Jeremiah 17:1
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven on the table of their heart, and on the horns of your altars;
American King James Version (AKJV)
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven on the table of their heart, and on the horns of your altars;
American Standard Version (ASV)
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the tablet of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
Basic English Translation (BBE)
The sin of Judah is recorded with a pen of iron, and with the sharp point of a jewel it is cut on their hearts of stone, and on the horns of their altars for a sign to them:
Webster's Revision
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;
World English Bible
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, [and] with the point of a diamond: it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars;
English Revised Version (ERV)
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;
Definitions for Jeremiah 17:1
Clarke's Jeremiah 17:1 Bible Commentary
The sin of Judah - Idolatry.
Is written with a pen of iron - It is deeply and indelibly written in their heart, and shall be as indelibly written in their punishment. Writing with the point of a diamond must refer to glass, or some vitrified substance, as it is distinguished here from engraving with a steel burine, or graver. Their altars show what the deities are which they worship. There may be reference here to the different methods of recording events in those days: -
1. A pen or stile of iron, for engraving on lead or wood.
2. A point of a diamond, for writing on vitreous substances.
3. Writing on tables of brass or copper.
4. Writing on the horns of the altars the names of the deities worshipped there. This is probable.
In several parts of India, and all through Ceylon, an iron or steel pen is used universally; with these the natives form the letters by incisions on the outer rind of the palm leaf. Books written in this way are very durable. This pen is broad at the top, has a very fine sharp point, and is sharp at one side as a knife, to shave and prepare the palm leaf. A pen of this description now lies before me.
Barnes's Jeremiah 17:1 Bible Commentary
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.
Wesley's Jeremiah 17:1 Bible Commentary
17:1 Graven - Nor is it a thing done in secret, but it is engraven upon the horns of their altars. God's altar was four - square, and at each corner there was a rising part made of brass, these were called the horns of the altar. Now their sin is said to be engraven upon the horns of the altar, because the blood of the sacrifices which they offered to idols was sprinkled there, or because their altars had some inscription upon them, declaring to what idol that altar was consecrated.
