490 Csaba Balogh of humans, plants or ornaments. Strikingly, Jer 10,4 uses hpy in connec- tion with the idols (59). As for the positive evidence, hpy characterises a human king in Ps 45,3; 1 Sam 16,12; 17,42; Ezek 28,12 (60). Furthermore, the position of ˚lm at the beginning of the sentence suggests that this word is emphatic, alluding to a situation in which there is no human king in Jerusalem, but everyone is eager to find one there (61). Last, in v. 17 ˚lm / ≈ra are used in parallelism. If ≈ra has a political significance in this place, it makes most sense to think similarly of ˚lm as well. The presence of a human king, the second to YHWH, is also presupposed by v. 21, as argued below. V. 17b is also astonishing. μyqjrm ≈ra, that the returnees are promised to see, is often interpreted as a land that stretches far away, a broad and wide land (62). This can hardly be correct, however, since in all other instances the construction [μy]qjr[m] ≈ra means “a distant land”, “far land” (63). This verse has serious implications for the date and provenance of outward appearance, but hardly so with YHWH. The same Ps 27,13 has twarl hwhyAbwfb, suggesting that in case of YHWH μ[n and bwf are indeed similar (see also Ps 16,11; 135,3; 147,1). (59) The Egyptian examples of the divinity’s beauty cited by WILDBERGER, Jesaja, 1315-1316, are most probably related to the physical appearance of these gods, either as exposed by cultic statues, or through the divine-human Egyptian king. Neither of these is relevant for the biblical text. (60) Cf. 1 Sam 25,3; 1 Kgs 1,3; Est 1,11; 2,7; Ezek 16,13, using hpy for a queen. (61) The last memory of the people leaving Jerusalem for exile was that their king was taken away and foreigners appeared in the city (cf. vv. 18-19). (62) Cf. NRSV; NIV; DUHM, Jesaia, 245; YOUNG, Isaiah, II, 422. (63) Prov 25,25; Isa 13,5; 46,11; Jer 6,20; 8,19. See also Deut 29,21; Josh 9,6.9; 1 Kgs 8,41; Isa 8,9; 39,3; Jer 4,16. “Large country” would be hbjr ≈ra (cf. Ex 3,8; Neh 9,35; see also Gen 13,17; 26,22; 34,21; Ex 34,24; Jdg 18,10; 1 Chr 4,40; Job 38,18; Isa 8,8; 22,18; cf. Isa 30,23). μyqjrm ≈ram in Jer 8,19 is especially important. When exegetes explain its meaning as “from throughout the land”, they do this by referring to Isa 33,17. Cf. W. RUDOLPH, Jeremia (HAT 12; Tübingen 1968) 62; P.C. CRAIGIE et al., Jeremiah 1-25 (WBC 26; Waco, TX 1991) 137. But 3 it is more likely that Jer 8,19 (at least from μyqjrm ≈ra) quotes the exiled (distant) people, being a later addition. This was already presupposed by some for the [wdm- sentence, but Craigie argued convincingly that the Jeremianic syntax h+μa+[wdm forms a coherent unit. As an insertion, Jer 8,19a could be YHWH’s word rather than the prophet’s. It is possible that Jer 8,19 refers to Isa 33,17, but that need not mean that its understanding of YHWH as king coincides with the intention of the author of Isa 33,17 (contra BOSSHARD-NEPUSTIL, Rezeptionen, 185). Jer 8,19 may have relied on the larger context of Isa 33,17 (cf. vv. 5.22).