But You, O LORD, know all their deadly plots against me. Do not wipe out their guilt or blot out their sin from Your sight. Let them be overthrown before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yet, Yahweh, you know all their counsel against me to kill me. Don’t forgive their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be overthrown before you. Deal you with them in the time of your anger.
- KJV Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.
- NKJV Yet, Lord, You know all their counsel Which is against me, to slay me. Provide no atonement for their iniquity, Nor blot out their sin from Your sight; But let them be overthrown before You. Deal thus with them In the time of Your anger.
- NASB But You, Lord, know All their deadly schemes against me; Do not forgive their wrongdoing Or wipe out their sin from Your sight. But may they be overthrown before You; Deal with them in the time of Your anger!
- NLT Lord, you know all about their murderous plots against me. Don’t forgive their crimes and blot out their sins. Let them die before you. Deal with them in your anger.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jeremiah, knowing God sees every murderous plot against him, asks God not to forgive but to deal with his enemies in judgment. He surrenders the matter entirely to God.
Overview
The prophet acknowledges that God knows all his enemies' counsel to kill him and pleads for them to be overthrown in the time of God's anger. This severe imprecation arises from settled, hardened rebellion that has refused repeated calls to repent. While such prayers appeal to God's justice, the gospel ultimately holds out forgiveness to all who turn to Christ, even former enemies of God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 69:22–28May their table become a snare; may it be a retribution and a trap.
- Ps 35:4May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plan to harm me be driven back and confounded.
- Isa 2:9So mankind is brought low, and man is humbled—do not forgive them!
- Ps 109:14–15May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
- Neh 4:4–5Hear us, O God, for we are despised. Turn their scorn back upon their own heads, and let them be taken as plunder to a land of captivity.
- Jer 15:15You understand, O LORD; remember me and attend to me. Avenge me against my persecutors. In Your patience, do not take me away. Know that I endure reproach for Your honor.
- Jer 11:18–20And the LORD informed me, so I knew. Then You showed me their deeds.
- Ps 37:32–33Though the wicked lie in wait for the righteous, and seek to slay them,
- Jer 11:23There will be no remnant, for I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.”
- Ps 59:5O LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, rouse Yourself to punish all the nations; show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah
- Isa 10:3What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?
- Luke 21:22For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.
- Jer 8:12Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD.
- Rom 2:5But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
- Jer 18:18Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 18:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.