Bible Strands
Jeremiah 17:5
This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes mere flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks through Jeremiah to Judah, pronouncing a standing curse as part of a larger oracle (17:1–16) in which God warns of loss of inheritance and enslavement to enemies.
The words — 'arur (אָרוּר, "cursed") is a present participle, a declarative statement of fact rather than a conditional threat. 'adam (אָדָם, "mankind") is generic — not a specific ruler or ally but humanity as such.
The thread — The same contrast recurs in Psalms 118:8, Psalms 146:3, and Isaiah 2:22, each pairing trust in God against trust in man.
Why it lands — It asks the reader to name where their confidence actually rests, because the curse attaches not to a single misstep but to the default orientation of the heart.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
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.
Cross-references
- Psalms 118:8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.
- Psalms 146:3 Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.
- Isaiah 2:22 Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?
- 2 Chronicles 32:8 With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles.” So the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.
- Isaiah 31:1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel; they do not seek the LORD.
- Isaiah 30:1 “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.
- Isaiah 36:6 Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
- Psalms 62:9 Lowborn men are but a vapor; the exalted are but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
- Psalms 18:21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD and have not wickedly departed from my God.
- Ezekiel 29:6 Then all the people of Egypt will know that I am the LORD. For you were only a staff of reeds to the house of Israel.