Jeremiah 17

Two Trees and a Gate

Judah's sin is cut into its heart and its altars, and the Lord sets two men side by side, one trusting flesh and one trusting Him, before a prayer from the prophet and a test at the city gates.

No date is given in the chapter; the Bible Dictionary places chapters 7–20 under Jehoiakim (608–597 B.C.) Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Jeremiah 17 has no heading verse saying when or to whom it was spoken.

Jeremiah 17 has no heading verse saying when or to whom it was spoken. The Bible Dictionary files chapters 7–20 under the reign of Jehoiakim (608–597 B.C.), and the Church's chapter heading sums it up: “The captivity of Judah comes because of sin and forsaking the Lord—Hallow the Sabbath day; doing so will save the people; otherwise they will be destroyed.”

The chapter moves in three steps. Verses 1–4 give the charge: idolatry, and the exile that follows. Verses 5–18 are a run of sayings about trust, riches, and the heart, which turns into the prophet's own prayer while people mock him. Verses 19–27 are a different kind of passage: the Lord sends Jeremiah to stand at the city gates and tell the whole city to keep the Sabbath.

Verses 3–4 repeat much of Jer. 15:13–14, so a reader coming from chapter 15 has heard part of this before. Chapter 15 also holds an earlier exchange between Jeremiah and the Lord about persecution, and the prayer in verses 14–18 here is a second one. The chapter that follows, Jer. 18, is the potter's house.

The thread through the chapter

Jeremiah 17 asks where Judah has put its trust, and what is written on it.

Jeremiah 17 asks where Judah has put its trust, and what is written on it. The chapter begins with sin “graven upon the table of their heart” (verse 1) and ends with fire kindled in the city gates (verse 27); in between, the Lord describes the two ways a person can stand. One trusts “in man” and makes “flesh his arm,” and lives like a plant in salt land (verses 5–6). The other trusts “in the LORD,” and is a tree by a river that stays green in drought (verses 7–8).

The middle of the chapter tests those two pictures. The heart cannot be trusted to know itself, but the Lord searches it (verses 9–10). Wealth gotten dishonestly does not stay (verse 11). Those who forsake the Lord are written where writing does not last, and the Lord is “the fountain of living waters” (verse 13). Jeremiah then takes the test himself: he asks to be healed and saved, says he did not want the day of disaster, and is mocked because the word has not come (verses 14–18).

Last, the Lord names a concrete matter, the Sabbath, and sets a condition on Jerusalem's future: obey, and the city and its kings continue; refuse, and fire (verses 24–27). The chapter's heading calls it the way to be saved. Later in the book the image of writing on the heart comes back the other way: the Lord promises to write His law there (Jer. 31:33).

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–4

The sin cut in, and the exile that follows

In plain words

Judah's sin is written with an iron pen and a diamond point on the tablet of their heart and on the horns of their altars, while their children remember their altars and their groves beside the green trees on the high hills. “O my mountain in the field,” the Lord says, “I will give your wealth and treasures to be plundered, along with your high places, for sin throughout all your borders. You yourself will let go of the inheritance I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled a fire in my anger that will burn forever.”

1 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 altars;

Imagery #

Engraved on the heart and on the altar

Judah's sin is not a passing lapse but something cut deep into the people and into their worship.

Judah's sin is not a passing lapse but something cut deep into the people and into their worship. An iron stylus was used for carving letters into hard material, and the “diamond” is the point of an engraver's tool; the metaphors show “how deeply sin was imbedded in Judah's consciousness.” The sin is “ineffaceably stamped” on the people's hearts and on their altars.

Which altars are meant is not certain. The horns of the altars in the Lord's own house were where the priest put the blood of the sin offering (Lev. 4:7), and one reading takes these to be the Lord's altars, defiled by idolatry; verse 2 speaks of altars by the green trees on the hills, which could also be in view.

The image of writing on the heart comes back later in the book with different content. Of the new covenant the Lord says, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts” (Jer. 31:33), and elsewhere, “I will give them an heart to know me” (Jer. 24:7).

Sources: Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.

Language #

Groves and green trees

The “groves” are the Hebrew asherim, which the Church edition's footnote glosses as “fertility idols.”

The “groves” are the Hebrew asherim, which the Church edition's footnote glosses as “fertility idols.” An asherah was “either a living tree or a tree-like pole, set up as an object of worship,” and the Bible Dictionary says its worship “became associated with gross immorality.” That is why it sits beside altars “by the green trees upon the high hills.”

The high places themselves were not always idolatrous. Altars to Jehovah were once built on hills, but when idolatry came in “many of these altars were desecrated and used for heathen worship,” and reformers like Hezekiah and Josiah worked to end the practice. Verse 2 describes the result: the hilltops of Judah dotted with shrines to other gods.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Grove”, Bible Dictionary. “High places”, Bible Dictionary.

3 O 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.

Related Scriptures #

Jerusalem addressed, and a threat repeated

The Lord speaks to Jerusalem itself: the “mountain in the field” is “likely a reference to Jerusalem, which is nestled in the hill country of Judea,” and the Church edition's…

The Lord speaks to Jerusalem itself: the “mountain in the field” is “likely a reference to Jerusalem, which is nestled in the hill country of Judea,” and the Church edition's footnote reads it the same way.

The threat is a repeat. Jer. 15:13–14 has nearly the same words: the people's “substance” and “treasures” given to be plundered, and the people made to pass into “a land which thou knowest not” with a fire “kindled in mine anger.” Chapter 17 puts it again at the start of a chapter about trust, and it will return in the last verse as fire in the gates (verse 27).

Sources: Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

4 And 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.

Verses 5–8

Cursed is the man, blessed is the man

In plain words

The Lord says: Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a shrub in the desert, and will not see good when it comes. He will live in the parched places of the wilderness, in a salt land where no one lives. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. He will be like a tree planted by water, spreading its roots by the river. It does not see the heat come, its leaf stays green, it is not anxious in a year of drought, and it does not stop bearing fruit.

5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

Related Scriptures #

Arm of flesh

To “make flesh his arm” is to rely on human strength as one's own strength.

To “make flesh his arm” is to rely on human strength as one's own strength. The chapter treats trust as the deciding choice: “The focus of one's trust determines whether he is cursed or blessed.”

Nephi uses nearly the same words about himself: “I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm” (2 Ne. 4:34). The Lord's own revelation for the last days warns that “man should not counsel his fellow man, neither trust in the arm of flesh” (D&C 1:19), which is the passage the Church edition's footnote gives for this verse. In Jeremiah the curse also names the cause: the man's “heart departeth from the LORD.”

6 For 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.

Language #

The heath in the desert

The “heath” is a desert plant, and the Church edition's footnote gives the Hebrew as “juniper tree” (compare Jer. 48:6).

The “heath” is a desert plant, and the Church edition's footnote gives the Hebrew as “juniper tree” (compare Jer. 48:6). It pictures Judah as “a withered tree without moisture or sustenance.”

The “salt land and not inhabited” has a known comparison in scripture: the land after the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, where “it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein” (Deut. 29:23, the footnote's cross-reference). The man who trusts in man ends in a place where nothing grows.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

8 For 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.

Imagery #

A tree planted by the waters

The blessed man is the reverse of the heath: a tree by a river, which can face heat and drought because its roots reach water.

The blessed man is the reverse of the heath: a tree by a river, which can face heat and drought because its roots reach water. The same picture is in Ps. 1:3 (“like a tree planted by the rivers of water”), and the Church edition sends the reader there and to D&C 97:9. In that revelation the Lord says He will make those who “are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice” bear fruit “as a very fruitful tree which is planted in a goodly land, by a pure stream.”

The footnote on “see” gives the Hebrew as “fear”: the tree does not fear when the heat comes. Note also what the tree does not promise. It does not say the heat or the drought will not come, only that the tree will not stop bearing fruit in them.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 9–13

The heart, riches, and the fountain

In plain words

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can know it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the inmost feelings, to give each person what his ways and the fruit of his doings deserve.” Like a partridge sitting on eggs that do not hatch, so is a man who gets riches unjustly: they leave him in the middle of his days, and in the end he is a fool. A glorious throne, high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. O Lord, hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Language #

Who can know it?

The verse is a question, and verse 10 answers it. One reading takes “deceitful” as “cunning” and “desperately wicked” as “sore wounded by sin, corrupt or depraved,” and “who can know it?” as “who can fathom its nature and corruptness?” The prophet states the heart's nature in verse 9 and then shows God as its searcher in verse 10. Because the heart deceives, a person cannot rely on its suggestions about where to put trust.

The answer is that the Lord can. He “searches the heart and tries the reins,” and the reins are “the inner self” (the Church's manual) or “the seat of the most hidden emotions and feelings.” Then He gives each “according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”

The verse does not say the heart must stay this way. The same book has the Lord promise, “I will give them an heart to know me” (Jer. 24:7), and to write His law on the heart (Jer. 31:33). The heart that cannot know itself is known, and can be changed, by Him.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

10 I 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.

11 As 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.

Imagery #

The partridge and unjust riches

A bird sitting on eggs that never hatch is a picture of wealth that never turns into anything: “those of Judah who get rich by dishonest means will leave empty-handed.”

A bird sitting on eggs that never hatch is a picture of wealth that never turns into anything: “those of Judah who get rich by dishonest means will leave empty-handed.” The verse says it in plain terms: such a man “shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.”

It follows verse 10 for a reason. If the Lord weighs a person by his ways, then wealth gotten “not by right” is part of the account. Jacob says the same of the rich who despise the poor: “their treasure is their god. And behold, their treasure shall perish with them also” (2 Ne. 9:30). The Lord says in latter-day revelation, “your riches will canker your souls” (D&C 56:16), the two verses the Church edition gives here.

12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.

13 O 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.

Witness of Christ #

The fountain of living waters

The Lord is the source of life that Judah has left, and “Jesus Christ (Jehovah in the Old Testament) is the very ‘hope of Israel,’ the ‘fountain of living waters.’

The Lord is the source of life that Judah has left, and “Jesus Christ (Jehovah in the Old Testament) is the very ‘hope of Israel,’ the ‘fountain of living waters.’ ” Earlier in the book the Lord had put the charge in two parts: “they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13).

Jesus took up the image Himself. To the Samaritan woman: “thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water” (John 4:10); and at the feast, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37). In Jeremiah 17 the title comes in a verse about those who “forsake” the Lord, the same charge as in chapter 2.

Language #

Written in the earth

Writing “in the earth” does not last. One reading takes it as writing in loose ground, “where writing speedily disappears,” the opposite of being written in the Lord's book (Ex.…

Writing “in the earth” does not last. One reading takes it as writing in loose ground, “where writing speedily disappears,” the opposite of being written in the Lord's book (Ex. 32:32; Dan. 12:1). The verse itself does not explain the image; that those who forsake the Lord will vanish and not be remembered is the sense this reading gives it.

The chapter uses the word “written” twice. In verse 1 Judah's sin is written with iron and diamond; here those who depart from the Lord are written in the earth.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.

Verses 14–18

Jeremiah's prayer

In plain words

“Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for you are my praise. See, they say to me, ‘Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come!’ But I have not run away from being a shepherd who follows you, and I did not want the day of disaster. You know what came from my lips; it was before your face. Do not become a terror to me; you are my hope in the day of evil. Let those who persecute me be put to shame, but not me. Let them be dismayed, but not me. Bring on them the day of evil and destroy them with double destruction.”

14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

Witness of Christ #

Heal me

Jeremiah answers his own teaching about trust with a prayer: he asks the Lord to heal and save him, and says “thou art my praise.”

Jeremiah answers his own teaching about trust with a prayer: he asks the Lord to heal and save him, and says “thou art my praise.” Having said in verses 5–8 where trust belongs, the prophet puts himself there.

What he asks of the Lord, the Lord offers in the Book of Mormon. When Jesus Christ speaks from the darkness over the Nephites, He asks the survivors, “will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?” (3 Ne. 9:13), and the speaker identifies Himself: “Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God” (3 Ne. 9:15). The Church edition's footnote on “Heal” points to that passage.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

15 Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.

Context #

Where is the word of the LORD?

The people mock Jeremiah because the disaster he announced has not happened.

The people mock Jeremiah because the disaster he announced has not happened. “So long as his announcements were not fulfilled,” his enemies could treat him as a false prophet by the law's own test (Deut. 18:22). For the same reason one reading dates this discourse before the first Chaldean invasion of Judah.

The word they demand is the one the Lord had promised at Jeremiah's call: “I will hasten my word to perform it” (Jer. 1:12).

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

16 As 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.

Language #

Not hastened from being a pastor

“Pastor” here is the old English word for shepherd, and the verse points to the Shepherd Jeremiah follows: “Jesus is the Good Shepherd, a Pastor to those who follow Him.”

“Pastor” here is the old English word for shepherd, and the verse points to the Shepherd Jeremiah follows: “Jesus is the Good Shepherd, a Pastor to those who follow Him.” Jeremiah says he has not left that following. Prophets shepherd too: one reading renders the line “I have not withdrawn myself from following after Thee as a shepherd,” because “prophets, too, feed the people, if they, following the Lord as chief shepherd, declare God's word to the people.”

The rest of the verse is clearer. Jeremiah says he did not want “the woeful day.” His enemies took his warnings to mean he wished Judah's ruin, and the prophet appeals to the Lord's knowledge: “thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee.”

17 Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil.

18 Let 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.

Language #

Double destruction

This is the prayer of a prophet whose word is being mocked. One reading takes it as asking that the Lord “put his persecutors to shame and confusion by the accomplishment of the…

This is the prayer of a prophet whose word is being mocked. One reading takes it as asking that the Lord “put his persecutors to shame and confusion by the accomplishment of the calamity foretold.” The “day of evil” is the day Jeremiah has been announcing, and the prayer asks that the word come true.

“Double” has an echo in the Lord's own words: “I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double” (Jer. 16:18), the verse the Church edition gives for this phrase, so the prayer asks for what the Lord has already said He will do.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 19–27

The gate and the Sabbath

In plain words

The Lord told me: Go and stand in the gate where the kings of Judah come in and go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, and say: Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah and all Judah and everyone who enters these gates. Take heed to yourselves: do not carry a load on the Sabbath or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem, or carry one out of your houses. Do no work; keep the Sabbath holy as I commanded your fathers. But they did not listen or turn their ears; they stiffened their necks so as not to hear or take correction. If you do listen, and bring no load through the gates on the Sabbath but keep it holy, then kings and princes who sit on David's throne will come through these gates, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, and this city will remain forever. People will come from the towns of Judah, from around Jerusalem, from Benjamin, the lowland, the hills, and the south, bringing offerings and thank offerings to the house of the Lord. But if you do not listen, then I will kindle a fire in her gates, and it will burn up the palaces of Jerusalem and not be put out.

19 Thus 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;

20 And 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:

21 Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

Context #

What the burden was

What a Sabbath “burden” looked like is shown by Nehemiah, who after the exile found people in Judah “bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all…

What a Sabbath “burden” looked like is shown by Nehemiah, who after the exile found people in Judah “bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day,” and merchants selling on the day. He had the gates shut “when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath” (Neh. 13:15–19). The Bible Dictionary says Nehemiah “made the observance of the Sabbath one of the chief points of his reformation.”

Nehemiah's shut gates were the gates of the same city where Jeremiah was told to stand and speak.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Sabbath”, Bible Dictionary.

22 Neither 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.

Related Scriptures #

Hallow the sabbath

The Sabbath is old, and the Lord calls it a commandment to “your fathers.”

The Sabbath is old, and the Lord calls it a commandment to “your fathers.” The Bible Dictionary says it commemorates the seventh day of rest at the Creation (Ex. 20:10–11) and the redemption from Egypt (Deut. 5:15), and that it “is an eternal principle and would have existed from the days of Adam.”

In latter-day revelation the day is for rest and devotion: “a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High” (D&C 59:10).

Sources: “Sabbath”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

23 But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.

24 And 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;

25 Then 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.

Related Scriptures #

A promise with a condition

The promise that the city and the Davidic kings will continue depends on obedience.

The promise that the city and the Davidic kings will continue depends on obedience. Verse 24 begins “if ye diligently hearken,” and on that condition the Lord promises that “this city shall remain for ever.” The Lord makes the same conditional promise about the kings in Jer. 22:4: “if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David.”

The other half is verse 27: if they will not hear, “then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof.” This is the fire of verse 4 again, now at the gates where Jeremiah stands. At the temple the people had said “The temple of the LORD” as though the building protected them (Jer. 7:4); here the city's future is tied to what is carried through its gates.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

26 And 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.

27 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 will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 17

The chapter names the Lord as “the hope of Israel” and “the fountain of living waters” (verse 13), and both titles belong to Jesus Christ, the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Jesus uses the same image of Himself in John 4:10 and John 7:37. The Church edition links Jeremiah's prayer, “Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed,” to the voice of Jesus Christ among the Nephites: “will ye not now return unto me… that I may heal you?” (3 Ne. 9:13), with “mine arm of mercy… extended towards you” (3 Ne. 9:14). The same book that finds sin “graven upon the table of their heart” also promises a new heart (Jer. 24:7; Jer. 31:33).

Worth exploring next

The earlier exchange. Read Jer. 15:10–21 beside verses 14–18.
The temple sermon. Read Jer. 7:1–15 for the people who trusted in the temple.
The new heart. Read Jer. 31:31–34 and Jer. 24:7.
Nephi on trust. Read 2 Ne. 4:34–35.
The Sabbath after the exile. Read Neh. 13:15–22 and D&C 59:9–13.
Where trust is rewarded. Compare Ps. 1:1–3 and D&C 97:8–9.

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

2 Ne. 4:34 — Nephi speaks nearly the same words about cursed trust in man and the arm of flesh.
D&C 1:19 — The Lord warns that man should not trust in the arm of flesh.
Ps. 1:3 — The righteous man as a tree planted by rivers of water.
D&C 97:8–9 — The covenant-keeper as a fruitful tree by a pure stream.
3 Ne. 9:13–15 — Jesus Christ offers to heal those who return to Him.

Sources & further reading

“Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.
“Grove”, Bible Dictionary.
“High places”, Bible Dictionary.
“Gate”, Bible Dictionary.
“Sabbath”, Bible Dictionary.

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