Chapter 18 in Yirmiyahu continues, describing the decree coming upon the nation and the response of the people of Yehudah to the prophet's words. In this part of the chapter, we move from the depiction of the impending destruction of the land to the plot hatched against Yirmiyahu to silence the voice of truth, and to the prophet's prayer before the Holy One, blessed be He. Let us follow the order of the pesukim.
לָשׂוּם אַרְצָם לְשַׁמָּה שְׁרִיקוֹת עוֹלָם, כֹּל עוֹבֵר עָלֶיהָ יִשֹּׁם וְיָנִיד בְּרֹאשׁוֹ׃ - To make their land a desolation, a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes by it shall be astonished and shake his head.
Through their own actions, they cause their land "to be made a desolation" - that the land will be desolate. And do not think this is merely a temporary desolation, but rather "a perpetual hissing" - lasting for many days.
Rashi and Metzudat Tzion explain that sherikah (whistling or hissing) refers to making a sound by pursing the lips. When people would see something magnificent ruined, they would whistle in astonishment. Some may recall that twenty years ago this was still common, and a person would whistle to express wonder or disbelief. And so we find in the pesukim: "they whistled and wagged their head," "everyone who passes by will be astonished and whistle" - meaning that anyone passing by would whistle in utter amazement.
Yishom (shall be astonished) also connotes wonder, related to shemamah (desolation): a desolate place evokes bewilderment. Everyone passing by it will wonder at the destruction, "and shake his head" - just as people do today while clicking their tongues, shaking their head from side to side. This is the expression used regarding Iyov's companions who came "to mourn with him (lanud lo)": a person who wishes to express sympathy and shared grief over another's plight shakes his head from side to side.
כְּרוּחַ קָדִים אֲפִיצֵם לִפְנֵי אוֹיֵב, עֹרֶף וְלֹא פָנִים אֶרְאֵם בְּיוֹם אֵידָם׃ - Like an east wind I will scatter them before the enemy; I will show them the back and not the face on the day of their calamity.
Like an east wind that blows fiercely and scatters everything, so will I scatter them. The Malbim adds: do not say that at least in exile they will find rest - "I will show them the back and not the face," meaning they will constantly turn their backs to flee, for even among the nations they will be pursued. As Scripture states, "And among those nations you shall find no ease" - even while living among them, they will have no salvation.
וַיֹּאמְרוּ לְכוּ וְנַחְשְׁבָה עַל יִרְמְיָהוּ מַחֲשָׁבוֹת, כִּי לֹא תֹאבַד תּוֹרָה מִכֹּהֵן וְעֵצָה מֵחָכָם וְדָבָר מִנָּבִיא, לְכוּ וְנַכֵּהוּ בַלָּשׁוֹן וְאַל נַקְשִׁיבָה אֶל כָּל דְּבָרָיו׃ - And they said, "Come, and let us devise plots against Yirmiyahu; for Torah shall not perish from the kohen, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not listen to any of his words."
Yirmiyahu informs them of Hashem's intention and the path of teshuvah, and what is their reaction? We must do something - eliminate Yirmiyahu. We turned off the red dashboard light that keeps bothering us, and now we can drive on in peace. This has always been the way to solve problems easily: silence the rabbis, silence those who offer reproof at the gate, silence those who say we need to mend our ways - and then, look, nobody is saying anything, so everything is wonderful. We have a wonderful nation, wonderful youth, a wonderful army, everything is wonderful, just do not criticize. The media spin existed even back then.
And why are they so certain they can manage without Yirmiyahu? Here they make a calculation. Yirmiyahu possessed three virtues: he was a Kohen who ruled on Halachah, he was a sage who offered sound counsel, and he was a prophet who spoke the word of Hashem. While we may not have a single individual who embodies all three qualities at once, there is no need for that - authority can be divided. Do you need Torah? "Torah will not be lost from a Kohen" - we still have Kohanim versed in Torah. Do you need an advisor? "Nor counsel from the wise" - there are men who are not Kohanim but are wise, and from them we can receive advice. And if Hashem wishes to speak to us? "Nor a word from a prophet" - there are other prophets as well from whom we can receive a word, without Yirmiyahu.
And what is the meaning of "Come and let us strike him with the tongue"? We have already seen that the attempt at physical assassination failed, when they said, "Let us destroy the tree with its bread" - trying to kill him by putting deadly poison into his food. Having failed, they now wish to strike him through slander and character assassination. Therefore, they add: "And let us not pay attention to any of his words" - he will surely want to justify himself and explain his actions, but we will not allow him to; we will not listen to him.
The Malbim offers another explanation: "Let us strike him with the tongue" - through his own tongue. We will fabricate an accusation against him and hand him over to the royal authorities, telling the king: "Come and hear what prophecies he utters, what harsh words - he strikes fear into the heart of the people and rebels against you." Indeed, we will see later that Yirmiyahu became severely entangled with the kings of his generation, was thrown into the courtyard of the guard and into the mire, and endured very harsh trials.
Furthermore, even if the people ultimately heed his prophecies, Yirmiyahu would gain merit from his rebuke being accepted. We will deny him even this merit - "and let us not pay attention to any of his words." We will not repeat the entire prophecy, lest it inspire awakening; rather, we will quote only fragments of his words, what would nowadays be called soundbites. Journalists and media figures are experts at this: when they want to smear someone and blacken his name, they take a casual, incidental sentence out of what he said, until the person is forced to defend himself and claim, "My words were taken out of context." Sometimes the claim is valid and sometimes not, but often it is indeed the media extracting a single sentence and having a field day with it. This was their intention: we will not listen to all of his words, lest we be swayed, but rather pull out a few catchphrases from his remarks, using them to vilify him and portray him as rebelling against the king.
הַקְשִׁיבָה יְהֹוָה אֵלָי, וּשְׁמַע לְקוֹל יְרִיבָי׃ - "Hearken to me, Hashem, and listen to the voice of my adversaries."
Radak explains: They say they will not listen to me - but You, Master of the Universe, please do listen to me. "Hearken" means hearken to my prayer, and "listen to the voice of my adversaries" - not that You should grant their requests, but that You should hear what they are praying and requesting concerning me, what they hope will happen to me.
Metzudat David explains that Yirmiyahu comes here to show: Master of the Universe, look at me compared to them. I pray for good on their behalf, while they contend with me and plot to kill me. I seek their good, and they seek my harm.
The Malbim, on the other hand, explains that this is a plea for judicial trial: "Hearken to me, Hashem" - You be the Judge between me and the people, between me and those who rise up against me, and You will see whose claims are just. According to this, his argument follows in the next verse.
הַיְשֻׁלַּם תַּחַת טוֹבָה רָעָה, כִּי כָרוּ שׁוּחָה לְנַפְשִׁי, זְכֹר עָמְדִי לְפָנֶיךָ לְדַבֵּר עֲלֵיהֶם טוֹבָה לְהָשִׁיב אֶת חֲמָתְךָ מֵהֶם׃ - "Shall evil be repaid for good, that they have dug a pit for my soul? Remember my standing before You to speak good of them, to turn away Your wrath from them."
Is it fitting that evil be repaid for good? After all, all my prophecies were for their benefit, to bring them to repentance and annul the harsh decrees against them. "They have dug a pit for my soul" - a shuchah is a pit, dug to make me fall into it.
And here the prophet says something truly remarkable. We have explained several times that the difference between speaking accusations against the people, which is entirely unacceptable, and delivering a harsh prophecy with piercing words, which is entirely valid and commendable - the difference lies in the intended address. If the Master of the World is the addressee, it is grave and forbidden. But if the people are the addressees, it is proper and praiseworthy. The mitzvah of reproof sometimes requires saying harsh things that are hard to hear, and while the words must certainly be expressed in a way that can be received, the very essence of rebuke is to admonish, and we see the prophets throughout history rebuking with harsh and piercing words.
However, if the prophet were to turn, even with the slightest fraction of the rebuke he delivered, directly to the Master of the World and say: Master of the World, their princes are rebellious, companions of thieves - he is considered an accuser against the Jewish people. And the Holy One, blessed be He, says to him just as He told Eliyahu. When Eliyahu said, "I have been very zealous for Hashem," and said, "they have forsaken Your covenant," along with other harsh expressions, the Holy One, blessed be He, told him: Find yourself a successor. You cannot lead this nation, for one who leads the people cannot be zealous in a manner that prosecutes and accuses Israel.
And this is precisely what Yirmiyahu says: "Remember my standing before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn away Your wrath from them." All my severe prophecies were directed only toward the people; only when standing before them did I speak sharp and difficult words. But when I stood before You - what did I say? Only good things! And this is clear proof that my entire desire was to benefit them, for had I desired their harm, I would have come before You to prosecute and accuse them.
לָכֵן תֵּן אֶת בְּנֵיהֶם לָרָעָב וְהַגִּרֵם עַל יְדֵי חֶרֶב, וְתִהְיֶנָה נְשֵׁיהֶם שַׁכֻּלוֹת וְאַלְמָנוֹת, וְאַנְשֵׁיהֶם יִהְיוּ הֲרֻגֵי מָוֶת, בַּחוּרֵיהֶם מֻכֵּי חֶרֶב בַּמִּלְחָמָה׃ - Therefore, give their children over to famine, and pour them out by the power of the sword; and let their wives become bereaved and widows, and let their men be slain of death, and their young men smitten by the sword in battle.
Yirmiyahu says: Master of the World, these people who bring disaster upon me and attempt to silence prophecy - when the entire purpose of prophecy is to protect the nation and save it from the dreadful calamity about to descend upon it - and instead of awakening the people, they reassure them with futile comforts! These people are wicked and corrupt, for they are sinking the entire ship and do not even realize what they are doing.
Those who wage war against me, those who come to silence the voice of truth and want the people to follow falsehood, fall under the category of an enticer and instigator, about whom it is stated, "You shall not pity nor conceal him," and concerning whom the law of the subverted city applies: to put to death from infant to suckling. Toward those who incite and mislead the Jewish people there is no compassion, for if one shows them mercy - one is being cruel to the entirety of Israel and driving the people to the brink of ruin.
"And pour them out by the power of the sword" - Radak explains that this is not simply equivalent to "slay them," but is derived from the pouring out of blood: that their blood should be poured out by the sword.
The Malbim explains why several distinct expressions are used here: "Give their children over to famine" - the children remain behind in the city and do not go out to war, and therefore they will die of famine. Those who themselves go out to war will die by the sword. Consequently, "let their wives become bereaved" on account of the children who died, "and widows" on account of the husbands who died by the sword. "And let their men" - those who are not men of war and do not go out to battle - "be slain of death," meaning they will die abnormal deaths. "And their young men" - the valiant warriors who go out to battle - will be "smitten by the sword in battle."
תִּשָּׁמַע זְעָקָה מִבָּתֵּיהֶם, כִּי תָבִיא עֲלֵיהֶם גְּדוּד פִּתְאֹם, כִּי כָרוּ שׁוּחָה לְלָכְדֵנִי וּפַחִים טָמְנוּ לְרַגְלָי׃ - Let an outcry be heard from their houses when You bring a troop suddenly upon them; for they have dug a pit to take me, and hidden snares for my feet.
When You bring a troop suddenly upon them, there will be a great cry from their homes. The Malbim explains that the outcry spoken of here is one of justifying the judgment: they will cry out and say, "This is because we afflicted and persecuted Yirmiyahu; we dug a pit to ensnare the prophet!" This outcry is in the nature of a confession: they will admit that the punishment is rightfully deserved for having persecuted the prophet.
And why is this important? Because as long as a confession is not heard from their own mouths, the people will not connect the two. The people will say: a disaster befell them, completely unrelated to the prophet. And whatever they said about the prophet was likely true - that his words are false and that he wishes ill upon the nation. Therefore, Yirmiyahu asks that an outcry be heard in which they confess and say: we dug a pit and a ditch to snare the prophet, and we are guilty. Through this, everyone will know that he is a true prophet and that all his arguments and prophecies are from Hashem.
And what is the difference between "they dug a pit" (karu shuchah) and "they hid snares" (pachim tamnu)? The Malbim explains: when people want to trap an animal, they dig a pit - a trench - so that the animal will fall inside and be unable to climb out. But how do they steer the animal there? By placing snares along its path - obstacles and traps that the animal fears, avoids, and is harmed by. In this way, a situation is created where the animal has no choice but to head precisely toward the point where they wanted it to go. This is the meaning of: "they dug a pit to capture me, and hid snares for my feet" - that the laid snare will inevitably drive me directly to the pit so that I fall into their hands.
Rashi offers a very fascinating explanation: "For they dug a pit to capture me" - that they suspected him of adultery with a married woman, as Scripture says: "For a harlot is a deep pit" (Mishlei 23:27). It turns out, then, that not only was Moshe Rabbeinu suspected of adultery - when the assembly of Korach brought their wives to be tested with the bitter waters of the Sotah to see if they had secluded themselves with Moshe - but this very same suspicion was cast upon Yirmiyahu as well.
וְאַתָּה יְהֹוָה יָדַעְתָּ אֶת כָּל עֲצָתָם עָלַי לַמָּוֶת, אַל תְּכַפֵּר עַל עֲוֺנָם וְחַטָּאתָם מִלְּפָנֶיךָ אַל תֶּמְחִי, וְיִהְיוּ מֻכְשָׁלִים לְפָנֶיךָ בְּעֵת אַפְּךָ עֲשֵׂה בָהֶם׃ - "Yet You, Hashem, know all their counsel against me to put me to death; do not forgive their iniquity, and do not blot out their sin from before You; may they be made to stumble before You; in the time of Your anger, deal with them."
Master of the Universe, do not accept this cry! True, they will cry out and confess, saying that all of this befell them because they rose up against the prophet, and perhaps this confession would be accepted before You, applying to them the principle that "one who confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy" (Mishlei 28:13). Therefore, I ask: do not forgive their iniquity, do not erase their iniquity through the power of this confession, for normally confession atones for sin.
We have already mentioned several times that the concept of teshuvah is stated in the Torah specifically through the act of confession. If one seeks where the mitzvah of teshuvah is mentioned in the Torah, it is: "and they shall confess" (vehitvadu). That is the mitzvah of teshuvah. Therefore, "Behold, I will enter into judgment with you because you say, 'I have not sinned'" is the most terrible thing of all, because the core requirement is missing, and the core of teshuvah is confession: to confess and say, Chatati, aviti, pashati ("I have sinned, I have transgressed, I have rebelled"). Thus Yirmiyahu pleads: do not forgive their iniquity by virtue of the confession they will utter.
"And do not blot out their sin from before You" - even after the punishment, may their sin remain inscribed before You as an everlasting remembrance.
The Malbim further explains the request, "May they be made to stumble before You": that the punishment should not come through hester panim (the concealment of the Divine Countenance). The Malbim has noted several times that there are two kinds of punishment. There is providential punishment, which the Holy One, blessed be He, directly oversees and brings about precisely according to what a person needs for his rectification and in accordance with his actions, everything measured and under Providence. And there is a punishment that is not providential: when a person has acted wickedly, the Holy One, blessed be He, so to speak, withdraws His Providence from him and leaves him in the hands of the natural order, at the mercy of the celestial constellations and natural fortune (mazal). Whatever happens according to one's fortune: if there is an accident, there is an accident; if there is harm, there is harm; and it is even possible that according to one's fortune, he might actually succeed.
In a certain sense, this latter state can appear preferable, for in a providential punishment, suffering is guaranteed, whereas in a state of hester panim it is not guaranteed; if natural fortune is favorable, no punishment will come upon him. On the other hand, if one's natural fortune happens to be dire, it is seven times worse than providential punishment. Providential punishment is administered in precise measures under the watchful supervision of Hashem, whereas one who is abandoned to the whims of natural fortune, from whom the Holy One, blessed be He, has hidden His face, can be overwhelmed by countless evils and distress, as written in the Torah's rebuke: "And I will hide My face from them" (Devarim 31:17).
And as we have mentioned several times: there are those who ask where G-d was during the Holocaust. The answer is that He was not there, and He had announced in advance that He would not be. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: "Many evils and distresses shall befall them," "and I will surely hide My face on that day." Meaning: I will not be there; do not look for Me. Consequently, rather than asking where He was, the primary question must be: where were you? Where were you before the Holocaust occurred, when the Holy One, blessed be He, was calling out and pleading early and late? Where were the people when Yirmiyahu called upon them to repent? And where were you during the one hundred and thirty years of the Haskalah (Enlightenment) preceding the Holocaust, when people proclaimed, "Be a Jew at home and a man in the street" - implying that it was a disgrace to be an open Jew on the cultured, advanced German street; there one should just be an ordinary human being, and only at home be a Jew. As antisemitic and terrible as that motto sounds today, it was the slogan of Mendelssohn and his circles, the maskilim of that generation. Therefore, the question "Where was G-d?" immediately evokes the counter-question, "And where were you?" - for the Holy One, blessed be He, had called out and pleaded long before.
And this is Yirmiyahu's request here: Master of the World, let this punishment too not be a punishment of hester panim (the concealment of the Divine Countenance), but rather a punishment of direct Divine providence - "and let them be tripped up before You." A punishment stemming from hester panim is not immediate, and much time can pass until it arrives according to natural fortune. But a punishment through direct providence is immediate. And where have we seen providential punishments? In the wilderness. There, Israel was under constant Divine providence, with the Clouds of Glory and the Pillar of Fire before them, the Ark in their midst, and the Shechinah with them, and even the slightest misdeed triggered an immediate reaction: at Shittim, twenty-four thousand died; at the Golden Calf, three thousand; at Taveirah, the fire of Hashem burned among them; and likewise with the Spies. That is providential punishment. And since here Yirmiyahu's prophecies are not accepted because there are those who challenge them, there is no place for a punishment to arrive thirty years later - here the punishment must be immediate, and an immediate punishment is only a providential punishment.
Furthermore, he requests "deal with them in the time of Your wrath": let this not be a punishment meant to atone for iniquity. For there is punishment that stems from compassion and mercy, where the Holy One, blessed be He, shows mercy and atones for iniquity through suffering. Therefore, the prophet requests that the punishment be an expression of anger and burning wrath. And here too, let it not be a punishment that comes about on its own due to hester panim, but rather "deal with them" - where the act is attributed to the Master of the World Himself, which is once again an expression of providential punishment.
And he emphasizes: "Do not forgive their iniquity, and do not blot out their sin from before You" - "iniquity" (avon) refers to intentional sin, and "sin" (chatat) refers to unintentional sin. And all of these, Master of the World, do not blot out from before You; rather, let their sins and iniquities be remembered before You always.
In this section of the chapter, the prophet describes the perpetual desolation that will befall the land and the scattering of the people among the nations without rest. When Yirmiyahu sounded the words of Hashem, the people of Yehudah chose the easy path: silencing the rebuker instead of mending their ways, and striking him with slander and denunciation to the monarchy. Yirmiyahu turns to the Holy One, blessed be He, with a plea for justice, emphasizing the fundamental difference between sharp rebuke directed at the people, which is a mitzvah, and prosecutorial accusation before Heaven, which is forbidden: "Remember my standing before You to speak good of them." Finally, he requests judgment upon those instigators who are sinking the entire ship - that an immediate punishment come upon them through open Divine providence rather than through hester panim, and that their cry be a cry of confession that will reveal to all that he is a true prophet, yet let them not be forgiven on account of that confession.