Jeremiah 17:14 Meaning and Explanation
“Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Prayers often hedge. This one refuses to. Jeremiah asks for two things and then declares the outcome in the same breath, as though the request and its answer belong together. Anyone who has prayed while doubting whether the prayer would land will recognize what is happening here, and may want to learn the grammar of confidence that the prophet uses.
A short prayer in which Jeremiah asks God for healing and rescue, and states his certainty that whatever God undertakes will be finished, because God Himself is the prophet's boast.
The Context of Jeremiah 17:14
Jeremiah 17 begins by describing Judah's sin as engraved with an iron pen on the tablet of their hearts. Verses 5 through 8 set two portraits side by side, a man trusting in human strength who withers like desert scrub, and a man trusting the LORD who is like a tree planted by water. Verse 9 states that the heart is deceitful above all things, and verse 10 says the LORD searches it. Verse 13 names the LORD as Israel's hope and as a fountain of living water. Verse 14 is Jeremiah's own prayer arising directly from those declarations, before verses 15 through 18 describe the mockery he faced.
What Does Jeremiah 17:14 Mean?
The structure is two matched petitions with their answers built in. Heal me and I shall be healed. Save me and I shall be saved. Each Hebrew pair uses the same root twice, once as a request and once as a result, which is why the English repeats the word. Jeremiah is saying that healing worked by God stays healed and rescue worked by God holds. The final clause supplies the ground: thou art my praise. The word can mean the object of his boasting or the song he sings, and either sense fits a man who had nothing left to advertise except the God he served.
The prayer grows out of the chapter's diagnosis. Judah's sin is cut deep into the heart, and the heart is precisely what no person can read or repair on his own. Once verse 9 has said that, a request for healing becomes the only sensible next move. Jeremiah asks God to do at the personal level what chapter 17 has said only God can do at all. The vocabulary also connects him to Israel's older confession that the LORD is her healer, given at Marah after the Exodus. Healing in Scripture regularly covers more than bodies, reaching wounds of conscience, community, and covenant life. Jeremiah prays inside that wider sense.
Isaiah later describes a servant by whose stripes healing comes, and the Gospels present Jesus healing bodies while announcing forgiveness in the same encounters. Matthew applies the servant language to Him directly. Jeremiah's two verbs, heal and save, meet in a name: the angel told Joseph that Mary's son would be called Jesus because He would save His people from their sins. What the prophet asked for as a wounded man, the New Testament announces as an accomplished work offered to all who come. Praying Jeremiah 17:14 today joins a long company of people asking God to finish what only He can finish.
Jeremiah 17:14 in the Original Language
rapha (רָפָא), 'heal' -- to mend, restore, or make whole. Hebrew uses it for bodies, for bitter water made drinkable, and for a wounded nation, so Jeremiah's request reaches beyond physical symptoms to whatever in him has been damaged and needs repair.
Bible Verses Related to Jeremiah 17:14
“And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.”
- Exodus 15:26
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
- Jeremiah 17:9
“Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;”
- Psalm 103:3
“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”
- Matthew 1:21
Where Jeremiah 17:14 Echoes in Scripture
Exodus 15:26 records the LORD naming Himself Israel's healer just after the bitter water at Marah was made sweet, and that title stands behind Jeremiah's request. The prophet is asking the God who introduced Himself that way to act according to His own name. Psalm 103:3 later gathers forgiveness and healing into one line of praise, keeping the two together as Jeremiah does. His prayer is short because it rests on something already revealed rather than on new argument.
How to Apply Jeremiah 17:14 Today
Short prayers have their own strength. When words are hard to find, six of them will do: heal me, save me, You are my praise. We can pray this over a body that is failing, a marriage under strain, a habit that keeps returning, or a conscience that will not settle. The verse also trains us where to put our confidence while we wait. Jeremiah names God as his boast before anything visible has changed, which keeps his hope from depending on the speed of the answer. That ordering is worth copying in our own praying.
Reflection & Prayer
What have we been trying to heal by ourselves, and what would it take to hand it over honestly? Consider praying this verse aloud each morning this week before anything else is said. A prayer: O LORD, heal what I cannot reach and save what I cannot hold. Where I have made my own strength my boast, quiet it, and let You be my praise instead. Amen.