Jeremiah 17:8-27

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.”

9 The 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.”

11 Like 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.

12 A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.

13 LORD, 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.

14 Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.

15 They keep saying to me, “Where is the word of the LORD? Let it now be fulfilled!”

16 I 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.

17 Do not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster.

18 Let 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.

Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy

19 This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and stand at the Gate of the People,^[a] through which the kings of Judah go in and out; stand also at all the other gates of Jerusalem.

20 Say 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.

21 This is what the LORD says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem.

22 Do 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.

23 Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline.

24 But 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,

25 then 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.

26 People 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.

27 But 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.’ ”

Jeremiah 17:8-27 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.

Cross References

• 1. S Job 14:9
• 2. Jeremiah 14:1-6
• 3. Psalms 1:3; Psalms 92:12-14; Ezekiel 19:10; Ezekiel 47:12
• 4. S Ecclesiastes 9:3; Matthew 13:15; Mark 7:21-22
• 5. 1 Samuel 16:7; S Joshua 22:22; S 2 Chronicles 6:30; S Revelation 2:23
• 6. Psalms 17:3; Psalms 139:23; Jeremiah 11:20; Jeremiah 20:12; Ezekiel 11:5; Ezekiel 38:10; Romans 8:27
• 7. S Leviticus 26:28; Psalms 62:12; Jeremiah 32:19; S Matthew 16:27
• 8. Jeremiah 12:13; Jeremiah 14:16; Jeremiah 21:14; Jeremiah 32:19; Romans 2:6
• 9. Luke 12:20
• 10. S Jeremiah 3:17
• 11. Psalms 71:5; Jeremiah 14:8
• 12. Isaiah 1:28; S Jeremiah 2:17
• 13. S Psalms 69:28; Psalms 87:6; Ezekiel 13:9; Daniel 12:1
• 14. S Isaiah 12:3; John 4:10
• 15. S Isaiah 30:26; Jeremiah 15:18
• 16. S Psalms 119:94
• 17. S Exodus 15:2; S Psalms 109:1
• 18. S Isaiah 5:19; 2 Peter 3:4
• 19. Psalms 139:4
• 20. Psalms 88:15-16
• 21. S Psalms 46:1; Jeremiah 16:19; Nahum 1:7
• 22. S Psalms 18:18
• 23. Psalms 35:1-8; S Isaiah 40:2; S Jeremiah 12:3
• 24. Jeremiah 7:2; Jeremiah 26:2
• 25. Jeremiah 19:3
• 26. Jeremiah 22:2
• 27. Numbers 15:32-36; S Deuteronomy 5:14; Nehemiah 13:15-21; John 5:10
• 28. S Genesis 2:3; S Exodus 20:8; Exodus 31:13; Isaiah 56:2-6; Ezekiel 20:12
• 29. Jeremiah 7:26
• 30. Jeremiah 19:15
• 31. S 2 Chronicles 28:22; S Jeremiah 7:28; Zechariah 7:11
• 32. ver 22
• 33. S 2 Samuel 7:13; Isaiah 9:7; Jeremiah 22:2,4; Luke 1:32
• 34. Jeremiah 30:10; Jeremiah 33:16; Ezekiel 28:26
• 35. Jeremiah 32:44; Jeremiah 33:13; Zechariah 7:7
• 36. S 1 Kings 9:6; Jeremiah 22:5
• 37. S Nehemiah 10:31
• 38. S Jeremiah 7:20
• 39. S 2 Kings 25:9; Hosea 8:14; Amos 2:5

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "Army"