Jeremiah 17:1

JEREMIAH 17

JUDAH'S DESTRUCTION INEVITABLE

From Jeremiah 17:15 it is clear that this chapter was written prior to the Babylonian conquest. "Attempts have been made to date the chapter, but they are generally unsatisfactory, because of the lack of chronological data."[1]

No pattern of any kind appears in the chapter; and it seems to be a collection of various important declarations of this great prophet. Kuist noted that, "It contains a variety of examples of prophetic preaching, namely, an indictment of Judah's guilt (Jeremiah 17:1-4), a psalm (Jeremiah 17:5-8), two proverbs (Jeremiah 17:9,10 and Jeremiah 17:11), an invocation (Jeremiah 17:12-13), a prayer (Jeremiah 17:14-18), and a sabbath proclamation (Jeremiah 17:19-27)."[2]

The prayer (Jeremiah 17:14-18) is also identified by many writers as "Jeremiah's Third Personal Lament." This distinction is not noted in the chapter headings of the KJV; but, aside from that, the following chapter divisions are noted: (1) Judah's destruction due to sin (Jeremiah 17:1-4), (2) trusting in men is cursed (Jeremiah 17:5-8), (3) the deceitful heart unable to deceive God (Jeremiah 17:9-11), (4) the salvation of God (Jeremiah 17:12-13), (5) Jeremiah's third personal lament (Jeremiah 17:14-18), (6) regarding sabbath observance (Jeremiah 17:19-23), (7) continued violation of God's law ends in terminal punishment (Jeremiah 17:24-27).

Jeremiah 17:1-4

"The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the tablet of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars; whilst their children remember their altars and their Asherim by the green trees upon the high hills. O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures for a spoil, and the high places, because of sin throughout all thy borders. And thou, even of thyself, shalt discontinue from thy heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause them to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in my anger which shall burn forever."

There are imperfections in the Hebrew text here which have made it difficult for scholars to determine the exact translation; but the broad thrust of the passage is clear enough.

"Pen of iron ... point of a diamond ..." (Jeremiah 17:1). There are two things stressed here, (1) the permanence of the record of sin, and (2) the hardness of the heart of the people, the implication being that only a diamond-pointed stylus would be able to inscribe anything on the hearts of the Israelites!

"What is thus engraved upon the heart, though covered and closed for a time, can never be erased, but will be produced in evidence when the books are opened."[3]

"Your altars ... their altars ..." (Jeremiah 17:1-2). There is uncertainty regarding which altars are meant by the first of these expressions. Some prefer to view them as the same as the pagan altars mentioned next; but Keil and Cheyne both pointed out that there were two altars in the temple and construed the first reference as pertaining to the true altars.

The broad meaning of the whole passage is clear enough. Back in Jeremiah 16:10, the people demanded to know, "What is our iniquity, and what is our sin?" God answered their query there; but he did so again here. He indicted them with a charge of their heartless apostasy and proved it, pointing out that they had no excuse, and that, "They could plead no extenuating circumstances of their crime that could either arrest the judgment or result in the mitigation of the deserved punishment."[4]

"Their children remember ... their Asherim ..." (Jeremiah 17:2). "These were wooden pillars, or monuments, set up in honor of Ashteroth, or Astarte."[5] Not much is known of these objects; but it is believed that many of them, at least, were phallic symbols. This writer saw more than a hundred of these in all sizes up to eight or ten feet tall in Japan in 1952. Such devices were used in the cultic worship of the fertility gods and goddesses of ancient Canaan, a pagan practice to which the Jews proved to be quite vulnerable.

It should be remembered that the sacred text here is damaged and that some questions remain about exact translations. As Thompson said, "It seems clear that we have here a reference to the prevalence of Canaanite worship with its altars, sacred poles, and other paraphernalia of the cult, a clear rejection of the sole sovereignty of God."[6]

"Jeremiah 17:2-3 are difficult and can be rendered metrically (that is, as poetry) only by forcing."[7] This is a good place to observe that much of the "poetry" in some renditions of Old Testament books is obtained in the same manner. Also, there is the dictum of some of the critics that Jeremiah could not have written both prose and poetry, resulting in their denial of one or the other as authentic Jeremiahic prophecies. To be sure, there is no sense at all in such a dictum. The application of such a foolish rule would deny that Sir Walter Scott wrote The Lay of the Last Minstrel, or The Lady of the Lake, since he was also the author of Rob Roy, and The Talisman, being also the greatest prose writer of a thousand years!

"O my mountain in the field ..." (Jeremiah 17:3) "This is a reference to Jerusalem; and `the field' signifies the surrounding country."[8]

"Thy substance and all thy treasures for a spoil ..." (Jeremiah 17:3). Again on Jeremiah 17:3-4 the scholars warn of an impaired text; but it is a mistake to make too much of it. "Despite specific problems, the overall idea is that sinfulness would cost Judah their wealth, their homeland, and their freedom."[9]

"Thou shalt discontinue from the heritage that I gave thee ..." (Jeremiah 17:4). Barnes tells us that the verb `discontinue' as used here, "Is the term for letting the land rest (Exodus 23:11), and of releasing creditors (Deuteronomy 15:2) in the sabbatical year."[10] The same author noted that:

As Judah had not kept those sabbatical years which God commanded, during her captivity, she would be forced to leave off tillage of the ground until the land had had its rest.

"Thou, even of thyself, shall discontinue ..." (Jeremiah 17:4). "The meaning of the expression `even of thyself' may mean `through thyself,' that is, `through your own fault.' "[11]