Jeremiah17
New International Version
1“Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.
2Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.
3My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country.
4Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever.”
5This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
7“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
8They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
9The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
10“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
11Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay are those who gain riches by unjust means. When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them, and in the end they will prove to be fools.
12A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
13Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.
14Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.
15They keep saying to me, “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it now be fulfilled!”
16I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair. What passes my lips is open before you.
17Do not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster.
18Let my persecutors be put to shame, but keep me from shame; let them be terrified, but keep me from terror. Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction.
19This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and stand at the Gate of the People, through which the kings of Judah go in and out; stand also at all the other gates of Jerusalem.
20Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and all people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem who come through these gates.
21This is what the Lord says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem.
22Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors.
23Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline.
24But if you are careful to obey me, declares the Lord, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it,
25then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this city with their officials. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever.
26People will come from the towns of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin and the western foothills, from the hill country and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord.
27But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.’”
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Jeremiah 17.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The fatal consequences of the idolatry of the Jews. (1-4). The happiness of the man that trusts in God; the end of the opposite character. (5-11). The malice of the prophet's enemies. (12-18). The observance of the sabbath. (19-27).
vv1-4
The sins which men commit make little impression on their minds, yet every sin is marked in the book of God; they are all so graven upon the table of the heart, that they will all be remembered by the conscience. That which is graven in the heart will become plain in the life; men's actions show the desires and purposes of their hearts. What need we have to humble ourselves before God, who are so vile in his sight! How should we depend on his mercy and grace, begging of God to search and prove us; not to suffer us to be deceived by our own hearts, but to create in us a clean and holy nature by his Spirit!
vv5-11
He who puts confidence in man, shall be like the heath in a desert, a naked tree, a sorry shrub, the product of barren ground, useless and worthless. Those who trust to their own righteousness and strength, and think they can do without Christ, make flesh their arm, and their souls cannot prosper in graces or comforts. Those who make God their Hope, shall flourish like a tree always green, whose leaf does not wither. They shall be fixed in peace and satisfaction of mind; they shall not be anxious in a year of drought. Those who make God their Hope, have enough in him to make up the want of all creature-comforts. They shall not cease from yielding fruit in holiness and good works. The heart, the conscience of man, in his corrupt and fallen state, is deceitful above all things. It calls evil good, and good evil; and cries peace to those to whom it does not belong. Herein the heart is desperately wicked; it is deadly, it is desperate. The case is bad indeed, if the conscience, which should set right the errors of other faculties, is a leader in the delusion. We cannot know our own hearts, nor what they will do in an hour of temptation. Who can understand his errors? Much less can we know the hearts of others, or depend upon them. He that believes God's testimony in this matter, and learns to watch his own heart, will find this is a correct, though a sad picture, and learns many lessons to direct his conduct. But much in our own hearts and in the hearts of others, will remain unknown. Yet whatever wickedness there is in the heart, God sees it. Men may be imposed upon, but God cannot be deceived. He that gets riches, and not by right, though he may make them his hope, never shall have joy of them. This shows what vexation it is to a worldly man at death, that he must leave his riches behind; but though the wealth will not follow to another world, guilt will, and everlasting torment. The rich man takes pains to get an estate, and sits brooding upon it, but never has any satisfaction in it; by sinful courses it comes to nothing. Let us be wise in time; what we get, let us get it honestly; and what we have, use it charitably, that we may be wise for eternity.
vv12-18
The prophet acknowledges the favour of God in setting up religion. There is fulness of comfort in God, overflowing, ever-flowing fulness, like a fountain. It is always fresh and clear, like spring-water, while the pleasures of sin are puddle-waters. He prays to God for healing, saving mercy. He appeals to God concerning his faithful discharge of the office to which he was called. He humbly begs that God would own and protect him in the work to which he had plainly called him. Whatever wounds or diseases we find to be in our hearts and consciences, let us apply to the Lord to heal us, to save us, that our souls may praise his name. His hands can bind up the troubled conscience, and heal the broken heart; he can cure the worst diseases of our nature.
Key Words
חַטָּאָה: an offence (sometimes habitual sinfulness), and its penalty, occasion, sacrifice, or expiation; also (concretely) an offender
יְהוּדָה: Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five Israelites; also of the tribe descended from the first, and of its territory
כָּתַב: to grave, by implication, to write (describe, inscribe, prescribe, subscribe)
עֵט: a stylus or marking stick
בַּרְזֶל: iron (as cutting); by extension, an iron implement
צִפֹּרֶן: properly, a claw, i.e. (human) nail; also the point of astyle (or pen, tipped with adamant)
שָׁמִיר: a thorn; also (from its keenness for scratching) a gem, probably the diamond
חָרַשׁ: to scratch, i.e. (by implication) to engrave, plough; hence (from the use of tools) to fabricate (of any material); figuratively, to devise (in a bad sense); hence (from the idea of secrecy) to be silent, to let alone; hence (by implication) to be deaf (as an accompaniment of dumbness)
לוּחַ: probably meaning to glisten; a tablet (as polished), of stone, wood or metal
לֵב: the heart; also used (figuratively) very widely for the feelings, the will and even the intellect; likewise for the centre of anything
Cross References
Jeremiah 17Direct conceptual and verbal parallel describing the righteous man as a flourishing tree planted by water.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Identical metaphor of Yahweh as the 'fountain of living waters' whom Israel has foolishly forsaken.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Contrasts sin graven on the heart with writing God's law/mercy on the table of the heart.
Supported by JFB
Parallel imagery of indelible engraving using an iron pen or lead for permanent recording.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
The Mosaic warning that the land must rest and keep its sabbaths during exile.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The historical context of Judah's cursed trust in Egypt (making flesh their arm) instead of Yahweh.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
New Testament parallel of the rich fool who amasses wealth but leaves it mid-life.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The historical, practical enforcement of Jeremiah's warning against bearing sabbath burdens through Jerusalem's gates.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Verbal link showing children participating in and carrying on their parents' idolatrous practices.
Supported by JFB
Uses the same rare Hebrew word for 'heath' or naked desert shrub as a curse.
Supported by JFB
The covenant curse of the land turning into a barren, salt wasteland.
Supported by JFB
Christ's confirmation that God knows the deceitful hearts of men, exposing false appearances.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallel description of God searching the heart and testing the reins to execute justice.
Supported by John Calvin
The prayerful appeal to the Lord as the unique searcher of hearts.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Prophetic parallel on the absolute necessity of hallowing the Sabbath and restraining personal works.
Supported by Matthew Henry