17:1 The sin of Judah [is] a written with a pen of iron, [and]
with the point of a diamond: [it is] graven upon the b
tablet of their heart, and upon the horns of your c
altars;
(a) The remembrance of their contempt of God cannot pass,
although for a time he defers the punishment, for it
will be revealed to men and angels.
(b) Instead of the law of God, they have written idolatry
and all abomination in their heart.
(c) Your sins appear in all the altars that you have
erected to idols.
17:2d While their children remember their altars and their
idols by the green trees upon the high hills.
(d) Some read, "So that their children remember their
altars", that is, follow their father's wickedness.
17:3e 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.
(e) Zion that was my mountain, will now be left as a waste
field.
17:4 And thou, even f thyself, shall discontinue from thy
heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve
thy enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have
kindled a fire in my anger, [which] shall burn for ever.
(f) Because you would not give the land rest, at such
times, days and years as I appointed, you will after
this be carried away and it will rest for lack of
labourers.
17:5 Thus saith the LORD; g Cursed [be] the man that trusteth
in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth
from the LORD.
(g) The Jews were given to worldly policies and thought to
make themselves strong by the friendship of the
Egyptians, (Isa 31:3) and strangers and in the mean
time did not depend on God, and therefore he denounces
God's plagues against them, showing that they prefer
corruptible man to God, who is immortal,
(Isa 2:22, Jer 48:6,7).
17:8h 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 anxious in the year of drought, neither shall
cease from yielding fruit.
17:9i The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and
desperately wicked: who can know it?
(i) Because the wicked always have some excuse to defend
their doings he shows that their own lewd imaginations
deceive them and bring them to these hardships: but God
will examine their deeds by the malice of their hearts,
(1Sa 16:7,1Ch 28:9,Ps 7:10,Jer 11:20,10:12,Re 2:13).
17:11k [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.
(k) As the patriarch by calling gathered others who
forsake her when they see she is not their mother: so
the covetous man is forsaken of his riches because he
comes by them falsely.
17:12 A glorious l high throne from the beginning [is] the
place of our sanctuary.
(l) Showing that the godly ought to glory in nothing, but
in God who exalts his, and has left a sign of his
favour in his temple.
17:13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be
ashamed, [and] they that depart from me shall be written
m in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the
fountain of living waters.
(m) Their names will not be registered in the book of
life.
17:14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; n save me, and I
shall be saved: for thou [art] my praise.
(n) He desires God to preserve him that he fall not into
temptation, considering the great contempt of God's
word, and the multitude that fall from God.
17:15 Behold, o they say to me, Where [is] the word of the
LORD? let it come now.
(o) The wicked say that my prophecy will not come to pass,
because you deferred the time of your vengeance.
17:16 As for me, p I have not hastened from [being] a shepherd
to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day;
thou knowest: that which was uttered by my lips was
[right] before thee.
(p) I am assured of my calling, and therefore know that
the thing which you speak by me will come to pass, and
that I speak not of any worldly affection.
17:17 Be not q a terror to me: thou [art] my hope in the day
of evil.
(q) However the wicked deal rigorously with me, yet let me
find comfort in you.
17:18 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, r and destroy
them with double destruction.
17:19 Thus said the LORD to me; Go and stand in the s gate of
the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah
come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of
Jerusalem;
(s) While your doctrine may best be understood both by
high and low.
17:21 Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no
burden on the t sabbath day, nor bring [it] in by the
gates of Jerusalem;
(t) By naming the Sabbath day, he comprehends the thing
that is signified by it, for if they transgressed in
the ceremony, they must be guilty of the rest, read
(Ex 20:8) and by the breaking of this one
commandment, he makes them transgressors of the whole
law, as the first and second table are contained in
it.
