John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 17:2

"whilst their children remember their altars and their Asherim by the green trees upon the high hills." — Jeremiah 17:2 (ASV)

Interpreters, it seems to me, have not perceived the Prophet's design here, or at least they have not clearly explained the subject. He proceeds, I think, with what he said at the end of the last verse—that the iniquity of Judah was engraved on the altars, or on the horns of the altars: how was this? It was because they transmitted to posterity whatever they devised for their ungodly forms of worship.

How then was iniquity engraved on the horns of the altars? It was because their wickedness was not merely temporary, when the Jews cast aside the Law and followed their corrupt superstitions; on the contrary, their iniquity flowed down, as it were, by hereditary right to their posterity. Jeremiah, then, justly accuses them that they were not only led away into evil throughout their own lives but also corrupted their children, for they left them memorials of their own superstitions.

Some offer this explanation: “As they remember their children, so also their altars;” as though the Prophet had said that idolaters burned with such ardor that they held the altars dedicated to their idols as dear to them as their own children. But this view seems too forced. I, then, have no doubt that the Prophet here amplifies their wickedness when he says that it was engraved on the horns of the altars, because their posterity remembered the superstitions they had received from their fathers. He also mentions their groves; for on or near every shady tree they built altars; and also on all high hills.