Jeremiah 17:2

2 As the remembering of their children, [so is the remembering of] their altars and their poles of Asherah worship beside [the] leafy 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 "The sin of Judah [is] written with an iron stylus, with a point of diamond [it is] engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars.

2 As the remembering of their children, [so is the remembering of] their altars and their poles of Asherah worship beside [the] leafy trees on [the] high hills.

3 [O] my mountain in the open country, I will give your wealth, all your treasures, for spoil, your high places, because of [your] sin, throughout all your territories.

4 And {you will let go your hand from your inheritance} that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in the land that you do not know, for you kindled a fire in my anger, until eternity it will be kindled."

5 Thus says Yahweh, "Cursed [is] the person who trusts in humankind and makes flesh his {strength}, and turns aside his heart from Yahweh.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew "tree"