Jeremiah 18:18

Jeremiah Petitions the Lord to Punish Those Who Attack Him

18:18 Then some people ¹  said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! ²  There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. ³  Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! ⁴  Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”

Amos 9:10

9:10 All the sinners among my people will die by the sword –

the ones who say, ‘Disaster will not come near, it will not confront us.’

Micah 3:11

3:11 Her ⁵  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ⁶ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ⁷  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ⁸ 

Disaster will not overtake ⁹  us!”

Zephaniah 1:12

1:12 At that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps.

I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, ¹⁰ 

those who think to themselves, ¹¹ 

‘The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.’ ¹² 

[18:18]  ¹ tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.

[18:18]  ² tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18 where this has sinister overtones as it does here.

[18:18]  ³ tn Heb “Instruction will not perish from priest, counsel from the wise, word from the prophet.”

[18:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.

[3:11]  ⁵ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ⁹ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[1:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “who thicken on their sediment.” The imagery comes from wine making, where the wine, if allowed to remain on the sediment too long, will thicken into syrup. The image suggests that the people described here were complacent in their sinful behavior and interpreted the delay in judgment as divine apathy.

[1:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “who say in their hearts.”

[1:12]  ¹² tn Heb “The Lord does not do good nor does he do evil.”