Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Jeremiah 17:2

CHAPTER 17

Jr 17:1-27. The Jews' Inveterate Love of Idolatry.

The the Septuagint omits the first four verses, but other Greek versions have them.

1. The first of the four clauses relates to the third, the second to the fourth, by alternate parallelism. The sense is: They are as keen after idols as if their propensity was "graven with an iron pen (Job 19:24) on their hearts," or as if it were sanctioned by a law "inscribed with a diamond point" on their altars. The names of their gods used to be written on "the horns of the altars" (Ac 17:23). As the clause "on their hearts" refers to their inward propensity, so "on ... altars," the outward exhibition of it. Others refer "on the horns of ... altars" to their staining them with the blood of victims, in imitation of the Levitical precept (Ex 29:12; Le 4:7, 18), but "written ... graven," would thus be inappropriate.

table of ... heart--which God intended to be inscribed very differently, namely, with His truths (Pr 3:3; 2Co 3:3).

your--Though "their" preceded, He directly addresses them to charge the guilt home to them in particular.

2. children remember--Instead of forsaking the idolatries of their fathers, they keep them up (Jr 7:18). This is given as proof that their sin is "graven upon ... altars" (Jr 17:1), that is, is not merely temporary. They corrupt their posterity after them. Castalio less probably translates, "They remember their altars as (fondly as) they do their children."

groves--rather, "images of Astarte," the goddess of the heavenly hosts, represented as a sacred tree, such as is seen in the Assyrian sculptures (2Ki 21:7; 2Ch 24:18). "Image of the grove." The Hebrew for "grove" is Asherah, that is, Assarak, Astarte, or Ashtaroth.

by the green trees--that is, near them: the sacred trees (idol symbols) of Astarte being placed in the midst of natural trees: "green trees" is thus distinguished from "groves," artificial trees. Henderson, to avoid taking the same Hebrew particle in the same sentence differently, "by ... upon" translates "images of Astarte on the green trees." But it is not probable that images, in the form of a sacred tree, should be hung on trees, rather than near them.