The prophet's prayer for rescue from his enemies. - Jeremiah 17:14. "Heal me, Jahveh, that I may be healed; help me, that I may be holpen, for Thou art my praise. Jeremiah 17:15. Behold, they say to me, Where is the word of Jahveh? let it come, now. Jeremiah 17:16. I have not withdrawn myself from being a shepherd after Thee, neither wished for the day of trouble, Thou knowest; that which went forth of my lips was open before Thy face. Jeremiah 17:17. Be not to me a confusion, my refuge art Thou in the day of evil. Jeremiah 17:18. Let my persecutors be put to shame, but let not me be put to shame; let them be confounded, but let not me be confounded; bring upon them the day of evil, and break them with a double breach."

The experience Jeremiah had had in his calling seemed to contradict the truth, that trust in the Lord brings blessing (Jeremiah 17:7.); for his preaching of God's word had brought him nothing but persecution and suffering. Therefore he prays the Lord to remove this contradiction and to verify that truth in his case also. The prayer of Jeremiah 17:14, "heal me," reminds one of Psalm 6:3; Psalm 30:3. Thou art תּהלּתי, the object of my praises; cf. Psalm 71:6; Deuteronomy 10:21. - The occasion for this prayer is furnished by the attacks of his enemies, who ask in scorn what then has become of that which he proclaims as the word of the Lord, why it does not come to pass. Hence we see that the discourse, of which this complaint is the conclusion, was delivered before the first invasion of Judah by the Chaldeans. So long as his announcements were not fulfilled, the unbelieving were free to persecute him as a false prophet (cf. Deuteronomy 18:22), and to give out that his prophecies were inspired by his own spite against his people. He explains, on the contrary, that in his calling he has neither acted of his own accord, nor wished for misfortune to the people, but that he has spoken by the inspiration of God alone. 'לא אצתּי cannot mean: I have not pressed myself forward to follow Thee as shepherd, i.e., pressed myself forward into Thy service in vain and overweening self-conceit (Umbr.). For although this sense would fall very well in with the train of thought, yet it cannot be grammatically justified. אוּץ, press, press oneself on to anything, is construed with ל, cf.Josh. Jeremiah 10:13; with מן it can only mean: press oneself away from a thing. מרעה may stand for מהיות , cf. Jeremiah 48:2, 1 Samuel 15:23; 1 Kings 15:13 : from being a shepherd after Thee, i.e., I have not withdrawn myself from following after Thee as a shepherd. Against this rendering the fact seems to weigh, that usually it is not the prophets, but only the kings and princes, that are entitled the shepherds of the people; cf. Jeremiah 23:1. For this reason, it would appear, Hitz. and Graf have taken רעה in the sig. to seek after a person or thing, and have translated: I have not pressed myself away from keeping after Thee, or from being one that followed Thee faithfully. For this appeal is made to places like Proverbs 13:20; Proverbs 28:7; Psalm 37:3, where רעה does mean to seek after a thing, to take pleasure in it. But in this sig. רעה is always construed with the accus. of the thing or person, not with אחרי, as here. Nor does it by any means follow, from the fact of shepherds meaning usually kings or rulers, that the idea of "shepherd" is exhausted in ruling and governing people. According to Psalm 23:1, Jahveh is the shepherd of the godly, who feeds them in green pastures and leads them to the refreshing water, who revives their soul, etc. In this sense prophets, too, feed the people, if they, following the Lord as chief shepherd, declare God's word to the people. We cannot in any case abide by Ng.'s rendering, who, taking רעה in its literal sense, puts the meaning thus: I have not pressed myself away from being a shepherd, in order to go after Thee. For the assumption that Jeremiah had, before his call, been, like Amos, a herd of cattle, contradicts Jeremiah 1:1; nor from the fact, that the cities of the priests and of the Levites were provided with grazing fields (מגרשׁים), does it at all follow that the priests themselves tended their flocks. "The day of trouble," the ill, disastrous day, is made out by Ng. to be the day of his entering upon the office of prophet - a view that needs no refutation. It is the day of destruction for Jerusalem and Judah, which Jeremiah had foretold. When Ng. says: "He need not have gone out of his way to affirm that he did not desire the day of disaster for the whole people," he has neglected to notice that Jeremiah is here defending himself against the charges of his enemies, who inferred from his prophecies of evil that he found a pleasure in his people's calamity, and wished for it to come. For the truth of his defence, Jeremiah appeals to the omniscience of God: "Thou knowest it." That which goes from my lips, i.e., the word that came from my lips, was נך פּניך, before or over against thy face, i.e., manifest to Thee.

Jeremiah 17:21 Parallel Commentaries

Take.

Deuteronomy 4:9,15,23 Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen...

Deuteronomy 11:16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;

Joshua 23:11 Take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love the LORD your God.

Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Mark 4:24 And he said to them, Take heed what you hear: with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you...

Luke 8:18 Take heed therefore how you hear: for whoever has, to him shall be given; and whoever has not...

Acts 20:28 Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers...

Hebrews 2:1-3 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip...

Hebrews 12:15,16 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you...

bear.

Jeremiah 17:22-27 Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do you any work, but hallow you the sabbath day...

Numbers 15:32-36 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks on the sabbath day...

Nehemiah 13:15-21 In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading donkeys; as also wine, grapes...

John 5:9-12 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath...