Yeremia 18:17-18

18:17 I will scatter them before their enemies

like dust blowing in front of a burning east wind.

I will turn my back on them and not look favorably on them ¹ 

when disaster strikes them.”

Jeremiah Petitions the Lord to Punish Those Who Attack Him

18:18 Then some people ²  said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! ³  There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. ⁴  Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! ⁵  Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”

[18:17]  ¹ tc Heb “I will show them [my] back and not [my] face.” This reading follows the suggestion of some of the versions and some of the Masoretes. The MT reads “I will look on their back and not on their faces.”

[18:17]  sn To “turn the back” is universally recognized as a symbol of rejection. The turning of the face toward one is the subject of the beautiful Aaronic blessing in Num 6:24-26.

[18:18]  ² tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.

[18:18]  ³ tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18 where this has sinister overtones as it does here.

[18:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “Instruction will not perish from priest, counsel from the wise, word from the prophet.”

[18:18]  sn These are the three channels through whom God spoke to his people in the OT. See Jer 8:8-10 and Ezek 7:26.

[18:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.