Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Jeremiah 11:18-20
The Reaction Of The People Of His Hometown Anathoth Is To Seek To Warn Off Jeremiah With Threats Of Death, At Which He Appeals To YHWH (Jeremiah 11:18).
‘And YHWH gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it,
Then you showed me their doings.'
But all this was known to Jeremiah, because YHWH had made it known to him, and had made known to him the doings of the people, which was why he in his turn spoke to the people. In fact he was so certain of his God-ordained ministry and his sanctity as a God-appointed prophet of YHWH that he did not even consider the effect that his words might have on the people. But as we now learn, they did not like it, and began to scheme his death.
‘But I was like a gentle lamb,
Which is led to the slaughter,
And I did not know that they had devised schemes against me,
Saying, “Let us destroy the tree with the its fruit,
And let us cut him off from the land of the living,
That his name may be no more remembered.”
The result was that he was completely taken by surprise when he learned, possibly from a disciple or a well-wisher, that they were plotting to get rid of him. He depicts this in a touching simile. Most families had a pet lamb who lived in the house with the family, beloved of the children and feeling perfectly secure, for it was common practise (see 2 Samuel 12:3), as it would be later among the Arabs. But at some stage this little petted lamb would be taken totally by surprise and find itself being led to the slaughter as the equivalent of the fatted calf. It would never have believed that it could come to this! And it was such surprise that Jeremiah felt. He had felt that at least in his own home town he would be appreciated for what he was.
But he discovered in one way or another that many in Anathoth were in fact plotting his death. They had taken up his picture of the destroyed olive tree and applied it to him. So, they asked each other, according to Jeremiah YHWH was going to destroy them like a fruitful olive tree by an invader was He? Well, let Jeremiah have some of his own medicine. He would now in his turn be destroyed like a tree with its fruit, and be cut off from the land of the living so that his name was no more remembered (he was unmarried and without children). Let him see how he liked it..
‘But, O YHWH of hosts, who judges righteously,
Who tries the heart and the mind,
I will see your vengeance on them,
For to you have I revealed my cause.'
Shaken and greatly disturbed (it is possible that this was not long after the martyrdom of Uriah - Jeremiah 26:20) Jeremiah was freshly awakened to just how sinful the people had become in that they would even destroy YHWH's prophet (who were usually seen as sacrosanct in Judah), and calls on YHWH to judge the situation before Him. He ‘reveals his cause' to Him, and calls on Him to ‘try the heart and mind', both of himself and of the people. He knows that there can be only one verdict. The people will be found guilty, and will be suitably punished.
This verse is found repeated almost word for word (with a few slight changes) in Jeremiah 20:12. Compare also the similar ideas in Jeremiah 17:10. It is a recurrent theme.