Jeremiah 18:19-23

B. The Prayer of the Prophet Jeremiah 18:19-23

TRANSLATION

(19) Give ear unto me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of my adversaries. (20) Shall evil be recompensed instead of good? For they are digging a pit for my soul! Remember that I stood before You to speak good on their behalf and to cause Your wrath to turn from them. (21) Therefore give their sons to famine and deliver them to the power of the sword. Let their wives become childless and widows, and let their husbands be slain by death, their chosen young men smitten by the sword in battle. (22) Let a cry be heard from their houses when You bring a troop suddenly upon them; for they have dug a pit to capture me and snares they have hidden for my feet. (23) But as for You, O LORD, You know all of their counsel against me for death. Do not pardon their guilt and do not blot out their sin from before Your face; but let them be made to stumble before You! Deal with them in the time of Your anger!

COMMENTS

The text does not indicate how Jeremiah became aware of the plot against him. But when he hears what his enemies have planned for him he cries out to God asking Him to take note of the threat against His messenger (Jeremiah 18:19). Jeremiah cannot understand why he is the object of such a vicious plot. He has preached bluntly but always with the ultimate good of his people at heart. He had wept for his people, pled with them and interceded for them at the throne of grace. He was the only true friend that the nation really had. When the people should be honoring him for what he has been doing, they are instead plotting against him. Jeremiah is both perplexed and perturbed by this turn of events. Borrowing the terminology from the Psalmist[213] he cries, They are digging a pit for my soul! (Jeremiah 18:20).

[213] See Psalms 57:6; Psalms 35:7.

The prayer moves from narrative to petition and the petition takes the form of bitter imprecation. He prays that the sons of his enemies might experience famine and that they might be delivered over to (literally, poured out to) the power of the sword. The same terminology occurs also in Psalms 63:10 and Ezekiel 35:5 and the meaning is that the young soldiers would be thrust upon the sword until their life-blood had been poured out. He prays that the wives of his enemies will become childless and widows (Jeremiah 18:21). He prays that the homes of his enemies might be plundered by a troop of enemy soldiers (Jeremiah 18:22). He asks God not to pardon these men and to deal with them in the time of divine anger (Jeremiah 18:23).

Several points need to be considered in interpreting this difficult prayer.
1. The imprecation is not hurled at the nation as a whole but at those enemies who plotted his death.
2. The prophets were neither vegetables nor ma chines but men of like passions with ourselves (G. A. Smith).
3. This outburst does not represent Jeremiah at his best and is uttered in a moment of exasperation.
4. The anger of the prophet is aroused not so much because he personally is being attacked as because God was being rejected in the person of His prophet. To blaspheme the Lord's messenger is to blaspheme the Lord Himself.

5. The particular blasphemy which the enemies hurled at Jeremiah was that his prophecies had not been fulfilled and that consequently he was a false prophet. Jeremiah now is calling upon God to execute those threats which he has so boldly proclaimed (Jeremiah 4:6-31; Jeremiah 9:17-22; Jeremiah 14:15-18; Jeremiah 15:2-9).

6. The prophet does not pray for these hardened people because the Lord has already indicated His unwillingness to forgive. Cf. Jeremiah 7:16; Jeremiah 14:10; Jeremiah 14:12; Jeremiah 15:1; Jeremiah 15:6; Jeremiah 16:5 b.

7. Precedents for such prayers of imprecation can be found in the Psalms. Jeremiah may have been borrowing the language of the Psalms in formulating this prayer.