11:19 But I [was] like a lamb [or] an ox [that] is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised plots against me, [saying], Let us {o} destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
(o) Let us destroy the prophet and his doctrine. Some read Let us corrupt his meat with wood, meaning poison.
11:19 Let us destroy - We have no other mention of this conspiracy, but it is plain both from this verse , and what follows, that the men of Anathoth (which was Jeremiah's own town) were offended at his prophesying, and had conspired to kill him. Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof - Let us not only put an end to his prophesying, but to his life.
11:18-23 The prophet Jeremiah tells much concerning himself, the times he lived in being very troublesome. Those of his own city plotted how they might cause his death. They thought to end his days, but he outlived most of his enemies; they thought to blast his memory, but it lives to this day, and will be blessed while time lasts. God knows all the secret designs of his and his people's enemies, and can, when he pleases, make them known. God's justice is a terror to the wicked, but a comfort to the godly. When we are wronged, we have a God to commit our cause to, and it is our duty to commit it to him. We should also look well to our own spirits, that we are not overcome with evil, but that by patient continuance in praying for our enemies, and in kindness to them, we may overcome evil with good.
