Jeremiah 17:2

Their children are always thinking about ¹  their ²  altars and their sacred poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, ³  set up beside the green trees on the high hills

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

As they remember their children, So they remember their altars and their Asherim By green trees on the high hills.

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

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.

Their altars and their wood pillars under every branching tree, on the high hills and the mountains in the field.

while their children remember their altars and their sacred poles, beside every green tree, and on the high hills,

While their children remember Their altars and their wooden images By the green trees on the high hills.

Their children are always thinking about ¹  their ²  altars and their sacred poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, ³  set up beside the green trees on the high hills

¹ tn It is difficult to convey in good English style the connection between this verse and the preceding. The text does not have a finite verb but a temporal preposition with an infinitive: Heb “while their children remember their altars…” It is also difficult to translate the verb “literally.” (i.e., what does “remember” their altars mean?). Hence it has been rendered “always think about.” Another possibility would be “have their altars…on their minds.”

¹ sn There is possibly a sarcastic irony involved here as well. The Israelites were to remember the Lord and what he had done and were to commemorate certain days, e.g., the Passover and the Sabbath which recalled their deliverance. Instead they resorted to the pagan altars and kept them in mind.

² tc This reading follows many Hebrew mss and ancient versions. Many other Hebrew mss read “your” [masc. pl.].

³ sn Sacred poles dedicated to…Asherah. A leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon was Asherah, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles (Hebrew אֲשֵׁרִים [’asherim], plural). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 7:5; 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).