Jeremiah 9:14

14 Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts^[a] and the Baals, as their fathers taught them."^[b]

Jeremiah 9:14 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 9:14

But have walked after the imagination of their own heart
What their own hearts devised, chose, and were best pleased with; (See Gill on Jeremiah 7:24), and after Baalim;
the idols of the Gentiles; these they served and worshipped, and not the true God: which their fathers taught them;
which was so far from excusing them, that it was an aggravation of their sin, that they had continued in their wicked ways and idolatrous practices, from age to age, from one generation to another. This then was the cause of their calamity and destruction; they had forsaken the law of the Lord, and had broken that; they had chose their own ways, and had been guilty of idolatrous practices time out of mind; wherefore the Lord had shown much longsuffering and patience with them, and would now no longer forbear he was just and righteous in his doings.

Jeremiah 9:14 In-Context

12 Who is the man wise enough to understand this? Who has the Lord spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through?

13 The Lord said, "It is because they abandoned My law I set in front of them and did not obey My voice or walk according to it.

14 Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts and the Baals, as their fathers taught them."

15 Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: "I am about to feed this people wormwood and give them poisonous waters to drink.

16 I will scatter them among nations that they and their fathers have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off."

Footnotes

• [a]. Dt 29:19; Ps 81:12
• [b]. Jr 2:8,23