Jeremiah17
New Living Translation
1“The sin of Judah is inscribed with an iron chisel— engraved with a diamond point on their stony hearts and on the corners of their altars.
2Even their children go to worship at their pagan altars and Asherah poles, beneath every green tree and on every high hill.
3So I will hand over my holy mountain— along with all your wealth and treasures and your pagan shrines— as plunder to your enemies, for sin runs rampant in your land.
4The wonderful possession I have reserved for you will slip from your hands. I will tell your enemies to take you as captives to a foreign land. For my anger blazes like a fire that will burn forever.”
5This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.
6They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land.
7“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
8They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.
9“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
10But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”
11Like a partridge that hatches eggs she has not laid, so are those who get their wealth by unjust means. At midlife they will lose their riches; in the end, they will become poor old fools.
12But we worship at your throne— eternal, high, and glorious!
13O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who turn away from you will be disgraced. They will be buried in the dust of the earth, for they have abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water.
14O Lord, if you heal me, I will be truly healed; if you save me, I will be truly saved. My praises are for you alone!
15People scoff at me and say, “What is this ‘message from the Lord’ you talk about? Why don’t your predictions come true?”
16Lord, I have not abandoned my job as a shepherd for your people. I have not urged you to send disaster. You have heard everything I’ve said.
17Lord, don’t terrorize me! You alone are my hope in the day of disaster.
18Bring shame and dismay on all who persecute me, but don’t let me experience shame and dismay. Bring a day of terror on them. Yes, bring double destruction upon them!
19This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and stand in the gates of Jerusalem, first in the gate where the king goes in and out, and then in each of the other gates.
20Say to all the people, ‘Listen to this message from the Lord, you kings of Judah and all you people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem.
21This is what the Lord says: Listen to my warning! Stop carrying on your trade at Jerusalem’s gates on the Sabbath day.
22Do not do your work on the Sabbath, but make it a holy day. I gave this command to your ancestors,
23but they did not listen or obey. They stubbornly refused to pay attention or accept my discipline.
24“‘But if you obey me, says the Lord, and do not carry on your trade at the gates or work on the Sabbath day, and if you keep it holy,
25then kings and their officials will go in and out of these gates forever. There will always be a descendant of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem. Kings and their officials will always ride in and out among the people of Judah in chariots and on horses, and this city will remain forever.
26And from all around Jerusalem, from the towns of Judah and Benjamin, from the western foothills and the hill country and the Negev, the people will come with their burnt offerings and sacrifices. They will bring their grain offerings, frankincense, and thanksgiving offerings to the Lord’s Temple.
27“‘But if you do not listen to me and refuse to keep the Sabbath holy, and if on the Sabbath day you bring loads of merchandise through the gates of Jerusalem just as on other days, then I will set fire to these gates. The fire will spread to the palaces, and no one will be able to put out the roaring flames.’”
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