The Prophet Jeremiah by Marc Chagall via Wikimedia commons
Have mercy, O Lord,
on all who bear high office and abuse its authority;
all who plot courses of political action for the sole purpose
of protecting their own positions;
all who persecute prophets because of the evil they expose;
all who manufacture a lie for public consumption;
all who treat prophets and public alike as pawns and puppets:
on all such, everywhere, O Lord, have mercy.
prayer from the United Kingdom
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Then they said,
“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah,
for the law shall not perish from the priest,
nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet.
Come, let us strike him with the tongue,
and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”
Hear me, O Lord,
and listen to the voice of my adversaries.
Should good be repaid with evil?
Yet they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember how I stood before you
to speak good for them,
to turn away your wrath from them.
Therefore deliver up their children to famine;
give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless and widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
prayer & verse 
