17:1–4 Judah’s sinful disposition has become indelible, like something carved with an iron stylus or a diamond point (v. 1). What is irreversibly etched on the hearts of this people is not Yahweh’s word (cf. Prov. 3:3; 7:3; Jer. 8:8) but a fondness for pagan influences that should not have remained after Israel’s conquest of Canaan (cf. Deut. 12:2–3). These verses mention three objects and places in particular: (1) altars where syncretistic worship occurred (Jer. 17:2); (2) sacred pillars known as “Asherim” (v. 2), which some English translations (e.g., NIV) render as “Asherah poles” due to their ritual connection to Asherah, the Canaanite fertility goddess (cf. Deut. 16:21; Judg. 6:25–30; 1 Kings 18:19); and (3) high places on the hills and mountains (Jer. 17:3) that hosted fertility or child-sacrifice rituals (cf. Jer. 7:31; 19:5; 32:35).

During their centuries of apostasy, the Israelite kingdoms often supposed that adopting Canaan’s indigenous practices would lead to the prosperity of the land and thereby strengthen their foothold there (e.g., Deut. 31:16; Judg. 2:11–13; 1 Kings 11:7). The opposite has been true, however (cf. Hos. 2:5–9). Yahweh warns that life in the land has always been a gift predicated upon continuing and exclusive loyalty to him. Since Judah has failed to uphold its covenantal obligations, contented life in his good land must give way to cruel life in a foreign land (Jer. 17:4).

17:5–8 Yahweh continues to speak, now explicitly as the Creator, and in poetry rather than in prose. The shift to poetry also corresponds to this chapter’s allusions to the Psalter and OT wisdom literature. In these verses and several psalms, the one who “trusts” (v. 5) in fleeting human strength is, by definition, also one who rejects God’s lasting sufficiency (cf. Pss. 20:7; 56:11; 118:8). The outcome of such a life is described with creational images alluding to OT wisdom psalms, in this case a shriveled shrub and a desolate land (Jer. 17:6; cf. Pss. 1:4; 37:35–36).

Psalm 1 then becomes even more prominent in the depiction of a faithful person who “trusts” in the Creator instead of in another person like himself. Better even than that wisdom psalm’s fruitful tree, which is planted and nourished by water (Jer. 17:8a–b, 8f; cf. Ps. 1:3), this individual will receive the additional blessing of freedom from anxiety and fear when drought comes (Jer. 17:8c–e). This declaration by Yahweh—that the promises of Psalm 1 are emphatically true—offers a rebuttal to the first of Jeremiah’s “Confessions” in Jeremiah 12 and its protest that Psalm 1 has proven false in his own experience:

    Why does the way of the wicked prosper?

    Why do all who are treacherous thrive?

    You plant them, and they take root;

    they grow and produce fruit;

    you are near in their mouth

    and far from their heart. (12:1–2)

Due to his persecution by the men of Anathoth, the prophet had complained that it is the wicked who appear to prosper while the righteous perish (cf. Ps. 1:4–6). Yahweh’s words in Jeremiah 17:7–8 are intended as both rebuke and reassurance for Jeremiah.

17:9–11 These verses turn to more of Israel’s wisdom and psalmic tradition in teaching about the wiles of the human heart (vv. 9–10) and the folly of injustice (v. 11). In a subtle dig at Israel’s ancestor and his equally crooked descendants, Yahweh states, “The heart is deceitful [ʿaqov] above all things, and desperately sick” (17:9). The name “Jacob” (yaʿaqov) derives from the same root as the term “deceitful,” thereby reminding Jeremiah’s hearers of their solidarity with a dishonest patriarch (Jer. 9:4; cf. Gen. 27:36; Hos. 12:2–4).

The wretchedness of the “heart” (Jer. 17:9) refers to self-deception at the seat of a person’s inner being, including the faculties of both thinking and feeling. Such deep-seated corruption means that the rhetorical question “Who can understand it?” (17:9) demands “Nobody!” for an answer. At the same time, Yahweh asserts that, as in Psalm 139, he uniquely can “search” and “test” (Jer. 17:10; the same Hb. verbs are found in Ps. 139:23) the inner person for the sake of rendering fair judgments. No matter how hidden one’s sins are, or even unaware of them a sinner may be, the vision of an all-seeing God cannot be thwarted.

In a similar creational vein, the agricultural image of sowing and reaping (v. 10c–d) leads to an avian image to portray the futility of injustice (v. 11). Those who attempt to gain wealth by oppressing and exploiting others, of which Jeremiah has already accused Judah’s people (9:6) and will later predicate of kings (22:17), will backfire like a bird that attempts to enlarge its nest by taking eggs from other birds but will not see them hatch. Illicit gain not only will fail to enrich the unjust individual but will ultimately expose him or her as a “fool” (17:11)—the kind of ignorant and arrogant person whom OT wisdom literature describes as his or her own worst enemy (e.g., Prov. 10:8; 12:15; 26:12).

17:12–13 The passage now shifts to the speech of an unnamed leader of worship in Judah. Yahweh receives praise for setting his royal presence among his people (Jer. 17:12) and for being a just God who withholds his blessings from those who forsake him (v. 13). The speaker must be someone from Judah, as Yahweh’s temple in Jerusalem is described as the “place of our sanctuary” (v. 12) and Yahweh himself is addressed in the second person (v. 13). The affirmation that Yahweh is the “fountain of living water” is a faithful response from the Judean community to Yahweh’s teaching that the fool will be parched like a desert (cf. v. 6), while the wise will be nourished like a green tree (cf. v. 8).

In an interesting reversal of roles, it is unlikely that this speaker is Jeremiah. The confident statement (“All who forsake you shall be put to shame”; v. 13) is difficult to reconcile with the prophet’s plea to Yahweh a few verses later (“Let those be put to shame who persecute me, but let me not be put to shame”; v. 18). It is true that those who sin will ultimately suffer the consequences of forsaking Yahweh (cf. v. 11), but Jeremiah’s frustrated prayer of the following verses exemplifies how divine justice can often feel slow in coming. Here and elsewhere, the canonical book of Jeremiah juxtaposes the voices of praise and protest to illustrate that the life of faith retains both without contradiction.

17:14–18 The prophet begins his plea for vindication with a daring request: “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed” (v. 14). Divine help is needed to overturn the earlier diagnosis that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (v. 9). This description of the human predicament as “desperately sick” (Hb. ʾanush) had referred to a permanent medical condition. So even as the prophet acknowledges that he shares the spiritual malaise of his people, he seeks to rise above it through personal transformation (v. 14a) and deliverance from the persecution that has come by their hands (v. 14b). In addressing his God reverently as “my praise,” Jeremiah stands against a people who have become enemies of both him and Yahweh, as described in the following verses (vv. 15–18).

The irreverence of Jeremiah’s enemies becomes evident in their challenge to him: “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come!” (v. 15). This taunt likely denotes Jeremiah’s tendency to prophesy disaster, in contrast to false prophets who predict peace instead (cf. 4:10; 6:14; 14:13; 23:16–17). The problem at hand is not that Jeremiah is failing to speak in Yahweh’s name but that his message of judgment has been relegated to a minority voice. Too many prophets claim to speak for Yahweh and have confused the people about the identity of his true messenger (e.g., ch. 28).

Though Jeremiah’s enemies thus slander him, he comes to Yahweh rather than against them for his vindication. In 17:16 he presents three facts about his prophetic ministry that prove his faithfulness: (1) He has not been negligent in his leadership as a “shepherd” of Judah (cf. 23:1–3). (2) He has hardly enjoyed the task of proclaiming the “day of sickness” but has nonetheless announced this arrival of divine wrath. (3) The integrity of his words is evident before an all-knowing God. As convinced as he is of the rightness of his message, Jeremiah still seeks assurance from God that he will be treated differently than those who are being punished for their sins. Jeremiah asks that his experience of Yahweh in the judgment to come be not as a “terror” to him but as his “refuge in the day of disaster” (17:17).

Turning back to his enemies in the present, Jeremiah longs for his vindication to be public, just as his reproach has been. Much like the supplicant in lament psalms, Jeremiah has been reproached in the community and pleads for “shame” and “dismay” (v. 18) to be turned back upon his mocking opponents (e.g., Pss. 25:2–3; 35:4; 71:1). “Shame” and “dismay” in Israel’s traditional culture refer more to the communal issue of an unjustly damaged reputation (in this case Jeremiah’s honor being entwined with Yahweh’s) than to an individual’s emotions or psychological state. The fact that Yahweh’s honor has itself come under threat when people attack his authorized representative explains why Jeremiah asks that the opponents be decisively repaid on the “day of disaster” with “double destruction” (Jer. 17:18).

17:19–20 Here begins the second instance of the book in which Jeremiah is directed to confront his people at various gates in Jerusalem, the Temple Sermon (ch. 7) and its parallel narrative (ch. 26) being the first. In the present episode Yahweh commands his prophet to station himself at the thresholds of the “People’s Gate” used by Judah’s kings and of other gates used by Jerusalem’s populace (17:19). The mention of different gates suggests that Jeremiah’s ministry is repeated and itinerant in nature, giving him opportunity to confront all his people with the words of Yahweh (v. 20). Prophets in the ancient Near East were typically commissioned by the gods to speak directly to kings, which makes it striking that everyone must hear Yahweh’s words through Jeremiah. Moreover, he will address the people about the Sabbath, a feature of Israel’s life also unique in the ancient Near East.61

17:21–23 The content of the divine word through Jeremiah is the familiar command to keep the Sabbath and not do any work on this consecrated day (vv. 21–22; cf. Ex. 20:8–11; Deut. 5:12–15). This injunction was first given to Israel’s ancestors but was not kept by them (Jer. 17:23). The Sabbath should have been a centerpiece of the countercultural community Israel became in exiting their Egyptian “bondage,” where all they had known was incessant “work” (these Hb. terms in Ex. 20:2, 9 come from the same verbal root ʿabad). But this privileged people rejected Yahweh’s gift of rest and instead responded like Pharaoh in refusing to listen (cf. Ps. 95:8–11).

17:24–27 Jeremiah’s generation nevertheless has a final chance to turn back a history that has proven more restless than restful. These verses are structured using the classic if-then alternating pattern of Deuteronomic covenant theology (e.g., Deut. 8:19; 11:13–17; 30:17–18). If Jeremiah’s hearers will keep the Sabbath and do no more work on it (Jer. 17:24), then they and their kings shall continue to enter an eternally secure Jerusalem by the gates at which the prophet is standing (v. 25) and bring offerings of all kinds to Yahweh (v. 26). But if they refuse, then the city will be destroyed when Yahweh burns it with a “fire” that cannot be extinguished (v. 27). The mention of fire links this passage with Yahweh’s earlier verdict that Jerusalem will definitely be burned by “fire” (v. 4). These passages need not be contradictory, for it is true both that Judah has a genuine opportunity from Yahweh to avoid judgment but also that its historical pattern of stubbornness has made judgment a practical certainty for some time.