Jeremiah 17

The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen. It is carved with a diamond point on the tablets of their hearts and on the corners of your altars.

1The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;

NoteAn iron pen and a diamond (or flint) point were the tools used to cut letters into stone or metal, the image is of a record that cannot be rubbed out. The "horns" of an altar (rendered here as corners) were four projections, one at each upper corner, which stood for the altar's power: sacrificial blood was smeared on them, and a fugitive could grab them to claim sanctuary. "Tablets of their hearts" plays on the stone tablets of the law; in Hebrew the heart means the mind and will, the place where a person decides things.

2Even their children remember those altars and the wooden poles set up for the goddess Asherah, beside the green trees and on the high hills.

2Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.

NoteAsherah was a Canaanite mother goddess; the "poles" were wooden objects, carved posts or living trees, set up beside an altar to represent her. Worship at open-air sites under leafy trees and on hilltops was normal practice throughout the region, and Israel's own law repeatedly forbade it.

3My mountain out in the open country, I will hand over your wealth and all your treasures as plunder, because of the sin at your worship sites all through your territory.

3O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.

Note"My mountain out in the open country" is obscure in Hebrew; it is usually taken as Jerusalem with its temple hill, or as the hill country of Judah as a whole. The "worship sites" (traditionally "high places") were local shrines, often on hilltops, with an altar and sacred pole, where people sacrificed outside the Jerusalem temple.

4You yourself will let go of the land I gave you to keep. I will make you serve your enemies in a country you do not know, because you have lit a fire in my anger, and it will burn forever.

4And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.

NoteThe land was held as a family inheritance passed down permanently through the generations, not as property to be bought and sold at will. To lose it was to lose the standing that made a family Israelite at all. Being made to "serve your enemies in a country you do not know" describes deportation, being marched off to a foreign empire as forced labor.

5This is what the LORD says: Cursed is the man who puts his trust in human beings, who leans on human strength, and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

5Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

6He will be like a bush in the desert. He will not see good times when they come. He will live in the dry places of the wilderness, in a salty land where no one lives.

6For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

NoteThe Hebrew word for the plant is uncertain, some kind of stunted desert shrub or juniper. A "salt land" is ground crusted with salt, like the flats around the Dead Sea, where nothing grows and no one settles.

7Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, the man whose confidence is in the LORD.

7Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

8He will be like a tree planted by water, that sends its roots out toward the stream. It is not afraid when the heat comes; its leaves stay green. It does not worry in a year without rain, and it never stops giving fruit.

8For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

9The human heart is more deceitful than anything else, and it is sick beyond cure. Who can understand it?

9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Note"Heart" in Hebrew is not the seat of emotion as in modern English; it is the inner self that thinks, decides and plans. The verse is about the mind's capacity to deceive its owner.

10I, the LORD, search the heart. I examine the mind. I do it so I can give each person what his way of living deserves, and what his actions have earned.

10I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

NoteThe King James "reins" means the kidneys. Hebrew located the deepest, least visible feelings and motives in the kidneys, and conscious thought in the heart; together the two words mean a person's whole inner life, right down to what they hide from themselves.

11A man who gets rich in a dishonest way is like a partridge that sits on eggs it did not lay. Halfway through his life his riches will leave him, and in the end he will look like a fool.

11As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.

NoteThe proverb draws on a popular belief that the partridge sits on eggs it did not lay, and loses the chicks when they hatch and run to their real parent. The point is wealth that was never really the man's and does not stay with him.

12The place of our holy sanctuary is a glorious throne, lifted high from the beginning.

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

Note"The place of our sanctuary" is the temple in Jerusalem, spoken of as God's throne on earth. "From the beginning" contrasts it with the shrines of verses 2 and 3.

13LORD, you are the hope of Israel. Everyone who abandons you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust, because they have abandoned the LORD, the spring of living water.

13O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

NoteNames written in dust are gone with the first wind or footstep (the opposite of the sin engraved with an iron pen in verse 1. The image may also be of names struck off a register of citizens. "Living water" is a fixed Hebrew term for water that flows) a spring or stream, as opposed to still water stored in a cistern, which goes stale.

14Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved. You are the one I praise.

14Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

15Look at how they keep saying to me, "Where is this word from the LORD? Let it come now!"

15Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.

NoteJeremiah had been announcing disaster for years and it had not yet arrived. "Where is the word of the LORD?" is a taunt: let the thing you keep predicting actually happen.

16But I have not run away from being the shepherd who follows you. I have not wanted the day of disaster to come. You know that everything I said was spoken openly before you.

16As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee.

NoteThe Hebrew of this line is disputed. It can mean "I have not run away from being a shepherd following you" (shepherd being a standard term for a leader responsible for a community), or, with a small change of vowels, "I have not pressed you to send disaster." Either way Jeremiah is denying that he wanted the doom he was made to announce.

17Do not become something that terrifies me. You are my safe place on the day trouble comes.

17Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil.

18Let the people who hunt me down be put to shame, but do not let me be put to shame. Let them be terrified, but do not let me be terrified. Bring the day of disaster on them, and break them with a double blow.

18Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

Note"A double blow" uses the idiom of a double share, the portion an eldest son inherited. Here it means destruction in full measure, not exactly twice a fixed amount.

19This is what the LORD said to me: Go and stand in the gate of the common people, the gate the kings of Judah use when they come in and go out, and stand in all the other gates of Jerusalem.

19Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;

NoteWhich gate this was is not known; the Hebrew calls it the gate of "the sons of the people," perhaps a main public entrance. City gates were the place where business was done, courts sat and public announcements were made, so standing in one was the way to address the whole population.

20Say to them: Listen to the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all of Judah, and everyone living in Jerusalem who comes through these gates.

20And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:

21This is what the LORD says: Watch yourselves. Do not carry a load on the Sabbath day, and do not bring one in through the gates of Jerusalem.

21Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

NoteThe Sabbath was the seventh day of the week, on which all work stopped. "Carrying a load" here means hauling goods (produce coming to market, merchandise going out of houses), so the command is aimed at trade carrying on as usual through the city gates on the rest day.

22Do not carry a load out of your houses on the Sabbath day, and do not do any work. Keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I commanded your ancestors.

22Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.

23But they did not obey and would not listen. They were stubborn, so they would not hear or accept correction.

23But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.

Note"They stiffened their necks" is an image from farming: an ox that braces its neck against the yoke and refuses to be guided.

24But if you listen to me carefully, says the LORD, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, and keep the Sabbath day holy by doing no work on it,

24And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;

25then kings and princes will come in through the gates of this city. They will sit on David's throne and ride in chariots and on horses, along with their officials, the men of Judah, and the people living in Jerusalem. And people will live in this city forever.

25Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever.

Note"David's throne" means the royal line descended from David, which had ruled in Jerusalem for some four hundred years. Kings and officials riding in through the gates in chariots is the picture of a dynasty still functioning and a city still intact.

26People will come from the towns of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the low hills, from the hill country, and from the dry south. They will bring burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, and incense, and they will bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD.

26And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD.

NoteThe places listed ring Jerusalem: Benjamin is the territory just north, the "low hills" are the foothills between the mountains and the coastal plain (the Shephelah), the hill country is the central ridge, and the "dry south" is the Negev. The offerings are the standard temple ones: a burnt offering was an animal burned whole; "sacrifices" were animals of which parts were burned and the rest eaten; a grain offering was flour and oil; incense was aromatic resin burned to produce smoke; a thank offering was brought voluntarily in acknowledgment of something received.

27But if you will not listen to me, and will not keep the Sabbath day holy by refusing to carry a load in through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath, then I will set fire to those gates. The fire will burn up the strong buildings of Jerusalem, and no one will put it out.

27But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

NoteThe "strong buildings" are the fortified towers and palace complexes of the city, the structures a defender would rely on. Fire that "no one will put out" is a standard phrase for destruction that runs its full course.