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This article deals with the troublesome issue of Jeremiah's calls for revenge in the so-called 'Jeremiah's laments' (Jer xi-xx). Such calls are strange due to the fact Israelite prophets are usually conceived as intercessors. After surveying the different views and criticizing them, the author offers three solutions to the problem. Instead of focusing on our moral judgment of Jeremiah's calls for revenge, the author tries to show how they were interpreted by the author of the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah's calls are designed according to the principle of measure for measure; the prophet is described as God's messenger who is worthy of being protected; and finally Jeremiah is conceived as trying to let justice be shown.

This article is a rhetorical study of Jeremiah 7:1-15. It attempts to show that a rhetorical analysis of Jeremiah helps the reader to understand the different parts of the speech correctly, to discover what was mentioned and what was not mentioned in it, and to identify the target audience and the methods of persuasion used by the prophet. This is not merely a literary analysis of Jeremiah's speech, but primarily a critical examination of how Jeremiah planned to deliver his words to the audience. My analysis concludes that Jeremiah's speech is planned and well organised, and that all its parts logically interconnect. Jeremiah uses many traditions from the past, and on the basis of these traditions, presents new arguments.

This article examines recent trends in the study of the book of Kings in the 1990s and in the beginning years of the third millennium. It focuses on issues pertaining to: composition and redaction; structure; sources; purpose; and date of the book. After a survey of recent commentaries, the studies on the book of Kings are presented in various circles and contexts, such as the Deuteronomistic History, the relation of the book of Kings with other biblical sources, and several disciplines, including text criticism, history and historiography, archaeology, cult and religion, society, and literary criticism. The second part of this article, scheduled to appear in a subsequent issue of Currents, will deal with specific literary units of the book of Kings.