Intertextuality Pair

Jeremiah 18:23 → Nehemiah 4:5

Allusion

Later text

Jeremiah 18:23BSB

But You, O LORD, know all their deadly plots against me. Do not wipe out their guilt or blot out their sin from Your sight. Let them be overthrown before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger.

Earlier text

Nehemiah 4:5BSB

Do not cover up their iniquity or let their sin be blotted out from Your sight, for they have provoked the builders.

Significance

Both Jeremiah and Nehemiah pray imprecatory prayers asking God not to forgive their enemies' sins. Jeremiah pleads "Do not wipe out their guilt or blot out their sin from Your sight" (אַל־תְּכַפֵּר עַל־עֲוֹנָם, al-tekhapper al-avonam), while Nehemiah similarly asks "Do not cover up their iniquity or let their sin be blotted out from Your sight" (אַל־תְּכַס עַל־עֲוֹנָם, al-tekhas al-avonam). Both use the language of "covering" or "wiping out" iniquity with the particle אַל (al, "do not"), requesting that God retain rather than forgive the guilt. The shared vocabulary and structure suggest Nehemiah deliberately echoes Jeremiah's prayer pattern, both men appealing to divine justice against those who actively oppose God's work — plotters against Jeremiah's life and mockers of Jerusalem's reconstruction.

Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Analogy — Nehemiah, facing mockers of God's rebuilding work, prays Jeremiah's imprecatory pattern in an analogous situation of opposition: Jeremiah's "Do not wipe out their guilt" (אַל־תְּכַפֵּר עַל־עֲוֹנָם) is echoed in Nehemiah's "Do not cover up their iniquity" (אַל־תְּכַס עַל־עֲוֹנָם); the correspondence is the same appeal to divine justice by God's servant under attack, not a promise, progression, or type.

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