And the LORD hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings.
Jeremiah here digresses to notice the attempt on his life plotted by his townsmen of Anathoth. He had no suspicion of it until Yahweh revealed it to him (Jeremiah 12:6).
The Lord hath given me knowledge of it ... then thou showedst me their doings. The change of person from the third to the second accords with the excited feelings of the prophet.
Then - when I was in peril of my life.
Thou showedst me their doings - those of the men of Anathoth. His thus alluding to them, before he has mentioned their name, is due to his excitement.
Verse 19. Like a lamb ... brought to the slaughter, х kebes (H3532)] - literally, a pet lamb of not more than a year old, such as the Jews often had in their houses, for their children to play with; and the Arabs still have (2 Samuel 12:3). His own familiar friends had plotted against the prophet. The language is exactly the same as that applied to Messiah (Isaiah 53:7). Each prophet and patriarch exemplified in his own person some one feature or more in the manifold attributes and sufferings of the Messiah to come; just as the saints have done since His coming (Galatians 2:20; Philippians 3:10; Colossians 1:24). This adapted both the more experimentally to testify of Christ.
Devised devices against me - (Jeremiah 18:18).
Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof - literally, in its fruit or food, i:e., when it is in fruit. Proverbial, to express the destruction of cause and effect together. The man is the tree; his teaching, the fruit. Let us destroy the prophet and his prophecies-namely, those threatening destruction to the nation, which offended them. (Compare Matthew 7:17, "Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit," which also refers to prophets and their doctrines.