Meaning, commentary and cross references
Jeremiah 17:9
“The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?”In other translations
KJV · King James Version
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
NIV · New International Version
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
WEB · World English Bible
The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
What does Jeremiah 17:9 mean?
John Gill · Exposition of the Entire Bible, on Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things,.... This is the source of the idolatry and creature confidence of the Jews, sins which were the cause of their ruin; and though what is here said is particularly applicable to their hearts, yet is in general true of the heart of every man; which is "deceitful", and deceiving; and puts a cheat upon the man himself whose it is: it deceives him with respect to sin; it proposes it to him under the notion of pleasure; it promises him a great deal in it, but does not yield a real pleasure to him; it is all fancy and imagination; a mere illusion and a dream; and what it gives is very short lived; it is but for a season, and ends in bitterness and death: or…
John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63). Public domain. Digital text: Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org).
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Jeremiah 17:5–11
When men say in their hearts (that is, suffer their hearts to whisper to them) that there is no God, or he does not see, or he will not require, or they shall have peace though they go on; in these, and a thousand similar suggestions the heart is deceitful. It cheats men into their own ruin; and this will be the aggravation of it, that they are self-deceivers, self-destroyers. Herein the heart is desperately wicked; it is deadly, it is desperate. The case is bad indeed, and in a manner deplorable and past relief, if the conscience which should rectify the errors of the other faculties is itself a mother of falsehood and a ring-leader in the delusion.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706–21; Romans–Revelation completed by Nonconformist ministers). Public domain. Digital text: Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org).
John Calvin · Commentaries, on Jeremiah 17:9–10
9. Insidiosum cor prae omnibus (super omnia) et perversum (vertunt quidam; alii, durum; alii, eagrotum; possumus vertere, vitiosum, vel, morbidum;) quis cognoscet illud? 10. I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. 10. Ego Jehova exquirens (vel, explorans) cor, examinans renes, ad dandum (id est, ut dem, ut reddam) cuique secundum vias ejus, secundum fructum operum ejus.
John Calvin, Commentaries (Calvin Translation Society English text). Public domain. Digital text: Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org).
Context: Jeremiah 17:6–12 (WEB)
6For he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see when good comes, but will inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, an uninhabited salt land. 7“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose confidence is in the LORD. 8For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit. 9The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it? 10“I, the LORD, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” 11As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right. In the middle of his days, they will leave him. At his end, he will be a fool. 12A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
Cross references
- Mark 7:21–22
For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,
- Matthew 15:19
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.
- Ecclesiastes 9:3
This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event to all. Yes also, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
- Proverbs 28:26
One who trusts in himself is a fool; but one who walks in wisdom is kept safe.
- Hebrews 3:12
Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;
- Genesis 6:5
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.
- James 1:14–15
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.
- Genesis 8:21
The LORD smelled the pleasant aroma. The LORD said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.