16to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.
17I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
18Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
19Give heed to me, O Jehovah, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
20Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before thee to speak good for them, to turn away thy wrath from them.
21Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, [and] their young men smitten of the sword in battle.
22Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them; for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.