Jeremiah 17:14

Jeremiah 17:14, in plain English

Jeremiah moves here to a personal prayer: he's asking God to heal and save him because God alone is worthy of his praise and the only one who can restore him.

Why it's here

After prophesying God's judgment, Jeremiah himself becomes vulnerable and prays for his own healing and deliverance. He's not arrogant or distant—he's acknowledging his own need and his own dependence on God.

Who's speaking

Jeremiah, praying personally to God

Where it sits in the story

This shift shows Jeremiah's character. He's not just speaking God's word from a position of strength—he's deeply dependent himself. His prayer shows what trust actually looks like in practice.

The scholarly reading

Jeremiah calls upon God for healing and salvation, identifying God as his source of praise—a personal petition amid the surrounding oracles.

Language and setting

Here the prophetic voice shifts to first-person supplication, suggesting Jeremiah's own spiritual vertigo as he bears messages of judgment. The request for healing (רְפָאֵנִי, raphaeni) and salvation (הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי, hoshiini) implies Jeremiah's own vulnerability—he is not insulated from the spiritual crises his prophecies describe. Identifying God as 'my praise' (תְהִלָּתִי, tehillati) asserts that even amid prophetic burden, divine relationship remains the foundation of identity.

Voice

Jeremiah himself, in personal prayer-petition

Significance

This verse reveals the prophet's own need for the wisdom just proclaimed: his trust in God sustains him through opposition. It humanizes the prophetic vocation, showing that Jeremiah himself must embody the faith he proclaims—a model for communities in exile and beyond.

12A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.

13O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame. All who turn away will be written in the dust, for they have abandoned the LORD, the fountain of living water.

14Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise.

15Behold, they keep saying to me, “Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come now!”

16But I have not run away from being Your shepherd; I have not desired the day of despair. You know that the utterance of my lips was spoken in Your presence.

Read all of Jeremiah 17 — The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick — who can understand it? Cursed is the one who trusts in man. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.