Imprecatory Prayers
S. Conway Jeremiah 12:3 But you, O LORD, know me: you have seen me, and tried my heart toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter… Pull them out like sheep, etc. There are many of these. Some of them, like this one, are very terrible (cf. Psalm 109; Psalm 137:9, etc.). How are they to be understood? how justified? Of what use are they to us now? Questions like these cannot but be started in reading such prayers. The difficulty of them has been felt by almost every Christian and even humane reader. To get rid of such difficulty - I. SOME HAVE SPIRITUALIZED THEM. The slaughter work which they call for is to be done, not on human bodies, but on human wickednesses, those inward and deadly foes which are so many and which hate us with cruel hatred. But whilst it is quite lawful to so make use of these petitions, it cannot be said that this is what they who first prayed them meant. II. OTHERS HAVE TRIED TO TURN THEM SIMPLY INTO PROPHETIC PREDICTIONS - mere announcements of what God would do. But such alteration would never have been thought of but for the moral difficulty of letting them stand as they are. And the alteration is not permissible. III. OTHERS, VERY MANY, HAVE EXPLAINED THEM ON THE GROUND OF THE IMPERFECT SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF GOD'S ANCIENT PEOPLE. "They knew," it is said, "no better. True, their prayers are wrong, unchristian, cruel, but they are to be excused because of the dim light, the very partial knowledge, of those days." But, in reply, it is clear that they were not ignorant; they had plain laws against revenge (cf. Leviticus 19:8; Exodus 23:4, 5). And hence St. Paul, when arguing against revenge, cites the Old Testament, as in Romans 12:19, 20, quoting from Deuteronomy 32:35 and Proverbs 25:21 (cf. also Proverbs 20:22; Proverbs 24:17). And Job (31.) emphatically disavows both the act and thought of revenge; and so David (Psalm 7:4, 5). And see David's conduct in regard to Saul twice. See, too, his gratitude to Abigail for holding him back from revenge (1 Samuel 25.). And they had numerous laws enjoining mercy (cf. also Balaam's speech, given in Micah, "What cloth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy," etc.?). IV. OTHERS HAVE SAID THAT SUCH REVENGEFUL UTTERANCES ARE BUT THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT WRITERS- that they were not inspired when they thus speak. But David claims inspiration (2 Samuel 23:1, 2). And the apostles claim it for him; and with especial reference to the hundred and ninth psalm, one of the most notable of these utterances (Acts 1:16). And they were composed for the temple service as acts of worship. Hengstenberg says of them," They were from the first destined for use in the sanctuary. The sacred authors come forth under the full consciousness of being interpreters of the spiritual feelings of the community, organs of God for the ennobling of their feelings. They give back what in the holiest and purest hours of their life had been given to them." Hence we are compelled to regard these utterances as being only - V. THAT WHICH IT WOULD BE RIGHT FOR A GOOD MAN, PLACED IN THE LIKE CIRCUMSTANCES, BOTH TO FEEL AND UTTER. Let it be remembered: 1. They knew nothing or but little of the great day of future judgment as we do. 2. The judgments implicated are all temporal. It can never be fight to pray for the eternal damnation of any soul, and this they never do. 3. Many of the expressions are poetical. 4. These desires for the overthrow of their enemies were: (1) Natural. Resentment against wrong, anger on account of it, and desire that it may be punished, are implanted in us. Let us but place ourselves in their position. How did we feel in the time, e.g., of the Indian Mutiny? (2) Necessary. In those fierce days a stern and fierce spirit was needed if any people were to hold their own at all (cf. Isaac Taylor, on ' Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry'). (3) Based on the eternal truth of God's retributive justice. God had declared by word and deed this attribute of his. Could it, then, be wrong that they should call on him to show himself what he had declared himself to be? (4) Left to God to carry out. "Unto God," says Jeremiah, "have I revealed [or, 'committed'] my cause. (5) And in the New Testament we have some similar utterances. (Cf. Matthew 23:11.) (6) And we ourselves in war - which we all allow to be at times lawful - act on these very principles, and do for ourselves what the Old Testament saints only besought God to do. Hence conclude that, in like circumstances and for similar reasons, such prayers as these are not evil. What the New Testament condemns is revenge for private personal injuries, for persecution when suffered for the gospel's sake; but not war for defensive purposes, and therefore not the stern spirit which is essential to war. And one practical lesson from all such utterances is that they reflect what exists in God - a determined and fierce hatred against wickedness - and therefore they awaken a salutary fear of that vengeance and an earnest desire to "flee from the wrath to come." - C. Parallel Verses KJV: But thou, O LORD, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter. WEB: But you, Yahweh, know me; you see me, and try my heart toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.