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;
Parallel translations
- WEB “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.
- BSB “The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus, engraved with a diamond point on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.
- NKJV “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; With the point of a diamond it is engraved On the tablet of their heart, And on the horns of your altars,
- NASB The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus; With a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts And on the horns of their altars,
- NLT “The sin of Judah is inscribed with an iron chisel— engraved with a diamond point on their stony hearts and on the corners of their altars.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Judah's sin is engraved with an iron pen and diamond point upon the tablet of their hearts and the horns of their altars. Their guilt is so deeply ingrained it has become a permanent record before God.
Overview
The image of sin etched with iron and diamond conveys how deeply and indelibly rebellion has marked both their hearts and their worship. Their very altars testify against them. This unerasable record of sin reveals the human need for a new heart and for atonement, fulfilled in the new covenant where God writes His law on hearts and Christ removes sin's record (Colossians 2:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Prov 3:3Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
- 2 Cor 3:3Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
- Prov 7:3Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
- Lev 4:25And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out his blood at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering.
- Job 19:23–24Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
- Hos 12:11Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.
- Lev 4:17–18And the priest shall dip his finger in some of the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before the LORD, even before the vail.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 17:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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