Jeremiah 18:18

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) Come, and let us devise devices.—The priests and people thus far appear to have listened to the prophet, but at the threatening words of the preceding verse their anger becomes hatred, and their hatred seeks to kill (Jeremiah 18:23). We are reminded of the oft-recurring statement in the Gospels that priests and elders “took counsel” against our Lord to “put Him to death” (Matthew 12:14; Matthew 27:1; Mark 3:6; Luke 6:11; et al.).

For the law shall not perish . . .—The words meant apparently (1) that they had enough guidance in the Law, in the priests, and in the prophets who met their wishes, and (2) that they might trust in the continuance of that guidance in spite of the threatenings of destruction that the prophet had just spoken. The words are suggestive as showing the precise nature of the guidance expected from each. The priests interpret the Law, the wise give the counsel of experience, the prophet speaks what claims to be the word, or message, of the Lord. A striking parallel is found in Ezekiel 7:26.

Come, and let us smite him with the tongue.—We probably find the result of the conspiracy in the measures taken by Pashur in Jeremiah 20:1-3. He had “heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things,” and we may well believe that his informants were some of those who thus announced their intentions. There is no sufficient reason for the marginal reading, “for the tongue.”

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 18:18. Then said they, Come, &c. — Namely, after they had heard from Jeremiah what God had ordered him to say to them concerning their destruction; for this seems to be understood. Let us devise devices against Jeremiah — Let us accuse him of being a false prophet; for the law shall not perish from the priest, &c. — For his threatenings plainly contradict God’s promises made to his people. “They seem to have been incensed against him on much the same ground as the Jews, in aftertimes, were against our Saviour and his apostles. They had persuaded themselves, that God had intended for them a perpetual establishment; and would accordingly provide them with a constant succession of man, in all departments, to preserve and maintain the general welfare; namely, priests to direct in all matters of law and religion; wise statesmen to manage their civil concerns; and prophets to make known to them the immediate will of God on all important and extraordinary occasions. Upon this presumption they inferred, that Jeremiah, who foretold the contrary, was a false prophet, and, as such, they determined to punish him.” — Blaney. Let us smite him with the tongue — Let us calumniate and disparage him, traducing him as an enemy to his country. Let us accuse him of crimes against the state, and by that means take away his life; then all his prophecies will die with him. In the margin we read, for the tongue, which may signify, “Let us punish him for his malignant speeches.” “But I rather think,” says Blaney, “we should render it, Let us smite him on the tongue, that is, on the offending part; alluding to a very significant mode of inflicting punishment, by directing it to that particular member which had the most immediate share in the offence, although here it may possibly carry this general import only, ‘Let us punish him so as effectually to silence him.’“

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:18-23 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Jews were only hardened by the foregoing prophecy, and determined to compass Jeremiah's death.

Let us devise devices - i. e., "deliberately frame a plot" for his ruin (see Jeremiah 18:11 note).

The law shall not perish ... - As the Law of Moses was imperishable, the people probably drew the conclusion that the Levitical priesthood must also endure forever, and therefore that Jeremiah's predictions of national ruin were blasphemous (compare Acts 6:13-14).

Let us smite him with the tongue - Their purpose was to carry a malicious report of what he had said to king Jehoiakim, and so stir up his anger against him.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. (Jer 11:19). Let us bring a capital charge against him, as a false prophet; "for (whereas he foretells that this land shall be left without priests to teach the law, Mal 2:7; without scribes to explain its difficulties; and without prophets to reveal God's will), the law shall not perish from the prophet," &c.; since God has made these a lasting institution in His church, and the law declares they shall never perish (Le 6:18; 10:11; compare Jer 5:12) [Grotius].

the wise—scribes and elders joined to the priests. Perhaps they mean to say, we must have right on our side, in spite of Jeremiah's words against us and our prophets (Jer 28:15, 16; 29:25, 32; 5:31); "for the law shall not perish," &c. I prefer Grotius' explanation.

with … tongue—by a false accusation (Ps 57:4; 64:3; 12:4; 50:19). "For the tongue" (Margin), that is, for his speaking against us. "In the tongue," that is, let us kill him, that he may speak no more against us [Castalio].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This faithful dealing of the prophet with them did only enrage them (as is usual) against the prophet; they plot against the prophet, how to be revenged on him, because he would cross their humours, and would not prophesy as they would have had him.

For the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet; we have the church on our side; the regular priests and the prophets, they know God’s mind as well as he; for there is a promise that the law shall not perish from the priest, nor the word from the prophet; the priests and prophets tell us other things than this Jeremiah doth.

Let us smite him with the tongue, expose him by railing on him, telling lies about concerning him, representing him to be what we know the people hate, abusing him to his face, informing against him; or, in the tongue, let us silence him, command him to speak no more; or, for his tongue, for prophesying at this rate; and for his

words, let us not value them at a rush, nor at all regard them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then said they, come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah,.... Being enraged at the judgments threatened them, they propose to enter into a confederacy and consultation together, to think of ways and means to stop the mouth of the prophet, and even to take away his life; since he had told them that God had devised a device against them, they were for devising devices against him; that so they might walk after their own devices, without being teased and tormented with this prophet:

for the law shall not perish from the priest; whose business it is to teach it; we have other priests besides Jeremiah, and we shall seek the law at their mouths, and not at his; and perhaps these are the words of the priests themselves, the men of Anathoth; so Jarchi thinks; pleasing themselves with their character and office, and the perpetuity of it; that, notwithstanding what Jeremiah had said, there would be a constant succession of this order of then; nor should the law ever cease from being aught by them, to whose instruction men ought to listen, and not to such a prophet:

nor counsel from the wise; we have wise rulers and governors, counsellors of state, and members of the sanhedrim, and judges of all controversies, and who are capable of giving advice upon any occasion; nor shall we ever want such, to whose prudent counsel we do well to attend, and not to what this babbling man says; does he think to know better than our statesmen and sages, our counsellors in church and state?

nor the word from the prophet; we have prophets among us, that prophesy as well as he, and better things; and whose words of prophecy shall be fulfilled, when his will not; who assure us that we shall have peace and prosperity; and therefore let us not regard what this man says, or be intimidated by his threatenings:

come, and let us smite him with the tongue; by saying all the evil we can of him: by threatening him with pains and penalties; by loading him with reproaches and calumnies; by taking away his good name, and lessening his character and reputation among the people; and so the Targum,

"let us bear false witness against him;''

or, "let us smite him in the tongue" (c); cut it out, as Abarbinel; or stop his mouth, and hinder him from speaking any more in this manner to the people; or, "let us smite him for the tongue" (d); because of the words he says, or the prophecies he delivers out:

and let us not give heed to any of his words; or, "to all his words" (e); all which they reckoned his own, and not the words of the Lord. The Septuagint version is, "and we shall hear all his words"; we shall provoke him to say all he has to say, and shall hear and have enough out of his mouth to condemn him; and in all this, and in many other things that follow, Jeremiah was a type of Christ, to whom Jerom applies the whole passage.

(c) "in lingua", Montanus, Castalio. (d) Propter "linguam istam", Junius & Tremellius. (e) "ad omnia verba ejus", Gataker; "ad universa verba ejus", Pagninus, Montanus.

Geneva Study Bible

Then said they, Come, and let us devise plots against Jeremiah; for the law {g} 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 {h} tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

(g) This argument the wicked have always used against the servants of God. The church cannot err: we are the Church, and therefore whoever speaks against us, they ought to die, 1Ki 22:24, Jer 7:4,20:2, Mal 2:4 and thus the false Church persecutes the true Church, which stands not in outward pomp, and in multitude, but is known by the graces of the Holy Spirit.

(h) Let us slander him and accuse him: for we will be believed.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. they] the prophet’s enemies, who are plotting against his life. Cp. Jeremiah 11:18 ff., Jeremiah 12:1 ff., Jeremiah 15:10 f., 15 ff.

the law shall not perish …] See on ch. Jeremiah 8:8. Cp. Ezekiel 7:26 (last part of v.). “The wise” were those who composed such sayings as we find in Proverbs. The sense is that the people refuse to believe Jeremiah’s warnings that the established state of things shall cease.

smite him with the tongue] utter destructive slanders about him. Cp. Amos 7:10 f.

let us not give heed] LXX omit the negative. The sense would then be, Let us watch him, so as to fasten on him a charge of treason. Cp. Jeremiah 20:10.

18–23. See introd. note to section.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 18-23. - A fresh conspiracy (comp. Jeremiah 11:18), called forth by the preceding discourse; Jeremiah's prayer. Verse 18. - The law - or rather, direction, instruction, which was a special function of the priests (Deuteronomy 33:10; Deuteronomy 17:9-11) - shall not perish from the priest. The Jews were but obeying the Deuteronomic Law (on which Jeremiah, as we have seen, laid so much stress) in alluding to the priests. Unhappily, the priests in Jeremiah's time (Jeremiah 2:26), as in Isaiah's (Isaiah 28:7), were forgetful of their high mission. Nor counsel from the wise. The wise men formed an important order in Jewish society, the importance of which in the Divine education of Israel has not been sufficiently recognized. It was their custom to sit in public places, generally in the chambered recess in the city gate, and give advice on questions of moral practice to those who applied for it. But there were wise men and wise men. Some appear, to have "mocked" at the earnest preaching of the prophets (hence the solemn rebukes in the Book of Proverbs), others to have as it were prepared the way for the latter by a more or less distinct recognition of the religious foundation of morality, and of these we have ample monuments in the canonical Proverbs. There may also have been other shades and varieties of wise men, for their characteristic was not a faculty of intuition, but rather of reflectively applying fundamental moral principles. One highly esteemed branch of "wisdom" would, of course, be political, and this would be the most liable to perversion. It is of such (Proverbs 29:14). Nor the word from the prophet. "The word" is a general term for prophesying. Of course, the speakers take no account of the advance in prophecy from the time, at any rate, of Amos. They are satisfied with the lower order of prophets ("false prophets," as the Septuagint calls them); but still they are afraid of Jeremiah, much as Balak was afraid of Balaam, when that soothsayer was blessing Israel (Numbers 23:25). Smite him with the tongue; i.e. by slanderous accusations. The same figure as in Jeremiah 9:3, 8. Jeremiah 18:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Enmity displayed against the prophet by the people for this discourse, and prayer for protection from his enemies. - Jeremiah 18:18. "Then said they: Come and let us plot schemes against Jeremiah; for law shall not be lost to the priest, and counsel to the wise, and speech to the prophet. Come and let us smite him with the tongue and not give heed to all his speeches. Jeremiah 18:19. Give heed to me, Jahveh, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me! Jeremiah 18:20. Shall evil be repaid for good, that they dig a pit for my soul? Remember how I stood before Thee to speak good for them, to turn away Thy wrath from them! Jeremiah 18:21. Therefore give their sons to the famine and deliver them to the sword, that their wives become childless and widows, and their men slaughtered by death, their young men smitten by the sword in battle. Jeremiah 18:22. Let a cry be heard from their houses, when Thou bringest troops upon them suddenly; for they have digged a pit to take me and laid snares for my feet. Jeremiah 18:23. But Thou Jahveh knowest all their counsels against me for death: forgive not their iniquity and blot not out their sin from before Thy face, that they be overthrown before Thee; in the time of Thine anger deal with them."

Even the solemn words (Jeremiah 18:15-17) of the prophet were in vain. Instead of examining themselves and reforming their lives, the blinded sinners resolve to put the troublesome preacher of repentance out of the way by means of false charges. The subject of "and they said" is those who had heard the above discourse; not all, of course, but the infatuated leaders of the people who had. They call on the multitude to plot schemes against him, cf. Jeremiah 11:18. For they have, as they think, priests, wise men, and prophets to give them instruction out of the law, counsel, and word, i.e., prophecy - namely, according to their idea, such as advise, teach, and preach otherwise than Jeremiah, who speaks only of repentance and judgment. Recent scholars render תּורה doctrine, which is right etymologically, but not so when judged by the constant usage, which regards the Torah, the law, as containing the substance of all the doctrine needed by man to tell him how to bear himself towards God, or to make his life happy. The Mosaic law is the foundation of all prophetic preaching; and that the speakers mean תּורה in this sense is clear from their claiming the knowledge of the Torah as belonging to the priests; the law was committed to the keeping and administration of the priests. The "counsel" is that needed for the conduct of the state in difficult circumstances, and in Ezekiel 7:26 it is attributed to the elders; and "speech" or word is the declarations of the prophets. On that subject, cf. Jeremiah 8:8-10. To smite with the tongue is to ruin by slanders and malicious charges, cf. Jeremiah 9:2, Jeremiah 9:4,Jeremiah 9:7, where the tongue is compared to a lying bow and deadly arrow, Psalm 64:4., Psalm 59:8, etc. That they had the prophet's death in view appears from Jeremiah 18:23; although their further speech: We will not give heed to his words, shows that in the discourse against which they were so enraged, he had said "nothing that, according to their ideas, was directly and immediately punishable with death" (Hitz.); cf. Jeremiah 26:6, Jeremiah 26:11. Against these schemes Jeremiah cries to God in Jeremiah 18:19 for help and protection. While his adversaries are saying: People should give no heed to his speeches, he prays the Lord to give heed to him and to listen to the sayings of his enemies. "My contenders," who contend against me, cf. Jeremiah 35:1; Isaiah 49:25. - In support of his prayer he says in Jeremiah 18:20 : Shall evil be repaid for good? cf. Psalm 35:12. In his discourses he had in view nothing but the good of the people, and he appeals to the prayers he had presented to the Lord to turn away God's anger from the people, cf. Jeremiah 14:7., Jeremiah 18:19-22. (On "my standing before Thee," cf. Jeremiah 15:1.) This good they seek to repay with ill, by lying charges to dig a pit for his soul, i.e., for his life, into which pit he may fall; cf. Psalm 57:7, where, however, instead of שׁוּחה (Jeremiah 2:6; Proverbs 22:14; Proverbs 23:27), we have שׁיחה, as in Jeremiah 18:22, Chet. - He prays the Lord to requite them for this wickedness by bringing on the people that which Jeremiah had sought to avert, by destroying them with famine, sword, and disease. The various kinds of death are, Jeremiah 18:21, distributed rhetorically amongst the different classes of the people. The sons, i.e., children, are to be given up to the famine, the men to the sword, the young men to the sword in war. The suffix on הגּרם refers to the people, of which the children are mentioned before, the men and women after. On הגּר על ידי ח, cf. Ezekiel 35:5; Psalm 63:11. "Death," mentioned alongside of sword and famine, is death by disease and pestilence, as in Jeremiah 15:2.