Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah: The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah

Ancient Near Eastern scribes from Egypt to Mesopotamia, including Israelite scribes of the Hebrew Bible, create infelicitous or symmetric elements in their textual production. By their form, these elements communicate beyond the textual and semantic levels for rhetorical and literary purposes.Meta-textual semanticsis a widespread scribal device in the ancient world, and ancient audiences and exegetes (e.g., rabbinic, medieval Jewish and Christian exegetes, and Masoretes) properly appreciate...