Jeremiah 17:2

2 Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.

Jeremiah 17:2 in Other Translations

2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.

2 while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills,

2 Even their children go to worship at their pagan altars and Asherah poles, beneath every green tree and on every high hill.

2 The evidence against them is plain to see: sex-and-religion altars and sacred sex shrines Anywhere there's a grove of trees, anywhere there's an available hill.

2 while their children remember their altars and their Asherah poles, by the green trees on the high hills-

Jeremiah 17:2 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 17:2

Whilst their children remember their altars
Which is a further proof of their long continuance in idolatrous practices, and a fresh witness against them; they trained up their children in them; who, when grown up, could not forget them, but imitated them, and went on in the same evil ways. Some render the words, "as they remember their children, so they remember their altars ^F9, and their groves, by the green trees upon the high hills"; they had the same love to their idols, and the worship of them, as they had to their children. This sense is received by Kimchi ^F11; yea, they had a greater affection for their idols than for their children; since they made their children pass through the fire to Moloch, and burnt their sons and their daughters to Baal. The Targum renders it, "their groves under every green tree": see ( Jeremiah 2:20 ) ( 3:6 ) . Kimchi and Ben Melech connect green trees not with groves but with altars; and take the sense to be, that their altars were by green trees; since groves and green trees were the same, and which altars also were upon high hills.

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 (Mtwxbzm Mhynb rkzk) "sicut recordantur filiorum suorum, ita recordantur ararum suarum"; so some in Vatablus.
F11 So in T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 63. 2. & Gloss in ib.

Jeremiah 17:2 In-Context

1 “Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.

2 Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.

3 My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country.

4 Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever.”

5 This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

Cross References

• 1. S 2 Chronicles 24:18
• 2. S Jeremiah 2:20

Footnotes

• [a]. That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah