17. Like the east wind I will scatter thembefore the enemy. I will show them my back, not my face,in the day of their calamity.”
18. Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”
19. Hear me, O Lord,and listen to the voice of my adversaries.
20. Should good be repaid with evil?Yet they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before youto speak good for them,to turn away your wrath from them.
21. Therefore deliver up their children to famine;give them over to the power of the sword;let their wives become childless and widowed.May their men meet death by pestilence,their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
22. May a cry be heard from their houses,when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!For they have dug a pit to take me and laid snares for my feet.
23. Yet you, O Lord, knowall their plotting to kill me. Forgive not their iniquity,nor blot out their sin from your sight.Let them be overthrown before you;deal with them in the time of your anger.