Jeremiah 11:17

Lexham English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹¹ Therefore thus says Yahweh, "I am about to bring on them disaster from which they will not be able to escape. Though they cry out to me, yet I will not listen to them. ¹² Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they are making smoke offerings, but they will certainly not save them in the time of their trouble. ¹³ For the number of your towns are your gods, O Judah, and the number of the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to the shameful things, to make smoke offerings to Baal. ¹⁴ Therefore you must not pray for this people, and you must not lift up for them a cry of entreaty, or a prayer, for I will not listen in the time of their calling to me, in the time of their trouble. ¹⁵ What rights has my beloved in my house when she has done many wicked things? Can the flesh of holiness pass over you? For you engage in your wickedness, then you exult. ¹⁶ Yahweh called your name, ‘A leafy olive tree, beautiful with fine fruit.' With the sound of a great storm he will set fire to it, and its branches will be good for nothing. ¹⁷ And Yahweh of hosts, the one who planted you, has spoken evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, that they have done to themselves, to provoke me to anger by making smoke offerings to Baal."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

that: Jeremiah 2:21, Jeremiah 12:2, Jeremiah 24:6, Jeremiah 42:10, Jeremiah 45:4, 2 Samuel 7:10, Psalms 44:2, Psalms 80:8, Psalms 80:15, Isaiah 5:2, Isaiah 61:3, Ezekiel 17:5

pronounced: Jeremiah 11:11, Jeremiah 16:10, Jeremiah 16:11, Jeremiah 18:8, Jeremiah 19:15, Jeremiah 26:13, Jeremiah 26:19, Jeremiah 35:17, Jeremiah 36:7, Jeremiah 40:2

Reciprocal: Jeremiah 1:16 - and have Jeremiah 7:9 - and burn Jeremiah 18:9 - to build Jeremiah 44:3 - of their

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For the Lord of hosts that planted thee,.... As a green olive tree, and gave thee all thy verdure, fruitfulness, happiness, and prosperity; when he first put thee into the possession of the good land, and distinguished thee by so many favours and blessings; as he is able to take them away, so he will:

for he hath pronounced evil against thee; he hath determined it in his mind, and he hath declared it by his prophets:

for the evil of the house of Israel; the ten tribes, who had committed sin, and for which the evil pronounced had been executed on them already, being some time ago carried captive:

and of the house of Judah; who had taken no warning by them, but had followed them in their iniquities, and even exceeded them; and therefore must expect the like punishment for their sins:

which they have done against themselves; for sin is not only against God, his nature, will, and law; but it is against the sinner himself, and is to his hurt and ruin, both temporal and eternal:

to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal; this particularly was the evil which was so provoking to God; and therefore he determined to bring the evil of punishment upon them; and shows the cause and reason of it; and which is a sufficient vindication of his justice.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A parenthesis. As in Jeremiah 7:16, all intercession is forbidden, and for this reason. Prayer for others for the forgiveness of their sins avails only when they also pray. The cry of the people now was that of the guilty smarting under punishment, not of the penitent mourning over sin.

Jeremiah 11:15

This passage, like Isaiah 1:12, rebukes the inconsistency of Judah’s public worship of Yahweh with their private immorality and preference for idolatry. Translate it: “What hath My beloved in My house to practice guile there? The great men and the holy flesh (i. e., the sacrifices) shall pass away from thee.”

Jeremiah 11:16

The “goodly” or “shapely fruit,” signifies the righteousness and faith which ought to have been the result of Israel’s possession of extraordinary privileges. The tree did not bear this fruit, and God now destroys it by a thunderstorm.