17
📚“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,
17:1 This speaks of a permanent record. It would not be effaced from their hearts as long as they lived. Their altars to false gods revealed their sins for all to see.⚜
2 📚While their children remember
their altars and their groves 📖
by the green trees on the high hills.
17:2 Their sin was also in their children’s hearts.⚜
3 📚O my mountain in the land,
I will give your wealth and
all your treasures to plunder,
together with your high places
because of sin throughout all your territory.
4 📚And you, you yourself,
will let go of your inheritance
that I gave you.
And I will cause you to serve
your enemies in a land which you
do not know.
For you have kindled a fire 📖
in my anger, which will burn forever”.
5 📚Thus says the LORD:
“Cursed is the man who trusts
in man and makes flesh his arm,
and whose heart departs from the LORD.
6 📚For he will be like a bush in the desert,
and will not see when good comes,
but will live in the parched places
of the desert, in an uninhabited
salt land.
7 📚“Blessed is the man who trusts
in the LORD, and who has the LORD
as his hope.
17:7 Here is a key verse about blessedness. Every blessing promised in the Bible comes only in this way. Everywhere in His Word God emphasizes the importance of trusting Him – Ps 32:10; 34:8; 37:4-5; 40:4; Prov 3:5; 16:20; 29:25; Hebrews chapter 11. Notes on “blessed” at Gen 12:1-3; Num 6:22; Deut 28:2-14; Ps 1:1-3; 119:1-2.⚜
8 📚For he will be like a tree planted
by the waters,
which spreads out its roots
by the river and does not see when
heat comes.
Its leaf will be green, and it will not be
anxious in the year of drought,
and it will not cease yielding fruit.
17:5-8 The great contrast between those who trust men and those who trust in Jehovah God.⚜
9 📚“The heart is deceitful
above all things,
and desperately wicked 📖.
Who can know it?
17:9 Here is the word of God Himself concerning man’s heart. See also Jer 5:23; 7:24; 16:12; 18:12. If we have any true wisdom at all we will believe what God reveals about us. Everywhere in the Bible He tells us what we are really like – Gen 6:5; 8:21; Ps 51:5; Eccl 9:3; Matt 15:19; Rom 1:21; 3:9; 7:18; Eph 2:1-3; 4:22.⚜
10 📚I, the LORD. I search the heart,
I test the inner being,
to give to each one according
to his ways, and according
to the fruit of his deeds.
17:10 God examines the heart and mind and knows all about the inner thoughts, desires and motives of men (1 Sam 16:7; 2 Chron 6:30; Ps 7:9; 17:3; 94:11; 139:23-24; Prov 17:3; Jer 11:20; Ezek 11:5; Matt 9:4; John 2:24-25). Let us listen to Him as He tells us the true state of things.⚜
11 📚As the partridge sits on eggs,
but does not hatch them,
so the one who unjustly gets riches
will leave them in the middle of his days,
and at his end will be shown to
be a fool”.
12 📚A glorious high throne from the beginning
is the place of our sanctuary.
13 📚O LORD, the hope of Israel,
all who forsake you will be put to shame.
“And those who depart
from me will be written in the earth,
because they have forsaken the LORD,
the fountain of living waters 📖”.
17:13 There was no hope for Israel apart from Jehovah God. To forsake Him was to forsake any possibility of a blessed future. As writing in dust is soon blotted out so would they be. They who forsake God, the source of life, should not vainly imagine they are recorded in the book of life (Ps 69:28; Rev 3:6).⚜
14 📚Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed.
Save me, and I will be saved,
for you are my praise.
15 📚Behold, they say to me,
“Where 📖 is the word
of the LORD? Let it come now”.
16 📚As for me, I have not hurried
away from being a shepherd
following you,
and I have not desired the day
of disaster. You know.
What came out of my lips was
right before you.
17:16 Though the people rejected him Jeremiah knew that God had appointed him, and he did not try to escape from his responsibility to be a shepherd to them.⚜
17 📚Be not a terror to me.
You are my hope in the day
of disaster.
18 📚Let those who persecute me be
put to shame,
but do not let me be put to shame.
17:18 Notes on such prayers at Ps 35:8.⚜
Let them be dismayed, but do not let me
be dismayed.
Warning regarding the Sabbath
Bring on them the day of disaster,
and destroy them with double destruction.
19 📚Thus the LORD said to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, where the kings of Judah come in, and where they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, 20 📚and say to them, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter in by these gates, 21 📚thus the LORD said: Take heed to yourselves, and carry no load on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in through the gates of Jerusalem, 22 📚nor carry a load out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. 23 📚But they did not obey or incline their ear, but made their necks stiff, so that they might not hear or receive instruction.
24 📚And it will come about, if you carefully listen to me, says the LORD, to bring no burden in through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy, doing no work in it, 25 📚then through the gates of this city will enter kings and princes who sit on 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 will remain forever. 26 📚And they will come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around 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 grain offerings and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise 📖, to the house of the LORD. 27 📚But if you will not listen to me to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to carry a load, entering 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, and it will not be quenched”.
17:24-27 God’s commands about the Sabbath would be a test for the people. If they began to obey God in this it would be a sign of their repentance and God would be merciful to them (Isa 58:13-14). If they refused obedience in this, obedience could not be expected in anything, and the judgment of God would come on Jerusalem.⚜