Discovery BoxJeremiah 18:18 
Context18:18 Then some people 1 said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! 2 There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. 3 Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! 4 Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”
Jeremiah 37:17
Context37:17 Then King Zedekiah had him brought to the palace. There he questioned him privately and asked him, 5 “Is there any message from the Lord?” Jeremiah answered, “Yes, there is.” Then he announced, 6 “You will be handed over to the king of Babylon.” 7
Jeremiah 40:15
Context40:15 Then Johanan son of Kareah spoke privately to Gedaliah there at Mizpah, “Let me go and kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah before anyone knows about it. Otherwise he will kill you 8 and all the Judeans who have rallied around you will be scattered. Then what remains of Judah will disappear.”
1 tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.
2 tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18 where this has sinister overtones as it does here.
3 tn Heb “Instruction will not perish from priest, counsel from the wise, word from the prophet.”
sn These are the three channels through whom God spoke to his people in the OT. See Jer 8:8-10 and Ezek 7:26.
4 tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.
5 tn Heb “Then King Zedekiah sent and brought him and the king asked him privately [or more literally, in secret] and said.”
6 tn Heb “Then he said.”
7 sn Jeremiah’s answer even under duress was the same that he had given Zedekiah earlier. (See Jer 34:3 and see the study note on 34:1 for the relative timing of these two incidents.)
8 tn Heb “Why should he kill you?” However, this is one of those cases listed in BDB 554 s.v. מָה 4.d(b) where it introduces a question introducing rhetorically the reason why something should not be done. In cases like this BDB notes that it approximates the meaning “lest” and is translated in Greek by μήποτε (mhpote) or μή (mh) as the Greek version does here. Hence it is separated from the preceding and translated “otherwise” for the sake of English style.
