Grave Marking and Wailing: Ritual Responses to the Babylonian Crisis in Jeremiah’s Poetry (Jer 31, 21)

Jonah 2: A Death Liturgy for the Doomed Prophet

“…Thus, Isaiah's lament for Tyre compares the city to a harlot walking in circles/dancing with her harp ‫עיר(‬ ‫סבי‬ ‫כנור‬ ‫קחי‬ [Isa 23:16]) and Jer 31:22 speaks of Rachel's solemn choreography around the casualties of the Babylonian crisis ‫גבר(‬ ‫תסובב‬ ‫. )נקבה‬ 42 Given that the reference to encircling acts/circumambulations in Jonah appears in conjunction with its remark that the prophet was in the belly of the fish "three days and three nights" (Jonah 2:1), the aforementioned myth, Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld is of interest as well. In it, prior to her perilous journey, which would require the exact amount of time, the goddess instructs her servant to make a lament for her on the ruin mounds, to beat the šem drum for her in the sanctuary, and to circumambulate/make the rounds of the houses of the gods on her behalf (ETCSL: c.1.4.1.34-35).…”