Jeremiah 18:20

They have digged a pit for my soul. — The image has become so familiar that we have all but lost its vividness. What it meant here (as in Psalms 57:6) was that the man was treated as a beast, the prophet who sought their good as the wolf or the jackal whom they entrapped and slew.

Remember that I stood before thee. — The phrase is used frequently, though not uniformly, of the act of worship, of the communion of the soul with God (comp. Jeremiah 7:10; Deuteronomy 10:8; Deuteronomy 19:17; Deuteronomy 29:10; 1 Kings 19:11), and is clearly used in this sense here. The prophet refers to his repeated though fruitless entreaties for the people in Jeremiah 14:15. It is interesting to note the description of Jeremiah, in 2Ma. 15:14, as “a lover of the brethren who prayeth much for the people and the holy city.” Men had come to recognise that the spirit of intercession had been the prophet’s dominant characteristic.