💧WEB · Jeremiah 17:14
What does Jeremiah 17:14 mean?
"Heal me, O Yahweh, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved; for you are my praise."
— Jeremiah 17:14 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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.
Don’t be a terror to me. You are my refuge in the day of evil.
Explanation
Jeremiah 17:14 is a brief but intense prayer of dependence. In plain language, the prophet is crying out to God for healing and salvation, acknowledging that both are entirely in God's hands. The repetition — "heal me... and I will be healed," "save me... and I will be saved" — emphasizes that Jeremiah has no power to accomplish these things himself. He is not offering God a partial effort to supplement; he is admitting total reliance. The final phrase, "you are my praise," means that God alone is the object and source of Jeremiah's worship — not an idol, not another person, not his own strength, but Yahweh himself.
This verse comes from within a larger passage (Jeremiah 17:5–18) where Jeremiah contrasts trust in man with trust in the Lord, and where he also expresses his own suffering as a prophet who has been mocked and opposed for faithfully delivering God's warnings to Judah. Jeremiah ministered during the final decades before Jerusalem's fall to Babylon (early 6th century BC), a time of national rebellion, idolatry, and impending judgment. He often faced hostility, ridicule, and even threats to his life because he spoke unpopular truths. In this context, verse 14 functions as a personal plea in the middle of his prophetic ministry — he needs God to sustain him not only physically or emotionally, but vindicate him against those who scorn his message and question whether the disasters he prophesies will actually happen (see the following verses, 15–18).
Theologically, this verse underscores several truths
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