Jeremiah Chapter 17 verse 1 Holy Bible
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;
read chapter 17 in ASV
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:
read chapter 17 in BBE
The sin of Judah is written with a style of iron, with the point of a diamond, engraven upon the tablet of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
read chapter 17 in DARBY
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;
read chapter 17 in KJV
read chapter 17 in WBT
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;
read chapter 17 in WEB
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, With the point of a diamond, Graven on the tablet of their heart, And on the horns of your altars,
read chapter 17 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 1. - The sin of Judah, etc. "Judah's sin" is not merely their tendency to sin, but their sinful practices - their idolatry. This is said to be graven upon the table of their heart, for it is no mere form, but carried on with passionate earnestness, and as indelible as if engraved with an iron pen. How unlike, however, is this record to that of which the same expression is used in Job 19:24! With the point of a diamond; or, with a point of adamant (harder than flint, as Ezekiel 3:9 says). Fragments of adamant, says Pliny ('Hist. Nat.,' 37:15), are sought out by engravers and enclosed in iron; they easily overcome every hardness. Upon the horns of your altars. First of all, what altars are referred to? Those erected for the worship of idols or the two in the temple of Jehovah, which had been defiled by idolatry? And why is the sin of Judah said to be engraved upon the horns of the altars? Probably because the "horns," i.e. the projections at the four upper corners (Exodus 28:2) were smeared with the blood of the victims. The direction in Exodus 29:12 and Leviticus 4:7 was doubtless not peculiar to the ritual of the Law.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English ReadersXVII.(1) A pen of iron.--i.e., a stylus, or graving tool, as in Job 19:24, chiefly used for engraving in stone or metal. In Psalm 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; 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 Ph?nicia or Palestine. The words describe a note of infamy that could not be erased, and this was stamped in upon the tablets of the heart (comp. 2Corinthians 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" points probably to the former. . . .
