Chapter Overview
Summary
Judah's sin engraved / the heart is deceitful. LXX OMITS vv. 1-4 entirely. This is a significant omission — four full verses about Judah's sin being written with an iron pen and engraved on the tablet of their heart.
Notable Variants
LXX LACKS vv. 1-4 completely. The LXX chapter begins at what is MT v. 5 ('Cursed is the man who trusts in man'). The omitted material includes the famous 'iron pen' / 'diamond point' imagery and the reference to Asherim and high places. Some scholars see these verses as a later MT expansion drawn from other Jeremianic passages.
Structural Notes
LXX chapter 17 begins at MT v. 5. LXX vv. 1-4 correspond to MT vv. 5-8 etc. The numbering offset means LXX 17:1 = MT 17:5.
The sin of Judah is inscribed with an iron stylus, with a diamond-tipped point. It is engraved on the tablet of their heart and on the horns of their altars —
Masoretic (WLC)
חַטַּאת יְהוּדָה כְּתוּבָה בְּעֵט בַּרְזֶל בְּצִפֹּרֶן שָׁמִיר חֲרוּשָׁה עַל־לוּחַ לִבָּם וּלְקַרְנוֹת מִזְבְּחוֹתֵיכֶם
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with a point of diamond; it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart and upon the horns of your altars.
Septuagint (LXX)
[absent from LXX]
[not present in LXX]
ENTIRELY ABSENT from LXX. This famous verse about sin inscribed with an iron pen is not in the Greek tradition. The imagery may have been added to the MT from other prophetic sources.
even as their children remember their altars and their Asherah poles beside every green tree on the high hills.
Masoretic (WLC)
כִּזְכֹּר בְּנֵיהֶם מִזְבְּחוֹתָם וַאֲשֵׁרֵיהֶם עַל־עֵץ רַעֲנָן עַל גְּבָעוֹת הַגְּבֹהוֹת
As their children remember their altars and their Asherim beside every green tree upon the high hills.
Septuagint (LXX)
[absent from LXX]
[not present in LXX]
ABSENT from LXX. The reference to Asherim and high-place worship is not in the Greek.
My mountain in the open country — your wealth and all your treasures I will give as plunder, your high places as the price of sin throughout all your territory.
Masoretic (WLC)
הֲרָרִי בַּשָּׂדֶה חֵילְךָ כָל־אוֹצְרוֹתֶיךָ לָבַז אֶתֵּן בָּמוֹתֶיךָ בְּחַטָּאת בְּכָל־גְּבוּלֶיךָ
O My mountain in the field, I will give your wealth and all your treasures for spoil — your high places for sin throughout all your borders.
Septuagint (LXX)
[absent from LXX]
[not present in LXX]
ABSENT from LXX.
You will lose your grip on the inheritance I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled a fire in my anger that will burn without end.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְשָׁמַטְתָּה וּבְךָ מִנַּחֲלָתְךָ אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי לָךְ וְהַעֲבַדְתִּיךָ אֶת־אֹיְבֶיךָ בָּאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יָדָעְתָּ
And you shall let go, even of yourself, from your heritage which I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in a land which you do not know.
Septuagint (LXX)
[absent from LXX]
[not present in LXX]
ABSENT from LXX. The entire four-verse unit (1-4) is missing from the Greek, and the chapter opens instead with the 'cursed/blessed' contrast.
This is what the LORD says: Cursed is the person who trusts in human strength, who makes flesh his arm, and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
He will be like a shrub in the desert wasteland — he will not see when good arrives. He will dwell among the scorched places of the wilderness, in a salt land where no one lives.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Blessed is the person who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is the LORD himself.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
He will be like a tree planted beside water that sends its roots out toward the stream. It does not fear when heat comes, and its leaves remain green. In a year of drought it has no anxiety, and it never stops producing fruit.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
The heart is more twisted than anything else and incurably sick — who can fathom it?
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
I, the LORD, search the heart and test the mind, to give to each person according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Like a partridge that broods over eggs it did not lay, so is the one who gains wealth unjustly. In the middle of his days it will abandon him, and in the end he will be a fool.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
A throne of glory, exalted from the beginning — that is the place of our sanctuary.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
O LORD, the hope of Israel — all who abandon you will be put to shame. Those who turn away will be written in the dust, for they have abandoned the LORD, the fountain of living water.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved — for you are my praise.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Look — they keep saying to me, 'Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come!'
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
As for me, I have not rushed away from shepherding after you, and I have not longed for the day of calamity. You know this — whatever came from my lips was spoken before your face.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Do not become a source of terror to me — you are my refuge in the day of disaster.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Let my persecutors be put to shame, but do not let me be put to shame. Let them be shattered, but do not let me be shattered. Bring upon them the day of disaster, and break them with a double breaking.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
This is what the LORD said to me: Go and stand in the gate of the people, through which the kings of Judah enter and leave, and in all the gates of Jerusalem.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Say to them: Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all of Judah, and all inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter through these gates.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
This is what the LORD says: Guard your lives — do not carry any load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
Do not carry any load out of your houses on the Sabbath day, and do not do any work. Consecrate the Sabbath day, just as I commanded your ancestors.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
But they did not listen. They did not incline their ear. They stiffened their neck, refusing to hear and refusing to accept correction.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
If you truly listen to me, declares the LORD, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, and if you consecrate the Sabbath day by doing no work on it,
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
then kings and officials who sit on the throne of David will enter through the gates of this city, riding in chariots and on horses — they and their officials, along with the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem — and this city will be inhabited forever.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
People will come from the cities of Judah and the surroundings of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowlands, from the hill country, and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the LORD.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.
But if you do not listen to me — to consecrate the Sabbath day, to carry no load and enter the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day — then I will kindle a fire in her gates, and it will consume the fortified buildings of Jerusalem and will not be extinguished.
LXX and MT are substantially identical here.