Jeremiah 18:22 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 18:22
Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
a shriek or outcry · noun, common feminine singular absolute
heard
תִּשָּׁמַ֤עti.sha.Ma'
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
houses
מִבָּ֣תֵּיהֶ֔םmi.Ba.tei.Hem
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
bring
תָבִ֧יאta.Vi'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
troop
גְּד֖וּדge.Dud
H1416
a crowd (especially of soldiers) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
suddenly
פִּתְאֹ֑םpit.'Om
H6597
instantly · adverb
digged
כָר֤וּkha.Ru
H3738
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
pit
שׁוּחָה֙shi.chah
H7745
a chasm · noun, common feminine singular absolute
take
לְלָכְדֵ֔נִיle.la.khe.De.ni
H3920
to catch (in a net · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix
hid
טָמְנ֥וּta.me.Nu
H2934
to hide (by covering over) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
snares
וּפַחִ֖יםu.fa.Chim
H6341
a (metallic) sheet (as pounded thin) · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural absolute
feet
לְרַגְלָֽיle.rag.Lai
H7272
a foot (as used in walking) · preposition + noun, common feminine dual 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
Jeremiah 6:26 O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentat…
Psalms 140:5 The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah.
Jeremiah 25:34-36 Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispe…
Zephaniah 1:10-11 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the se…
Psalms 56:5-7 Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.
Isaiah 10:30 Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.
Zephaniah 1:16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
Psalms 38:12 They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day lo…
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…
cry--by reason of the enemy bursting in: let their houses be no shelter to them in their calamities [CALVIN].
digged . . . pit-- (Jer 18:20; Psa 57:6; Psa 119:85).
John Gill on Jeremiah 18:22
Let a cry be heard from their houses,.... A shrieking of women and children, not only for the loss of husbands and parents, but because of the entrance of the enemy into the city, and into their houses, to take away their lives and their substance; as follows:
when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them; or an army, as the Targum; either the Chaldean army, or rather the Roman army:
for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet: and therefore it was a just retaliation, that a troop or army should suddenly come upon them, and seize their persons and substance; though Kimchi understands it, as before, of poison, which they would have given him; but Jarchi, of a suspic…
Jeremiah 18:22
22. Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
22. Audiatur clamor ex aedibus eorum cum induxeris super eos exercitum repente; quia foderunt foveam ad capiendum me, laqueos occultarunt pedibus meis.
He proceeds with his imprecation, he then wishes that a cry should he heard from the houses, as though he had said, "Let there be no refuge for them when their calamity shall happen:" For his own house is to every one his place of safetyin a disordered state of things. The Prophet then wished them to be slain by their enemies even when concealed in their houses; for it…
The Church Fathers
(Vers. 22, 23.) For he brings upon them suddenly a robber, because they dug a pit to capture me, and hid snares for my feet. But you, Lord, know all their counsel against me to bring about my death. Do not forgive their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight. Let them be overthrown (or let them stumble) before you; in the time of your anger, deal with them (or do to them). If we understand this from Jeremiah, let us refer the sudden robber to Nebuchadnezzar; if we understand it from the Savior, which is both truer and better, let us refer it to the Roman army. And so that the sentence of God may not seem unjust, he explains what they did against the Son of God, Christ, and what they suffered. But what he concludes, that you may not show favor to their wickedness, and their sin may not be blotted out from your presence, is by no means contrary to the previous sentence, in which he intercedes for the people to the Father; but after the time for repentance has passed, and they persist in their wickedness, the people and the elders are punished not so much for themselves as for others, so that their unavenged sin may not harm others by example. And what he brings forward: That those who stumble, or fall, in your sight, are similar to that of Isaiah and the Apostle Peter. And you will not stumble like on a stone of offense, and a rock of scandal (Isaiah VIII, 14; I Peter II, 8). The Prophet also mentions this in the Psalms: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This has been done by the Lord (Psalm CXVII, 22).
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
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…
In his prayer for vengeance, Jeremiah asked God to fulfill his promised curses against those who violated his covenant (cp. Deut 27:11-26; 28:15-68; see also “Prayers for Vengeance” Theme Note).
Rashi on Jeremiah 18:22
for they dug a pit to seize me that they suspected him of intimacy with a married woman, as it is stated (Prov. 23:27): “For a harlot is a deep pit (ֹשוּחָה).”
