Jeremiah 17 explained: Where You Put Your Trust

Sin carved deep (vv. 1-4)

Judah's wrongs are pictured as carved with an iron tool into their hearts and onto the horns of their altars, the raised corners where sacrificial blood was put, so they cannot be denied or erased. Their children know the hilltop shrines and the Asherah, wooden objects honoring a goddess, and the result will be loss of wealth, land and freedom in a foreign country.

Two kinds of trust (vv. 5-8)

Relying on human strength while turning from the LORD is like a scrubby bush in salty desert ground that never thrives, while trusting the LORD is like a tree by a stream that stays green through heat and drought. Many read this as a warning against Judah's habit of looking to powerful nations like Egypt for rescue.

The hidden heart (vv. 9-11)

The human heart is called deeply deceptive and hard to understand, but the LORD says he sees into it and repays people by what they actually do. Unfair wealth is compared to a partridge sitting on eggs it did not lay, probably drawing on old bird lore that scholars cannot pin down, with the point that such riches do not last.

The spring of living water (vv. 12-13)

The glorious throne is usually taken as the temple, though some read these lines as describing the LORD himself, Israel's hope; those who abandon him are written in the dust, meaning their names will blow away and be forgotten. God is called a spring of fresh flowing water, an image Christians later connected with Jesus' words about living water.

Jeremiah's raw prayer (vv. 14-18)

People mock Jeremiah by asking where the LORD's threatened word is and daring it to happen now, so he asks God to heal and protect him and insists he never wanted the disaster he announced. He ends by asking God to bring double ruin on his persecutors, an openly angry plea the text records without softening.

Keep the Sabbath (vv. 19-27)

At the city gates Jeremiah warns against carrying loads in through the gates or out of houses, or doing any work, on the Sabbath, the weekly day of rest. Keeping it would mean kings on David's throne and a lasting, worshiping city, while ignoring it would bring fire to Jerusalem's gates and fortresses.

Key verse: Jeremiah 17:7

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether verse 9's description of the heart speaks of the basic condition of every human being or mainly of Judah's hardened state at that moment.

Something to think about

When life gets hard, what do you tend to lean on most, and how well has it held up?