Jeremiah 16:12

12 And {you have behaved badly} more than your ancestors, and look, you [are] going each one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, without listening to me.

Jeremiah 16:12 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 16:12

And ye have done worse than your fathers
Not only committed the same sins, but greater, or, however, attended with more aggravating circumstances; they were wilfully and impudently done, and obstinately persisted in; and therefore deserving of the great evil of punishment pronounced against them. For, behold, ye walk everyone after the imagination of his evil heart;
they walked not as the word of God directs, but as their own evil heart dictated; the imagination of which was evil, and that continually, ( Genesis 6:5 ) . That they may not hearken unto me;
to the word of the Lord, and obey that; their minds being blinded, and their hearts hardened, and they obstinately bent on their own evil ways.

Jeremiah 16:12 In-Context

10 {And then} when you tell this people all these words and they ask you, '{Why} has Yahweh pronounced against us all this great evil, and what [is] our iniquity, and what [is] our sin that we have sinned against Yahweh our God?'

11 Then you shall say to them, '{Because} your ancestors have forsaken me,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and they have gone after other gods, and they have served them, and they have bowed down in worship to them, and they have forsaken me, and they have not kept my laws.

12 And {you have behaved badly} more than your ancestors, and look, you [are] going each one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, without listening to me.

13 So I will throw you from this land to the land that you have not known, you or your ancestors, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will not show you favor.

14 {Therefore} look, days [are] coming,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and it will no longer be said, "{As Yahweh lives}, who led up the {Israelites} from the land of Egypt,"

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "you have done evil to do"
• [b]. Or "fathers"