Why does Jeremiah call on the Lord to remember and to take vengeance on his persecutors and not take him away as he bears reproach for the Lord?

Jeremiah speaks again in Jeremiah 15:15–18. The Lord’s response in Jeremiah 15:11–14 has given Jeremiah little comfort in his present circumstances and he once again lays his complaint before the Lord in very bold words. At the start and end of Jeremiah 15:15 Jeremiah says that the Lord knows his circumstances and he calls to the Lord, Remember me and visit me. The word remember is not simply recalling something that has been forgotten; it is rather a call to act in the present based on what the Lord knows. It is a call to action, to visit Jeremiah by actually doing something about his current circumstances. Simply knowing that judgment is coming to Judah is not enough to comfort Jeremiah in his hardship. He reminds the Lord that he is bearing reproach for the Lord’s sake, as the Lord’s prophet, and so the Lord should do something.

He calls on the Lord to take vengeance for me on my persecutors. The Hebrew word translated as vengeance is naqam and this verb has a special sense suggesting that the persecutors Jeremiah refers to are not ultimately his enemies, but the Lord’s. By persecuting him as the prophet, they are rejecting the Lord himself. He is calling on the Lord to act so that he can continue his ministry unhindered.¹ In your forbearance, take me not away, says Jeremiah. He is possibly concerned that he will die at the hands of his enemies because of the Lord’s incredible patience with his people and the delaying of his judgment.²