Jeremiah 17:18
Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction. Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
The verse is a prayer for protection and vindication offered while facing persecution, asking that shame and dismay fall on the persecutors rather than on the prophet himself. In it the prophet looks to the Lord as his hope, the hope of Israel. He asks God not to become a terror to him when the time of calamity, the day of evil, comes. He asks God to bring that time of calamity upon his persecutors in judgment. That judgment on them is described as a double destruction.
The prayer belongs with the appeal to the Lord as the fountain of living waters, forsaken by those who will be put to shame and recorded in the dust. It belongs with the plea to be healed and saved by God, who is his praise. The surrounding words show he kept doing his prophetic work even while people mocked and demanded evidence that the Lord's word would come true. His defense is that he did not run from his shepherding task in following God, did not long for the woeful day, and spoke what was right in God's sight.
These Old Testament figures and representations have been fulfilled and are being fulfilled in present history. They should be earnestly considered. That consideration begins with the humbling, confession of sin, and true conversion of church leaders.