What “glorious throne” is the “place of our sanctuary” and why will those who “turn away” be “written in the earth”?

The following two verses (Jeremiah 17:12–13) are a hymn, and they bring to a climax the thoughts expressed in Jeremiah 17:1–11.¹ The Lord is still speaking as he places this hymn on the lips of the people. A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. The glorious throne refers to the ark of the covenant, above which the Lord sat enthroned (Jeremiah 14:21; Psalm 80:2), and can be understood to refer to the whole temple which symbolizes the Lord’s presence, as their majestic king, with his people.² It is not simply the existence of the temple building that gives Judah sanctuary but rather the presence of the Lord symbolized by the temple. It is the Lord himself who is “the hope of Israel. But those who forsake the Lord will be put to shame. He offers no sanctuary to those who turn away from him to other gods even while they are going through empty rituals in the temple. The contrast here is the same as in Jeremiah 17:5–8. Here those who are put to shame are the same as the cursed man and they are contrasted with the blessed man who finds sanctuary in the Lord. In both cases the difference between the two is the absence of the presence of living water which is the Lord himself (see Jeremiah 17:8).³

Those who turn away from the Lord shall be written in the earth. Covenant kings often kept a list of the citizens of their kingdom and they would enjoy the benefits of the covenant. But those who turn away from the Lord as their covenant king will have their names written in the earth, meaning written in the dust where they are easily brushed away and forgotten.⁴ Significantly, the Lord speaks in the first person in the final sentence of Jeremiah 17:13. He speaks directly to Judah emphasizing the fact that they are indeed the ones who will be shamed and whose names will be written in the earth.⁵