Wed 091230 am Jer 16-18

Jeremiah 16
16.5  I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy...  This verse really makes the ESV's tranlation of the Hebrew word חֶסֶד Strong's H2617 - checed seem odd.  How do you remove steadfast love? At any rate steadfast would not imply unending, at least not in this context.  TWOT  presents an interesting question, "The question is, do the texts ascribe his ḥesed to his covenants or to his everlasting love’? Is not ḥesed as Dom Sorg observed (see Bibliography) really the ot reflex of 'God is love'?"  ----Harris, R. Laird ; Harris, Robert Laird ; Archer, Gleason Leonard ; Waltke, Bruce K.: Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. electronic ed. Chicago : Moody Press, 1999, c1980, S. 306
16.13  for I will show you no favor...  This is a thought provoking reason for people to server other gods.
16.18 His inheritance...  The land according to Unger.
  
Jeremiah 17
17.3  all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin....  Crime may not pay, but there sin caused them to pay dearly.
17.9  desperatly sick...  Since I memorized this in the KJV, the choice of "sick" by the ESV sparked my curiosity.  Merrill F. Under says, "Man's fallen heart is desperately wicked (corrupt; anush, "dangerously ill," afflicted with the deadly virus of sin, "incurably sick" except for medicining by God's grace; Eccles. 9:3; Isa. 1:6; 6:10; Matt. 13:15; Rom. 1:21). --http://www.amazon.com/Ungers-Commentary-Testament-Merrill-Unger/dp/0899574157 It is translated,

•  ylt 9 Crooked is the heart above all things, And it is incurable—who doth know it?
• kjv 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 
• nasb 9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? 
• nkjv 9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? 
• esv 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 
• niv 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 
• nlt 9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

The literal Young's and dynamic NIV both pick up on the uncurable part.  The KJV and very dynamic New Living both hone in on the sin part.  And the literal NASB and middle of the road ESV both emphasize the sick part.  I think I am leaning toward the YLT and NIV myself.
17.10  search the heart...
17.13  fountain of living water...  as in 2.13.
17.16  the day of sickness...  an interesting expression, especially in light of verse 17.
17.17a  my thought too.
17.19-27  I like the imagery of the gates and the way Jeremiah stood at the gate and how the exhortation was woven around the image of the kinds of things that happened there would reflect God's blessing or curse.
  
Jeremiah 18
18.1-4  neat object lesson
18.15  forgotten Me...  The more things change, the more they stay the same.