since their respective renderings are coloured by religious-ideological factors. See E. TOV, Text- Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research (Jerusalem 1981) 68; BECKING, Between Fear and Freedom, 37; G. VERMES, Scripture and Tradition in Judaism (Leiden 1973) 60 and E. NESTLE, “Miscellen”, ZAW 25 (1905) 220-221. (12) Cf., e.g., MCKANE, Commentary on Jeremiah, 601-602 for a list of some of these proposals. (13) Cf. the views of WEISER (Das Buch Jeremia, 282) and B.W. ANDERSON (“‘The Lord Has Created Something New’. A Stylistic Study of Jer 31:15-22”, CBQ 40 [1978] 463- 478) who associate this saying with the renewal of the blessing of creation in Gen1, 27. This interpretation is also not seen as a viable option since not enough justice is done to the specific context in which the problematic root bbs is attested. (14) F.W.C. UMBREIT, Praktischer Commentar über den Jeremia, mit exegetischen und kritischen Anmerkungen (Hamburg 1842) 207: “von nun an soll nicht mehr der Mann das Weib, sondern das Weib den Mann beschützen”. BOZAK, Life ‘Anew’, 104, sees in this announcement the reversal of “a curse, and it could very well be the curse of Gn 3:16 which states that the woman will be subservient to her husband”; cf. also Sawyer, “Gender-Play and Sacred Text”, 99-111; LUNDBOM, Jeremiah 21-36, 451: “reversal of the natural order of things,” and W.L. HOLLADAY, “Jer xxxi 22b Reconsidered: The Woman Encompasses the Man”, VT 16 (1966) 236-239, who regards this pronouncement as a reversal of the treaty curse in Jer 30,6. See also most recently BECKING (Between Fear and Freedom, 225) who argues: “The Hebrew verb bbs refers to a welcoming gesture. Israel is seen as a female that will encompass her children that unexpectedly returned from exile”. (15) For studies seeing a thematic connection between these two passages, see Footnote 9.