The big picture
The warnings to Judah, the southern kingdom, now describe sin as a mark cut deep into the heart. Even children remember the places of false worship. God contrasts trust in human strength with trust in him, using plants in dry and watered ground. Jeremiah, his prophet, then pleads for healing while opponents mock his words. A final command sends him to the gates of Jerusalem, the capital. There he must tell rulers and residents to honour the sabbath, the weekly day set apart for God.
In this chapter
- Sin Is Cut Deep Into the Heart Jeremiah 17:1-4
Judah's sin is described as writing made with an iron tool and a diamond point.
- Trust Determines Where a Life Takes Root Jeremiah 17:5-8
The Lord pronounces a curse on those who rely on human strength while turning their hearts away from him.
- Hidden Motives Are Open to God Jeremiah 17:9-11
The heart is described as deeply deceitful and sick with evil.
- The Mocked Prophet Asks for Healing Jeremiah 17:12-18
Jeremiah honours the Lord as the hope of Israel, God's covenant people, and the source of living water.
- The Gates Must Honour the Sabbath Jeremiah 17:19-27
At the city gates, Jeremiah must address both kings and residents.
Central truth
The Lord searches hidden hearts and sets before his people the lasting consequences of misplaced trust and refusal to hear.
Scripture beside the summary
Jeremiah · King James Version · 27Jeremiah 17:1-4
Sin Is Cut Deep Into the Heart
Judah's sin is described as writing made with an iron tool and a diamond point. It is cut into hearts and altar horns, the projections on corners of worship altars. Children remember the false worship beside trees and on hills. The warning then names the cost: wealth and treasures will be seized, along with the high places used for sin. The people will lose the inheritance God gave them and serve enemies in an unknown land. Their conduct has kindled his anger like a fire that will not end.
In everyday life
A stone engraver runs her thumb over letters cut deep into an old boundary marker. Years of rain have not erased them, and children still learn the disputed claim from the stone. Washing its surface changes nothing. Jeremiah describes sin fixed in hearts and worship, while the engraver examines a mark made in rock.
Notice
Jeremiah 17:1 Iron and diamond make the writing seem hard to erase. The image says the guilt has become deeply lodged, rather than remaining a surface stain.
Jeremiah 17:1-4
King James Version1The 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;
2Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.
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.
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.
Jeremiah 17:5-8
Trust Determines Where a Life Takes Root
The Lord pronounces a curse on those who rely on human strength while turning their hearts away from him. They are like a scrub plant in barren, salty ground, unable to benefit when good comes. Those who trust him are blessed. They resemble a tree beside water whose roots reach the stream. Heat still comes, and drought still has a season. Yet the leaves remain green, and fruit continues to grow. The contrast is about the source sustaining a life, not a promise that the trusted person never meets hardship.
In everyday life
The fruit grower checks two trees during a dry spell. One has roots reaching a steady channel; the other stands in poor dry soil. The same heat falls on both, but only one keeps firm leaves and fruit. Jeremiah compares trust in God with trust that abandons him, not skill in choosing planting sites.
Notice
Jeremiah 17:8 The rooted tree still faces heat and a year of drought. Its blessing is continued life and fruit through those conditions, rather than their complete absence.
Jeremiah 17:5-8
King James Version5Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
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.
7Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
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.
Jeremiah 17:9-11
Hidden Motives Are Open to God
The heart is described as deeply deceitful and sick with evil. Who can know it? God answers that he searches inward thoughts and tests hidden motives. He gives each person a return that fits their conduct and its fruit. Wealth gained wrongly provides one example. It is likened to a partridge sitting on eggs without hatching them. The gain will leave its holder before life is over, exposing folly at the end. What feels secure in a person's own reckoning remains open to God's search and judgement.
In everyday life
A payroll clerk spots money diverted through entries their maker assumed no one would check. The account holder has treated the growing balance as proof of success. Now the entries reveal how it was gained. God searches the heart as well as conduct; the clerk can examine only the records available.
Notice
Jeremiah 17:10 God answers the question about knowing the heart by naming his own search. Hidden motives do not place human conduct outside his judgement.
Jeremiah 17:9-11
King James Version9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
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.
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.
Jeremiah 17:12-18
The Mocked Prophet Asks for Healing
Jeremiah honours the Lord as the hope of Israel, God's covenant people, and the source of living water. Those who abandon him will be shamed. The prophet asks for healing and rescue that only God can give. His critics demand that the threatened word arrive now. He says he has not deserted his calling or desired the dreadful day he announces. God knows what he has spoken. He asks that God remain his refuge, then calls for his persecutors to suffer terror and doubled destruction rather than for shame to fall on him.
In everyday life
A flood-warning volunteer listens as neighbours mock a forecast because their street is still dry. He checks the report again, hoping the danger never reaches their homes despite wanting his warning taken seriously. Their taunts leave him shaken. Jeremiah also asks God to destroy his persecutors, which the volunteer's concern does not parallel.
Notice
Jeremiah 17:16 The dreadful day is not something Jeremiah has wished to see. His role in announcing disaster does not mean he takes pleasure in the suffering it threatens.
Jeremiah 17:12-18
King James Version12A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
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.
14Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
15Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.
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.
17Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil.
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.
Jeremiah 17:19-27
The Gates Must Honour the Sabbath
At the city gates, Jeremiah must address both kings and residents. He must tell them to stop carrying loads and doing work on the sabbath. Their ancestors refused this command and would not be taught. If the people now listen, kings in the line of David, an earlier ruler, will continue entering the city. Worshippers will bring offerings from all parts of the land. The city will endure. If they keep bringing burdens through the gates, God will kindle a fire there that consumes the palaces and cannot be put out.
In everyday life
The delivery foreman stands at a depot entrance on a required rest day and sends loaded vans back to their bays. The rule changes what actually passes through the gate, not only what a notice says. Workers can see whether he observes it. The sabbath binds this city to God, who promises its future or judges its refusal.
Notice
Jeremiah 17:24 The command is tested at the gates where loads pass. Honouring the day has a visible effect on daily trade and work, rather than remaining a private claim.
Jeremiah 17:19-27
King James Version19Thus 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;
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:
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;
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 obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.
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 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.
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.
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.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Jeremiah 17:1 begins with “The 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…”
Where the chapter turns
Jeremiah 17:15 forms a natural hinge: “Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.”
The final note
Jeremiah 17:27 leaves the reader with “But 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…”
A word trail through the chapter
The words LORD, gates, Jerusalem, sabbath, Judah, burden help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- heath
- A shrub of dry ground, used to picture a barren life.
- careful
- Anxious or worried, here about the effects of drought.
- hallow
- Treat as holy and set apart for God.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
