EXPOSITION
With this chapter should be taken the first eighteen verses of Jeremiah 17:1-27. The heading of the Authorized Version well expresses the contents of Jeremiah 17:1-9, provided that "the types" are understood to be typical actions of the prophet himself. "The prophet, under the types of abstaining from marriage, from houses of mourning and feasting, foreshoweth the utter ruin of the Jews." To the inquiry, why these calamities should come upon them, the old and well-known answer is to be given (Jeremiah 17:10-12), accompanied by a definite prediction of captivity (Jeremiah 17:13). Then, to relieve the picture, a glimpse of a happier future is introduced (Jeremiah 17:14, Jeremiah 17:15); but only a glimpse, for already the Chaldeans, like so many fishermen and hunters, are on the track of the Jews, for a "double" retribution must precede the Messianic promise (Jeremiah 17:16-18). Strange contrast—the heathen coming to the truth and the Jews (those of the present, not of the future time) deserting it (Jeremiah 17:19-21)! We will take up the thread of thought again at the opening of the next chapter.—The date of this prophecy would appear to be nearly the same as that of the preceding one, the circumstances of which are similar. The latter part of it will enable us to fix it more precisely (see on Jeremiah 17:1-18).