Jeremiah 17:1-8

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.

2 Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.

3 My mountain in the land and your^[a] wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country.

4 Through 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.”

5 This 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.

6 That 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.

8 They 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.”

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Jeremiah 17:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 17

This chapter is a further prophecy of the destruction of the Jews, with the causes of it, their sins, as their idolatry, which was notorious; of which their own consciences, their altars, and their children, were witnesses, Jer 17:1,2 for which they are threatened with the spoil of their substance and treasure, and discontinuance in their land, Jer 17:3,4 as also their confidence in an arm of flesh, which brought the curse of God upon them, when such are blessed that trust in him; and the difference between those that trust in men and those that trust in the Lord is illustrated by very apt similes, Jer 17:5-8, the source of which vain confidence is the wicked heart of man, known to none but God, Jer 17:9,10 and the vanity of it is exposed by a partridge sitting on eggs without hatching them, Jer 17:11, and their departure from God, by trusting in the creature, and in outward things, is aggravated by their temple being the throne and seat of the divine Majesty; by what God is to his people that trust in him; and by the shame and ruin that follow an apostasy from him, Jer 17:12,13, wherefore the prophet, sensible of his own backslidings, prays to be healed and saved by the Lord, who should have all the praise and glory, Jer 17:14 and then relates the scoffs of the people at the word of God by him, another cause of their ruin; declares his own innocence and integrity; prays for protection and security from fear in a time of trouble; and for confusion, terror, and destruction to his persecutors, Jer 17:15-18, then follows an order to him from the Lord, to go and stand in the gate of the city, and exhort all ranks of men to the observation of the sabbath, with directions how to keep it, which had not been observed by their fathers, and which was another cause of their ruin, Jer 17:19-23, and the chapter is closed with promises of blessings in city, court, and country, in church and state, should they religiously observe the sabbath day; but if they profaned it, the city of Jerusalem, and its palaces, should be burnt with fire, Jer 17:24-27.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 21

1. Job 19:24
2. S Deuteronomy 6:6; Proverbs 3:3; S 2 Corinthians 3:3
3. S Exodus 27:2
4. S 2 Chronicles 24:18
5. S Jeremiah 2:20
6. S 2 Kings 24:13
7. Jeremiah 26:18; Micah 3:12
8. Jeremiah 15:13
9. Lamentations 5:2
10. Deuteronomy 28:48; S Jeremiah 12:7
11. Jeremiah 16:13; Jeremiah 22:28
12. S Jeremiah 7:20; Jeremiah 15:14
13. S Psalms 108:12; S Isaiah 2:22; Isaiah 30:1-3
14. 2 Corinthians 1:9
15. Job 30:3
16. Deuteronomy 29:23; S Job 39:6; Psalms 107:34; Jeremiah 48:9
17. S Psalms 146:5
18. S Psalms 26:1; Psalms 34:8; Psalms 40:4; Proverbs 16:20; Jeremiah 39:18
19. S Job 14:9
20. Jeremiah 14:1-6
21. Psalms 1:3; Psalms 92:12-14; Ezekiel 19:10; Ezekiel 47:12

Footnotes 2

[a]. That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah
[b]. Or "hills" / 3"and the mountains of the land." / "Your"