Jeremiahchapter 17
27 verses · Jeremiah, written by Baruch · 7th to 6th century BC · The Prophets
But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him.
Introduction
Jeremiah, written by Baruch, The Prophets, Jeremiah Overview.
Jeremiah spoke these sayings in the last decades of the kingdom, and they gather several kinds of speech into one chapter. There is an indictment, a wisdom saying, a proverb, a prayer and a sermon preached at a city gate. The first hearers were farmers and traders who knew the desert shrub, the tree by the stream and the partridge in the field. Listen for the two kinds of trust set side by side and for the question about the human heart. Then listen for the one public command that would test the whole nation. The chapter joins the heart and the market gate.
Context
- Who
- Merchants, farmers and city officials who treated the seventh day as a trading day
- What
- Sayings on Judah's engraved sin, the two kinds of trust, the deceitful heart, a prayer of the prophet, and a sermon on the Sabbath.
- Where
- Jerusalem, ending at its gates, where loads were carried in on the Sabbath.
- When
- The last decades of the kingdom of Judah, about 609 to 597 BC.
- Why
- To show that Judah's sin went deeper than its rituals could reach, and to give the nation one public test of obedience.
Historical context
The chapter opens in an engraver's shop. Judah's sin is written with an iron tool tipped with a hard stone point, the way permanent inscriptions were cut into rock and metal. The two surfaces named are the tablet of the heart and the horns of their altars, the raised corners of a stone altar that were smeared with blood in the rituals. The record is cut where it cannot be scraped off.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Two plant pictures follow, and they are agricultural facts. A shrub in the desert stands in a parched salt flat where nothing lives, the country south of the Dead Sea looks exactly like that. A tree planted by a stream sends roots to the water and stays green through a rainless summer and keeps bearing in a drought year. Anyone farming that land knew which one they wanted to be.
The bird proverb is field observation: a partridge that gathers a clutch it did not lay ends up with nothing when the chicks run off. So does a man who gets rich by injustice, he loses it in the middle of his life.
The Sabbath command is about a specific bottleneck. City gates were the only way in, and they were where trade happened; goods came through on donkeys and were sold in the gate square. Carrying a load through the gate on the seventh day meant business as usual, and the chapter makes the survival of the monarchy itself hang on stopping it.
Significance
First hearers were being told that the sin they thought was invisible was engraved in two places, inside them, and on the altar where they thought they had dealt with it.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The Sabbath demand made the whole thing testable in public. It cost money, it happened at the gate in front of everyone, and it could not be faked. That is why the promise attached to it is so large: kings riding through these gates, the city inhabited forever.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
Most of this chapter is read aloud in the synagogue. The site's table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records Jeremiah 16:19 to 17:14 as the Haftarah of Bechukotai (Leviticus 26:3 to 27:34), in both rites. The Torah portion sets the blessing against the curse, and so does this chapter, in the man who trusts in man and the man who trusts in the Lord.
How it is read
Rashi is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Malbim is quoted on one verse from the translation of Rabbi Mike Feuer, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY.
Rashi reads the sin written with a pen of iron as an allegory for what cannot be erased. He adds the Midrash, which reads the pen as Jeremiah, called an iron wall, and Ezekiel (Rashi on Jeremiah 17:1:1). He reads the man who trusts in man as the farmer who sows in the seventh year and trusts his own harvest (Rashi on Jeremiah 17:5:1). The land's release he ties to the Sabbath year of Leviticus 25 (Rashi on Jeremiah 17:4:1).
On the Sabbath verses at the end of the chapter, Malbim reads the command as the way of mercy offered to the city. He reports the Sages in Shabbat 118b, and holds that keeping the Sabbath "testifies to a faith in creation ex nihilo and Divine providence, and contradicts the worship of idols" (Malbim on Jeremiah 17:19:1).
The corpus carries six further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Radak on Jeremiah 17:7:1, 17:10:1 and 17:24:1. The same holds for Metzudat David on Jeremiah 17:21:1, 17:22:1 and 17:25:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 40 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 9 in the Talmud and 31 in the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:1:2. On verse 2 it holds Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 7:15, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 32:25:2 and Sanhedrin 63b:20. On verse 5 it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Miketz 30, Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 14:10 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Vayehi Beshalach 3:13. On verse 6 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 22:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 24:20:2. On verse 7 it holds Devarim Rabbah 1:12, Devarim Rabbah 5:9 and Jerusalem Talmud Peah 8:8:1.
On verse 8 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 21:18, Bekhorot 55b:4 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Megillah 1:17. On verse 9 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 68:1. On verse 10 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 2:1, Bamidbar Rabbah 9:1 and Bereshit Rabbah 65:12. On verse 11 it holds Chullin 140b:9, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Kaspa 2:9 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Ki Teitzei 3:1. On verse 12 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 26:2 and Bereshit Rabbah 1:4. On verse 13 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 8:11 and Ein Yaakov, Yoma 8:35.
On verse 14 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Vayehi Beshalach 6:13 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 26:15:2. On verse 16 it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 5:13:1. On verse 18 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 9:5 and Chagigah 15a:10. On verse 20 it holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 18:8. On verse 21 it holds Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introduction to Halakhic Midrashim, Halakhic Midrash 28. On verse 22 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 74:1 and Beitzah 12a:7. On verse 23 it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 32:3.
On verse 24 it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 19:3. On verse 26 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 7:20:2. On verse 27 it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Noah 5 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 16:19.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Jeremiah 17:1:1 to 17:23:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Malbim, Malbim on Jeremiah 17:19:1, Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Jeremiah 17:21:1, 17:22:1 and 17:25:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Jeremiah 17:7:1, 17:10:1 and 17:24:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/jeremiah/17.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Jeremiah 17: a Haftarah use, and no festival reading for the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Cursed the Man Who Trusts in Man; Blessed the Tree by the Waters
Jeremiah 17:1-4
The sin is “written with an iron stylus, engraved with a diamond point”, on their hearts and on the horns of their altars. The two places show idolatry fixed in the very heart that was meant to love the LORD. Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles.
Jeremiah 17:1
“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron,.... Or an iron tool, such as engravers use in working on hard matter: and with the point of a diamond; such as glaziers use in cutting their glass; though this is not the word used for a diamond in Exo 28:18, this word is elsewhere translated an adamant, Eze 3:9. Bothart (h) takes it to be the smiris, which jewellers use in polishing their gems.”
4 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Jeremiah 17:1
IN traveling in the East, inscriptions upon the rocks are often met with, which have remained almost as sharp and clear as when they were first cut by the engraver's tool. Some of these owe their indelible character to the hardness of the rocks upon which they have been engraved. They must have been written, to use the expressive language before us, "with a pen of iron," and engraved as "with the point of a diamond."
Jeremiah 17:1
“It indeed often happens, that men fall; but God, who is ever inclined to mercy, forgives them; and they are also often led astray through levity, and thus their sins are not engraven on their hearts.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Jeremiah 17:1
“The first of the four clauses relates to the third, the second to the fourth, by alternate parallelism. The sense is: They are as keen after idols as if their propensity was "graven with an iron pen (Job 19:24) on their hearts," or as if it were sanctioned by a law "inscribed with a diamond point" on their altars.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 17:1
“Their sin is deeply engraven as with a pen of iron in the tables of their hearts. They have a rooted affection to it; it is woven into their very nature; their sin is dear to them, as that is dear to us of which we say, It is engraven on our hearts.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Even their children remember their altars: The sin has passed down a generation. John Gill reads the children's memory of these altars as proof of long idolatry, trained into the young until they copied it. Albert Barnes takes the Asherah poles as wooden images of the goddess Astarte, set up by the green trees.
Jeremiah 17:2
“Whilst their children remember their altars,.... Which is a further proof of their long continuance in idolatrous practices, and a fresh witness against them; they trained up their children in them; who, when grown up, could not forget them, but imitated them, and went on in the same evil ways. Some render the words, "as they remember their children, so they remember their altars (i), and their groves, by the green trees upon the high hills"; they had the same love to their idols, and the worship of them, as they had to their children.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 17:2
"Image of the grove." The Hebrew for "grove" is Asherah, that is, Assarak, Astarte, or Ashtaroth. by the green trees--that is, near them: the sacred trees (idol symbols) of Astarte being placed in the midst of natural trees: "green trees" is thus distinguished from "groves," artificial trees.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 17:2
“It appears that they were full of them, and acquainted with them betimes, they talked of them so frequently, so familiarly, and with so much delight. They cannot plead that they repent, or are brought to a better mind. No, as the guilt of their sin is undeniable, so their inclination to sin is invincible and incurable.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
O My mountain in the countryside: Albert Barnes takes the phrase O My mountain as Jerusalem on Zion, set against the open country around it. John Gill reads it as the temple hill or the city raised above the fields. The city the LORD calls His own is now handed over as plunder.
Jeremiah 17:3
“O my mountain in the field - i. e., Jerusalem or Zion, called the Rock of the Plain in Jer 21:13. “The field” is the open unenclosed country, here contrasted with the privileged height of Zion. Or sin - i. e., because of thy sin.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 17:3
“O my mountain in the midst of the field,.... Meaning either the temple, called the mountain of the house, and of the Lord's house, Mic 3:12, or else Jerusalem, which stood on a hill in the midst of a plain, surrounded with fruitful fields and gardens; or in the midst of a land like a field.”
And you yourself will relinquish the inheritance: Albert Barnes notes that the Hebrew verb for relinquish is the one used of letting the land rest in the Sabbath year. Judah had failed to keep those rest years. The land will now get its rest while its people serve enemies in a strange country.
Jeremiah 17:4
“The verb rendered “discontinue” is that used of letting the land rest Exo 23:11, and of releasing creditors Deu 15:2 in the sabbatical year. As Judah had not kept these sabbatical years she must now discontinue the tillage of God’s inheritance until the land had had its rest. “Even thyself may mean and that through thyself,” through thine own fault.”
Jeremiah 17:5-8
The oracle sets out the two ways the Psalter teaches. The man who trusts in mankind is “like a shrub in the desert”, dwelling “in a salt land where no one lives”. The man who trusts in the LORD is “like a tree planted by the waters”.
Jeremiah 17:5
“Nay, he is false and sinful, and has lost his integrity; so his being flesh signifies, Gen. vi. The great malignity there is in this sin; it is the departure of the evil heart of unbelief from the living God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 17:5
“Referring to the Jews' proneness to rely on Egypt, in its fear of Assyria and Babylon (Isa 31:1, 3). trusteth--This word is emphatic. We may expect help from men, so far as God enables them to help us, but we must rest our trust in God alone (Ps 62:5).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
like a shrub in the desert: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the Hebrew word means bare or stripped. They cite Robinson, who took it as the juniper of the Arabah south of the Dead Sea. Adam Clarke reads the line about prosperity as a plant so parched it can take in no more water.
Jeremiah 17:6
“Be shall be like the heath in the desert - כערער kearar; or, like a blasted tree, without moisture, parched and withered. Shall not see when good cometh - Shall not be sensible of it: the previous drought having rendered it incapable of absorbing any more vegetable juices. A salt land - Barren; and therefore unfit to be inhabited.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 17:6
“For he shall be like the heath in the desert,.... The Vulgate Latin version renders it, "myrice": and so the Latin interpreter of the Targum; but the word that paraphrase makes use of according to R. Hai, mentioned by Kimchi, signifies something that is thorny without, and eatable within; but this is not likely to be intended here.”
Jeremiah 17:6
A person who relies on himself, however, or even on the person whose duty it is to provide for his needs, and thinks that his own activity or that of his associate is a sufficient resource for his livelihood runs the risk, as he places his hope in humankind, of falling under the curse that reads, "Cursed is the one that trusts in humankind and makes flesh his arm and whose soul departs from the Lord."
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · The Long Rules 42patristic
Jeremiah 17:6
“Hab 3:9, the Hebrew is translated, "bare," "naked," "destitute"; but as the parallel in Jer 17:8 is "tree," some plant must be meant of which this is the characteristic epithet (Jer 48:6, Margin), "a naked tree." ROBINSON translates, "the juniper tree," found in the Arabah or Great Valley, here called "the desert," south of the Dead Sea.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
But blessed is the man who trusts: This blessed man answers the cursed man of verse 5. The trust that failed in man is now placed in the LORD Himself. Augustine uses the curse to argue that the saints of the Old Testament were freed from sin apart from their own power.
Jeremiah 17:7
It may be said both of the Jews and of the heretics that they put their hope in humankind, for the messiah whom they believe to be coming is clearly not the Son of God but a mere man. The person of the church, in contrast, who puts faith in the Lord, hears this: "Know that the Lord himself is God."
Jerome · written before 420 · Six Books on Jeremiah 3:73.2-5patristic
like a tree planted by the waters: Adam Clarke pictures the roots spread along the river, drawing all the water the tree needs when the heat is fierce and no rain falls. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown tie a year of drought to chapter 14 and read it as a picture of every kind of distress.
Jeremiah 17:8
“A s a tree planted by the waters - Which is sufficiently supplied with moisture, though the heat be intense, and there be no rain; for the roots being spread out by the river, they absorb from it all the moisture requisite for the flourishing vegetation of the tree. Shall not see when heat cometh - Shall not feel any damage by drought, for the reason already assigned. It shall be strong and vigorous, its leaf always green; and shall produce plenty of fruit in its season.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
Jeremiah 17:9-11
The heart is deceitful above all things: Verse 9 asks who can understand a heart “deceitful above all things and beyond cure”, and verse 10 answers, “I, the LORD, search the heart”. Self-deception meets an examiner it cannot fool. The partridge “hatching eggs it did not lay” pictures the man who makes a fortune unjustly.
Jeremiah 17:9
“His "supplanting" was in order to obtain Jehovah's blessing. They plant Jehovah for "trust in man" (Jer 17:5), and then think to deceive God, as if it could escape His notice, that it is in man, not in Him, they trust. desperately wicked--"incurable" [HORSLEY], (Mic 1:9). Trust in one's own heart is as foolish as in our fellow man (Pr 28:26).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 17:9
“It is folly to trust in man, for he is not only frail, but false and deceitful. We are apt to think that we trust in God, and are entitled to the blessings here promised to those who do so.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I, the LORD, search the heart: The LORD answers the question of verse 9, since He searches the heart that deceives even its owner and examines the mind. Adam Clarke notes the apostles call Him the Knower of the heart at Acts 1:24, a title fit for God alone. Each man reaps what his deeds deserve.
Jeremiah 17:10
For such things as these serve for exercise and trial, so that, having proved ourselves zealous and chosen servants of Christ, we may be fellow heirs with the saints. For thus Job: "The whole world is a place of trial to people on the earth." Nevertheless, they are proved in this world by afflictions, labors and sorrows, to the end that each one may receive of God such reward as is appropriate for him, as he said by the prophet, "I am the LORD who tries the hearts and searches the reins, to give to everyone according to his ways."
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · Festal Letters 13:1patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 17:10
“I the Lord search the heart - The Lord is called by his apostles, Act 1:24, Καρδιογνωστης, the Knower of the heart. To him alone can this epithet be applied; and it is from him alone that we can derive that instruction by which we can in any measure know ourselves.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Like a partridge hatching eggs: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the Hebrew name of the bird comes from a root meaning to call, after its cry. Adam Clarke cites Dahler, who compares the greedy man to a bird that hatches the eggs of other birds. His riches desert him halfway through his days.
Jeremiah 17:11
“As the partridge - קרא kore. It is very likely that this was a bird different from our partridge. The text Dr. Blayney translates thus: - (As) the kore that hatcheth what it doth not lay (So is) he who getteth riches, and not according to right. “The covetous man,” says Dahler, “who heaps up riches by unjust ways, is compared to a bird which hatches the eggs of other fowls.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 17:12-13
A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning: The chapter turns from the deceitful heart to the dwelling, “A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary”. Verse 13 calls the LORD “the fountain of living water”, the same picture as 2:13. Those who turn away “will be written in the dust”.
Jeremiah 17:12
“A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. The temple, which was a sanctified place, where the holy God dwelt, his holy worship was observed, and his holy people met together. Here, from the beginning of its erection, from the time of its dedication, the Lord took up his residence; the glory of the Lord filled the house; he set up his throne in it, a high and glorious one; he dwelt between the cherubim, over the mercy seat, typical of the throne of grace. Kimchi and Ben Melech observe that R.”
O LORD, the hope of Israel: The prayer speaks to the LORD, then about Him. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call such sudden turns common in the prophets, who spoke always aware of God's presence. Adam Clarke pictures the names of all who abandon the LORD written in the dust, wiped out by the first wind.
Jeremiah 17:13
“Note, God is to all that are his a fountain of living waters. There is a fulness of comfort in him, an over-flowing ever-flowing fulness, like that of a fountain; it is always fresh, and clear, and clean, like spring water, while the pleasures of sin are puddle-waters.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 17:13
“Written on the earth - They shall never come to true honor. Their names shall be written in the dust; and the first wind that blows over it shall mar every letter, and render it illegible.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Heal Me and I Shall Be Healed
Jeremiah 17:14-18
Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed: The prayer “Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed” belongs to the confessions of chapters 11 to 20. Jeremiah reminds the LORD, who alone knows it, “I have not desired the day of despair”. He asks for his persecutors to be put to shame.
Jeremiah 17:14
"Lord, save me from them, and let me not fall into their wicked hands. Heal me, that is, sanctify me by thy grace; save me, that is, bring me to thy glory." All that shall be saved hereafter are sanctified now; unless the disease of sin be purged out the soul cannot live.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 17:14
“Prayer of the prophet for deliverance from the enemies whom he excited by his faithful denunciations. Heal . . . save--not only make me whole (as to the evils of soul as well as body which I am exposed to by contact with ungodly foes, Jer 15:18), but keep me so. my praise--He whom I have to praise for past favors, and therefore to whom alone I look for the time to come.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 17:14
“Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed,.... These are the words of the prophet, sensible of his own sins and backslidings, and of the part which he himself had in these corrupt and declining times; and being conscious of his own impotency to cure himself; and being fully satisfied of the power of the Lord to heal him; and being well assured, if he was healed by him, he should be thoroughly and effectually healed; therefore he applies unto him.”
Behold, they keep saying to me: Matthew Henry says the people made a jest of the prophet's warnings and used the LORD's patience as a reason to doubt His word. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read such mockery as the mark of a people in the last stage of turning away, citing 2 Peter 3:4.
Jeremiah 17:15
“Where is the word of the Lord? - Where is the accomplishment of his threatenings? Thou hast said that the city and the temple should both be destroyed. No such events have yet taken place. But they did take place, and every tittle of the menace was strictly fulfilled.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
But I have not run away: Jeremiah answers the taunt of verse 15 with his own record as a shepherd. Adam Clarke cites Blayney's rendering, that he had been in no haste to outrun the LORD's guidance. He reads the verse as a plea that he never wished the day of despair to come sooner.
Jeremiah 17:16
“I have not hastened from being a pastor - Dr. Blayney translates thus: “But I have not been in haste to outrun thy guidance.” I was obliged to utter thy prediction; but I have not hastened the evil day. For the credit of my prophecy I have not desired the calamity to come speedily; I have rather pleaded for respite. I have followed thy steps, and proclaimed thy truth. I did not desire to be a prophet; but thou hast commanded, and I obeyed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 17:16
“Note, Those that are employed for God, though their success answer nor their expectations, must not therefore throw up their commission. but continue to follow God, though the storm be in their faces. He kept up his affection to the people. Though they were very abusive to him, he was compassionate to them: I have not desired the woeful day.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Do not become a terror to: Clarke reads the plea as a request that the LORD would give him no more disaster to preach and leave him alone to face it. Jerome also gives the Greek reading, a plea that God would be no stranger and would spare him on the worst day.
Jeremiah 17:17
“Be not a terror unto me - Do not command me to predict miseries, and abandon me to them and to my enemies.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Let my persecutors be put to shame: Adam Clarke reads these lines as simple predictions of the shame coming on the persecutors. Jerome reads them as a curse that hopes the shame will turn them back to salvation. John Gill names their weapons as scoffs and the question of where the word of the LORD is.
Jeremiah 17:18
“Let them be confounded - They shall be confounded. These words are to be understood as simple predictions, rather than prayers.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Bear No Burden Through the Gates on the Sabbath
Jeremiah 17:19-27
Jeremiah must stand at the gate the kings of Judah use and preach one commandment. The fathers heard the same command, and “they stiffened their necks”. Obedience would bring kings into a city “inhabited forever”, and disobedience “an unquenchable fire in its gates”.
Jeremiah 17:19
“Thus said the Lord unto me,.... Here begins a new sermon or discourse, concerning the sanctification of the sabbath, and a very proper place to begin a new chapter: Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people; where there were great numbers of people passing and repassing; and whither the people resorted upon one account or another; or where they dwelt. Some particular gate of the city of Jerusalem seems to be meant; and not the gate of the temple, as Abarbinel.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 17:19
“This prophecy on the observance of the Sabbath, is the first of a series of short predictions. arranged probably in chronological order among themselves, but in other respects independent of one another. Its tone is mild, and dissuasive rather of future neglect than condemnatory of past misconduct; and it may be assigned to the commencement of Jehoiakim’s reign. Its similarity to the prophecy contained in Jer 22:1-5 makes it probable that they were contemporaneous. Jer 17:19 The gate of the children of the people - Perhaps the principal entrance of the outer court of the temple.”
Jeremiah 17:19
“These verses are a sermon concerning sabbath-sanctification. It is a word which the prophet received from the Lord, and was ordered to deliver in the most solemn and public manner to the people; for they were sent not only to reprove sin, and to press obedience, in general, but they must descend to particulars.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The message goes to the gates the kings themselves pass through each day. Adam Clarke notes that the words naming all Judah are missing in eight Hebrew manuscripts, the Arabic, and some copies of the Septuagint. The call reaches king and people alike.
Jeremiah 17:20
“Ye kings of Judah, and all Judah - This last clause is wanting in eight of Kennicott’s and De Rossi’s MSS., in the Arabic, and some copies of the Septuagint.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Take heed for yourselves: The command concerns loads carried through the city gates on the day of rest. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call it an open insult to God in His own capital. They read the keeping of the Sabbath as a sign of holiness in general, citing Ezekiel 20:12.
Jeremiah 17:21
“Take heed to yourselves and bear no burden - From this and the following verses we find the ruin of the Jews attributed to the breach of the Sabbath; as this led to a neglect of sacrifice, the ordinances of religion, and all public worship, so it necessarily brought with it all immorality. This breach of the Sabbath was that which let in upon them all the waters of God’s wrath.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 17:21
“Jerusalem--It would have been scandalous anywhere; but in the capital, Jerusalem, it was an open insult to God. Sabbath-hallowing is intended as a symbol of holiness in general (Eze 20:12); therefore much stress is laid on it; the Jews' gross impiety is manifested in their setting God's will at naught, in the case of such an easy and positive command.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
You must not carry a load: The ban reaches past the gates into every house. Matthew Henry calls the Sabbath an ancient law commanded to their forefathers, part of the original covenant, and given even to the patriarchs. Rest from work was to begin at home before it reached the city.
Yet they would not listen: Their forefathers heard this same command and stiffened their necks. Matthew Henry holds the sons could still escape the fathers' guilt and see the city win back its glory if they kept the Sabbath holy. Where the Sabbath is neglected, Henry adds, all religion goes to decay.
If, however, you listen carefully to Me: The threat of ruin carries a door out of it. Adam Clarke notes that even after destruction was plainly threatened, a hidden condition stood. If Judah turned back to the LORD, the disaster would be turned away and kings of David's line would keep the throne.
Jeremiah 17:24
“If ye diligently hearken unto me - So we find that though their destruction was positively threatened, yet still there was an unexpressed proviso that, if they did return to the Lord, the calamities should be averted, and a succession of princes would have been continued on the throne of David, Jer 17:25, Jer 17:26.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 17:24
“This is made an instance of their prosperity. Then a people truly flourish when religion flourishes among them. And this is the effect of sabbath-sanctification; when that branch of religion is kept up other instances of it are kept up likewise; but, when that is lost, devotion is lost either in superstition or in profaneness.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
then kings and princes will enter: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note the kingdom had sunk so low by this time that the promise of kings in chariots was a special favor. Matthew Henry reads the promise as the fruit of kept Sabbaths, since a people flourishes when its worship flourishes. The throne of David stays filled.
people will come from the cities: The list walks the whole land: Benjamin to the north, the foothills to the west, the hill country, and the Negev in the south. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the Hebrew word for Negev means dry, the desert south of Judea. Every region brings its offerings to one house.
But if you do not listen to Me: The gates where the loads came in become the place where the fire starts. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it as punishment, the scene of the offense made the scene of judgment, and point to Jeremiah 52:13. Matthew Henry notes that the Chaldean army fulfilled it.
Jeremiah 17:27
“This was fulfilled by the army of the Chaldeans, ch. lii. The profanation of the sabbath is a sin for which God has often contended with a people by fire.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Augustine of Hippo, Expositions of the Psalms, Psalm 37; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.