Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 17

A pen of iron. — That is, a stylus, or graving tool, as in Job 19:24, chiefly used for engraving in stone or metal. In Psalms 45:1, it seems to have been used of the instrument with which the scribe wrote on his tablets.

With the point of a diamond. — The word expresses the idea of the hardness rather than the brilliancy of the diamond, and is rendered “adamant” in Ezekiel 3:9 and Zechariah 7:12. (For the diamond as a precious stone, a different word is used in Exodus 28:18.) Strictly speaking, it was applied only to the diamond-point set in iron used by engravers. Such instruments were known to the Romans (Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxvii. 15) and may have been in use in Phoenicia or Palestine.

These words describe a note of infamy that could not be erased, and this was stamped upon the tablets of the heart (compare 2 Corinthians 3:3) and blazoned upon the “horns of the altars” of their false worship, or of the true worship of Jehovah which they had polluted and rendered false. The plural “altars” probably points to the former.

While their children remember ... —If we take “children” as referring to age, there may be a reference to the way in which the horrors of Molech worship were seared into the minds of boys who were present at such a spectacle, so as never to be forgotten, but the general sense in which we speak of the “children” of Israel or Judah seems sufficient. The thought expressed is that every locality that could be used for idolatrous worship made them “remember” that worship, and begin to reproduce it. By some interpreters, the clause is interpreted, as they remember their children, so they also remember their altars and their groves; that is, their idols are as dear to them as their offspring. The former interpretation is, however, the more natural, and is best supported by the versions.

Groves. — i.e., as throughout the Old Testament, when connected with idolatry, the wooden columns that were the symbols of the Phoenician goddess Asherah, possibly the same as Astarte (Exodus 34:13; Deuteronomy 16:21; 1 Kings 14:23). The “green trees” suggested the thought of this worship—for the Asherah, though not a grove, was generally connected with one—as the “high hills” did that of the altars. Commonly the worship is described as “under every green tree.” Here a different preposition is used, “on the green trees,” connecting them with the verb “remember.”

My mountain in the field. —As in Jeremiah 21:13; Isaiah 2:2; Micah 4:2, a poetic phrase for Jerusalem or Zion, its greatness consisting not in its material elevation above the “field” or surrounding country, but in being “my mountain,” i.e., the mountain of Jehovah. These words predict the plunder of the city, perhaps especially the plunder of the Temple.

Your high places. —As having been from the time of Samuel onward the chief scene of the false worship of the people. The threat is repeated almost verbally from Jeremiah 15:13.

Thou, even thyself. —Literally, in or by yourself, an emphatic form for expressing loneliness and abandonment.

Shalt discontinue ... —The word was a half-technical one, used to describe the act of leaving lands untilled and releasing creditors in the sabbatical year (Exodus 23:11; Deuteronomy 15:2). The land would have its rest now, would enjoy its Sabbaths (Leviticus 26:34; 2 Chronicles 36:21), though Judah had failed in obedience to the Law which prescribed them. For the rest of the verse, see Note on Jeremiah 15:14.

Cursed be the man ... —The words are vehement and abrupt, but they burst from the prophet’s lips as proclaiming the root evil that had eaten into the life of his people. Their trust in an arm of flesh had led them to Egyptian and Assyrian alliances, and these to “departing from the Lord.” The anathema has its counterpart in the beatitude of Jeremiah 17:7. The opening words, Thus saith the Lord, indicate, perhaps, a pause, followed as if by a new message, which the prophet feels bound to deliver. It is significant that the prophet uses two words for the English “man”—the first implying strength, and the second, weakness.