Jeremiah 17:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 17:1
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
an offence (sometimes habitual sinfulness) · noun, common feminine singular construct
Judah
יְהוּדָ֗הye.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · proper noun, a place name
written
כְּתוּבָ֛הke.tu.Vah
H3789
to grave · verb, qal passive participle, feminine singular absolute
pen
בְּעֵ֥טbe.'Et
H5842
a stylus or marking stick · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
iron
בַּרְזֶ֖לbar.Zel
H1270
iron (as cutting) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
point
בְּצִפֹּ֣רֶןbe.tzi.Po.ren
H6856
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
diamond
שָׁמִ֑ירsha.Mir
H8068
a thorn · noun, common masculine singular absolute
graven
חֲרוּשָׁה֙cha.ru.Shah
H2790
to scratch · verb, qal passive participle, feminine singular absolute
table
ל֣וּחַLu.ach
H3871
probably meaning to glisten · noun, common masculine singular construct
heart
לִבָּ֔םli.Bam
H3820
the heart · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
horns
וּלְקַרְנ֖וֹתu.le.kar.Not
H7161
a horn (as projecting) · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct
altars
מִזְבְּחוֹתֵיכֶֽםmiz.be.cho.tei.Khem
H4196
an altar · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Proverbs 3:3 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
2 Corinthians 3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the livin…
Proverbs 7:3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
Leviticus 4:25 And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and sh…
Job 19:23-24 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
Leviticus 4:17-18 And the priest shall dip his finger in some of the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before the LORD, even before the vail.
Hosea 12:11 Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 17:1-4
The people had asked (Jer 16:10), What is our iniquity, and what is our sin? as if they could not be charged with any thing worth speaking of, for which God should enter into judgment with them; their challenge was answered there, but here we have a further reply to it, in which,
I. The indictment is fully proved upon the prisoners, both the fact and the fault; their sin is too plain to be denied and too bad to be excused, and they have nothing to plead either in extenuation of the crime or in arrest and mitigation of the judgment. 1. They cannot plead, Not guilty, for their sins are upon record in the book of God's omniscience and their own conscience; nay, and they are obvious to the eye a…
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron,.... Or an iron tool, such as engravers use in working on hard matter:
and with the point of a diamond; such as glaziers use in cutting their glass; though this is not the word used for a diamond in Exodus 28:18, this word is elsewhere translated an adamant, Ezekiel 3:9. Bothart (h) takes it to be the smiris, which jewellers use in polishing their gems. Jarchi makes mention of a Midrash, or exposition, which explains the iron pen of Jeremiah, and the point of the adamant, or diamond, of Ezekiel, because of what is said of them, Jeremiah 1:18. Kimchi thinks the word "shamir", rendered "diamond", is expressive of the subject matter on which their…
Jeremiah 17:1
1. The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars.
1. Peccatum (vel scelus) Jehudah scripture est in stylo ferri (ferreo) et in ungue adamantino, exaratum super tabulam cordis eorum et ad cornua altarium vestrorum.
The Prophet teaches us here in other words what we have often already seen, -- that the Jews in vain sought refuges, for their sin had so much accumulated that it was very apparent. It indeed often happens, that men fall; but God, who is ever inclined to mercy, forgives them; and they are also often led astray through levity, and thus their sins are not…
The Church Fathers
Nothing is more potent than the conscience: letters inscribed on it are indelible. I mean, even if everyone mounted a case to his or her conscience supported by favorable evidence, the conscience itself cannot tolerate the wickedness of falsehood. It is pricked and goaded and delivers its verdict incorruptibly. He says this here, too: The facts accuse you, and the conscience joins in testimony against you. He reminds them also of the groves, the altars and what was done on them, and he threatens to give to the enemy all their wealth along with the idols.
(Chapter 17, Verse 1) The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, engraved with an adamantium nail, upon the width (or height) of their hearts (or in the depth of their hearts), and upon the horns of their altars (or thrones). Concerning the nations that have turned to the Lord, it has been said: Behold, I will show them in turn, I will show them my hand and my power. Now, speaking of Israel who is rejected: The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, engraved with an adamantium nail, and so on. Why the Septuagint has been omitted, I do not know; unless perhaps they spared their own people: just as it is clear in Isaiah that they did so: Cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for why should he be esteemed? (Isaiah 2:22); and many similar things, which if I wanted to arrange them all, it would not be a book, but books. Because his mercy is confirmed upon us, and the truth of the Lord remains forever (Psalm 116, 1, 2). And concerning those whom he said to Moses: Let me alone, that I may destroy this people, and make you into a great nation (Exodus 32, 10). But the sin of the Jews is indelible, and, so to speak, cannot be abolished by any means; it is written with an iron stylus on an adamant nail, which in Hebrew is called Samir (); not that there is any nail that is called Samir; but that the adamant stone (which has received this name because it is untamable and unbreakable) has such brilliance and lightness that it can be written on without any impediment with an iron stylus: so that the hard material of iron may write on the harder adamant tablet, and what is written may endure forever. For they themselves said: 'His blood be upon us and upon our children' (Matthew 27). Therefore, it has been written or engraved on the horns of their altars or shrines, so that sacrilegious works may be remembered forever. But if this is the case, where is that which an old woman madly fabricates, that a person can be without sin if they wish, and that God's commandments are easy?
Dictionary and topics
Adamant — (Heb. shamir), Ezek. 3:9. The Greek word adamas means diamond. This stone is not referred to, but corundum or some kind of hard steel. It is an emblem of firmness in resisting adversaries of the…
Diamond — (1.) A precious gem (Heb. yahalom’, in allusion to its hardness), otherwise unknown, the sixth, i.e., the third in the second row, in the breastplate of the high priest, with the name of Naphtali…
Graving — (1.) Heb. hatsabh. Job 19:24, rendered “graven,” but generally means hewn stone or wood, in quarry or forest. (2.) Heb. harush. Jer. 17:1, rendered “graven,” and indicates generally artistic work in…
Nail — For fastening. (1.) Hebrew yathed, “piercing,” a peg or nail of any material (Ezek. 15:3), more especially a tent-peg (Ex. 27:19; 35:18; 38:20), with one of which Jael (q.v.) pierced the temples of…
Writing — The art of writing must have been known in the time of the early Pharaohs. Moses is commanded “to write for a memorial in a book” (Ex. 17:14) a record of the attack of Amalek. Frequent mention is…
Diamond · One of the jewels in the breastplate — One of the jewels in the breastplate
Example · 30:7; — 30:7;
Influence · EVIL — EVIL
Iron · PenJob 19;24; — PenJob 19;24;
Pen · Ma — Ma
Precious Stones · Mentioned in scripture: Diamond — Mentioned in scripture: Diamond
Judah's sin is ineffaceably stamped upon the hearts of the people and on their altars. These four verses are closely connected with the preceding, and show why it is necessary that Judah be cast forth amidst the heathen, by reason of its being perfectly stepped in idolatry. Jer 17:1. "The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, with the point of a diamond graven on the table of their hearts and on the horns of your altars. Jer 17:2. As they remember their children, so do they their altars and their Astartes by the green tree upon the high hills. Jer 17:3. My mountain in the field, thy substance, all thy treasures give I for a prey, thy high places for sin in all thy borders. Jer 17:4. And…
The families of Judah were committed to Baal worship; once again, the Lord listed the sins that justified their judgment.
17:1 A stone mason used an iron chisel or a diamond point to permanently inscribe images and texts on stones. Idol worship had so hardened the thoughts, emotions, and will of the people that it seemed impossible for them to change. • In Old Testament times, the corners of . . . altars had projections called “horns” (e.g., Exod 27:1-2). According to covenant rules, when an animal sacrifice was offered, blood was applied to these horns. How Baal worshipers treated them is unknown.
Rashi on Jeremiah 17:1
with a pen of iron This is an allegory. That is to say that it is deeply engraved, and cannot be erased. And the Midrash Aggadah explains: with a pen of iron, with a diamond point, preserved by Jeremiah, called ‘an iron wall,’ and by Ezekiel, to whom it was said (3:9): “As a diamond, harder than flint have I made your forehead.”
engraved Engraved like one who plows deeply.
on the tablet of their heart that they do not forget their idolatry.
Then there is another prophecy, which — I do not know how — we did not find among the Seventy, but we found in the remaining editions, clearly lying in the Hebrew, and it is filled with matters most necessary, able, if we attend, to turn our soul back. And the words are thus: "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with an adamantine point engraved upon the breast of their heart." It is possible to give oneself over to the easier course and to say: these things are written concerning the Jews, that their sin "is written." But if you see, as we have often shown, Judah spoken of figuratively as Christ, perhaps "the sin of Judah" is ours who believe on Christ who is from the tribe of Judah. But if you are able to hear otherwise, in a more mystical way, perhaps he prophesies concerning Judas the betrayer, so that the prophecy is concerning him, saying: "The sin of Judas is written with a pen of iron, with an adamantine point engraved upon the breast of the heart"; but again the word "their" does not follow with respect to that man. Perhaps, then, he was speaking with reference to us, that, if we become sinners, these prophesied things overtake us. We have sinned, and our sin is not written outside us, but in our heart, and it is written "with a pen of iron, with an adamantine point." And that the sins which we sin are inscribed into us through the sinning, the matter itself will present. I was not conscious to myself of this or that matter or of this or that sin. Having done it, I have an imprint of it, and, as it were, there is written the imprint of my sin that has been sinned in my soul. And if my sin were written with ink, I would have wiped it out; but as it is, it is written "with a pen of iron," it is written "with an adamantine point," it is written "upon the breast of the heart" of ours, so that I may come to the tribunal and the prophecy be fulfilled that says: "There is nothing hidden that shall not be made manifest, and nothing covered that shall not be revealed." My breast was laid bare, and my heart having the letters of sin inscribed "with the pen," upon my breast and in my heart the imprints of my sins. "For there is nothing hidden that shall not be made manifest," but "amid one another the reasonings accusing or even defending," and "judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both illuminate the hidden things of…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
