A Woman Will “Encompass” a Man 387 inversion of the normal state of things is no longer a curse, but to be welcomed, since it holds out the promise of a new social order in which “The few shall become thousand, the least a mighty nation” (Isa 60,22); “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. The lame shall leap like a deer” (Isa 35,5-6); “Men once sated, hire themselves out for bread; those once hungered, hunger no more. The barren woman bears seven (children), she that had many children is languishing” (1 Sam 2,5). The reversals of this coming age can even reach cosmic proportions: “In place of the thorn, a cypress shall come up. In place of the briar, a myrtle shall rise” (Isa 55,13) (42). Against such an eschatological backdrop it is not unexpected to hear what is foreseen in Jer 31,22b, namely that the woman will assume a strange new role definition in the future world. This, according to the writer of the Jeremiah text (31,22b), is something “new” (vdj), something which is, however, likely in an ideal form of existence where an inverse order of things is the norm. The exact nature of this “new” role label is not explicitly evident, however, but what may be deduced from this saying is that in the “new world order” to come the woman will assume a social role which stands in direct antithesis to the traditional expectations regarding femininity and that is: “the woman will bbs (Poel Impf.) the man.” Whether bbs refers “to encompass”, “to go around”, “to court”, or “to protect” (43), is difficult to determine. Perhaps its exact meaning is not that essential since, according to McKane, this statement has “the openness and indeterminacy of a proverb” (44). What must be grasped, however, is that in this “new divine order” the woman will adopt a role designation unheard of before, namely that she “plays his – a man’s – part” (45). Department of Ancient Studies Paul A KRUGER University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1 Matieland, 7602 Stellenbosch, South Africa (42) MÜHLMANN, “Das Mythologem von der verkehrten Welt”, 619. Instead of pointing to an eschatological future where this wholeness prevails, this paradisiacal order of existence could also be projected to a remote past (STOLZ, Grundzüge der Religionswissenschaft, 95-96). According to “Enki’s Spell” in the Sumerian epic of Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, “there being no snakes, there being no scorpions, there being no hyenas, there being no lions, there being no dogs or wolves, there being no(thing) fearful or hair-raising, mankind had no opponents” (T. JACOBSEN, “Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta”, The Context of Scripture [eds. W.H. HALLO, et al.] [Leiden 2003] I, 547). The Egyptian Theban cosmogony portrays a similar nostalgic picture at the beginning of time. It tells of an age when “walls did not fall in, a thorn did not prick, no evil existed in the land, no crocodile seized prey and snakes did not bite” (BRUNNER-TRAUT, “Altägyptische Tiergeschichte und Fabel”, 145; my translation from the German). (43) According to HUFFMON, “Gender Subversion in the Book of Jeremiah”, 252, these are all suggestions proposed to understand this problematic term. However, the most suitable nuance of meaning still seems to be “to protect” for which a parallel passage such as Deut 32,10 may be adduced: “In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded (bbs Poel Impf. ) him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye”(NIV; cf. also HOLLADAY, “Jer xxxi 22b Reconsidered”, 237). (44) MCKANE, Commentary on Jeremiah, 806. (45) HUFFMON, “Gender Subversion in the Book of Jeremiah”, 252-253.