These words reveal the basic strategy Jeremiah’s enemies will use as they plot
against him. First, they will strike him with the tongue.
This refers to slanderous and malicious speech. The want to start a propaganda campaign to discredit Jeremiah and his message of judgment. Secondly, they will simply not pay attention to any of his words.
There is no desire to engage at all with what Jeremiah is saying, because it threatens the very foundation of their message and beliefs.1 The Lord has of course warned them over and over again through his prophet that this is the very root of their problem: it is not ultimately Jeremiah’s words that they are refusing to listen to, but the Lord’s.
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.”