Jeremiah 17:14

JEREMIAH'S THIRD PERSONAL LAMENT

"Heal me, O Jehovah, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise. Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of Jehovah? let it come now. As for me, I have not hastened from being a shepherd after thee; neither have I desired the woeful days; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was before thy face. Be not a terror unto me; thou art my refuge in the day of evil. Let them be put to shame that persecute me, but let not me be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed; bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction."

Scholars have been unable to date this lament;[22] but, as we have frequently noted, the exact date of various chapters in this prophecy, or in any other, is of little or no importance. The only clue to a date in the whole passage is in Jeremiah 17:15, where, the people taunted Jeremiah because none of his prophecies had come to pass. This means that the passage had to be written before the Babylonian invasion, the capture of Jerusalem, or the captivity.

"The sense of the paragraph seems to be that Jeremiah was not going to abandon his prophetic ministry simply because he had been disbelieved and persecuted. Instead, he prayed for grace to withstand opposition until the truth would be manifested, at which time all would see that it was God's Word, and not his own, that he had been faithfully proclaiming."[23]

"I have not hastened from being a shepherd after thee ..." (Jeremiah 17:16). This was merely Jeremiah's way of saying, "I have not abandoned the mission you have given me."[24]

"Destroy them with double destruction ..." (Jeremiah 17:18). This expression is often found in scripture, as in Jeremiah 16:18, above, and in Revelation 18:6; but the idiom never means "more than the sinner deserves." On the other hand, as Cheyne noted, "It means amply sufficient."[25]