The verse of prose in Jeremiah 18:18 has set the scene for the passage of poetry in Jeremiah 18:19–23, as Jeremiah cries out to the Lord in another of his confessions. He calls on the Lord to hear.
The same Hebrew root qasab that is used in Jeremiah 18:18 (pay attention
), is used here.1 His adversaries say they will not listen to Jeremiah’s words (Jeremiah 18:18), and so he calls on the Lord to listen to what they are saying. It is after all the Lord’s word that they refuse to listen to.
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.”