to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָה֙Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
men
אַנְשֵׁ֣י'an.Shei
H582
a man in general (singly or collectively) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Anathoth
עֲנָת֔וֹתa.na.Tot
H6068
Anathoth · proper noun, a place name
seek
הַֽמְבַקְשִׁ֥יםham.vak.Shim
H1245
to search out (by any method · definite article + verb, piel active participle, masculine plural absolute
life
נַפְשְׁךָ֖naf.she.Kha
H5315
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
saying
לֵאמֹ֑רle.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Prophesy
תִנָּבֵא֙ti.na.Ve'
H5012
to prophesy · verb, niphal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
name
בְּשֵׁ֣םbe.Shem
H8034
an appellation · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֔הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
die
תָמ֖וּתta.Mut
H4191
to die (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
hand
בְּיָדֵֽנוּbe.ya.De.nu
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 30:10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
Jeremiah 12:5-6 If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein…
Jeremiah 20:10 For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, sayi…
Amos 2:12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
Luke 13:33-34 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 20:1-2 Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
Jeremiah 26:8 Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the pr…
Jeremiah 38:1-6 Then Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah, heard the…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 11:18–end
The prophet Jeremiah has much in his writings concerning himself, much more than Isaiah had, the times he lived in being very troublesome. Here we have (as it should seem) the beginning of his sorrows, which arose from the people of his own city, Anathoth, a priest's city, and yet a malignant one. Observe here,
I. Their plot against him, Jer 11:19. They devised devices against him, laid their heads together to contrive how they might be in the most plausible and effectual manner the death of him. Malice is ingenious in its devices, as well as industrious in its prosecutions. They said concerning Jeremiah, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof - a proverbial expression, meaning, "Let…
Prophesy not-- (Isa 30:10; Amo 2:12; Mic 2:6). If Jeremiah had not uttered his denunciatory predictions, they would not have plotted against him. None were more bitter than his own fellow townsmen. Compare the conduct of the Nazarites towards Jesus of Nazareth (Luk 4:24-29).
John Gill on Jeremiah 11:21
Therefore thus saith the Lord of the men of Anathoth,.... That is, "unto", or "concerning the men of Anathoth", the townsmen of Jeremiah, and who were the persons that combined together to destroy him; of this place; see Gill on Jeremiah 1:1.
that seek thy life; or "soul"; that is, to take it away:
saying, prophesy not in the name of the Lord; without their leave, and such hard things as he did, unless he would prophesy smooth things, and then he might go on, otherwise he must expect to die:
that thou die not by our hand; or means; they intimate, that, should he persist in this way of prophesying, they should not stay to carry on a judicial process against him, to bring him and accuse him…
Jeremiah 11:21-23
21. Therefore thus saith the LORD of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that thou die not by our hand:
21. Propterea sic dicit Jehova ad viros Anathoth, qui qumrunt anitaare tuam, dieendo, Ne prophetes in horninc Jehow, et non morieris in manu nostra, (hoc est, ne moriaris manu nostra)
22. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine:
22. Propterea sic dicit Jehova exercituum, Ecce ego vlsitans (visitabo) super eos; adolescentes eorum monentur gladio, filii eorum et filiae eorum morientur fame:
23. And there…
The Church Fathers
For Anathoth did not receive Jeremiah, or the Tishbites Elijah, or Abelmeholah Elisha, or Ramah Samuel, or the synagogue Moses, or Israel our Lord Jesus in Nazareth.
(v. 21 onward) Therefore, thus says the Lord to the men of Anathoth who seek your life and say: Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or you will die by our hand. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will visit them. The young men shall die by the sword; their sons and daughters shall die by famine, and there shall be no remnant of them. For I will bring disaster upon the men of Anathoth in the year of their visitation. It seems that this contradicts the previous opinions, in which we wanted to approve what was said from the person of Christ, and not from Jeremiah, who resided in the village of Anathoth, which is three miles from Jerusalem. But if we understand the etymology of the town of Anathoth (which means obedience), it will clearly show that the men of Anathoth, who once obeyed the Lord's commands, were all called Jews, and especially the inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem, upon whom the final judgment came, that they would perish in the evils of the siege, by sword, famine, and disease. In order to free ourselves from all the annoyance of interpretation, let us follow this rule: Whatever the prophets have done in the manner of the Lord and Savior, and whatever has been fulfilled in the present time in Jeremiah, let it be prophesied in the future about the Lord.
"Therefore thus says the Lord against the men of Anathoth who seek my life, who say: You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord, and if you do, you shall die in our hands. Behold, I will visit upon them: their young men shall die by the sword, and their sons and their daughters shall perish by famine. And there shall be no remnant of them, for I will bring evils upon the inhabitants of Anathoth in the year of their visitation." For the sake of a figure the name of Anathoth is here taken up. And the whole Jewish mystery is spoken in it figuratively; for Anathoth is interpreted "Hearkening." Since, then, a hearkening of God was in that people, as also the kingdom of God, and it came to pass concerning the kingdom that "the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits," according to this it also came to pass that "the men of Anathoth," those who are in the Hearkening, "seek the life" — not of Jeremiah (for neither does the history say that men of Anathoth sought the life of Jeremiah. We have the books of Kingdoms; Scripture makes mention there of Jeremiah, yet nothing of the sort is said in them, nor in the books of Chronicles; for we have the very book of the prophet, and the men of Anathoth have said nothing) — but these things are said concerning Christ. "Those who seek my life, those who say: You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord." The Jews hindered Jesus from teaching. "And if you do, you shall die in our hands. Behold, I will visit upon them: their young men shall die by the sword, and their sons and their daughters shall perish by famine." They did not then perish by the sword, but after the coming a famine has now come upon them — "not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord"; for no longer is "thus says the Lord Almighty" spoken among them. This is the famine, that prophecy should be no more — and why do I say prophecy? not even teaching. Even if ten thousand times over there are those among them who pass for wise men, there is no longer a word of the Lord among them, since there was fulfilled the saying, "The Lord will take away from Judea and from Jerusalem a mighty man and a mighty woman, a giant and a strong one and a man of war and a judge and a prophet and a diviner and an elder and a captain of fifty and a wonderful counselor and a wise architect…
Dictionary and topics
Anathoth — The name of one of the cities of refuge, in the tribe of Benjamin (Josh. 21:18). The Jews, as a rule, did not change the names of the towns they found in Palestine; hence this town may be regarded as…
Anathoth · .Prophecies against — .Prophecies against
Jeremiah · .Conspiracy against — .Conspiracy against
Punishment Of The Wicked, The · On account of their: Persecuting — On account of their: Persecuting
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Evidence that Judah is Unreclaimable, and that the Sore Judgments Threatened cannot be Averted. - As a practical proof of the people's determination not to reform, we have in Jer 11:18-23 an account of the designs of the inhabitants of Anathoth against the prophet's life, inasmuch as it was their ill-will towards his prophecies that led them to this crime. They are determined not to hear the word of God, chiding and punishing them for their sins, and so to put the preacher of this word out of the way. - Jer 11:18. "And Jahveh gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it; then showedst Thou me their doings. Jer 11:19. And I was as a tame lamb that is led to the slaughter, and knew not that they plo…
Jeremiah’s enemies even included family and relatives in his hometown of Anathoth, over whose fate he grieved (10:20). They demanded that he should stop prophesying in the Lord’s name. In line with the Lord’s promise to take care of him (1:19), the Lord told Jeremiah that even the families of his foes, including their boys and girls, would lose their lives when their time of punishment came.
Rashi on Jeremiah 11:20
Let me see Your vengeance against them He cursed the people of Anathoth.
