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Jeremiah 17

Jeremiah confronts Judah’s entrenched sin, showing how trust in YHWH takes shape in the heart and in obedience.

Judah’s sin is pictured as an inscription cut into the heart and the horns of its altars. Through Jeremiah, YHWH announces loss of land and contrasts trust in human strength with trust in him. He exposes the heart’s deceit and declares his power to judge it. Jeremiah then pleads for healing and protection from persecutors. The chapter closes with a command to preach at Jerusalem’s gates: honor the Sabbath, or face the city’s destruction.

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1“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond. It is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars.
2Even their children remember their altars and their Asherah poles by the green trees on the high hills.
3My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a plunder, and your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.
4You, even of yourself, will discontinue from your heritage that I gave you. I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you don’t know, for you have kindled a fire in my anger which will burn forever.”
5The LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, relies on strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from the LORD.
6For he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see when good comes, but will inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, an uninhabited salt land.
7“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose confidence is in the LORD.
8For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit.
9The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
10“I, the LORD, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
11As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right. In the middle of his days, they will leave him. At his end, he will be a fool.
12A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
13LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be disappointed. Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living waters.
14Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved; for you are my praise.
15Behold, they ask me, “Where is the LORD’s word? Let it be fulfilled now.”
16As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you. I haven’t desired the woeful day. You know. That which came out of my lips was before your face.
17Don’t be a terror to me. You are my refuge in the day of evil.
18Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but don’t let me be disappointed. Let them be dismayed, but don’t let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
19The LORD said this to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem.
20Tell them, ‘Hear the LORD’s word, you kings of Judah, all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:
21The LORD says, “Be careful, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.
22Don’t carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day. Don’t do any work, but make the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.
23But they didn’t listen. They didn’t turn their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction.
24It will happen, if you diligently listen to me,” says the LORD, “to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein;
25then there will enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on David’s throne, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city will remain forever.
26They will come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country, and from the South, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, meal offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the LORD’s house.
27But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem. It will not be quenched.”’”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Jeremiah 17:7This blessing locates security in YHWH, preparing for the picture of a rooted tree that survives drought.
Jeremiah 17:9The heart’s deceit explains why human confidence is unsafe and why Judah’s sin reaches beneath its public worship.
Jeremiah 17:10YHWH answers the question about knowing the heart: he searches its depths and judges the deeds that grow from it.
Where this chapter reaches

Psalm shares the image of a fruitful tree planted beside water, while Proverbs shares the teaching that YHWH tests hearts. John also uses living water imagery, and Revelation shares the declaration that God searches hearts and repays people according to their deeds.

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After reading the whole chapter

What does the tree facing drought suggest about trusting God when trouble remains?

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What connection do you see between the heart’s hidden loyalties and the Sabbath command at Jerusalem’s gates?

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Questions people ask about Jeremiah 17

What does Jeremiah 17:9 mean about the heart?

The verse describes the heart as deceitful and corrupt, casting doubt on its ability to judge itself. It follows Judah’s engraved sin and the contrast between misplaced trust and trust in YHWH. Verse 10 supplies the answer to the question of who can know it: YHWH searches and judges.

Does Jeremiah 17:5 mean you should never trust people?

The curse describes someone who relies on human strength and whose heart departs from YHWH. That last clause identifies the misplaced allegiance at issue. The contrast is between human strength treated as a foundation for security and confidence in God. The passage does not forbid friendship, counsel, or receiving help.

Why does Jeremiah 17 end with a command about the Sabbath?

The Sabbath command brings the chapter’s concern with trust and obedience into Jerusalem’s public life. Jeremiah must address rulers and people at the gates, where burdens pass into the city. God ties Sabbath observance to the city’s continued life and worship, and warns that refusal will bring fire upon its gates and palaces.

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Jeremiah · 52 chapters
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).