Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Jeremiah 18:21

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Jeremiah 18:21. Therefore deliver up their children — The execrations in these verses should be considered as simply prophetic declarations of the judgments which God was about to pour out on them.

If we consider them in their grammatical meaning, then they are not directions to us, to whom our Lawgiver has said, "Love your enemies."

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Lessons from the potter (18:1-23)

A potter can make a lump of clay into whatever shape he wants. He can also change the kind of vessel he is making, if he thinks that conditions require it (18:1-4). As a potter determines the kind of vessel he makes, so God determines the destinies of nations, and this is the lesson that the people of Judah must learn (5-6). He may announce judgments on a nation, but he may withdraw those judgments if the nation repents. On the other hand, he may promise blessings to a nation, but he may withdraw those blessings if the nation rebels (7-10). Jeremiah assures Judah that it can be saved from the coming destruction if it returns to God (11). Judah, however, refuses to change its ways (12).
In turning from God to idols, Judah has done something that is almost unbelievable. Such action is as unnatural as that of a virgin who suddenly turns prostitute, or of a snow-fed mountain stream that suddenly dries up (13-15). Onlookers shake their heads in amazement at Judah’s folly. It can lead only to calamity (16-17).

Some of the Judeans plotted mischief against Jeremiah because of his outspoken criticisms. They refused to acknowledge him as God’s spokesman. They comforted themselves in the assurance that they were loyal followers of the official priests, wisdom teachers and prophets, who, of course, approved of their sinful ways (18). Jeremiah reminds God that he has prayed for these people, and now they are returning evil for good (19-20). As he asks God to fight for him, he prays that God will destroy the plotters and their followers, according to the curse that the law of Moses pronounced upon the rebellious (21-23; cf. Deuteronomy 28:15-68).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

JEREMIAH'S PRAYER AGAINST HIS ENEMIES

"Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, and their young men smitten of the sword in battle. Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them; for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet. Yet, Jehovah, 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 thou with them in the time of thine anger."

It is somewhat tiresome to note how many commentators deplore the un-Christian attitude of Jeremiah in this passage toward his enemies. Did not Christ pray for his enemies, even upon the cross? Yes, yes, indeed; but the sons of the devil who were here arrayed against God's prophet with the avowed purpose of murdering him were not exactly in the same class as the soldiers who fixed the nails in Jesus' hands. "For they know not what they do," Jesus said; but these hardened enemies of God's Word and of his kingdom knew exactly what they were doing; and there is a strong conviction here that they deserved exactly the same kind of prayer Jeremiah prayed against them.

Feinberg pointed out that: (1) these were not merely Jeremiah's personal enemies but enemies of God and of his truth; (2) Jeremiah prayed merely that those evil men would reap the reward of their own deeds, "delivering them judicially to the consequences of the course they had deliberately chosen for themselves";Charles Lee Feinberg in Ezekiel (Chicago: Moody Press), p. 494. (3) also, "These imprecations were not leveled against the whole nation, but only against Jeremiah's enemies."Ibid.

Such persons as these here, who were the object of Jeremiah's prayer for their destruction, were like those of whom our Lord said, "These enemies that would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me!" (Luke 19:27). Yes, these words were spoken by the gentle and merciful Jesus! There is a false idea in the world today that God is never really going to bruise any wicked sinner, no matter what may be his crimes of blood and lust; but that is not a true picture of what the Bible reveals about God.

Let it also be remembered that the cry of the saints of God for justice and vengeance against their vicious enemies is represented in the Holy Bible as a legitimate emotion, as expressed by those redeemed souls of them that had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held; and upon the opening of the fifth seal, "They cried with a great voice, saying, O Master, the holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" (Revelation 6:10). We believe that the prayer of Jeremiah in this passage is one in spirit with that of the slain martyrs in heaven and that it does not deserve the censure which some Christian writers have seen fit to assign to it.

Thompson pointed out that God gave no answer to this prayer of Jeremiah, despite the fact that God had given a response to the first three of these laments in Jeremiah 11:20; Jeremiah 12:1-4, and Jeremiah 15:14-18. There was no response to the fourth in Jeremiah 17:14-18, nor in the lament before us (Jeremiah 18:18-23). "Once God responded with a word of encouragement (Jeremiah 11:21-23), and twice with words of rebuke and instruction (Jeremiah 12:5-6, and Jeremiah 15:19)."J. A. Thompson, The Bible and Archeology (Grand Rapid, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972) p.443.

The saints in glory who uttered such a lament received a response, as follows: "And there was given to each of them a white robe, and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet a little time, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, who should be killed even as they were, should have fulfilled their course" (Revelation 6:11).

Such an answer requires us to see that the ultimate reward of the wicked will be at that Final Day of Reckoning, the Final Judgment.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Pour out ... sword - literally, “pour them out upon the hands of the sword, i. e., give them up to the sword.”

Put to death - Rather, slain of death. The prophet’s phrase leaves it entirely indefinite in what way the men are to die.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

The Prophet seems here to have been driven through indignation to utter imprecations which are not consistent with a right feeling; for even if Christ had not said with his own mouth, that we are to pray for those who curse us, the very law of God, ever known to the holy fathers, was sufficient. Jeremiah then ought not to have uttered these curses, and to have imprecated final destruction on his enemies, thouglt they fully deserved it. But it must be observed, that he was moved not otherwise than by the Holy Spirit, to become thus indignant against his enemies; for he could not have been excused on the ground that indignation often transgresses the bounds of patience, for the children of God ought to bear all injuries to the utmost; but, as I have said, the Prophet here has announced nothing rashly, nor did he allow himself to wish anything as of himself, but obediently proclaimed what the Holy Spirit dictated, as his faithful instrument.

We have said elsewhere, that the first thing to be noticed is, that when we pray for any evil on the wicked, we ought not to act on private grounds; for he who has a regard to himself, will ever be led away by too strong an impulse; and even when our prayers are calmly and rightly formed, we are yet ever wrong, when we consult our private advantages or redress our own injuries. That is one thing. And secondly, we ought to have that wisdom which distinguishes between the elect and the reprobate. But as God bids us to suspend our judgment, inasmuch as we cannot surely know what will take place to-morrow, we ought not to imitate indiscriminately the Prophet in praying God to destroy and scatter ungodly men of whom we despair; for, as it has been stated, we are not certain what has been decreed in heaven. In short, whosoever is disposed, after the example of Jeremiah, to pray for a curse on his enemies, must be ruled by the same spirit, according to what Christ said to his disciples; for as God destroyed the wicked at the request of Elijah, the Apostles wished Christ to do the same by fire from heaven; but he said,

“Ye know not by what spirit ye are, ruled.” (Luke 9:55)

They were unlike Elijah, and yet; wished like apes to imitate what he did.

But, as I have said, let first all regard to our own benefit or loss be dismissed, when we would shew ourselves indignant against the wicked; and secondly, let us have the spirit of wisdom and discretion; and lastly, let all the turbulent feelings of the flesh be checked, for as soon as anything human be mixed with our prayers, some confusion will ever be found. There was nothing turbulent in this imprecation of Jeremiah, for the Spirit of God ruled his heart and his tongue, and then he forgot himself; and lastly, he knew that they were reprobate and already doomed to final ruin. He therefore hesitated not, through the prophetic spirit, to imprecate on them what we here read. And there is no doubt but that he was ever solicitous for the remnant, for he knew that there were some faithful; and though they were unknown, he yet prayed God for them. But he fulminates here against the reprobate who were already given up to ruin. This is the reason why he hesitated not to pray that they might be delivered up to famine and given to the sword, ⁽²⁰⁸⁾ so that their women might be bereaved and become widows, and their men put to death, ⁽²⁰⁹⁾ and their youth smitten by the sword. It now follows —

(208) The rendering of this line is various: our version, “pour out,” etc., cannot be sustained; nor “drain them,” etc., by Blayney. The idea generally given by the versions and the Targum to the verb, is that of giving up, delivering, committing. The Syriac seems to give the original correctly, “deliver them into the hands of the sword;” only the verb גדה, signifies to draw or drive rather than to deliver. Perhaps the literal rendering would be, “drive them on the hands of the sword,” as though the sword was a person with hands stretched cut to receive what might come in its way: but “hands” in this instance mean power; so that the best version would be,

And deliver them into the power of the sword.

(209) Literally, “the slain of death,” as in the next line, “the smitten of the sword.” The two lines are literally thus, —

And let their men be the slain of death;
Their youths the smitten of the sword in battle.

“Death” here, notwithstanding what Horsley has said, evidently means pestilence. See Jeremiah 15:2. The “men” were those past the time of ervice, and “youths” or young men were those fit for war. — Ed.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 18

Now in chapter 18:

The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel ( Jeremiah 18:1-6 ).

Here, again, as with Isaiah, the figure of the potter and the clay, showing God's awesome sovereignty over man's destiny. God can make of you whatever He pleases. And as Paul the apostle said in Romans 9:1-33 , "Who art thou, O man, who says unto the Lord, 'Why has Thou made me thus?' Hath not the potter the power over the clay, to make of it whatever kind of a vessel He desires?" ( Romans 9:20-21 ) In those chapters nine, ten and eleven of Romans where Paul speaks of this awesome sovereignty of God over man, he uses the same figure of the potter and the clay.

Now with Jeremiah it is interesting God said, "Go down to the potter's house and I'm going to speak to you there." He went down to the potter's house. He saw him as he was working a work on the wheels. So the three objects-the potter, the wheel, the clay-speak of God's dealing and working with man. The clay, a common worthless material in its native state, and yet a material that has a potential of great value and utility, according to the skill of the potter. The potter, his total control over the clay to make of it whatever he desires--God's awesome power over our lives. The wheels--the circumstances of our lives by which God molds and shapes us.

Now in this case as he watched the potter, the vessel was marred in the hands of the potter. He was making this vessel on the wheel, but suddenly the vessel took a wrong shape. It maybe had a hard lump in the clay or something. The vessel was marred. And so the potter just took and crumbled the clay again or compacted it again and then made of it a vessel as was good unto him to make. And God spoke and said, "Is not Israel, the nation Israel, like clay in My hands?" And though Israel had been marred, yet God would remake them. He would work in them again a new work. The vessel had been marred, but not to be discarded. God would work yet again in making them that which He desires and intended them to be.

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it ( Jeremiah 18:7 );

Now you remember in chapter 1 when God called Jeremiah He said, "I have called you over the nations. I've called you." And his ministry was to pluck up, to pull down and to destroy. Now that's quite a ministry to be called to. "Uproot things, Jeremiah. Pluck them up. Destroy them." You see, there comes a time when the system gets so corrupt there's no renewing it. There's no reformation possible. It's gone too far. So before you can rebuild and plant and rebuild, you got to just get rid of everything that is there. And that is what God is saying. They've gotten so bad we're just going to have to get rid of it. Go back to zero and then we'll start all over again. But you've got to tear down, root out, destroy that which exists. So He brings him back to the first calling in chapter 1.

And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, [verse Jeremiah 18:9 ] to build and to plant it ( Jeremiah 18:9 ).

So in verse Jeremiah 18:7 he speaks of the plucking up, pulling down, destroying.

Now if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, and repent of that which I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it. If you do evil in my sight, that it not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. Now therefore go and speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart ( Jeremiah 18:8-12 ).

So they would not listen to Jeremiah. They said, "There's no hope, you know. We're all going to go for it at this point."

Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who has heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? ( Jeremiah 18:13-14 )

That beautiful, crystal-clear snow water that comes out of the ground at the base of a mountain there in Lebanon. Will a man leave that beautiful crystal snow water?

Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity ( Jeremiah 18:15 ),

This is forsaking Me, that fountain of living water. They have forgotten Me; they have burned incense to vanity.

and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passes by shall be astonished, and wag his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them my back, and not my face, in the day of their calamity. Then said they ( Jeremiah 18:15-18 ).

Jeremiah delivered this message to them. And then they responded saying,

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 ( Jeremiah 18:18 ).

And so Jeremiah said,

Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them ( Jeremiah 18:19-20 ).

Now here Jeremiah said, "I have been interceding. I have been praying for them and now they're devising to do me in, God. Remember how good I was, Lord, and remember how evil they are."

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let the young men be slain by the sword in battle ( Jeremiah 18:21 ).

In other words, I'm not going to intercede for them anymore, God. Go ahead and give it to them.

Let a cry be heard ( Jeremiah 18:22 )

He was a melancholy, no doubt, if you'd done any personality type of analysis. A great melancholy, and it will show up even more forcibly as we move on into chapter 20. We see the melancholy at his classic height. Verse Jeremiah 18:23 :

LORD, you know 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 ( Jeremiah 18:23 ).

So the prophet is really upset with them. Heard again that they're plotting to get him and all. And this time he's had it. "God, just take care of them. Do whatever You want. Wipe them out. I'm not going to pray for them any longer." How different this is from Moses. You remember Moses as he interceded. "O God, forgive their sin. And if not, blot, I pray Thee, my name out of Thy book of remembrances." I have a hard time identifying with Moses. I find a very easy time identifying with Jeremiah. I come to my car and I find someone has ripped off something from my car, boy, I pray, "God, get them. Smite them, Lord. Let them fall and break their legs. Just really do them in, Lord." I have no mercy for thieves and people that go around ripping people off. It just really upsets me. "Let the angel of the Lord pursue them and just give them a bad time, Lord." So I would classify more with Jeremiah than I would with Moses.

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Jeremiah’s reaction to a plot against his life 18:18-23

This is another section that contains one of Jeremiah’s "confessions." Evidently there were several separate plots against the prophet’s life (cf. Jeremiah 11:18-23; Jeremiah 12:1-6). People hated him because he brought bad news and called them to repent and to return to Yahweh and His covenant, which most of the people did not want to do. But really the people were rejecting Yahweh (cf. 1 Samuel 8:7).

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The prophet asked the Lord to bring calamity on them for the calamity they planned to bring on him. Since they refused to repent and had tried to kill Yahweh’s messenger, let the invasion and all its horrors overtake them. Jeremiah was not requesting some special visitation of judgment on the people. He was asking the Lord to allow the threatened judgment, which he had been urging the people to avoid by repenting, to descend. They refused to repent. His strong request probably did not spring from wounded pride as much as from his identification with Yahweh and the demands of the covenant (cf. Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28). The Judahites had rejected God, and for this they deserved judgment. [Note: See Keil, 1:304-5, for further explanation of these and similar imprecations in the Old Testament.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine,.... To be starved, and perish by it, as they were in the siege of Jerusalem, both by the Chaldeans, and the Romans:

and pour out their [blood] by the force of the sword: or, "upon the hands of the sword" f; by means of it; that is, the blood of the parents of the children; let the one perish by famine, and the other by the sword; which, when thrust into a man, blood gushes out, and runs upon the sword to the handle of it:

and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and [be] widows; let them have neither husbands nor children; which latter might be a comfort to them, when they had lost their husbands; but being stripped of these also, the affliction and distress must be the greater:

and let their men be put to death; or "slain with death" g; with the pestilence, as Kimchi rightly interprets it; see Revelation 6:8; Jarchi understands it of the angel of death; see Hebrews 2:14;

[let] their young men [be] slain by the sword in battle; such being commonly employed in military service, as being the most proper persons for it.

f על ידי חרב "super manus gladii", Montanus, Schmidt. g יהיו הרגי מות "occisi morte", Pagninus, Montanus, "i.e. peste" Schmidt; "occisi mortis", Cocceius.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      18 Then 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.   19 Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.   20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.   21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.   22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.   23 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.

      The prophet here, as sometimes before, brings in his own affairs, but very much for instruction to us.

      I. See here what are the common methods of the persecutors. We may see this in Jeremiah's enemies, Jeremiah 18:18; Jeremiah 18:18.

      1. They laid their heads together to consult what they should do against him, both to be revenged on him for what he had said and to stop his mouth for the future: They said, Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah. The enemies of God's people and ministers have been often very crafty themselves, and confederate with one another, to do them mischief. What they cannot act to the prejudice of religion separately they will try to do in concert. The wicked plots against the just. Caiaphas, and the chief priests and elders, did so against our blessed Saviour himself. The opposition which the gates of hell give to the kingdom of heaven is carried on with a great deal of cursed policy. God had said (Jeremiah 18:11; Jeremiah 18:11), I devise a device against you; and now, as if they resolved to be quits with him and to outwit Infinite Wisdom itself, they resolve to devise devices against God's prophet, not only against his person, but against the word he delivered to them, which they thought by their subtle management to defeat. O the prodigious madness of those that hope to disannul God's counsel!

      2. Herein they pretended a mighty zeal for the church, which, they suggested, was in danger if Jeremiah was tolerated to preach as he did: "Come," say they, "let us silence and crush him, for the law shall not perish from the priest; the law of truth is in their mouths (Malachi 2:6) and there we will seek it; the administration of ordinances according to the law is in their hands, and neither the one nor the other shall be wrested from them. Counsel shall not perish from the wise; the administration of public affairs shall always be lodged with the privy-counsellors and ministers of state, to whom it belongs; nor shall the word perish from the prophets" --they mean those of their own choosing, who prophesied to them smooth things, and flattered them with visions of peace. Two things they insinuated:-- (1.) That Jeremiah could not be himself a true prophet, but was a pretender and a usurper, because he neither was commissioned by the priests, nor concurred with the other prophets, whose authority therefore will be despised if he be suffered to go on. "If Jeremiah be regarded as an oracle, farewell the reputation of our priests, our wise men, and prophets; but that must be supported, which is reason enough why he must be suppressed." (2.) That the matter of his prophecies could not be from God, because it reflected sometimes upon the prophets and priests; he had charged them with being the ringleaders of all the mischief (Jeremiah 5:31; Jeremiah 5:31) and deceiving the people (Jeremiah 14:14; Jeremiah 14:14); he had foretold that their heart should perish, and be astonished (Jeremiah 4:9; Jeremiah 4:9), that the wise men should be dismayed (Jeremiah 8:9; Jeremiah 8:10), that the priests and prophets should be intoxicated, Jeremiah 13:13; Jeremiah 13:13. Now this galled them more than any thing else. Presuming upon the promise of God's presence with their priests and prophets, they could not believe that he would ever leave them. The guides of the church must needs be infallible, and therefore he who foretold their being infatuated must be condemned as a false prophet. Thus, under colour of zeal for the church, have its best friends been run down.

      3. They agreed to do all they could to blast his reputation: "Come, let us smite him with the tongue, put him into an ill name, fasten a bad character upon him, represent him to some as despicable and fit to be prosecuted, to all as odious and not fit to be tolerated." This was their device, fortiter calumniari, aliquid adhærebit--to throw the vilest calumnies at him, in hopes that some would adhere to him. to dress him up in bearskins, otherwise they could not bait him. Those who projected this, it is likely, were men of figure, whose tongue was no small slander, whose representations, though ever so false, would be credited both by princes and people, to make him obnoxious to the justice of the one and the fury of the other. The scourge of such tongues will give not only smart lashes, but deep wounds; it is a great mercy therefore to be hidden from it,Job 5:21.

      4. To set others an example, they resolved that they would not themselves regard any thing he said, though it appeared ever so weighty and ever so well confirmed as a message from God: Let us not give heed to any of his words; for, right or wrong, they will look upon them to be his words, and not the words of God. What good can be done with those who hear the word of God with a resolution not to heed it or believe it? Nay,

      5. That they may effectually silence him, they resolve to be the death of him (Jeremiah 18:23; Jeremiah 18:23): All their counsel against me is to slay me. They hunt for the precious life; and a precious life indeed it was that they hunted for. Long was this Jerusalem's wretched character, Thou that killedst many of the prophets, and wouldst have killed them all.

      II. See here what is the common relief of the persecuted. This we may see in the course that Jeremiah took when he met with this hard usage. He immediately applied to his God by prayer, and so gave himself ease.

      1. He referred himself and his cause to God's cognizance, Jeremiah 18:19; Jeremiah 18:19. They would not regard a word he said, would not admit his complaints, nor take any notice of his grievances; but, Lord (says he), do thou give heed to me. It is matter of comfort to faithful ministers that, if men will not give heed to their praying. He appeals to God as an impartial Judge, that will hear both sides, as every judge ought to do. "Do not only give heed to me, but hearken to the voice of those that contend with me; hear what they have to say against me and for themselves, and then make it to appear that thou sittest in the throne, judging right. Hear the voice of my contenders, how noisy and clamorous they are, how false and malicious all they say is, and let them be judged out of their own mouth; cause their own tongues to fall upon them."

      2. He complains of their base ingratitude to him (Jeremiah 18:20; Jeremiah 18:20): "Shall evil be recompensed for good, and shall it go unpunished? Wilt not thou recompense me good for that evil?" 2 Samuel 16:12. To render good for good is human, evil for evil is brutish, good for evil is Christian, but evil for good is devilish; it is so very absurd and wicked a thing that we cannot think but God will avenge it. See how great the evil was that they did against him: They have dug a pit for my soul; they aimed to take away his life (no less would satisfy them), and that not in a generous way, by an open assault, against which he might have an opportunity of defending himself, but in a base, cowardly, clandestine way: they dug pits for him, which there was no fence against, Psalms 119:85. But see how great the good was which he had done for them: Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them; he had been an intercessor with God for them, had used his interest in heaven on their behalf, which was the greatest kindness they could expect from one of his character. He is a prophet and he shall pray for thee,Genesis 20:7. Moses often did this for Israel, and yet they quarrelled with him, and sometimes spoke of stoning him. He did them this kindness when they were in imminent danger of destruction and most needed it. They had themselves provoked God's wrath against them, and it was ready to break in upon them, but he stood in the gap (as Moses, Psalms 106:23) and turned away that wrath. Now, (1.) This was very base in them. Call a man ungrateful and you can call him no worse. But it was not strange that those who had forgotten their God did not know their best friends. (2.) It was very grievous to him, as the like was to David. Psalms 35:13; Psalms 109:4, For my love they are my adversaries. Thus disingenuously do sinners deal with the great intercessor, crucifying him afresh, and speaking against him on earth, while his blood is speaking for them in heaven. See John 10:32. But, (3.) It was a comfort to the prophet that, when they were so spiteful against him, he had the testimony of his conscience for him that he had done his duty to them; and the same will be our rejoicing in such a day of evil. The blood-thirsty hate the upright, but the just seek his soul,Proverbs 29:10.

      3. He imprecates the judgments of God upon them, not from a revengeful disposition, but in a prophetical indignation against their horrid wickedness, Jeremiah 18:21-23; Jeremiah 18:21-23. He prays, (1.) That their families might be starved for want of bread: "Deliver up the children to the famine, to the famine in the country for want of rain, and that in the city through the straitness of the siege. Thus let this iniquity of the fathers be visited upon the children." (2.) That they might be cut off by the sword of war, which, whatever it was in the enemy's hand, would be, in God's hand, a sword of justice: "Pour them out (so the word is) by the hands of the sword; let their blood be shed as profusely as water, that their wives may be left childless and widows, their husbands being taken away by death" (some think that the prophet refers to pestilence); let their young men, that are the strength of this generation and the hope of the next, be slain by the sword in battle. (3.) That the terrors and desolations of war might seize them suddenly and by surprise, that thus their punishment might answer to their sin (Jeremiah 18:22; Jeremiah 18:22): "Let a cry be heard from their houses, loud shrieks, when thou shalt bring a troop of the Chaldeans suddenly upon them, to seize them and all they have, to make them prisoners and their estates a prey;" for thus they would have done by Jeremiah; they aimed to ruin him at once ere he was aware: "They have dug a pit for me, as for a wild beast, and have hid snares for me, as for some ravenous noxious fowl." Note, Those that think to ensnare others will justly be themselves ensnared in an evil time. (4.) That they might be dealt with according to the desert of this sin, which was without excuse: "Forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight; that is, let them not escape the just punishment of it; let them lie under all the miseries of those whose sins are unpardoned." (5.) That God's wrath against them might be their ruin: Let them be overthrown before thee. This intimates that justice was in pursuit of them, that they endeavoured to make their escape from it, but in vain; "they shall be made to stumble in their flight, and being overthrown they will certainly be overtaken." And then, Lord, in the time of thy anger, do to them (he does not say what he would have done to them, but) do to them as thou thinkest fit, as thou usest to do with those whom thou art angry with--deal thus with them. Now this is not written for our imitation. Jeremiah was a prophet, and by the impulse of the spirit of prophecy, in the foresight of the ruin certainly coming upon his persecutors, might pray such prayers as we may not; and, if we think by this example to justify ourselves in such imprecations, we know not what manner of spirit we are of; our Master has taught us, by his precept and pattern, to bless those that curse us and pray for those that despitefully use us. Yet it is written for our instruction, and is of use to teach us, [1.] That those who have forfeited the benefit of the prayers of God's prophets for them may justly expect to have their prayers against them. [2.] That persecution is a sin that fills the measure of a people's iniquity very fast, and will bring as sure and sore a destruction upon them as any thing. [3.] Those who will not be won upon by the kindness of God and his prophets will certainly at length feel the just resentments of both.