Jeremiah 18:23

23 But you, [O] Yahweh, you know {all their plans of assassination against me}. You must not make atonement for their iniquity, and you must not cause their sin to be blotted out from {before you}. But let them be overthrown {before you}. Deal with them in the time of your anger.

Jeremiah 18:23 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 18:23

Yet, Lord, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay
[me]
However deep they had laid them; and however unknown they were to him; or however private and secret they might be thought to be by them; God is an omniscient God, and knows and sees all things; the thoughts of men's hearts, and all their secret designs in the dark against his ministers, people, and interest: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight;
they had sinned the unpardonable sin; or, however, a sin unto death; for which prayer for the forgiveness of it was not to be made, ( 1 John 5:16 ) ; this the prophet knew: what he here imprecates, and both before and after, must be considered, not as flowing from a private spirit, or from a spirit of malice and revenge; but what he delivered out under a spirit of prophecy, as foretelling what would be the sad estate and condition of these persons; for, otherwise, the temper and disposition of the prophet were the reverse; and he was inclined to sue for mercy for these people, as he often did; wherefore this is not to be drawn into a precedent and example for any to follow: but let them be overthrown before thee;
by the sword, famine, and pestilence: or, "let them be made to stumble before thee" ^F9; and fall into perdition; they having made others to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths of truth and goodness; so that it was but a righteous thing that they should be punished after this manner; see ( Jeremiah 18:15 ) ; deal [thus] with them in the time of thine anger;
the set time for his wrath to come upon them to the uttermost; then do unto them according to all the imprecations now made; which the prophet foresaw, and believed he would do; and therefore thus spake.

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 (Kynpl Mylvkm wyhw) "propellantur in offendiculum coram te", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "offensi ruant coram te", Cocceius.

Jeremiah 18:23 In-Context

21 {Therefore} give their children to the famine, and hand them over to [the] {power} of [the] sword, and let their wives be bereaved and widows, and let their men be killed by death, their young men struck dead [by the] sword in the battle.

22 Let a cry for help be heard from their houses when you suddenly bring upon them [the] raiding band, for they have dug a pit to catch me, and they have fixed secretly a trap for my feet.

23 But you, [O] Yahweh, you know {all their plans of assassination against me}. You must not make atonement for their iniquity, and you must not cause their sin to be blotted out from {before you}. But let them be overthrown {before you}. Deal with them in the time of your anger.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "all of their plan against me to the death"
• [b] Literally "to the face of you"
• [c] Literally "to the face of you"