Jeremiah 11:19

For I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter; I did not know that they had plotted against me: “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.”

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Jeremiah addresses God immediately after the Lord reveals a conspiracy against him. The prophet describes his own unresisting posture in response to the newly disclosed threat.

The words — The text uses כֶּבֶשׂ (keves, a lamb) and אַלּוּף ('aluf, a tame or gentle one) to describe Jeremiah’s posture, paired with יוּבַל (yuval, it is led) to slaughter. These terms establish a literal picture of an innocent animal guided to execution without awareness of the plot.

The thread — The lamb-to-slaughter imagery reappears in Isaiah 53:7 to describe a suffering figure, while the plot to erase a name echoes the conspiracy in Psalms 83:4. Jeremiah 20:10 records the same pattern of whispered accusations and demands for his destruction.

Why it lands — The passage states Jeremiah’s literal ignorance of the plot and his role as a passive victim before any theological application. It demands recognition that divine revelation often precedes human awareness of hostility, requiring the reader to commit their cause to God rather than retaliate.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

But 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.

Cross-references

Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
Jeremiah 20:10 For I have heard the whispering of many: “Terror is on every side! Report him; let us report him!” All my trusted friends watch for my fall: “Perhaps he will be deceived so that we may prevail against him and take our vengeance upon him.”
Psalms 83:4 saying, “Come, let us erase them as a nation; may the name of Israel be remembered no more.”
Jeremiah 18:18 Then 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.”
Job 28:13 No man can know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living.
Psalms 31:13 For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side. They conspire against me and plot to take my life.
Numbers 1:14 from Gad, Eliasaph son of Deuel;
Psalms 27:13 Still I am certain to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Psalms 37:32 Though the wicked lie in wait for the righteous, and seek to slay them,
Luke 20:10 At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed.