jeremiah 17 and 18

Read Jeremiah 17 and 18 at Bible Gateway.

Hebrew paragraph divisions:

Jer 17:1-4 {s} The sin of Judah engraved / they shall let go their inheritance + serve their enemies in a foreign land
Jer 17:5-6 {s} Cursed is the man who trusts in flesh, whose heart departs from YHVH/ he shall not see good
Jer 17:7-10 {s} Blessed is the man who trusts in YHVH, whose hope is in Him/ he shall flourish as a green tree
Jer 17:11-13 {p} Fleet + foolish are ill gotten riches/ ashamed are those who forsake YHVH, fountain of living water
Jer 17:14-18 {s} Jeremiah’s prayer: Heal + save me, You are my hope in the day of doom, do not let me be dismayed
Jer 17:19-27 {p} Proclaim in the gates of Jerusalem: hallow the Sabbath day + endure/ but if not + devouring fire
Jer 18:1-4 {s} The object lesson of the potter and the vessel which becomes marred under his hand
Jer 18:5-6 {s} Can I not do as the potter? For as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O Israel!
Jer 18:7-8 {s} If I speak disaster against a nation, and they repent of evil, I will also relent of the disaster
Jer 18:9-10 {s} If I speak good concerning a nation, and they do evil, I will also relent of the good
Jer 18:11-12 {p} YHVH to Judah + Jerusalem: Disaster is coming, therefore turn from evil/ It is hopeless
Jer 18:13-17 {s} Ask among the Gentiles: who has heard this? My people have forgotten Me, therefore disaster
Jer 18:18-23 {s} Judah plots against Jeremiah/ His prayer: bring disaster upon them

Jer 16:1-17:27 chiastic structure:

1a) Jer 16:1-11 {s+s+p} Destruction is coming on this place, because they have forsaken Me + not kept My Law;

1) Jer 16:16:1-9 {s+s+p} Do not take a wife + beget children, for destruction is coming on this place;

1a) Jer 16:1-4 {s+s} Do not take a wife + beget children in this place, for they shall be consumed;
1b) Jer 16:5a, For thus says YHVH: Do not enter the house of mourning;
1c) Jer 16:5b, Nor go to lament or bemoan them;
central axis) Jer 16:5c, Says YHVH: I have taken away My peace + lovingkindness + mercies from this people;
2c) Jer 16:6-7, The great + small shall die in this land/ not be buried nor be mourned;
2b) Jer 16:8 {p} You shall not go into the house of feasting, to eat and drink;
2a) Jer 16:9, Thus says YHVH: the voice of mirth, brides + bridegrooms shall cease from this place;

2) Jer 16:10-11, It is because you have forsaken Me, and not kept My Law;

1b) Jer 16:12-13 {p} You follow your evil heart/ I will cast you out + in a foreign land you will serve other gods;

1c) Jer 16:14-16 {p} The days are coming when YHVH will bring Israel back/ fishermen shall fish for them;

central axis) Jer 16:17-18 {p} “For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes. And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols;”

2c) Jer 16:19-21 {s} YHVH my refuge, the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth, they will know Your name;

2b) Jer 17:1-13 {sx4} Judah follows her evil heart/ She will serve her enemies in a land she does not know;

1a) Jer 17:1-2, Sin of Judah written + her children remember her idols on her high hills;
1b) Jer 17:3-4, Judah’s wealth plundered/ her high places of sin given to her enemies;

1) Jer 17:3a, My mountain, I will give as plunder your wealth + treasures;
2) Jer 17:3b-4 {s} And your high places of sin within all your borders/ your heritage which I gave you;

1c) Jer 17:5-6 {s} The heart which departs from YHVH – cursed is that man + he shall not see good;
central axis) Jer 17:7-8 Blessed is the man who trusts + hopes in YHVH/ he shall not fear but be fruitful;
2c) Jer 17:9-10 {s} The deceitful heart, desperately wicked – I search hearts, test minds + he shall receive his fruit;
2b) Jer 17:11-12, Judah’s riches fleeting which are ill-gotten/ YHVH’s sanctuary a glorious high throne;

1) Jer 17:11, The riches of him who gets them deceitfully, they are fleeting + he will be shown foolish;
2) Jer 17:12, A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary;

2a) Jer 17:13 {s} Those who have forsaken Me, their fountain of living waters + they shall be written in the earth;

2a) Jer 17:14-27 {s+p} Let not destruction come upon me/ keep My Sabbath, and it will not;

1) Jer 17:14-18 {s} Save me in the day of doom, but on my persecutors bring double destruction;
2) Jer 17:19-27 {p} Keep My Sabbath, that I may prosper you/ but if not, an unquenchable fire;

1a.1) Jer 17:19-20, Stand in the gate of YHVH’s house + Jerusalem, by which the kings + princes of Judah enter;
1a.2) Jer 17:21a, Thus says YHVH: Take heed to yourselves;
1a.3) Jer 17:21b-22, Bear no burden on the Sabbath, nor do work, but hallow the Sabbath day;
central axis) Jer 17:23, They did not obey but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear + receive instruction;
2a.2) Jer 17:24a + 27a, If you heed Me carefully says YHVH/ If you will not heed Me;
2a.3) Jer 17:24b +27b, To bring no burden but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it;
2a.1) Jer 17:25-26 + 27b {p} Then kings + princes of David shall enter these gates/then unquenchable fire kindled.

Please note that evil befell the people of YHVH – not atheists and unbelievers – because they forsook His Torah and did not keep His Sabbath! Let Your people today repent, all who have not obeyed You, Father!

But notice the C pair: The days are coming when YHVH will bring His people back to their land, so much so, that it will no longer be said, As YHVH lives, who brought His people from the land of Egypt; but As YHVH lives, who returned His people to the land He promised their fathers. Then follows a very curious phrase:

“Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the Lord, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.” Jer 16:16

You don’t see language like that again in the prophets, until Yeshua came and said:

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Mat 4:18-20

Now go read the story of the Canaanite woman who sought Jesus (Mat 15:21-28). He said,

“I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Mat 15:24

These are the same lost sheep who were scattered to the ends of the earth, about whom Jeremiah prophesied! And He called His disciples to go fish for them. But even the Canaanite woman received blessing from Israel’s Messiah. And in the 2C pair, the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth, seeking YHVH, to whom He will show His power and His might – just as the Canaanite woman was shown.

The lost sheep of the house of Israel, in fact, became so scattered among the Gentiles (see the studies on the book of Hosea, starting here) that by the time they return to the land of their fathers, they are indistinguishable from Gentiles – just like me and you! We have actually been grafted in to the cultivated olive tree of Israel, with one root – Messiah Yeshua!