New International Version
Jeremiah 17:9
9The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. 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?
- 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?
- New Living Translation (NLT)“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
Context of Jeremiah 17:9
7“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 10“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” 11Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay are those who gain riches by unjust means. When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them, and in the end they will prove to be fools.
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 16:12But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me.
- Genesis 6:5The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
- Genesis 8:21The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
- Job 15:14“What are mortals, that they could be pure, or those born of woman, that they could be righteous?
- Psalms 51:5Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
- Psalms 53:1The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good.
- Proverbs 28:26Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe.
- Ecclesiastes 9:3This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.
- Matthew 15:19For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
- Mark 7:21For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder,
- Hebrews 3:12See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
- James 1:14but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.
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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