Jeremiah 9:14

14 but have lived by their own hearts' stubbornness and by the ba'alim, as their ancestors taught them

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 wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of ADONAI spoken, so that he can proclaim it? Why has the land perished and been laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through?

13 ADONAI answers: "Because they abandoned my Torah, which I set before them, and neither listened to what I said nor lived accordingly,

14 but have lived by their own hearts' stubbornness and by the ba'alim, as their ancestors taught them

15 therefore," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el: "I will feed this people bitter wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink.

16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known. I will send the sword after them until I have wiped them out."