Jeremiah 18:23

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. FORGIVE NOT - (Psalms 109:9; ). Denouncing the doom of their foreseen impenitence, not a prayer that they might be impenitent, and therefore not forgiven. So in the case of the enemies of the antitype, Messiah, in Ps 109. NEITHER BLOT OUT THEIR SIN - image from an account book (; ). LET THEM BE OVERTHROWN BEFORE THEE - hypocrites suppose God...

The words of the last verse of the eighteenth chapter we gave yesterday. Let us now see what the Prophet means by them, and what fruit we ought to gather from them. He says, that God was a witness of the wickedness of his enemies — that all their counsels had in view his destruction. There is, moreover, to be understood a contrast, — that the Prophet, as we have before seen, cared faithfully for their salvation. It was then a most base ingratitude in them to plot the death of the holy Prophet, who was not only innocent, but highly deserved their thanks for laboring for their salvation. We hence conclude that they deserved no mercy. _Thou knowest, _he says_, their counsel, that what they consult among themselves tends to bring death on me: be not thou then propitious to their iniquity, and blot not out their sin _ We said in our last lecture that this vehemence, as it was dictated by the...

18-23 When the prophet called to repentance, instead of obeying the call, the people devised devices against him. Thus 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. But the prophet had done his duty to them; and the same will be our rejoicing in a day of evil....

YET, LORD - Better, But, Lord. They conceal their plots, but God knows, and therefore must punish. NEITHER BLOT OUT ... - Or, “blot not out their sin from before Thy face that they may be made to stumble before Thee.” THUS - Omit this word. Since there is an acceptable time and a day of salvation, so there is a time of anger, and Jeremiah’s prayer is that God would deal with his enemies at such a time, and when therefore no mercy would be shown. On imprecations such as these, see Psalms 109 introductory note. Though they did not flow from personal vengeance, but from a pure zeal for God’s honor, yet they belong to the legal spirit of the Jewish covenant. We must not, because we have been shown a “more excellent way,” condemn too harshly that sterner spirit of justice which animated

EXPOSITION This chapter is the introduction of a group of prophecies (extending to Jeremiah 25:1.) of various dates; their sequence has evidently not been determined by chronological considerations. The prophet's first object is, perhaps, to refute the scoffing inquiry (Jeremiah 17:15), "What has become of the [threatening] word of Jehovah?" and to justify the glorious premise given at the conclusion of the last chapter. The fulfillment of threatenings and promises alike is conditioned by the moral attitude of the people (comp. Ezekiel 33:11). God, as it were, holds them in either hand, and there is still time (contrast...

YET, LORD, THOU KNOWEST ALL THEIR COUNSEL AGAINST ME TO SLAY [ME],.... However deep they had laid them; and however unknown they were to him; or however private and secret they might be thought to be by them; God is an omniscient God, and knows and sees all things; the thoughts of men's hearts, and all their secret designs in the dark against his ministers, people, and interest: FORGIVE NOT THEIR INIQUITY, NEITHER BLOT OUT THEIR SIN FROM THY SIGHT; they had sinned the unpardonable sin; or, however, a sin unto death; for which prayer for the forgiveness of it was not to be made, 1 John 5:16; this the prophet knew: what he here imprecates, and both before and after, must be considered, not as flowing from a private spirit, or from a spirit of malice and revenge; but what he delivered out under a spirit of prophecy, as foretelling what would be the sad estate and condition of t

CHAPTER 18 The Potter and the Clay _ 1. In the potter's house and the message (Jeremiah 18:1) _ 2. The plot against the prophet and his prayer (Jeremiah 18:18) Jeremiah 18:1. He was commanded to go to the house of a potter and watch his work. The vessel Jeremiah sees fashioned out of clay is marred; it did not turn out well. Then the clay was taken up again and made in another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make it. Then came the message: “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.” If the creature of the dust can do as he pleases with the clay, how much

THE POTTER AND THE CLAY. The potter (Jeremiah 18:1) moulding his clay on the upper stone, which he makes revolve by his feet resting on the connected lower stone, is compared with Yahweh in His control of Israel (Jeremiah 18:5). The point of the comparison, as worked out in Jeremiah 18:7 ff_.,_ is not predestination (contrast Romans 9-11), but the conditionality of Yahweh's treatment of a nation, according as it turns to good or to evil (_cf._ the story of Jonah and Nineveh, also Ezekiel's individualism, Jeremiah 18:20 ff.). Judah, however, will not repent (with...

THEIR COUNSEL. See App-85. FORGIVE NOT. See App-86. INIQUITY. Hebrew. _'avon._ App-44. SIN. Hebrew. _chata'._ App-44....

See introd. note to section....