And Jehovah hath given me knowledge, and I know [it]; then thou shewedst me their doings.
Jeremiah has just delivered God's word against a guilty nation. Now the chapter turns personal. God opens the prophet's eyes to a murder plot already running against him. Two questions follow. Why is the faithful man the hunted man? And what does God do for a servant who cannot see the danger?
The plot was not random malice. It grew out of the message he carried. At the end of the chapter he takes his place with the few who still hold God's testimony.
At the end of the chapter Jeremiah takes the place of the faithful remnant who have the testimony of God... Jeremiah, on account of his faithfulness and his testimony, was exposed to the plots of the wicked. Jehovah reveals these things to him. The condition of the remnant is marked by righteousness, and in keeping with that he calls for the vengeance of God. This will be the means of deliverance for the remnant.
The force of "The LORD made it known to me" lies in what came before it: total ignorance.
In the latter part of the chapter (verses 18-23) the prophet states how the Lord had made known everything to him. He knew nothing of their murderous plans against himself. He was as unaware as an animal led to slaughter. So he calls for righteous vengeance on the guilty people, and above all, very soon, on the men of Anathoth. Their nearness to Jeremiah had given them the chance to prove their extreme wickedness.
Anathoth was his own village, and the conspirators included the people closest to him by blood.
At first Jeremiah was not aware of his family's hostility. But then God warns him... They joined the people of Anathoth in seeking the prophet's life. They wanted to put an end to his preaching. Jeremiah knew nothing of these plots until God told him.
The next verse pictures a gentle lamb led away, unaware. That is why commentators see here a picture of someone greater than Jeremiah.
Their sinful doings are all around him, and nothing about them is hidden. The prophet suffers like His Lord, of whom he is a type. He is brought "like a lamb" to the slaughter. They had devised wicked plans against him, to "cut him off from the land of the living" (verses 18-19). How like this is to what Isaiah 53 says of our blessed Lord! But the prophet's prayer in the next verse is nothing like His. He asks for vengeance on his persecutors.
A type is a resemblance, not an equation. Two things separate the prophet from the One he pictures: what he said, and what happened to him.
The Spirit of Christ was in Jeremiah (1 Peter 1:11). We are therefore justified in seeing some clear foreshadowing of our blessed Lord in him. There is doubtless much about Jeremiah also that stands out in striking contrast to Him. For instance, like his Lord, he is led as "a lamb" by his persecutors "to the slaughter" (Jeremiah 11:19). But the likeness goes no further here, for Christ "opened not His mouth." Again, they said about the prophet, "Let us cut him off from the land of the living." They did not do this to Jeremiah. They did do it to our blessed Saviour.
Once informed, Jeremiah asks God to repay his enemies. Commentators read that prayer in the setting Jeremiah lived under. It is not a model for every believer.
Verses 18-23. The Lord revealed to him their doings. He was ignorant of it, like a lamb or an ox brought to the slaughter. They wanted to cut him off from the land of the living. He calls for vengeance upon them. This fits fully with the age of the law and God's righteous government.
Vine sets that prayer beside a very different one.
It was truly a perfectly righteous prayer for a Jew to make, with earthly promises and hopes, and it should be answered (verses 21-23). But the Lord Jesus asked His Father to forgive His enemies.
- Faithfulness — The plot was the price of his testimony. Holding God's word put him at odds with his own town and family.
- Blindness — He knew nothing. Like an animal led to slaughter, he had no sense of the danger until God spoke.
- Disclosure — God answered that blindness by showing him. The servant's safety rests on what the Lord makes known, not on what the servant spots.
- Likeness — The unsuspecting lamb of the next verse points forward to Christ. Yet Jeremiah was spared, and Christ was cut off.
- Response — Jeremiah's cry for vengeance fits God's righteous government under the law. Jesus asked His Father to forgive His enemies.
And I was like a tame lamb [that] is led to the slaughter; and I knew not that they devised devices against me, [saying,] Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
Here the message turns on the messenger. Men are plotting Jeremiah's death, and he has no idea. Two questions run through this verse. Who wanted him dead? And why do his words sound so much like a description of Christ?
Jeremiah says plainly that he did not know. One writer measures that blindness by the picture in the verse itself: the animal walking to slaughter.
In the last part of the chapter (verses 18-23) the prophet states how the Lord made it all known to him. He was as unaware of their murderous plots against himself as the animal set apart for slaughter.
The people scheming against him were not foreign enemies. They were his relatives and the people of Anathoth, his home town — and they kept up a friendly front.
At first Jeremiah was not aware of his family's hostility. But then God warns him, "For even your brothers, the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you... Do not believe them, even though they speak smooth words to you" (12:26). Along with the inhabitants of Anathoth, they were seeking the life of the prophet and wanting to put an end to his preaching (11:26). Jeremiah was ignorant of these plots (11:19) until he was informed of them by God.
Their closeness to Jeremiah gave them the chance to show how evil they were. So the call for vengeance falls on that town first.
So he calls for righteous vengeance on the guilty people. He calls for it above all, and very soon, on the men of Anathoth. Jeremiah's nearness had given them the chance to prove how great their wickedness was.
The Greek Old Testament, called the Septuagint, has its own wording here. It pairs the word for lamb with an adjective meaning innocent.
In the Septuagint the word arnion is used in Psalm 114:4 and 6; in Jeremiah 11:19, with the adjective akakos, innocent; and in Jeremiah 27:45, "lambs."
Writers see Christ foreshadowed here, but they are careful. The likeness runs through the lamb, the cutting off and the erased name. At each point it stops short.
The Spirit of Christ was in Jeremiah (1 Peter 1:11). We are therefore justified in seeing some clear foreshadowing of our blessed Lord in him. There is no doubt much about Jeremiah also that stands in striking contrast to Him. For instance, if, like his Lord, he is led as "a lamb" by his persecutors "to the slaughter" (Jeremiah 11:19), he was not like Him any further in this case. Christ "opened not His mouth." Again, they said about the prophet, "Let us cut him off from the land of the living." They did not do this to Jeremiah. They did it to our blessed Saviour (Isaiah 53:8). They wanted Jeremiah's "name to be remembered no more." But of Christ Scripture asks, "Who shall declare His generation?"
In the next verses Jeremiah asks God for vengeance. Writers see that as a right prayer for a man in his position, but not the prayer of Christ.
How like this is to what Isaiah 53 says of our blessed Lord! But how unlike His prayer is the prophet's prayer in the next verse, where he asks for vengeance on his persecutors. It was a righteous prayer for a Jew to make, with earthly promises and hopes, and it should be answered (vv. 21-23). But the Lord Jesus asked His Father to forgive His enemies.
Jeremiah is not only speaking for himself here. He stands for a faithful few inside a guilty nation, and their righteousness shapes the prayer he prays.
At the end of the chapter Jeremiah takes the place of the faithful remnant who have the testimony of God. His position continually reminds us of the Psalms... Because of his faithfulness and his testimony, the wicked plotted against Jeremiah. Jehovah reveals these things to him. And, in keeping with the righteousness that marks the condition of the faithful remnant, he calls for the vengeance of God.
- Unaware — Jeremiah walked toward death with no more suspicion than a lamb led to slaughter. The plot was real long before he knew it.
- Uncovered — He learned of it only because God told him. Faithfulness does not come with instincts for danger; it comes with a God who reveals.
- Up close — The plotters were his own family and neighbours in Anathoth, speaking smooth words to his face while seeking his life.
- Unlike — The lamb, the cutting off and the blotted-out name all point to Christ. Yet Jeremiah spoke, lived on, and asked for vengeance. Christ stayed silent, went to death, and asked His Father to forgive.
- Undestroyed — They wanted his name forgotten. We still read his name today, and of Christ Scripture asks, "Who shall declare His generation?"