Jeremiah 16:17

17 "1For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, 2nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes.

Jeremiah 16:17 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 16:17

For mine eyes are upon all their ways
Not only which they may take to hide themselves from their enemies, and where they should be directed to find them; but their evil ways in which they walked, and which were the cause of their calamities; these, how secret soever they were, were under the eye of God, whose eyes are in every place, and upon all the ways of men, good and bad; though they might flatter themselves, as wicked men sometimes do, that the Lord sees them not, and does not take notice of their iniquities: but, that they might be assured of the contrary, it is added, they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine
eyes;
neither their ways nor their works, their persons nor their actions, could be concealed from the Lord; none can hide himself in secret places, that they should not be seen by him; the darkness and the light are both alike to an omniscient God. The Targum is,

``their iniquities are not hid from before (or from, or the sight of) my Word;''
the essential Word of God; see ( Hebrews 4:12 Hebrews 4:13 ) .

Jeremiah 16:17 In-Context

15 but, 'As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.' For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.
16 "Behold, I am going to send for many fishermen," declares the LORD , "and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks.
17 "For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes.
18 "I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations."
19 O LORD , my strength and my stronghold, And my refuge in the day of distress, To You the nations will come From the ends of the earth and say, "Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood, Futility and things of no profit."

Cross References 2

  • 1. 2 Chronicles 16:9; Job 34:21; Psalms 90:8; Proverbs 5:21; Proverbs 15:3; Jeremiah 23:24; Jeremiah 32:19; Zechariah 4:10; Luke 12:2; 1 Corinthians 4:5; Hebrews 4:13
  • 2. Jeremiah 2:22
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