Jeremiah 18:13-23

Deluded Israel

13 Therefore, this is what the Lord says: Ask among the nations, Who has heard [things] like these? Virgin Israel has done a most terrible thing.^[a]

14 Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave the highland crags? Or does cold water flowing from a distance ever fail?

15 Yet My people have forgotten Me.^[b] They burn incense to false [idols] that make them stumble in their ways- in the ancient roads^[c]- to walk on [new] paths, not the highway.

16 They have made their land a horror, a perpetual object of scorn;^[d] everyone who passes by it will be horrified and shake his head.

17 I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind.^[e] I will show them^[f] [My] back and not [My] face on the day of their calamity.

Plot against Jeremiah

18 Then certain ones said, "Come, let's make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost from the priest, or counsel from the wise, or an oracle from the prophet. Come, let's denounce him^[g] and pay no attention to all his words."

19 Pay attention to me, Lord. Hear what my opponents are saying!^[h]

20 Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn Your anger from them.

21 Therefore, hand their children over to famine, and pour the sword's power on them. Let their wives become childless and widowed, their husbands slain by deadly disease,^[i] their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

22 Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring raiders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.^[j]

23 But You, Lord, know all their deadly plots against me. Do not wipe out their guilt; do not blot out their sin before You. Let them be forced to stumble before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger.

Jeremiah 18:13-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 18

This chapter expresses the sovereign power of God ever his creatures, and his usual methods of dealing with them; it threatens destruction to the Jews for their idolatry; and is closed with the prophet's complaint of his persecutors, and with imprecations upon them. The sovereign power of God is expressed under the simile of a potter working in his shop, and making and marring vessels at pleasure, Jer 18:1-4; the application of which to God, and the house of Israel, is in Jer 18:5,6; and is illustrated by his usual dealings with kingdoms and nations; for though he is a sovereign Being, yet he acts both in a kind and equitable way; and as the potter changes his work, so he changes the dispensations of his providence, of which two instances are given; the one is, that having threatened ruin to a nation, upon their repentance and good behaviour he revokes the threatening, Jer 18:7,8; and the other is, that having made a declaration of good to a people, upon their sin and disobedience he recalls it, and punishes them for their wickedness, Jer 18:9,10; then follows a prophecy of the destruction of the Jews in particular, in which they are exhorted to repentance to prevent it; their obstinacy is observed; their folly in departing from God, and worshipping idols, is exposed; and they are threatened with utter ruin, Jer 18:11-17; the conspiracy and evil designs of the Jews against the prophet, their malice and ingratitude, are complained of by him, Jer 18:18-20; his imprecations upon them, and prayers for their destruction, are delivered out in Jer 18:21-23.

Footnotes

• [a]. Jr 5:30; Hs 6:10
• [b]. Jr 2:32; 3:21; 13:25
• [c]. Jr 6:16
• [d]. Lit hissing
• [e]. Jr 13:24
• [f]. LXX, Lat, Syr, Tg; MT reads will look at them
• [g]. Lit let's strike him with the tongue
• [h]. Ps 55:2-3; 142:6
• [i]. Lit by death
• [j]. Ps 140:5; 142:3