18 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 smite him with the tongue, and let us not heed any of his words."

18 ¹⁹ Give heed to me, O Yahweh,
and hearken to my plea.
18 ²⁰ Is evil a recompense for good?
Yet they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember how I stood before you
to speak good for them,
to turn away your wrath from them.
18 ²¹ Therefore deliver up their children to famine;
give them over to the power of the sword,
let their wives become childless and widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be slain by the sword in battle.
18 ²² May a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the marauder suddenly upon them!
For they have dug a pit to take me,
and laid snares for my feet.
18 ²³ Yet, you, O Yahweh, know
all their plotting to slay me.
Forgive not their iniquity,
nor blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you;
deal with them in the time of your anger.