Jeremiah 18:21

So now, allow their children to die from hunger! Or cause them to be killed by their enemies’ swords! Cause their wives to become widows, whose children are all dead! Cause their old men to die in a plague, and cause their young men to be killed in battles!

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.

In Context

20I am doing things that are good, so it is disgusting that [RHQ] they are paying me back by doing evil things to me. It is as though they have dug a pit for me to fall into and die. Do not forget that one time I stood in front of you and pleaded for you to help them, and I tried to prevent you from punishing them [MTY], even though you were very angry with them.

22Cause people to scream in their homes when enemy soldiers suddenly come into their houses! Cause all those things to happen to them because they want to kill me. It is as though they have dug a pit for me to fall into, and they have hidden traps along my path.

Read all of Jeremiah 18

Cross References

Deuteronomy 32:25Outside their houses, their enemies will kill them [MTY] with swords, and in their homes, their enemies will cause them to be terrified. Their enemies will kill young men and young women, and they will kill infants and old people with gray hair.

Psalms 63:11But I, the king of Israel, will rejoice in what God has done; and all those who revere and trust God will praise him, but he will not allow liars to say anything.

Isaiah 9:16The leaders of the people have misled them; they have caused the people that they are ruling to be confused.

Jeremiah 11:20Then I prayed, “Commander of the armies of angels, you judge people justly/fairly, and you examine everything that we are thinking [DOU]. Allow me to watch you getting revenge on the people who want to kill me, because I trust that you will do for me what is right.”

Jeremiah 12:3But Yahweh, as for me, you know what is in my inner being. You see what I do and you are able to know what I am thinking. So drag away those wicked people, like people drag away sheep that they are going to butcher. Set them aside like sheep that are about to be slaughtered!

Jeremiah 15:8I will cause there to be more widows in Judah than there are grains of sand on the seashore [HYP]. At noontime, when people will not be expecting it to happen, I will cause an enemy army to attack you, an army that will destroy your young men and cause their mothers to weep. I will cause you to suddenly experience great suffering/pain and become very terrified.

Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 18:19-23

Conduct of Persecutors; Prophetic Imprecations. ( b. c. 600.) 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. 19 Give heed to me, O Lord , and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. 20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before… Read the whole commentary →

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