The blessed man who trusts in the Lord is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.
The image here is almost exactly the same as that of Psalm 1:3 and is a stark contrast with the shrub in the desert
that described the cursed man in Jeremiah 17:6. The Hebrew word yabal is translated as stream
and describes an irrigation channel rather than just a stream. The implication being that the tree has a permanent source of water, even during the hot summer months when natural streams normally dry up, that sustains it, and guarantees its fruitfulness.1 Judah should have and would have endured any hardship that came their way if they had trusted in the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord, their covenant king. As much as the words of Jeremiah 17:5–8 expose and condemn the foolish faithlessness of Judah, they would have been words of great encouragement to people like Jeremiah and the faithful remnant who continued to trust in the Lord, even through the Babylonian invasion and exile.
8 Il est comme un arbre planté près des eaux, Et qui étend ses racines vers le courant; Il n'aperçoit point la chaleur quand elle vient, Et son feuillage reste vert; Dans l'année de la sécheresse, il n'a point de crainte, Et il ne cesse de porter du fruit.