Jeremiah 17:18

Jer 17:18 Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

Ver. 18. Let them be confounded.] A heavy imprecation. Let persecutors take heed how they move ministers to make intercession to God against them, as Elias did against Israel; {Rom 11:2} as Jeremiah here and elsewhere doth against the Jews; as the Christian churches did against Julian the apostate. God will set to his fiat.

Let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed.] Paveant illi et non paveam ego, so the Vulgate Latin hath it. But what a stupid Latin dolt was that Popish priest who alleged to his parishioners this text, to prove, that not he, but they, were to pave the church way! So another of them, finding it written in the end of Paul’s epistles, Missa est, &c., bragged he had found the mass in his Bible. So another, reading Joh 1:44, Invenimus Messiam, we have found the Messiah, made the same conclusion.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17:18 Jeremiah wanted his persecutors to experience the shame and dismay they deserved, the very feelings that he was experiencing (17:15).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Read Jer. 11:20.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

destroy . . . destruction--"break them with a double breach," Hebrew (Jer 14:17). On "double," see on Jer 16:18.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. Let them be confounded] They shall be confounded. These words are to be understood as simple predictions, rather than prayers.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Prophet, as we have seen, had a hard contest, not only with one man or with a few, but with the whole people, and then it is probable that there were many sects, for when he cried against the avaricious, there was a commotion instantly made by all those who lived on plunder, when he spoke against the indulgence of lust, there was a second conspiracy against him; when he condemned drunkenness and intemperance, there was a new combination formed to oppose him. We hence see how all the ungodly in all parts and for various reasons assailed the Prophet, he was therefore constrained to pray, as he now does, Ashamed let them be who persecute me, even because they now testified that they were evidently the enemies of God, for he had no private concern with them, but faithfully obeyed the command of God. As then he knew them to be God’s avowed enemies, he hesitated not to ask God himself to oppose them.

We must yet notice what we have said in other places, that the Prophet was not only influenced by a holy and pious zeal, but was also governed by the wisdom of the Spirit. This I again repeat, for there are many foolish imitators, who always appeal to the vehemence which the Prophets shewed, while they themselves are carried away by a violent rather than by a vehement impulse. But we must first see whether the Holy Spirit guides us, lest we should utter imprecations against the very elect; and then we must beware of being influenced by the feelings of our flesh, and intemperate zeal is ever to be feared, for it is a rare gift so to burn with zeal as to join with it the moderation that is required. As then there is always something turbulent in our zeal, we must remember that the Prophets never uttered a word but as the Spirit guided their tongues, and then that they had no regard to themselves, and, thirdly, that they were so calm and composed in their ardor that they were not, guilty of excess.

The Prophet no doubt fully knew that all those were reprobate on whom he imprecated God’s vengeance, but as it does not belong to us to distinguish between the elect and the reprobate, let us learn to suspend and check our zeal, so that it may not be too fervid, for we may often mistake, if we follow generally what the Prophet says here, Bring on them the day of evil, and with a double breach break them. Were we thus to speak indiscriminately of all, our zeal would often hit the very children of God. We must therefore bear in mind, that before the Prophet uttered this imprecation he was taught by the Spirit of God that he had to do with reprobate and irreclaimable men. Now a new discourse follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(18) Let them be confounded . . .—The prayer reminds us of that of the Psalmist (Psa_35:4; Psa_40:14).

Double destruction.—Literally, break them with a two-fold breaking—i.e., the “double recompense” of Jer_16:18. (See Note there.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. destroy them with double destruction] lit. as mg. break them with a double breach. Cp. Jer_4:6. This may mean a literally twofold punishment, the one part for their apostasy as a nation, the other for their treatment of Jeremiah. It seems more likely however that double is merely equivalent to utter, complete.

Co. with Du. holds that the imprecation, as in direct opposition to Jer_17:16, stamps this part of the v., or according to him, the whole v. as unauthentic (but see Jer_11:20). For metrical reasons also he rejects the v., but considers that it has taken the place of a genuine ending to the passage, now lost.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Let them be confounded that persecute me,.... With words with reproaches, with scoffs and jeers, saying, "where is the word of the Lord?" Jer 17:14; let such be ashamed that scoffingly put such a question, by seeing the accomplishment of it:

but let not me be confounded; who have delivered it out as the word of the Lord, that should be surely fulfilled; let not me be brought to shame by the failure of it and be reckoned as a false prophet:

let them be dismayed; terrified and affrighted when they shall see the judgments of God coming upon them, which they have jeeringly called for:

but let not me be dismayed; by their not coming, or when they shall come; but preserve and protect me:

bring upon them the day of evil; of punishment; which they put far away, and scoff at; though the prophet did not desire the woeful day to come upon the people in general, yet upon his persecutors in particular. Jarchi interprets it of the men of Anathoth alone; and which desire of his did not arise from malice towards them, but from indignation at their sin and for the glory of the divine Being, whose name was blasphemed by them:

and destroy them with double destruction; not with two sorts of judgments, sword and famine, as Jerom; but with an utter destruction, with breach after breach, destruction after destruction, until they were entirely destroyed; unless it should have regard to the two times of destruction, first by the Chaldeans, and then by the Romans.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Let them be confounded, &c. Such expressions as these in the writings of the prophets, are not to be understood as imprecations proceeding from malice or desire of revenge, but as prophetic predictions of evils that were about to fall upon impenitent sinners, and approbations of the ways of the divine justice. (Challoner) --- The prophet has already prevented this objection, ver. 16. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

That is, with abundant destruction. Concerning these prayers of the prophet against his enemies, See Poole "Jer 11:20".

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Let not me be confounded — This prayer for himself becomes here a prayer against his enemies, and yet not so much foes of Jeremiah as of Jehovah. It is not personal hate and vindictiveness which breathes through these words, but love for God and jealousy for his honour.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(On this terrible execration, with reference to Jeremiah"s character, see the general Introduction.) Destroy them with double destruction. "Double" here means "amply sufficient". (comp. Rev_18:6, and see on Jer_16:18)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

May my pursuers be shamed i.e., the men of Anathoth alone.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.