to prick up the ears · verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine singular + paragogic he
LORD
יְהוָ֖הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
hearken
וּשְׁמַ֖עu.she.Ma'
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
voice
לְק֥וֹלle.Kol
H6963
a voice or sound · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
contend
יְרִיבָֽיye.ri.Vai
H3401
literally he will contend · noun, common masculine plural 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
Nehemiah 6:9 For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my h…
Psalms 55:16-17 As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.
Psalms 109:28 Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.
Jeremiah 20:12 But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I o…
Micah 7:8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.
2 Kings 19:16 LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the…
Nehemiah 4:4-5 Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity:
Psalms 56:1-3 Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 18:18–end
The prophet here, as sometimes before, brings in his own affairs, but very much for instruction to us.
I. See here what are the common methods of the persecutors. We may see this in Jeremiah's enemies, Jer 18:18.
1. They laid their heads together to consult what they should do against him, both to be revenged on him for what he had said and to stop his mouth for the future: They said, Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah. The enemies of God's people and ministers have been often very crafty themselves, and confederate with one another, to do them mischief. What they cannot act to the prejudice of religion separately they will try to do in concert. The wicked plots against the just…
Give heed--contrasted with, "let us not give heed" (Jer 18:18). As they give no heed to me, do Thou, O Lord, give heed to me, and let my words at least have their weight with Thee.
John Gill on Jeremiah 18:19
Give heed to me, O Lord,.... To his prayer, since his enemies would not give heed to his prophecies; and God does give heed to the cries and complaints of his ministers, when men will not give heed to their words and doctrines; they have a God to go to, who will hear them, when men despise them:
and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me; hear their reproaches and rantings, their blasphemies and evil speakings, their lies and falsehoods, and judge between me and them; let it appear who is in the right; vindicate my cause, and plead with them that plead against me.
John Calvin on Jeremiah 18:19
Jeremiah 18:19
19. Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
19. Attende, Jehova, ad me, et audi vocem litigatorum meorum (hoc est, rixantium mecum.)
As the Prophet saw that his labor as to men was useless, he turned to God, as we find he had done often before. This way of speaking, no doubt, had more force than if he had continued to address the people. He might indeed have said, "Miserable men! where are you rushing headlong? what means this madness? what at last do ye think will be the end, since ye are resisting God, being obstinate against his Spirit? for ye cannot extinguish the light by your perverseness or by your effrontery." The Prophet migh…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 19 and following) Attend, O Lord, to me: and hear the voice of my adversaries. Is evil repaid for good, because they have dug a pit for my soul? Remember that I stood in your presence, to speak good for them, and to turn away your wrath from them. Therefore, let their children become a byword, and let them be led into the hands of the sword. May their wives be without children and widows, and may their husbands be killed by death, may their young men be pierced by the sword in battle, may the cry be heard from their houses. Indeed, these things were suffered by the people of Judah under the type of the Savior, which were subsequently fulfilled more fully and perfectly in Christ. And after the coming of the Babylonians, they were devastated. But they were completely fulfilled in Christ, and after the city was destroyed by the Roman sword, they were put to death, not because of idolatry, which was not present at that time, but because of the killing of the Son of God, when the whole people cried out together: Take him away, take him away; we have no king but Caesar (John 19:15). And their curse is a complete eternal damnation; His blood is upon us, and upon our children (Matthew 27:25). For they dug a pit for Christ, and said: Let us remove him from the land of the living (Isaiah 53:8). He showed them such great mercy, that while standing in the presence of the Father, he spoke good things for them, to turn away his anger from them, even saying on the cross: Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). We hasten through the obscure, in order to dwell in the clearer things, by no means interpreting the delusions of certain individuals or the captivity of the celestial Jerusalem, but rather pursuing a clear history and a most evident prophecy, with every confidence in words and meanings.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Jeremiah · .Conspiracy against — .Conspiracy against
Strife · Saints should: Seek God’s protection from — Saints should: Seek God’s protection from
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).
Enmity displayed against the prophet by the people for this discourse, and prayer for protection from his enemies. - Jer 18:18. "Then said they: Come and let us plot schemes against Jeremiah; for law shall not be lost to the priest, and counsel to the wise, and speech to the prophet. Come and let us smite him with the tongue and not give heed to all his speeches. Jer 18:19. Give heed to me, Jahveh, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me! Jer 18:20. Shall evil be repaid for good, that they dig a pit for my soul? Remember how I stood before Thee to speak good for them, to turn away Thy wrath from them! Jer 18:21. Therefore give their sons to the famine and deliver them to the sw…
Jeremiah reminded the Lord of the injustice of his enemies’ opposition.
Rashi on Jeremiah 18:18
And they said, “Come, etc.” Jeremiah was complaining about the men of Anathoth and saying that they say this.
Torah...from the priest For it is incumbent upon the priests to teach the Torah, as it is stated (Deut. 33:10): “They shall teach Your ordinances to Jacob.”
not speech from the prophet I. e., words of prophecy.
Come, let us strike him with the tongue Let us testify falsely against him.
