11 Like the partridge, getting eggs together but not producing young, is a man who gets wealth but not by right; before half his days are ended, it will go from him, and at his end he will be foolish.
He who makes his wealth greater by taking interest, only gets it together for him who has pity on the poor.
But God said to him, You foolish one, tonight I will take your soul from you, and who then will be the owner of all the things which you have got together?
He who gets stores of wealth by a false tongue, is going after what is only breath, and searching for death.
He whose desires are fixed on profit is a cause of trouble to his family; but he who has no desire for offerings will have life.
But you, O God, will send them down into the underworld; the cruel and the false will be cut off before half their days are ended; but I will have faith in you.
Wealth quickly got will become less; but he who gets a store by the work of his hands will have it increased.
And I saw the destruction of his wealth by an evil chance; and when he became the father of a son he had nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother at birth, so does he go again; he gets from his work no reward which he may take away in his hand. And this again is a great evil, that in all points as he came so will he go; and what profit has he in working for the wind? All his days are in the dark, and he has much sorrow, pain, disease, and trouble.
But your eyes and your heart are fixed only on profit for yourself, on causing the death of him who has done no wrong, and on violent and cruel acts.
Will not all these take up a word of shame against him and a bitter saying against him, and say, A curse on him who goes on taking what is not his and is weighted down with the property of debtors! Will not your creditors suddenly be moved against you, and your troublers get up from their sleep, and you will be to them like goods taken in war? Because you have taken their goods from great nations, all the rest of the peoples will take your goods from you; because of men's blood and violent acts against the land and the town and all who are living in it. A curse on him who gets evil profits for his family, so that he may put his resting-place on high and be safe from the hand of the wrongdoer! You have been a cause of shame to your house by cutting off a number of peoples, and sinning against your soul. For the stone will give a cry out of the wall, and it will be answered by the board out of the woodwork. A curse on him who is building a place with blood, and basing a town on evil-doing!
And in that day I will send punishment on all those who come jumping over the doorstep and make their master's house full of violent behaviour and deceit.
But those who have a desire for wealth are falling into danger, and are taken as in a net by a number of foolish and damaging desires, through which men are overtaken by death and destruction.
And in their desire for profit they will come to you with words of deceit, like traders doing business in souls: whose punishment has been ready for a long time and their destruction is watching for them.
Your gold and your silver are wasted and their waste will be a witness against you, burning into your flesh. You have put by your store in the last days. See, the money which you falsely kept back from the workers cutting the grass in your field, is crying out against you; and the cries of those who took in your grain have come to the ears of the Lord of armies. You have been living delicately on earth and have taken your pleasure; you have made your hearts fat for a day of destruction.
A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in the morning light they do it, because it is in their power. They have a desire for fields and take them by force; and for houses and take them away: they are cruel to a man and his family, even to a man and his heritage.
Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven.
Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have become friends of thieves; every one of them is looking for profit and going after rewards; they do not give right decisions for the child who has no father, and they do not let the cause of the widow come before them. For this reason the Lord, the Lord of armies, the Strong One of Israel, has said, I will put an end to my haters, and send punishment on those who are against me;
As the fowl-house is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: for this reason they have become great and have got wealth. They have become fat and strong: they have gone far in works of evil: they give no support to the cause of the child without a father, so that they may do well; they do not see that the poor man gets his rights.
In you they have taken rewards as the price of blood; you have taken interest and great profits, and you have taken away your neighbours' goods by force, and have not kept me in mind, says the Lord. See, then, I have made my hands come together in wrath against your taking of goods by force and against the blood which has been flowing in you.
So then, come back to your God; keep mercy and right, and be waiting at all times on your God. As for Canaan, the scales of deceit are in his hands; he takes pleasure in twisted ways.
For they have no knowledge of how to do what is right, says the Lord, who are storing up violent acts and destruction in their great houses.
Give ear to this, you who are crushing the poor, and whose purpose is to put an end to those who are in need in the land, Saying, When will the new moon be gone, so that we may do trade in grain? and the Sabbath, so that we may put out in the market the produce of our fields? making the measure small and the price great, and trading falsely with scales of deceit; Getting the poor for silver, and him who is in need for the price of two shoes, and taking a price for the waste parts of the grain.
And they are secretly waiting for their blood and making ready destruction for themselves. Such is the fate of everyone who goes in search of profit; it takes away the life of its owners.
The women of my people you have been driving away from their dearly loved children; from their young ones you are taking my glory for ever.
Am I to let the stores of the evil-doer go out of my memory, and the short measure, which is cursed? Is it possible for me to let wrong scales and the bag of false weights go without punishment? For its men of wealth are cruel, and its people have said what is not true, and their tongue is false in their mouth.
Their hands are made ready to do evil; the ruler makes requests for money, and the judge is looking for a reward; and the great man gives decisions at his pleasure, and the right is twisted.
And I will send it out, says the Lord of armies, and it will go into the house of the thief and into the house of him who takes a false oath by my name: and it will be in his house, causing its complete destruction, with its woodwork and its stones.
This is what the Lord of armies has said: Let your judging be upright and done in good faith, let every man have mercy and pity for his brother: Do not be hard on the widow, or the child without a father, on the man from a strange country, or on the poor; let there be no evil thought in your heart against your brother. But they would not give attention, turning their backs and stopping their ears from hearing; And they made their hearts like the hardest stone, so that they might not give ear to the law and the words which the Lord of armies had said by the earlier prophets: and there came great wrath from the Lord of armies. And it came about that as they would not give ear to his voice, so I would not give ear to their voice, says the Lord of armies:
And I will come near to you for judging; I will quickly be a witness against the wonder-workers, against those who have been untrue in married life, against those who take false oaths; against those who keep back from the servant his payment, and who are hard on the widow and the child without a father, who do not give his rights to the man from a strange country, and have no fear of me, says the Lord of armies.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Jeremiah 17
Commentary on Jeremiah 17 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Judah's sin is ineffaceably stamped upon the hearts of the people and on their altars. These four verses are closely connected with the preceding, and show why it is necessary that Judah be cast forth amidst the heathen, by reason of its being perfectly stepped in idolatry. Jeremiah 17:1. "The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, with the point of a diamond graven on the table of their hearts and on the horns of your altars. Jeremiah 17:2 . As they remember their children, so do they their altars and their Astartes by the green tree upon the high hills. Jeremiah 17:3 . My mountain in the field, thy substance, all thy treasures give I for a prey, thy high places for sin in all thy borders. Jeremiah 17:4 . And thou shalt discontinue, and that of thine own self, from thine inheritance that I gave thee, and I cause thee to serve thine enemies in a land which thou knowest not; for a fire have ye kindled in mine anger, for ever it burneth."