What Does Jeremiah 17:5 Mean?
Thus says the LORD, Cursed is the man who leans his full weight upon man, and sets flesh as his arm, and whose heart turns aside from the LORD.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.THE KEY
Trust is the heart’s search for security, and this verse shows that when security is lodged in flesh, the heart itself turns from the LORD.
THE MEANING
This verse names the condition as cursed: a person places trust in another human, makes flesh the arm that bears their weight, and the heart turns away from the LORD. It speaks wherever human capacity becomes the source of security and the heart’s orientation leaves the LORD.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief this dissolves is that human strength can serve as ultimate security without turning the heart away from God; the verse names that arrangement a curse.
THE ROOT
יִבְטַח
yivtaḥ
GROWS FROM
בטח
To be secure, feel safe, or trust.
“leans his full weight upon” in this verse is yivtaḥ. This verb does more than describe an opinion about another person: it names leaning into them as a source of safety. Its pairing with making flesh the arm reveals where that security settles, while the verse traces the cost in the heart’s turning from the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
mivtaḥ: Security, confidence, or refuge.
מִבְטָח
This noun names a source of security; it makes the verse’s trust feel like choosing where the heart takes shelter.
bāṭûaḥ: Secure or confident.
בָּטוּחַ
This word describes a settled state of security; Jeremiah locates that security in a human source and names the cost to the heart.
THE PATTERN
The location of trust is decisive: human strength cannot bear the security the heart seeks.
It is better to take shelter in the LORD than to lean your weight on humankind.Do not lean your weight on the openhanded, nor on the son of man, who holds no deliverance.But we ourselves had the sentence of death within us, so that we would not lean our weight on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead.THE THREAD
It is better to take shelter in the LORD than to lean your weight on humankind.Both verses use the Hebrew verb בָּטַח (bāṭaḥ, to trust or be secure). Psalm 118:8 makes the choice of refuge plain; Jeremiah traces what happens when confidence settles in flesh and the heart turns from the LORD.
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