Jeremiah 17:1

Judah’s Sin and Punishment

1 “The sin of Judah is ^awritten with a ^bpen of iron;
With the point of a diamond it is ^cengraved
On the tablet of their heart,
And on the horns of your altars,

2 While their children remember
Their altars and their ^awooden images
By the green trees on the high hills.

3 O My mountain in the field,
I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures,
And your high places of sin within all your borders.

4 And you, even yourself,
Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you;
And I will cause you to serve your enemies
In ^athe land which you do not know;
For ^byou have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.”

5 Thus says the Lord:
^a“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes ^bflesh his strength,
Whose heart departs from the Lord.

6 For he shall be ^alike a shrub in the desert,
And ^bshall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
^cIn a salt land which is not inhabited.

Commentaries:

Barnes' Notes

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Jeremiah 17:2 >>

Jeremiah 17:1

This section Jeremiah 17:1-4 is inseparably connected with the preceding. Judah' s sin had been described Jeremiah 16:19 as one of which the very Gentiles will become ashamed. and for which she will shortly be punished by, an intervention of God' s hand more marked than anything in her previous history. Jeremiah now dwells upon the indelible nature of her sin.

A pen of iron - i. e., an iron chisel for cutting inscriptions upon tables of stone.

The point of a diamond - The ancients were well acquainted with the cutting powers of the diamond.

Altars - Not Yahweh' s one altar, but the many altars which the Jews had set up to Baalim Jeremiah 11:13. Though Josiah had purged the land of these, yet in the eleven years of Jehoiakim' s reign they had multiplied again, and were the external proofs of Judah' s idolatry, as the table of her heart was the internal witness.

**Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Jeremiah 17:1:**

Jeremiah 17:1
Ezekiel 3:9

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Jeremiah 17:2 >>

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