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.
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.
- BSB 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.
- 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 69:22–28Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
- Ps 35:4Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.
- Isa 2:9And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
- Ps 109:14–15Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
- Neh 4:4–5Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity:
- Jer 15:15O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.
- Jer 11:18–20And the LORD hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings.
- Ps 37:32–33The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.
- Jer 11:23And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.
- Ps 59:5Thou therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.
- Isa 10:3And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
- Luke 21:22For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
- Jer 8:12Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
- Rom 2:5But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
- Jer 18:18Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give 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
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