Jeremiah 18:23

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.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Jeremiah addresses Yahweh, petitioning God to remember the coordinated schemes his enemies have devised against him. This plea directly follows his description of opponents digging pits and concealing snares to capture him.

The words — The phrase עֲצָתָם לַמָּוֶת ('atzatam lamavet) literally translates as "their plans for death." The verb יָדַעְתָּ (yada'ta) means "you know," establishing God's direct awareness of these hostile designs.

The thread — This imprecatory request parallels Psalms 35:4, which asks God to shame those who plot against the speaker, and Psalms 69:22, which petitions for the enemies' own traps to become their downfall. It also aligns with Nehemiah 4:4, which calls on God to respond to mockery with retribution.

Why it lands — The text commands God to retain the enemies' guilt and execute judgment during His time of anger rather than overlook their sin. It requires the reader to submit personal danger to divine timing instead of orchestrating retaliation.

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

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.

Cross-references

Psalms 35:4 May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plan to harm me be driven back and confounded.
Psalms 69:22 May their table become a snare; may it be a retribution and a trap.
Nehemiah 4:4 Hear 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.
Psalms 109:14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
Isaiah 2:9 So mankind is brought low, and man is humbled—do not forgive them!
Psalms 37:32 Though the wicked lie in wait for the righteous, and seek to slay them,
Psalms 59:5 O LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, rouse Yourself to punish all the nations; show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah
Isaiah 10:3 What 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?
Jeremiah 8:12 Are 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.
Jeremiah 11:18 And the LORD informed me, so I knew. Then You showed me their deeds.