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King James Version (en)

Jeremiah, Chapter 11, verses 18-20

¹⁸ and upon the men of Anathoth for conspiring to kill Jeremiah

¹⁸And the LORD hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings.

¹⁹But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

²⁰But, O LORD of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I revealed my cause.

Read more:Jeremiah, Chapter 11

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11 God's covenant, Jer 11:1-7.
Their disobedience, Jer 11:8-10.
Evils to come on them, Jer 11:11-17.
and on the men of Anathoth, for conspiring to kill Jeremiah, Jer 11:18-23.

11:18 Thou shewedst me - This may be understood with relation to that conspiracy which is mentioned in the following verses.

11:19 Let us destroy - We have no other mention of this conspiracy, but it is plain both from this verse, and what follows, that the men of Anathoth (which was Jeremiah's own town) were offended at his prophesying, and had conspired to kill him.Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof - Let us not only put an end to his prophesying, but to his life.

NOTES

The mildest thing one can say about a people who have turned away from the Lord is that they are astonishingly frivolous. But those whom He chose do not value what has been given to them, and such forgetful ingratitude is more than...

Hatred of a prophet is a fairly common thing. Of course, when it comes to Jeremiah, one can speak of special circumstances in his ministry. He had to...

Hatred of a prophet is a fairly common thing. Of course, when it comes to Jeremiah, one can speak of special circumstances in his ministry. He had to preach in an era when superficial, purely external religiosity was combined in the public consciousness with boastful self-exaltation, confidence in one's own righteousness, and religious nationalism thickly mixed with a peculiar mythology that had nothing in common with Yahwism. The prophet had to spiritually oppose this mixture, provoking at least hostility, and often hostility turning into hatred, especially against the background of military defeats (Jeremiah preached in the last years of Judah's existence, becoming a witness to its end and to the beginning of the Babylonian exile).

But the matter is not only in the specific nature of Jeremiah's prophetic ministry; it is also in the features of this ministry as such. If a prophet were simply a predictor of the future, as prophets are sometimes considered to be, he would quite possibly have been dangerous to those in power, but such a predictor would not have provoked universal hatred. Universal hatred is explained by the fact that a prophet is not a predictor of the future, which in general cannot be predicted if only because no unambiguously programmed future exists, but a witness of God. He sees the situation as God sees it, as God reveals His vision to the prophet. Incidentally, prediction of coming events is also possible here, especially if those events have already matured and are explained by society's current spiritual condition; but even when catastrophe appears inevitable, the prophet usually still calls for conversion: nothing is predetermined, an alternative always exists; one need only repent of committed sins and turn to God. Yet the main thing remains witness, which those against whom it is directed often cannot forgive the prophet. That is what provokes hatred, hatred especially strong because those against whom the prophet's witness is directed understand: if not for him, this bothersome prophet with his preaching, they would have no problems; they could live in peace.

It is possible that these people even understand that the prophet is right, that catastrophe is inevitable; however, the traits of fallen human psychology often force a person to hide his head in the sand and ignore the approaching threat, especially when it can be prevented only by abandoning the accustomed way of life and the accustomed system of values. In such a situation, the prophet's words truly can provoke nothing in his contemporaries except hatred. And only years and decades later, and sometimes centuries later, when the catastrophe about which this prophet warned becomes a fact and is spiritually understood, the descendants of those to whom the prophet spoke will understand and acknowledge that he was right. As happened with Jeremiah.

In the Bible, and above all in the Old Testament books, there is frequent mention of vengeance on God's enemies and other wicked people. Usually such calls come from the mouths of those whom God Himself calls His own: prophets, psalmists...

In the Bible, and above all in the Old Testament books, there is frequent mention of vengeance on God's enemies and other wicked people. Usually such calls come from the mouths of those whom God Himself calls His own: prophets and psalmists. In the New Testament there is nothing of the kind. Most often this difference is explained by a different spirit of the Old and New Testaments.

True, this explanation sounds somewhat strange: God is one, but the spirit, it turns out, is different? Meanwhile, calls of this kind have another explanation as well. It is connected with the fact that the New Testament books were written after the coming of the Messiah, who is described in them. With the coming of Christ the situation really changed radically, and changed quite objectively. The point is not that with Christ's coming everyone immediately began to understand God and God's love better. People remained what they had been. Something else changed.

Together with the Messiah, the Kingdom entered the world. And in the Kingdom many things are possible that are possible nowhere else. Among other things, the coming of Christ and the entrance of the Kingdom into the world mean the beginning of the time of Judgment. Judgment consists, according to the Savior's word, precisely in this: that light has entered the world, and people flee from it because they do not want to part with their sins. In pre-Christian times this could only be awaited. And many really awaited Judgment with joy and impatience.

The issue is, of course, righteous people, God's people. They did not consider themselves sinless, but they were confident in their choice. And they knew that God would complete the rest, cleansing them of the sin from which they could not free themselves by their own strength. The wicked, however, in every age fled from Judgment.

And God's people always awaited the day when there would be nowhere left for them to flee. Not in order to enjoy vengeful triumph, but in order finally to see God's Kingdom with their own eyes. They knew that God would put everything in its place, but only when the world truly became His Kingdom. And the triumph of the wicked over the righteous they always perceived as the triumph of the powers of darkness over this Kingdom. But they always knew that such triumph is by definition temporary. And they asked God for this time to end sooner, and for the world to become what God had intended it to be.

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