Who is the “cursed man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength”?

As mentioned earlier, Jeremiah 17:5–8 reflects very closely the language of Psalm 1:1–6 which also describes the blessed man and the cursed man and their respective destinies. According to Jeremiah 17:5 it is the Lord who speaks these words as he places a well-known psalm on the lips of the people. These verses seem to have no connection with Jeremiah 17:1–4 because they reflect on the life of an individual, and not of the nation, but as the Lord uses this well-known psalm he is saying to Judah, You are the 'cursed' man and not the 'blessed' man. This emphasis on curse is seen in the fact that the description of being cursed comes before that of being blessed, which is opposite to Psalm 1:1–6.

The man refers to the man of Israel who has a covenant relationship with the Lord. His only trust should have been in the Lord and not in mankind.¹ Cursed is the man who trusts in man. Two Hebrew words for man are used. The first is geber and describes man at his strongest. The second is adam, which describes man in his weakness as a limited creature who came from dust. Even man at his strongest is cursed when he places his trust in mere human beings.² This cursed man trusts in man and makes flesh his strength. In the poetic structure man is in parallel with flesh and the verb trust is parallel to makes his strength.³ Man is cursed when he makes humanity his strength. Such a man’s heart turns away from the Lord. He is the man who should be in a covenant relationship of trust with the Lord, but he has made the deliberate choice to trust in humanity instead.⁴ Following on from Jeremiah 17:1–4 these verses make a powerful comment on Judah. The nation has been like a man who trusts in human strength through political alliances or worshipping man-mad gods, instead of trusting the Lord. The nation’s end will be that of the cursed man. The only thing the nation can do is to respond like the blessed man described in Jeremiah 17:7–8.⁵ Sadly, they never do.