Jeremiah 9:14

14 but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers 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 the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?

13 And the Lord said, "Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it,

14 but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them,"

15 therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

16 I will scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them."