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Jeremiah 17:9 KJV
Jeremiah · chapter 17 · verse 9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?Jeremiah 17:9 · King James Version
What Jeremiah 17:9 means
The question at the end is not rhetorical; the next verse answers it with I the LORD search the heart. Jeremiah is not saying feelings are worthless in general. He is saying self-knowledge has a limit, and that somebody else can see past it.
Study note provided by TheWay Bible App, separate from the KJV text. Read the full chapter in context and compare interpretations. Report a correction.
Jeremiah 17:9 in context
7Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
8For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
10I 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.
11As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
Commentary
Cross references
- Mark 7:21-22
- Matthew 15:19
- Ecclesiastes 9:3
- Proverbs 28:26
- Hebrews 3:12
- Genesis 6:5
- James 1:14-15
- Genesis 8:21
Key words (Strong's)
- deceitfulʻâqôbfraudulent or trackedH6121 →
- wickedʼânashto be frail, feeble, or melancholyH605 →
- heartlêbthe heartH3820 →
Topics
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It is excellent doctrine that is preached in these verses, and of general concern and use to us all, and it does not appear to have any particular reference to the present state of Judah and Jerusalem. The prophet's sermons were not all prophetical, but some of them practical;
— Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on verses 5-11