Jeremiah 18:19

Then I said, ¹  “Lord, pay attention to me. Listen to what my enemies are saying. ² 

Listen to me, O LORD; hear what my accusers are saying!

Do give heed to me, O LORD, And listen to what my opponents are saying!

LORD, help me! Listen to what they are planning to do to me!

And I said to GOD: "GOD, listen to me! Just listen to what my enemies are saying.

Give thought to me, O Lord, and give ear to the voice of those who put forward a cause against me.

Give heed to me, O LORD, and listen to what my adversaries say!

Give heed to me, O LORD, And listen to the voice of those who contend with me!

Then I said, ¹  “Lord, pay attention to me. Listen to what my enemies are saying. ² 

¹ tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show that Jeremiah turns from description of the peoples’ plots to his address to God to deal with the plotters.

² tn Heb “the voice of my adversaries.”

sn Jeremiah’s prayers against the unjust treatment of his enemies here and elsewhere (see 11:18-20; 12:1-4; 15:15-18; 17:14-18) have many of the elements of the prayers of the innocent in the book of Psalms: an invocation of the Lord as just judge, a lament about unjust attacks, an appeal to innocence, and a cry for vindication which often calls for the Lord to pay back in kind those who unjustly attack the petitioner. See for examples Pss 5, 7, 17, 54 among many others.