New English Translation
Jeremiah 17:9
9The human mind is more deceitful than anything else. It is incurably bad. Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
- New International Version (NIV)The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
- English Standard Version (ESV)The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
- New King James Version (NKJV)“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Context of Jeremiah 17:9
7My blessing is on those people who trust in me, who put their confidence in me. 8They will be like a tree planted near a stream whose roots spread out toward the water. It has nothing to fear when the heat comes. Its leaves are always green. It has no need to be concerned in a year of drought. It does not stop bearing fruit. The human mind is more deceitful than anything else. It is incurably bad. Who can understand it? 10I, the Lord, probe into people’s minds. I examine people’s hearts. I deal with each person according to how he has behaved. I give them what they deserve based on what they have done. 11The person who gathers wealth by unjust means is like the partridge that broods over eggs but does not hatch them. Before his life is half over he will lose his ill-gotten gains. At the end of his life it will be clear he was a fool.”
Read all of Jeremiah 17Jeremiah 17:9 word by word
עָקֹ֥ב הַלֵּ֛ב מִכֹּ֖ל וְאָנֻ֣שׁ ה֑וּא מִ֖י יֵדָעֶֽנּוּ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Jeremiah 17:9
- Jeremiah 16:12And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you has followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed me.
- Genesis 6:5But the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time.
- Genesis 8:21And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, even though the inclination of their minds is evil from childhood on. I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.
- Job 15:14What is man that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
- Psalms 51:5Look, I was guilty of sin from birth, a sinner the moment my mother conceived me.
- Psalms 53:1Fools say to themselves, “There is no God.” They sin and commit evil deeds; none of them does what is right.
- Proverbs 28:26The one who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but the one who walks in wisdom will escape.
- Ecclesiastes 9:3This is the unfortunate fact about everything that happens on earth: the same fate awaits everyone. In addition to this, the hearts of all people are full of evil, and there is folly in their hearts during their lives – then they die.
- Matthew 15:19For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
- Mark 7:21For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder,
- Hebrews 3:12See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes the living God.
- James 1:14But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires.
Commentaries on Jeremiah 17:9
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 9The heart is deceitful - הלב עקב akob halleb, "the heart is supplanting - tortuous - full of windings - insidious;" lying ever at the catch; striving to avail itself of every favorable circumstance to gratify its propensities to pride, ambition, evil desire, and corruption of all kinds. And desperately wicked - הוא ואנש veanush hu, and is wretched, or feeble; distressed beyond all things, in consequence of the wickedness that is in it. I am quite of Mr…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 5-18Verses 5-18 In the rest of the prophecy Jeremiah dwells upon the moral faults which had led to Judah‘s ruin. Jeremiah 17:6 Like the heath - Or, “like a destitute man” Psalm 102:17. The verbs “he shall see” (or fear) and “shall inhabit” plainly show that a man is here meant and not a plant. Jeremiah 17:8 The river - Or, “water-course” Isaiah 30:25, made for purposes of irrigation. Shall not see - Or, “shall not fear Jeremiah 17:6.” God‘s people feel…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 5-11Verses 5-11 He who puts confidence in man, shall be like the heath in a desert, a naked tree, a sorry shrub, the product of barren ground, useless and worthless. Those who trust to their own righteousness and strength, and think they can do without Christ, make flesh their arm, and their souls cannot prosper in graces or comforts. Those who make God their Hope, shall flourish like a tree always green, whose leaf does not wither. They shall be fixed in…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 9-10By nature, the human heart can be deceitful and very wicked. Only the Lord truly understands its depth.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 99. deceitful--from a root, "supplanting," "tripping up insidiously by the heel," from which Jacob (Ho 12:3) took his name. In speaking of the Jews' deceit of heart, he appropriately uses a term alluding to their forefather, whose deceit, but not whose faith, they followed. His "supplanting" was in order to obtain Jehovah's blessing. They plant Jehovah for "trust in man" (Jr 17:5), and then think to deceive God, as if it could escape His notice, that it is…Read the comment
Topics related to Jeremiah 17:9
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Jeremiah 17
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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