Jeremiah 17:17

Contemporary English Version

I trust you for protection in times of trouble, so don't frighten me.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Don’t become a terror to me.You are my refuge in the day of disaster.

Hebrew Names Version
Don't be a terror to me: you are my refuge in the day of evil.

King James Version
Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil.

English Standard Version
Be not a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster.

New American Standard Bible
Do not be a terror to me; You are my refuge in a day of disaster.

New Century Version
Don't be a terror to me. I run to you for safety in times of trouble.

Amplified Bible
Do not be a terror to me; You are my refuge and my hope in the day of disaster.

World English Bible
Don't be a terror to me: you are my refuge in the day of evil.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Be not terrible vnto mee: thou art mine hope in the day of aduersitie.

Legacy Standard Bible
Do not be a terror to me;You are my refuge in the day of calamity.

Berean Standard Bible
Do not become a terror to me; You are my refuge in the day of disaster.

Complete Jewish Bible
So do not be my ruin, you, my refuge on the day of disaster.

Darby Translation
Be not a terror unto me: thou art my refuge in the day of evil.

Easy-to-Read Version
Please don't make me afraid of you. I depend on you in times of trouble.

George Lamsa Translation
Be not a terror to me; but abide with me in the day of trouble.

Good News Translation
Do not be a terror to me; you are my place of safety when trouble comes.

Lexham English Bible
You must not become to me a terror, you are my refuge in the day of disaster.

Literal Translation
Do not be a terror to me; You are my refuge in the day of evil.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Be not now terrible vnto me (o LORDE) for thou art he, in whom I hope, when I am in parell.

American Standard Version
Be not a terror unto me: thou art my refuge in the day of evil.

Bible in Basic English
Be not a cause of fear to me: you are my safe place in the day of evil.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Be not a ruin unto me; thou art my refuge in the day of evil.

King James Version (1611)
Be not a terrour vnto me, thou art my hope in the day of euill.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Be not thou terrible vnto me O Lord: for thou art he in whom I hope when I am in perill.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Be not to me a stranger, but spare me in the evil day.

English Revised Version
Be not a terror unto me: thou art my refuge in the day of evil.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Be thou not to drede to me; thou art myn hope in the dai of turment.

Update Bible Version
Don't be a terror to me: you are my refuge in the day of evil.

Webster's Bible Translation
Be not a terror to me: thou [art] my hope in the day of evil.

New English Translation
Do not cause me dismay! You are my source of safety in times of trouble.

New King James Version
Do not be a terror to me; You are my hope in the day of doom.

New Living Translation
Lord , don't terrorize me! You alone are my hope in the day of disaster.

New Life Bible
Do not make me afraid of You. You are my safe place in the day of trouble.

New Revised Standard
Do not become a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Do not thou become to me a terror, - My refuge, art thou, in the day of calamity.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Be not thou a terror unto me, thou art my hope in the day of affliction.

Revised Standard Version
Be not a terror to me; thou art my refuge in the day of evil.

Young's Literal Translation
Be not Thou to me for a terror, My hope [art] Thou in a day of evil.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Do not be a terror to me; You are my refuge in the day of disaster.

Contextual Overview

¹² Our Lord , your temple is a glorious throne that has stood on a mountain from the beginning. ¹³ You are a spring of water giving Israel life and hope. But if the people reject what you have told me, they will be swept away like words written in dust. ¹⁴ You, Lord , are the one I praise. So heal me and rescue me! Then I will be completely well and perfectly safe. ¹⁵ The people of Judah say to me, "Jeremiah, you claimed to tell us what the Lord has said. So why hasn't it come true?" ¹⁶ Our Lord , you chose me to care for your people, and that's what I have done. You know everything I have said, and I have never once asked you to punish them. ¹⁷ I trust you for protection in times of trouble, so don't frighten me. ¹⁸ Keep me from failure and disgrace, but make my enemies fail and be disgraced. Send destruction to make their worst fears come true.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a terror: Job 31:23, Psalms 77:2-9, Psalms 88:15, Psalms 88:16

thou: Jeremiah 17:7, Jeremiah 17:13, Jeremiah 16:19, Psalms 41:1, Psalms 59:16, Nahum 1:7, Ephesians 6:13

Reciprocal: Psalms 62:5 - my Psalms 71:5 - For thou Psalms 77:3 - I remembered Psalms 115:9 - trust Amos 5:10 - abhor

Cross-References

Genesis 17:3
Abram bowed with his face to the ground, and God said:

Genesis 17:19
But God answered: No! You and Sarah will have a son. His name will be Isaac, and I will make an everlasting promise to him and his descendants.

Genesis 17:20
I have heard what you asked me to do for Ishmael, and so I will also bless him with many descendants. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I will make his family a great nation.

Genesis 18:12
So she laughed and said to herself, "Now that I am worn out and my husband is old, will I really know such happiness?"

Genesis 21:6
and Sarah said, "God has made me laugh. Now everyone will laugh with me.

Leviticus 9:24
The Lord sent fiery flames that burned up everything on the altar, and when everyone saw this, they shouted and fell to their knees to worship the Lord .

Numbers 14:5
Moses and Aaron bowed down to pray in front of the crowd.

Numbers 16:22
But the two men bowed down and prayed, "Our God, you gave these people life. Why would you punish everyone here when only one man has sinned?"

Numbers 16:45
"Stand back! I am going to wipe out these Israelites once and for all." They immediately bowed down and prayed.

Deuteronomy 9:18
I bowed down at the place of worship and prayed to the Lord , without eating or drinking for forty days and nights. You had committed a terrible sin by making that idol, and the Lord hated what you had done. He was angry enough to destroy all of you and Aaron as well. So I prayed for you and Aaron as I had done before, and this time the Lord answered my prayers.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Be not a terror unto me,.... By deserting him, and leaving him in the hands of his enemies; or by denying him supports under their reproaches and persecution; or by withdrawing his gracious presence from him, than which nothing is more terrible to a good man; or by withholding the comfortable influences of his Spirit; or by suffering terrors to be injected into him from any quarter; and more is meant than is expressed; namely, that God would be a comforter of him, and bear him up under all his troubles:

thou [art] my hope in the day of evil: the author and object of his hope; the ground and foundation of it, from whom he hoped for deliverance, when it was a time of distress with him, from outward as well as from inward enemies; he was his hope in a time of outward calamity, and in the hour of death and day of judgment.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In the rest of the prophecy Jeremiah dwells upon the moral faults which had led to Judah’s ruin.

Jeremiah 17:6

Like the heath - Or, “like a destitute man” Psalms 102:17. The verbs “he shall see” (or fear) and “shall inhabit” plainly show that a man is here meant and not a plant.

Jeremiah 17:8

The river - Or, “water-course” Isaiah 30:25, made for purposes of irrigation.

Shall not see - Or, “shall not fear Jeremiah 17:6.” God’s people feel trouble as much as other people, but they do not fear it because they know

(1) that it is for their good, and

(2) that God will give them strength to bear it.

Jeremiah 17:9

The train of thought is apparently this: If the man is so blessed Jeremiah 17:7-8 who trusts in Yahweh, what is the reason why men so generally “make flesh their arm”? And the answer is: Because man’s heart is incapable of seeing things in a straightforward manner, but is full of shrewd guile, and ever seeking to overreach others.

Desperately wicked - Rather, mortally sick.

Jeremiah 17:10

The answer to the question, “who can know it?” To himself a man’s heart is an inscrutable mystery: God alone can fathom it.

Ways - Rather, way, his course of life. The “and” must be omitted, for the last clause explains what is meant “by man’s way,” when he comes before God for judgment. It is “the fruit,” the final result “of his doings, i. e., his real character as formed by the acts and habits of his life.

Jeremiah 17:11

Rather, “As the partridge hath gathered eggs which it laid not, so ...” The general sense is: the covetous man is as sure to reap finally disappointment only as is the partridge which piles up eggs not of her own laying, and is unable to hatch them.

A fool - A Nabal. See 1 Samuel 25:25.

Jeremiah 17:12, Jeremiah 17:13

Or, “Thou throne ... thou place ... thou hope ... Yahweh! All that forsake Thee etc.” The prophet concludes his prediction with the expression of his own trust in Yahweh, and confidence that the divine justice will finally be vindicated by the punishment of the wicked. The “throne of glory” is equivalent to Him who is enthroned in glory.

Jeremiah 17:13

Shall be written in the earth - i. e., their names shall quickly disappear, unlike those graven in the rock forever Job 19:24. A board covered with sand is used in the East to this day in schools for giving lessons in writing: but writing inscribed on such materials is intended to be immediately obliterated. Equally fleeting is the existence of those who forsake God. “All men are written somewhere, the saints in heaven, but sinners upon earth” (Origen).

Jeremiah 17:15

This taunt shows that this prophecy was written before any very signal fulfillment of Jeremiah’s words had taken place, and prior therefore to the capture of Jerusalem at the close of Jehoiakim’s life. “Now” means “I pray,” and is ironical.

Jeremiah 17:16

I have not hastened from - i. e., I have not sought to escape from.

A pastor to follow thee - Rather, “a shepherd after Thee.” “Shepherd” means “ruler, magistrate” (Jeremiah 2:8 note), and belongs to the prophet not as a teacher, but as one invested with authority by God to guide and direct the political course of the nation. So Yahweh guides His people Psalms 23:1-2, and the prophet does so “after Him,” following obediently His instructions.

The woeful day - literally, “the day of mortal sickness:” the day on which Jerusalem was to be destroyed, and the temple burned.

Right - Omit the word. What Jeremiah asserts is that he spake as in God’s presence. They were no words of his own, but had the authority of Him before whom he stood. Compare Jeremiah 15:19.

Jeremiah 17:17

A terror - Rather, “a cause of dismay,” or consternation Jeremiah 1:17. By not fulfilling Jeremiah’s prediction God Himself seemed to put him to shame.

Jeremiah 17:18

Confounded - Put to shame.

Destroy them ... - Rather, break them with a double breaking: a twofold punishment, the first their general share in the miseries attendant upon their country’s fall; the second, a special punishment for their sin in persecuting and mocking God’s prophet.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 17:17. Be not a terror unto me — Do not command me to predict miseries, and abandon me to them and to my enemies.