Jeremiah 18:23

Yet, Lord - Better, But, Lord. They conceal their plots, but God knows, and therefore must punish.

Neither blot out ... - Or, “blot not out their sin from before Thy face that they may be made to stumble before Thee.”

Thus - Omit this word. Since there is an acceptable time and a day of salvation, so there is a time of anger, and Jeremiah’s prayer is that God would deal with his enemies at such a time, and when therefore no mercy would be shown. On imprecations such as these, see Psalms 109 introductory note. Though they did not flow from personal vengeance, but from a pure zeal for God’s honor, yet they belong to the legal spirit of the Jewish covenant. We must not, because we have been shown a “more excellent way,” condemn too harshly that sterner spirit of justice which animated so many of the saints of the earlier dispensation.