Jeremiah 17 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 The sin of Judah is inscribed with an iron stylus, engraved with an adamant point, on their minds and on corners of their altars where they worship.
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.
2 Even their children remember to worship at their pagan altars and Asherah poles, set up by the green trees and on the high hills,
2 Even their children remember their altars and their Asherah poles by the green trees on the high hills.
3 on my mountain in the fields. I will hand over your wealth and all your valuable possessions as plunder, because of the sin committed on your pagan high places inside your country.
3 My 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.
4 You will have to give up the land I gave you. I will have your enemies make you their slaves in an unfamiliar country for you made my anger blaze, and it will burn forever.
4 You, 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.”
5 This is what the Lord says: Cursed are those who put their confidence in human beings, who trust in human strength and give up relying on the Lord.
5 Yahweh says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, relies on strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from Yahweh.
6 They will be like a shrub alone in the desert that isn't even aware when good things happen. It just goes on living in the dry desert, in a salt flat that's uninhabited.
6 For 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 are those who trust in the Lord, who put their confidence in him.
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose confidence is in Yahweh.
8 They are like trees planted by water, sending out roots toward the stream. They don't panic when it gets hot; their leaves are always green. They don't worry during a time of drought—they go on producing fruit.
8 For 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.
9 The mind is more deceptive than anything else—it's incurably sick! Who can possibly understand it?
9 The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
10 But I, the Lord, see what people are thinking. I examine their minds, so I can reward them depending on their attitudes and the way they behave.
10 “I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
11 Like a partridge hatching eggs it didn't lay is someone who makes a fortune by cheating others. Their riches will fly away at midday, and in the end they'll look like a fool.
11 As 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.
12 Our Temple is a throne of glory, raised up high from the beginning.
12 A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
13 Lord, you are Israel's hope. Anyone who deserts you will be disgraced. Anyone who turns their back on you will vanish like names written in the dust, for they have abandoned the Lord, the source of living water.
13 Yahweh, 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 Yahweh, the spring of living waters.
14 Please heal me, Lord, and I'll be healed; save me, and I'll be saved, for you are the one I praise.
14 Heal me, O Yahweh, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved; for you are my praise.
15 See how they keep on saying to me, “Where is the disaster that the Lord's predicted? Is it ever going to happen?”
15 Behold, they ask me, “Where is Yahweh’s word? Let it be fulfilled now.”
16 But I haven't been in a hurry to give up being your shepherd. I haven't wanted the time of trouble to come. You know that whatever I said was said in front of you.
16 As 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.
17 Please don't be the one who terrifies me! You are my protection in the time of trouble.
17 Don’t be a terror to me. You are my refuge in the day of evil.
18 Bring shame on my persecutors, but not on me. Terrify them, but not me, Let them experience the time of trouble, and smash them to pieces.
18 Let 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.
19 This is what the Lord told me: Go and stand at the main gate of the city, the one used by kings of Judah, and do the same at all the other gates of Jerusalem.
19 Yahweh 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.
20 Tell them, Listen to the Lord's message, kings of Judah, and all you people of Judah and Jerusalem who come in through these gates.
20 Tell them, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word, you kings of Judah, all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:
21 This is what the Lord says: Pay attention, if you value your lives! Don't carry a load on the Sabbath day, and don't bring it through the gates of Jerusalem.
21 Yahweh says, “Be careful, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.
22 Don't carry a load out of your houses, and don't do any work on the Sabbath day. Keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I ordered your forefathers.
22 Don’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.
23 However, they refused to listen or pay attention. Instead they were stubborn and refused to obey or accept instruction.
23 But 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.
24 Listen carefully to me, says the Lord, and don't bring any load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, and keep the Sabbath day holy, and don't do any work on it.
24 It will happen, if you diligently listen to me,” says Yahweh, “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;
25 Then kings and princes will enter through the gates of this city. They will sit on the throne of David. They will ride in chariots and on horses with their officials, accompanied by the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever.
25 then 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.
26 People will come from the towns of Judah and everywhere around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowlands the hill country, and the Negev. They will bring burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and thank offerings to the Lord's Temple.
26 They 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 Yahweh’s house.
27 But if you refuse to listen to me and keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying a load while entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will set its gates alight with a fire that can't be put out, and it will burn down Jerusalem's fortresses.
27 But 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.”’”
Cross references (27)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Proverbs 3:3; 2 Corinthians 3:3; Proverbs 7:3; Leviticus 4:25; Job 19:23–24
- 2 2 Chronicles 24:18; Jeremiah 2:20; Judges 3:7; 2 Chronicles 33:3; Isaiah 17:8
- 3 Jeremiah 15:13; Jeremiah 26:18; 2 Kings 24:13; Isaiah 39:4–6; Ezekiel 6:3
- 4 Jeremiah 15:14; Lamentations 5:2; Isaiah 5:25; Jeremiah 7:20; Mark 9:43–49
- 5 Psalm 118:8–9; Psalm 146:3–4; Isaiah 2:22; 2 Chronicles 32:8; Isaiah 31:1–9
- 6 Job 20:17; Psalm 1:4; Deuteronomy 29:23; Job 39:6; Jeremiah 48:6
- 7 Isaiah 26:3–4; Psalm 34:8; Psalm 40:4; Psalm 125:1; Isaiah 30:18
- 8 Psalm 1:3; Isaiah 58:11; Ezekiel 47:12; Ezekiel 31:4–10; Psalm 92:10–15
- 9 Mark 7:21–22; Matthew 15:19; Ecclesiastes 9:3; Proverbs 28:26; Hebrews 3:12
- 10 1 Samuel 16:7; Romans 8:27; Jeremiah 11:20; Revelation 2:23; Hebrews 4:12–13
- 11 Proverbs 28:20; Proverbs 21:6; Jeremiah 22:17; Jeremiah 22:13; Proverbs 15:27
- 12 Psalm 96:6; Jeremiah 3:17; Ezekiel 43:7; Ezekiel 1:26; Jeremiah 14:21
- 13 Revelation 7:17; John 4:14; John 7:37–38; John 4:10; Revelation 22:1
- 14 Psalm 6:2; Deuteronomy 32:39; Psalm 106:47; Psalm 6:4; Luke 4:18
- 15 Isaiah 5:19; Ezekiel 12:22; Jeremiah 20:7–8; Ezekiel 12:27–28; Amos 5:18
- 16 Acts 20:27; Jeremiah 4:19–20; Acts 20:20; Romans 9:1–3; Ezekiel 33:7–9
- 17 Nahum 1:7; Jeremiah 16:19; Psalm 59:16; Psalm 88:15–16; Job 31:23
- 18 Psalm 35:4; Psalm 40:14; Psalm 25:2–3; Psalm 83:17–18; Jeremiah 20:11
- 19 Jeremiah 7:2; Jeremiah 26:2; Acts 5:20; Jeremiah 36:10; Jeremiah 36:6
- 20 Jeremiah 19:3; Jeremiah 22:2; Ezekiel 2:7; Psalm 49:1–2; Micah 3:1
- 21 Nehemiah 13:15–21; Numbers 15:32–36; John 5:9–12; Deuteronomy 4:15; Deuteronomy 4:9
- 22 Ezekiel 20:12; Exodus 20:8–10; Isaiah 56:2–6; Isaiah 58:13; Deuteronomy 5:12–15
- 23 Proverbs 29:1; Acts 7:51; Jeremiah 19:15; Jeremiah 11:10; Jeremiah 7:24–26
- 24 Deuteronomy 11:13; Jeremiah 17:21–22; 2 Peter 1:5–10; Exodus 15:26; Isaiah 21:7
- 25 Jeremiah 22:4; Isaiah 9:7; Jeremiah 33:15; Jeremiah 33:17; Jeremiah 33:21
- 26 Jeremiah 32:44; Jeremiah 33:13; Zechariah 7:7; Psalm 107:22; Psalm 116:17
- 27 2 Kings 25:9; Jeremiah 7:20; Jeremiah 21:14; Ezekiel 22:8; Amos 1:14
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… Christ above, who extended himself through Horos, and imparted a form to their mother; or is it He who is from the Virgin, Emmanuel, who did eat butter and honey, of whom the prophet declared, "He is also a man, and who shall know him?" He was likewise preached by Paul: "For I delivered," he says, "unto you first of …
… called his name Enos, which means man," and "He hoped to call on the name of the Lord God," are sufficient proof that man ought not to rest his hopes in himself; as it is elsewhere written, "Cursed is the man that trusteth in man." Consequently no one ought to trust in himself that he shall become a citizen of …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
… to know men's secrets, hear what saith the prophet, "Thou most entirely alone knowest the hearts;" and again, "God trieth the hearts and reins; " and Jeremiah too saith, "The heart is deep above all things, and it is man, and who shall know him?" and, "Man shall look on the face, but God on the heart." And by many …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… lying images, wherein there is no profit." But that the Jews, by whom He behoved even to be slain, were not going to acknowledge Him, this prophet thus intimates: "Heavy is the heart through all; and He is a man, and who shall know Him?" That passage also is his which I have quoted in the seventeenth book concerning the …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
For inasmuch as they continually disbelieved the prophets, and used to say, "Where is the day of the Lord:" and "let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it," by reason that it was many years before what they said came to pass; to lead them off from this encouragement also, he sets the …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)