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Selected Verse: Jeremiah 18:18 - King James

Verse	Translation	Text
Jer 18:18	King James	Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
(Jer 11:19). Let us bring a capital charge against him, as a false prophet; "for (whereas he foretells that this land shall be left without priests to teach the law, Mal 2:7; without scribes to explain its difficulties; and without prophets to reveal God's will), the law shall not perish from the prophet," &c.; since God has made these a lasting institution in His church, and the law declares they shall never perish (Lev 6:18; Lev 10:11; compare Jer 5:12) [GROTIUS]. the wise--scribes and elders joined to the priests. Perhaps they mean to say, we must have right on our side, in spite of Jeremiah's words against us and our prophets (Jer 28:15-16; Jer 29:25, Jer 29:32; Jer 5:31); "for the law shall not perish," &c. I prefer GROTIUS' explanation. with . . . tongue--by a false accusation (Psa 57:4; Psa 64:3; Psa 12:4; Psa 50:19). "For the tongue" (Margin), that is, for his speaking against us. "In the tongue," that is, let us kill him, that he may speak no more against us [CASTALIO].

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

(Jer 11:19). Let us bring a capital charge against him, as a false prophet; "for (whereas he foretells that this land shall be left without priests to teach the law, Mal 2:7; without scribes to explain its difficulties; and without prophets to reveal God's will), the law shall not perish from the prophet," &c.; since God has made these a lasting institution in His church, and the law declares they shall never perish (Lev 6:18; Lev 10:11; compare Jer 5:12) [GROTIUS].

the wise--scribes and elders joined to the priests. Perhaps they mean to say, we must have right on our side, in spite of Jeremiah's words against us and our prophets (Jer 28:15-16; Jer 29:25, Jer 29:32; Jer 5:31); "for the law shall not perish," &c. I prefer GROTIUS' explanation.

with . . . tongue--by a false accusation (Psa 57:4; Psa 64:3; Psa 12:4; Psa 50:19). "For the tongue" (Margin), that is, for his speaking against us. "In the tongue," that is, let us kill him, that he may speak no more against us [CASTALIO].

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
The Jews were only hardened by the foregoing prophecy, and determined to compass Jeremiah's death. Let us devise devices - i. e., "deliberately frame a plot" for his ruin (see Jer 18:11 note). The law shall not perish ... - As the Law of Moses was imperishable, the people probably drew the conclusion that the Levitical priesthood must also endure forever, and therefore that Jeremiah's predictions of national ruin were blasphemous (compare Act 6:13-14). Let us smite him with the tongue - Their purpose was to carry a malicious report of what he had said to king Jehoiakim, and so stir up his anger against him.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
Enmity displayed against the prophet by the people for this discourse, and prayer for protection from his enemies. - Jer 18:18. "Then said they: Come and let us plot schemes against Jeremiah; for law shall not be lost to the priest, and counsel to the wise, and speech to the prophet. Come and let us smite him with the tongue and not give heed to all his speeches. Jer 18:19. Give heed to me, Jahveh, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me! Jer 18:20. Shall evil be repaid for good, that they dig a pit for my soul? Remember how I stood before Thee to speak good for them, to turn away Thy wrath from them! Jer 18:21. Therefore give their sons to the famine and deliver them to the sword, that their wives become childless and widows, and their men slaughtered by death, their young men smitten by the sword in battle. Jer 18:22. Let a cry be heard from their houses, when Thou bringest troops upon them suddenly; for they have digged a pit to take me and laid snares for my feet. Jer 18:23. But Thou Jahveh knowest all their counsels against me for death: forgive not their iniquity and blot not out their sin from before Thy face, that they be overthrown before Thee; in the time of Thine anger deal with them." Even the solemn words (Jer 18:15-17) of the prophet were in vain. Instead of examining themselves and reforming their lives, the blinded sinners resolve to put the troublesome preacher of repentance out of the way by means of false charges. The subject of "and they said" is those who had heard the above discourse; not all, of course, but the infatuated leaders of the people who had. They call on the multitude to plot schemes against him, cf. Jer 11:18. For they have, as they think, priests, wise men, and prophets to give them instruction out of the law, counsel, and word, i.e., prophecy - namely, according to their idea, such as advise, teach, and preach otherwise than Jeremiah, who speaks only of repentance and judgment. Recent scholars render תּורה doctrine, which is right etymologically, but not so when judged by the constant usage, which regards the Torah, the law, as containing the substance of all the doctrine needed by man to tell him how to bear himself towards God, or to make his life happy. The Mosaic law is the foundation of all prophetic preaching; and that the speakers mean תּורה in this sense is clear from their claiming the knowledge of the Torah as belonging to the priests; the law was committed to the keeping and administration of the priests. The "counsel" is that needed for the conduct of the state in difficult circumstances, and in Eze 7:26 it is attributed to the elders; and "speech" or word is the declarations of the prophets. On that subject, cf. Jer 8:8-10. To smite with the tongue is to ruin by slanders and malicious charges, cf. Jer 9:2, Jer 9:4,Jer 9:7, where the tongue is compared to a lying bow and deadly arrow, Psa 64:4., Psa 59:8, etc. That they had the prophet's death in view appears from Jer 18:23; although their further speech: We will not give heed to his words, shows that in the discourse against which they were so enraged, he had said "nothing that, according to their ideas, was directly and immediately punishable with death" (Hitz.); cf. Jer 26:6, Jer 26:11. Against these schemes Jeremiah cries to God in Jer 18:19 for help and protection. While his adversaries are saying: People should give no heed to his speeches, he prays the Lord to give heed to him and to listen to the sayings of his enemies. "My contenders," who contend against me, cf. Jer 35:1; Isa 49:25. - In support of his prayer he says in Jer 18:20 : Shall evil be repaid for good? cf. Psa 35:12. In his discourses he had in view nothing but the good of the people, and he appeals to the prayers he had presented to the Lord to turn away God's anger from the people, cf. Jer 14:7., Jer 18:19-22. (On "my standing before Thee," cf. Jer 15:1.) This good they seek to repay with ill, by lying charges to dig a pit for his soul, i.e., for his life, into which pit he may fall; cf. Psa 57:7, where, however, instead of שׁוּחה (Jer 2:6; Pro 22:14; Pro 23:27), we have שׁיחה, as in Jer 18:22, Chet. - He prays the Lord to requite them for this wickedness by bringing on the people that which Jeremiah had sought to avert, by destroying them with famine, sword, and disease. The various kinds of death are, Jer 18:21, distributed rhetorically amongst the different classes of the people. The sons, i.e., children, are to be given up to the famine, the men to the sword, the young men to the sword in war. The suffix on הגּרם refers to the people, of which the children are mentioned before, the men and women after. On הגּר על ידי ח, cf. Eze 35:5; Psa 63:11. "Death," mentioned alongside of sword and famine, is death by disease and pestilence, as in Jer 15:2. Jer 18:22 To the terrors of the war and the siege is to be added the cry rising from all the houses into which hostile troops have burst, plundering and massacring. To lay snares, as in Psa 140:6; Psa 142:4. פּח is the spring of the bird-catcher. Jer 18:23 Comprehensive summing up of the whole prayer. As the Lord knows their design against him for his death, he prays Him not to forgive their sin, but to punish it. The form תּמחי instead of תּמח (Neh 13:14) is the Aramaic form for תּמחה, like תּזני, Jer 3:6; cf. Ew. 224, c. The Chet. והיוּ is the regular continuation of the imperative: and let them be cast down before Thee. The Keri ויהיוּ would be: that they may be cast down before Thee. Hitz. wrongly expounds the Chet.: but let them be fallen before Thee (in Thine eyes), i.e., morally degraded sinners; for the question is not here one of moral degradation, but of the punishment of sinners. In the time of Thine anger, i.e., when Thou lettest loose Thy wrath, causest Thy judgments to come down, deal with them, i.e., with their transgressions. On עשׂה ב, cf. Dan 11:7. On this prayer of the prophet to God to exterminate his enemies Hitz. remarks: "The various curses which in his bitter indignation he directs against his enemies are at bottom but the expression of the thought: Now may all that befall them which I sought to avert from them." The Hirschberg Bible takes a deeper grasp of the matter: "It is no prayer of carnal vengeance against those that hated him, Jer 18:18, Jer 18:23, Psa 9:18; Psa 55:16; but as God had commanded him to desist (Jer 14:11, Jer 14:12) from the prayers he had frequently made for them, Jer 18:20, and as they themselves could not endure these prayers, Jer 18:18, he leaves them to God's judgments which he had been already compelled to predict to them, Jer 11:22; Jer 14:12, Jer 14:16, without any longer resisting with his entreaties, Luk 13:9; Ti2 4:14." In this observation that clause only is wrong which says Jeremiah merely leaves the wicked to God's judgments, since he, on the other hand, gives them up thereto, prays God to carry out judgment on them with the utmost severity. In this respect the present passage resembles the so-called cursing psalms (Psa 35:4-10; Psa 109:6-20; Psa 59:14-16; Psa 69:26-29, etc.); nor can we say with Calvin: hanc vehementiam, quoniam dictata fuit a spiritu sancto, non posse damnari, sed non debere trahi in exemplum, quia hoc singulare fuit in propheta. For the prophet's prayer is no inspired דבר יהוה, but the wish and utterance of his heart, for the fulfilment of which he cries to God; just as in the psalms cited. On these imprecations, cf. Del. on Ps 35 and 109; as also the solid investigation of this point by Kurtz: Zur Theologie der Ps. IV. die Fluch-und Rachepsalmen in the Dorpat Ztschr. f. Theol. u. Kirche, vii. (1865), S. 359ff. All these curses are not the outcome and effusions of personal vengeance against enemies, but flow from the pure spring of a zeal, not self-regarding at all, for the glory of God. The enemies are God's enemies, despisers of His salvation. Their hostility against David and against Jeremiah was rooted in their hostility against God and the kingdom of God. The advancement of the kingdom of God, the fulfilment of the divine scheme of salvation, required the fall of the ungodly who seek the lives of God's servants. In this way we would seek to defend such words of cursing by appealing to the legal spirit of the Old Testament, and would not oppose them to the words of Christ, Luk 9:55. For Christ tells us why He blamed the Elias-like zeal of His disciples in the words: "The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." In keeping with this, the peculiar end of Christ's coming on earth, we find no curses from Him against His enemies and the enemies of the kingdom of God. But just as the word, "I am not come," etc. (Luk 9:56), does not exclude the truth that the Father hath given all judgment to Him, so, as Kurtz very justly remarks, "from our hearing no word of cursing from the mouth of Christ during His life on earth we cannot infer the absolute inadmissibleness of all such; still less can we infer that Christ's apostles and disciples could not at all be justified in using any words of cursing." And the apostles have indeed uttered curses against obdurate enemies: so Peter against Simon the Magian, Act 8:20; Paul against the high priest Ananias, Act 23:3, against the Jewish false teachers, Gal 1:9 and Gal 5:12, and against Alexander the coppersmith, Ti2 4:14. But these cases do not annihilate the distinction between the Old and the New Testaments. Since grace and truth have been revealed in Christ, the Old Testament standpoint of retribution according to the rigour of the law cannot be for us the standard of our bearing even towards the enemies of Christ and His kingdom.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

Enmity displayed against the prophet by the people for this discourse, and prayer for protection from his enemies. - Jer 18:18. "Then said they: Come and let us plot schemes against Jeremiah; for law shall not be lost to the priest, and counsel to the wise, and speech to the prophet. Come and let us smite him with the tongue and not give heed to all his speeches. Jer 18:19. Give heed to me, Jahveh, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me! Jer 18:20. Shall evil be repaid for good, that they dig a pit for my soul? Remember how I stood before Thee to speak good for them, to turn away Thy wrath from them! Jer 18:21. Therefore give their sons to the famine and deliver them to the sword, that their wives become childless and widows, and their men slaughtered by death, their young men smitten by the sword in battle. Jer 18:22. Let a cry be heard from their houses, when Thou bringest troops upon them suddenly; for they have digged a pit to take me and laid snares for my feet. Jer 18:23. But Thou Jahveh knowest all their counsels against me for death: forgive not their iniquity and blot not out their sin from before Thy face, that they be overthrown before Thee; in the time of Thine anger deal with them."

Even the solemn words (Jer 18:15-17) of the prophet were in vain. Instead of examining themselves and reforming their lives, the blinded sinners resolve to put the troublesome preacher of repentance out of the way by means of false charges. The subject of "and they said" is those who had heard the above discourse; not all, of course, but the infatuated leaders of the people who had. They call on the multitude to plot schemes against him, cf. Jer 11:18. For they have, as they think, priests, wise men, and prophets to give them instruction out of the law, counsel, and word, i.e., prophecy - namely, according to their idea, such as advise, teach, and preach otherwise than Jeremiah, who speaks only of repentance and judgment. Recent scholars render תּורה doctrine, which is right etymologically, but not so when judged by the constant usage, which regards the Torah, the law, as containing the substance of all the doctrine needed by man to tell him how to bear himself towards God, or to make his life happy. The Mosaic law is the foundation of all prophetic preaching; and that the speakers mean תּורה in this sense is clear from their claiming the knowledge of the Torah as belonging to the priests; the law was committed to the keeping and administration of the priests. The "counsel" is that needed for the conduct of the state in difficult circumstances, and in Eze 7:26 it is attributed to the elders; and "speech" or word is the declarations of the prophets. On that subject, cf. Jer 8:8-10. To smite with the tongue is to ruin by slanders and malicious charges, cf. Jer 9:2, Jer 9:4,Jer 9:7, where the tongue is compared to a lying bow and deadly arrow, Psa 64:4., Psa 59:8, etc. That they had the prophet's death in view appears from Jer 18:23; although their further speech: We will not give heed to his words, shows that in the discourse against which they were so enraged, he had said "nothing that, according to their ideas, was directly and immediately punishable with death" (Hitz.); cf. Jer 26:6, Jer 26:11. Against these schemes Jeremiah cries to God in Jer 18:19 for help and protection. While his adversaries are saying: People should give no heed to his speeches, he prays the Lord to give heed to him and to listen to the sayings of his enemies. "My contenders," who contend against me, cf. Jer 35:1; Isa 49:25. - In support of his prayer he says in Jer 18:20 : Shall evil be repaid for good? cf. Psa 35:12. In his discourses he had in view nothing but the good of the people, and he appeals to the prayers he had presented to the Lord to turn away God's anger from the people, cf. Jer 14:7., Jer 18:19-22. (On "my standing before Thee," cf. Jer 15:1.) This good they seek to repay with ill, by lying charges to dig a pit for his soul, i.e., for his life, into which pit he may fall; cf. Psa 57:7, where, however, instead of שׁוּחה (Jer 2:6; Pro 22:14; Pro 23:27), we have שׁיחה, as in Jer 18:22, Chet. - He prays the Lord to requite them for this wickedness by bringing on the people that which Jeremiah had sought to avert, by destroying them with famine, sword, and disease. The various kinds of death are, Jer 18:21, distributed rhetorically amongst the different classes of the people. The sons, i.e., children, are to be given up to the famine, the men to the sword, the young men to the sword in war. The suffix on הגּרם refers to the people, of which the children are mentioned before, the men and women after. On הגּר על ידי ח, cf. Eze 35:5; Psa 63:11. "Death," mentioned alongside of sword and famine, is death by disease and pestilence, as in Jer 15:2.

Jer 18:22

To the terrors of the war and the siege is to be added the cry rising from all the houses into which hostile troops have burst, plundering and massacring. To lay snares, as in Psa 140:6; Psa 142:4. פּח is the spring of the bird-catcher.

Jer 18:23

Comprehensive summing up of the whole prayer. As the Lord knows their design against him for his death, he prays Him not to forgive their sin, but to punish it. The form תּמחי instead of תּמח (Neh 13:14) is the Aramaic form for תּמחה, like תּזני, Jer 3:6; cf. Ew. 224, c. The Chet. והיוּ is the regular continuation of the imperative: and let them be cast down before Thee. The Keri ויהיוּ would be: that they may be cast down before Thee. Hitz. wrongly expounds the Chet.: but let them be fallen before Thee (in Thine eyes), i.e., morally degraded sinners; for the question is not here one of moral degradation, but of the punishment of sinners. In the time of Thine anger, i.e., when Thou lettest loose Thy wrath, causest Thy judgments to come down, deal with them, i.e., with their transgressions. On עשׂה ב, cf. Dan 11:7.

On this prayer of the prophet to God to exterminate his enemies Hitz. remarks: "The various curses which in his bitter indignation he directs against his enemies are at bottom but the expression of the thought: Now may all that befall them which I sought to avert from them." The Hirschberg Bible takes a deeper grasp of the matter: "It is no prayer of carnal vengeance against those that hated him, Jer 18:18, Jer 18:23, Psa 9:18; Psa 55:16; but as God had commanded him to desist (Jer 14:11, Jer 14:12) from the prayers he had frequently made for them, Jer 18:20, and as they themselves could not endure these prayers, Jer 18:18, he leaves them to God's judgments which he had been already compelled to predict to them, Jer 11:22; Jer 14:12, Jer 14:16, without any longer resisting with his entreaties, Luk 13:9; Ti2 4:14." In this observation that clause only is wrong which says Jeremiah merely leaves the wicked to God's judgments, since he, on the other hand, gives them up thereto, prays God to carry out judgment on them with the utmost severity. In this respect the present passage resembles the so-called cursing psalms (Psa 35:4-10; Psa 109:6-20; Psa 59:14-16; Psa 69:26-29, etc.); nor can we say with Calvin: hanc vehementiam, quoniam dictata fuit a spiritu sancto, non posse damnari, sed non debere trahi in exemplum, quia hoc singulare fuit in propheta. For the prophet's prayer is no inspired דבר יהוה, but the wish and utterance of his heart, for the fulfilment of which he cries to God; just as in the psalms cited. On these imprecations, cf. Del. on Ps 35 and 109; as also the solid investigation of this point by Kurtz: Zur Theologie der Ps. IV. die Fluch-und Rachepsalmen in the Dorpat Ztschr. f. Theol. u. Kirche, vii. (1865), S. 359ff. All these curses are not the outcome and effusions of personal vengeance against enemies, but flow from the pure spring of a zeal, not self-regarding at all, for the glory of God. The enemies are God's enemies, despisers of His salvation. Their hostility against David and against Jeremiah was rooted in their hostility against God and the kingdom of God. The advancement of the kingdom of God, the fulfilment of the divine scheme of salvation, required the fall of the ungodly who seek the lives of God's servants. In this way we would seek to defend such words of cursing by appealing to the legal spirit of the Old Testament, and would not oppose them to the words of Christ, Luk 9:55. For Christ tells us why He blamed the Elias-like zeal of His disciples in the words: "The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." In keeping with this, the peculiar end of Christ's coming on earth, we find no curses from Him against His enemies and the enemies of the kingdom of God. But just as the word, "I am not come," etc. (Luk 9:56), does not exclude the truth that the Father hath given all judgment to Him, so, as Kurtz very justly remarks, "from our hearing no word of cursing from the mouth of Christ during His life on earth we cannot infer the absolute inadmissibleness of all such; still less can we infer that Christ's apostles and disciples could not at all be justified in using any words of cursing." And the apostles have indeed uttered curses against obdurate enemies: so Peter against Simon the Magian, Act 8:20; Paul against the high priest Ananias, Act 23:3, against the Jewish false teachers, Gal 1:9 and Gal 5:12, and against Alexander the coppersmith, Ti2 4:14. But these cases do not annihilate the distinction between the Old and the New Testaments. Since grace and truth have been revealed in Christ, the Old Testament standpoint of retribution according to the rigour of the law cannot be for us the standard of our bearing even towards the enemies of Christ and His kingdom.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
For - We have the church on our side; the regular priests and the prophets, they know God's mind as well as he. Let us smite him with the tongue - Expose him, representing him to be what the people hate.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Come, and let us devise devices - Let us form a conspiracy against him, accuse him of being a false prophet, and a contradicter of the words of God, for God has promised us protection, and he says we shall be destroyed, and that God will forsake his people. Let us smite him with the tongue - On the tongue; so it should be rendered. Lying and false testimony are punished in the eastern countries, to the present day, by smiting the person on the mouth with a strong piece of leather like the sole of a shoe. Sometimes a bodkin is run through the tongue. Blasphemy, calumny, and cursing of parents, are usually punished in that way among the Chinese.

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¹⁹ Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.

⁴ Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?

³ Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:

⁴ My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

³² Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people; neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, saith the LORD; because he hath taught rebellion against the LORD.

²⁵ Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thy name unto all the people that are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying,

¹⁵ Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.
¹⁶ Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD.

¹² They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

¹¹ And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.

¹⁸ All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations concerning the offerings of the LORD made by fire: every one that toucheth them shall be holy.

⁷ For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

¹⁹ But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

¹³ And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
¹⁴ For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.

¹¹ Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

¹⁴ Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:

¹² I would they were even cut off which trouble you.

⁹ As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

³ Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?

²⁰ But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.

⁵⁶ For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

⁵⁵ But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

²⁶ For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.
²⁷ Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.
²⁸ Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
²⁹ But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.

¹⁴ And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.
¹⁵ Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.
¹⁶ But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.

⁶ Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.
⁷ When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.
⁸ Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
⁹ Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
¹⁰ Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
¹¹ Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.
¹² Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.
¹³ Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
¹⁴ Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
¹⁵ Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
¹⁶ Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.
¹⁷ As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.
¹⁸ As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.
¹⁹ Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.
²⁰ Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.

⁴ Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.
⁵ Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them.
⁶ Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the LORD persecute them.
⁷ For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.
⁸ Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.
⁹ And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation.
¹⁰ All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?

¹⁴ Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:

⁹ And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

¹⁶ And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.

¹² When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

²² Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine:

¹⁸ Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

²⁰ Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.

¹¹ Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.

¹⁶ As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.

¹⁸ For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.

²³ Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

⁷ But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate, which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail:

⁶ The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

¹⁴ Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof.

⁴ I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.

⁶ I said unto the LORD, Thou art my God: hear the voice of my supplications, O LORD.

²² Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

² And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.

¹¹ But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.

⁵ Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:

²¹ Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.

²² Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

²⁷ For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

¹⁴ The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.

⁶ Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?

⁷ My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

¹ Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

¹⁹ Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
²⁰ Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.
²¹ Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
²² Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

⁷ O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.

¹² They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul.

²⁰ Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.

²⁵ But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.

¹ The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,

¹⁹ Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.

¹¹ Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.

⁶ Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.

⁸ But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.

⁴ That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.

⁷ Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?

⁴ Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.

² Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

⁸ How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
⁹ The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?
¹⁰ Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

²⁶ Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.

¹⁸ And the LORD hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings.

¹⁵ Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
¹⁶ To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
¹⁷ I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

²² Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

²⁰ Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.

¹⁹ Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.