Taking a passage from Jeremiah as its focus, this paper applies contemporary gender theory to deconstruct the function and effect of sacred texts in the process of gender construction. Jeremiah 31.22b, 'For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth: a woman encompasses a man', is examined, bearing in mind the observation of gender theoretician Judith Butler that it can be the case that exceptions subvert the rule rather than prove it. It is argued that, in keeping with radical imagery found elsewhere in the book of Jeremiah when the Day of the Lord is imagined, here gender relations are given an anarchic re-visioning.