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.”

Jeremiah 20:10

20:10 I ⁵  hear many whispering words of intrigue against me.

Those who would cause me terror are everywhere! ⁶ 

They are saying, “Come on, let’s publicly denounce him!” ⁷ 

All my so-called friends ⁸  are just watching for

something that would lead to my downfall. ⁹ 

They say, “Perhaps he can be enticed into slipping up,

so we can prevail over ¹⁰  him and get our revenge on him.

Psalms 31:13

31:13 For I hear what so many are saying, ¹¹ 

the terrifying news that comes from every direction. ¹² 

When they plot together against me,

they figure out how they can take my life.

Psalms 35:15

35:15 But when I stumbled, they rejoiced and gathered together;

they gathered together to ambush me. ¹³ 

They tore at me without stopping to rest. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 37:32-33

37:32 Evil men set an ambush for the godly

and try to kill them. ¹⁵ 

37:33 But the Lord does not surrender the godly,

or allow them to be condemned in a court of law. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 32:7

32:7 A deceiver’s methods are evil; ¹⁷ 

he dreams up evil plans ¹⁸ 

to ruin the poor with lies,

even when the needy are in the right. ¹⁹ 

Matthew 26:3-4

26:3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people met together in the palace of the high priest, who was named Caiaphas. 26:4 They ²⁰  planned to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

[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.

[20:10]  ⁵ tn It would be difficult to render accurately the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) that introduces this verse without lengthening the English line unduly. It probably means something like “This is true even though I…,” i.e., the particle is concessive (cf. BDB s.v. כִּי 2.c). No other nuance seems appropriate. The particle is left out of the translation, but its presence is acknowledged here.

[20:10]  ⁶ tn The phrase translated “Those who would cause me terror are everywhere” has already occurred in 6:25 in the context of the terror caused by the enemy from the north and in 20:3 in reference to the curse pronounced on Pashhur who would experience it first hand. Some have seen the phrase here not as Jeremiah’s ejaculation of terror but of his assailant’s taunts of his message or even their taunting nickname for him. But comparison of this passage with the first two lines of Ps 31:13 (31:14 HT) which are word for word the same as these two will show that it refers to the terror inspired by the plots of his enemies to do away with him. It is also clear from the context of that passage and the following context here that the “whispering of many” (the literal translation of “many whispering words of intrigue against me) refers to intrigues to take vengeance on him and do away with him.

[20:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “Denounce and let us denounce him.” The verb which is translated “denounce” (נָגַד, nagad) does not take an accusative object of person as it does here very often. When it does it usually means to inform someone. The only relevant passage appears to be Job 17:5 where it means something like “denounce.” What is probably involved here are the attempts to portray Jeremiah as a traitor (Jer 26:10) and a false prophet (see his conflict with Hananiah in Jer 28).

[20:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “the men of my peace [who are concerned about my welfare].” For this phrase compare Ps 41:9 (41:10 HT); Jer 38:22. It is generally agreed that irony is being invoked here, hence “so-called” is supplied in the translation to bring out the irony.

[20:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “watching my stumbling [for me to stumble].” Metaphorically they were watching for some slip-up that would lead to his downfall. Compare the use in Pss 35:15 and 38:17 (38:18 HT).

[20:10]  ¹⁰ tn All the text says literally is “Perhaps he can be enticed so that we can prevail over him.” However the word “enticed” needs some qualification. As W. McKane (Jeremiah [ICC], 1:479) notes it should probably be read in the context of the “stumbling” (= “something that would lead to my downfall”). Hence “slipping up” has been supplied as an object. It is vague enough to avoid specifics as the original text does but suggests some reference to “something that would lead to my downfall.”

[31:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the report of many.”

[31:13]  ¹² tn Heb “the terror from all around.”

[35:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “they gathered together against me, stricken [ones], and I did not know.” The Hebrew form נֵכִים (nekhim, “stricken ones” ?) is problematic. Some suggest an emendation to נָכְרִים[כְ] (kÿnokhÿrim, “foreigners”) or “like foreigners,” which would fit with what follows, “[like] foreigners that I do not recognize.” Perhaps the form should be read as a Qal active participle, נֹכִים (nokhim, “ones who strike”) from the verbal root נָכָה (nakhah, “to strike”). The Qal of this verb is unattested in biblical Hebrew, but the peal (basic) stem appears in Old Aramaic (J. Fitzmyer, The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire [BibOr], 114; DNWSI 1:730.) In this case one might translate, “attackers gathered together against me though I was not aware of it” (cf. NASB “smiters”; NEB, NRSV “ruffians”; NIV “attackers”).

[35:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they tore and did not keep quiet.” By using the verb “tear,” the psalmist likens his enemies to a wild animal (see Hos 13:8). In v. 17 he compares them to hungry young lions.

[37:32]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “an evil [one] watches the godly [one] and seeks to kill him.” The singular forms are used in a representative sense; the typical evildoer and godly individual are in view. The active participles describe characteristic behavior.

[37:33]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the Lord does not abandon him into his hand or condemn him when he is judged.” The imperfects draw attention to the Lord’s characteristic behavior in this regard.

[32:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “as for a deceiver, his implements [or “weapons”] are evil.”

[32:7]  ¹⁸ tn Or “he plans evil things”; NIV “he makes up evil schemes.”

[32:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to ruin the poor with words of falsehood, even when the needy speak what is just.”

[26:4]  ²⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.