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Job 19:23,24
Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! …

point.

Proverbs 3:3
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

Proverbs 7:3
Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

2 Corinthians 3:3
Forasmuch 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.

and upon.

Leviticus 4:17,18,25
And the priest shall dip his fingerin some of the blood, and sprinkleit seven times before the LORD,even before the vail…

Hosea 12:11
Is there iniquityin Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altarsare as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

engraved with a diamond point
The mention of a diamond point emphasizes the hardness and durability of the inscription. Diamonds, being one of the hardest known materials, signify that the sin is not only deeply inscribed but also enduring. This imagery suggests that Judah's sin is not superficial but deeply rooted in their character and culture. The use of such a tool indicates that their iniquity is not easily removed, requiring divine intervention for true cleansing.

on the tablets of their hearts
This phrase suggests that the sin is internalized, affecting the very core of the people's being. The heart, in biblical terms, often represents the center of will, emotion, and intellect. By stating that the sin is on the tablets of their hearts, it implies that the people of Judah have embraced sin at a fundamental level, affecting their thoughts, desires, and decisions. This internalization of sin contrasts with the new covenant promise inJeremiah 31:33, where God writes His law on the hearts of His people.

and on the horns of their altars
The horns of the altar were significant in Israelite worship, symbolizing strength and refuge. By stating that sin is engraved on the horns of their altars, it indicates that even their places of worship are tainted by iniquity. This suggests a corruption of religious practices, where idolatry and false worship have infiltrated what should be sacred. The altars, meant for sacrifices to God, have become places of sin, reflecting a broader spiritual decay. This imagery underscores the need for genuine repentance and a return to true worship.

Jeremiah opens with a mental picture of a scribe taking an iron tool—something sturdy enough to bite into rock—and carving out Judah’s rebellion.

• Iron speaks of strength and durability; this is no pencil mark that time can smudge (cf.Job 19:24, “That they were engraved with an iron tool on lead, or inscribed in rock forever!”).

• The prophet is saying, “Your sin isn’t a momentary lapse; it’s chiseled in.”

• The image echoes the Ten Commandments that were “inscribed by the finger of God” on stone (Exodus 32:16). Judah’s own “stone document” now records the opposite: a covenant of disobedience.

Iron alone is tough, but Jeremiah piles on “diamond” (hardest known substance of his day) to stress permanence.

•Zechariah 7:12 says the people “made their hearts like diamond” to resist the law. Here, diamond cuts them instead—irony at work.

• No ordinary pressure removes a diamond etching; the judgment Judah faces will be equally unerasable (Jeremiah 15:1–2).

The real ledger is not external tablets but human hearts.

•Proverbs 3:3 urges God’s people to “write kindness and truth on the tablet of your heart”; Judah has written idolatry instead.

•Jeremiah 31:33 promises a coming day when God Himself will “write My law on their hearts.” This verse shows why that promise is needed: the current “inscription” is sin.

• Paul later contrasts the two conditions—“not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” written by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:3).

Horns were the most sacred parts of the altar, symbolizing power and refuge (Exodus 27:2;1 Kings 1:50).

• By saying sin is engraved there, Jeremiah shows that even Judah’s worship is polluted; their sacrifices can’t cover what their altars advertise.

•Hosea 8:11 warns, “Judah has multiplied altars for sinning”; the very means of atonement has become a billboard for rebellion.

• When judgment falls, those defiled altars will offer no sanctuary (Amos 3:14).

Jeremiah 17:1 paints a stark portrait: Judah’s sin is no surface stain but a deep, diamond-hard engraving—permanent, public, and personal. It resides in their hearts and flaunts itself on their altars, leaving them helpless apart from God’s future promise to rewrite those tablets with His own righteous law.

(1)A pen of iron.--i.e.,astylus,or graving tool, as inJob 19:24, chiefly used for engraving in stone or metal. InPsalm 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" inEzekiel 3:9;Zechariah 7:12. (For the diamond as a precious stone a different word is used inExodus 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. . . .