Jeremiah 20:10
For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.
Study Note
Study Note
Jeremiah's complaint 'I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side…all my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him' provides the most psychologically intimate account of prophetic persecution in the Old Testament. The phrase 'fear on every side' (magor missabib) is Jeremiah's own characteristic doom-oracle (6:25; 20:3-4) now turned back against him — he has become the embodiment of the judgment he pronounced. 'My familiars' (anshei shelomi, men of my peace — close friends) watching for his stumbling creates the betrayal-of-intimates motif that Psalm 41:9 ('yea, mine own familiar friend…hath lifted up his heel against me') and John 13:18 apply to Judas. The verse gave the Reformation its language for describing the isolation of prophetic witness in a hostile culture — Luther frequently identified with the Jeremianic vocation of announced-judgment and communal rejection.
Other Translations
For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. Denounce, and we will denounce him, say all my familiar friends, they that watch for my fall; peradventure he will be persuaded, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.
For I have heard the evil report of many, Fear <FI>is<Fi> round about: `Declare, and we declare it,' All mine allies are watching <FI>for<Fi> my halting, `Perhaps he is enticed, and we prevail over him, And we take our vengeance out of him.'
For numbers of them say evil secretly in my hearing (there is fear on every side): they say, Come, let us give witness against him; all my nearest friends, who are watching for my fall, say, It may be that he will be taken by deceit, and we will get the better of him and give him punishment.
Cross References
That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, …
Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is …
Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, …
Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him; but she could not:
And brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her …
Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death;
But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses,
And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to …
Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.
For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.