💧WEB · Jeremiah 17:13
What does Jeremiah 17:13 mean?
"Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be disappointed. Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring of living waters."
— Jeremiah 17:13 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
“I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right. In the middle of his days, they will leave him. At his end, he will be a fool.
A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be disappointed. Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring of living waters.
Heal me, O Yahweh, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved; for you are my praise.
Behold, they tell me, “Where is Yahweh’s word? Let it be fulfilled now.”
As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you. I haven’t desired the woeful day. You know. That which came out of my lips was before your face.
Explanation
Jeremiah 17:13 declares that Yahweh alone is the hope of Israel, and that turning away from him leads to shame and ruin. In plain language, the verse says that God is the source of true security and life, and anyone who abandons him will ultimately be let down, while those who reject him will fade away like names scratched in dust—easily erased, without permanence or lasting significance.
This verse comes from the prophet Jeremiah, who ministered to the kingdom of Judah in the final decades before its fall to Babylon (late 7th to early 6th century BC). Jeremiah repeatedly confronted the people for idolatry, injustice, and empty religious ritual while their hearts remained far from God. Chapter 17 contrasts the person who trusts in man (verses 5-6) with the person who trusts in the Lord (verses 7-8), and this verse continues that theme by pronouncing judgment on those who forsake Yahweh for false securities—whether idols, political alliances, or self-reliance. The image shifts from the first to third person within the verse ("forsake you" then "forsaken Yahweh"), a common feature of Hebrew prophetic poetry as the prophet speaks both for God and about God.
Theologically, the verse highlights two important truths. First, Yahweh is called "the spring of living waters," an image used elsewhere in Jeremiah (2:13) to contrast the living, flowing, life-giving nature of God with the useless "broken cisterns" of idols—stagnant, cracked, and unable to hold water. God is the
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