Jeremiah 9:14

King James Version

But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts and followed the Baals as their fathers taught them.”

Hebrew Names Version
but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Ba`alim, which their fathers taught them;

English Standard Version
but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.

New American Standard Bible
but have followed the stubbornness of their heart and the Baals, as their fathers taught them,"

New Century Version
Instead, they were stubborn and followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them to do.

Amplified Bible
but have walked stubbornly after their [own] heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,"

World English Bible
but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them;

Geneva Bible (1587)
But haue walked after the stubbernesse of their owne heart, and after Baalims, which their fathers taught them,

Legacy Standard Bible
but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,"

Berean Standard Bible
Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them."

Contemporary English Version
They were stubborn and worshiped Baal, just as their ancestors did.

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

Darby Translation
but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them;

Easy-to-Read Version
The people of Judah lived their own way. They were stubborn. They followed the false god Baal. Their fathers taught them to follow those false gods."

George Lamsa Translation
But have followed after the imagination of their own evil heart and after the idols which their fathers taught them;

Good News Translation
Instead, they have been stubborn and have worshiped the idols of Baal as their ancestors taught them to do.

Lexham English Bible
but they went after the stubbornness of their heart, and after the Baals, which their ancestors taught them."

Literal Translation
but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
but folowed the wickednes of their owne hertes, and serued straunge goddes, as their fathers taught them.

American Standard Version
but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them;

Bible in Basic English
But they have been walking in the pride of their hearts, going after the Baals, as their fathers gave them teaching.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

King James Version (1611)
But haue walked after the imagination of their owne heart, & after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
But folowed the wickednesse of their owne heartes, & serued straunge gods as their forefathers taught them.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
but went after the lusts of their evil heart, and after the idols which their fathers taught them to worship:

English Revised Version
but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them:

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and thei yeden aftir the schrewidnesse of her herte, and aftir Baalym, which thei lerneden of her fadris;

Update Bible Version
but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them;

Webster's Bible Translation
But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:

New English Translation
Instead they have followed the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts. They have paid allegiance to the gods called Baal, as their fathers taught them to do.

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

New Living Translation
Instead, they have stubbornly followed their own desires and worshiped the images of Baal, as their ancestors taught them.

New Life Bible
But they have followed the strongwill of their own hearts, and have gone after the false gods of Baal, as their fathers taught them."

New Revised Standard
but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
But have gone their way, After the stubbornness of their own heart, - And after the Baals which their fathers taught them,

Douay-Rheims Bible
But they have gone after the perverseness of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them.

Revised Standard Version
but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Ba'als, as their fathers taught them.

Young's Literal Translation
And they walk after the stubbornness of their heart, And after the Baalim, that their fathers taught them,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,"

Contextual Overview

¹² Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through? ¹³ And the Lord saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein; ¹⁴ But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them: ¹⁵ Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. ¹⁶ I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them. ¹⁷ Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come: ¹⁸ And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. ¹⁹ For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out. ²⁰ Yet hear the word of the Lord , O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation. ²¹ For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

walked: Jeremiah 3:17, Jeremiah 7:24, Genesis 6:5, Romans 1:21-24, Ephesians 2:3, Ephesians 4:17-19

imagination: or, stubbornness

which: Jeremiah 44:17, Zechariah 1:4, Zechariah 1:5, Galatians 1:14, 1 Peter 1:18

Reciprocal: Numbers 15:39 - ye seek not Judges 2:11 - and served Baalim Jeremiah 11:8 - obeyed Jeremiah 13:10 - walk Jeremiah 16:11 - walked Jeremiah 16:12 - imagination Jeremiah 23:17 - imagination Ezekiel 18:14 - that seeth Ezekiel 20:30 - Are ye Amos 2:4 - after

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But have walked after the imagination of their own heart,.... What their own hearts devised, chose, and were best pleased with;

:-,

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The punishment described in general terms in the preceding three verses is now detailed at great length.

Jeremiah 9:10

The habitations i. e - the temporary encampments of the shepherds (see Jeremiah 6:3).

So that none can ... - Or, “They are parched up, with no man to pass through them; neither do they hear the voice of cattle; from the birds of the heaven even to the beasts they “are fled, they are gone.”

Jeremiah 9:11

Dragons - Rather, jackals.

Jeremiah 9:12

For what the land perisheth ... - This is the question proposed for consideration. The prophet calls upon the wise man to explain his question; that question being, Wherefore did the land perish? He follows it by the assertion of a fact: “It is parched like the wilderness with no man to pass through.”

Jeremiah 9:13

The cause of the chastisement about to fall upon Jerusalem, was their desertion of the divine Law.

Jeremiah 9:14

Imagination - Or, as in the margin.

Which their fathers taught them - It was not the sin of one generation that brought upon them chastisement: it was a sin, which had been handed down from father to son.

Jeremiah 9:15

I will feed them ... - Rather, I am feeding them. The present participle used here, followed by three verbs in the future, shows that the judgment has beam, of which the successive stages are given in the next clause.

Wormwood - See Deuteronomy 29:18, note, and for “water of gall,” Jeremiah 8:14, note.

Jeremiah 9:16

This verse is taken from Leviticus 26:33. The fulfillment of what had been so long before appointed as the penalty for the violation of Yahweh’s covenant is one of the most remarkable proofs that prophecy was something more than human foresight.

Till I have consumed them - See Jeremiah 4:27 note. How is this “consuming” consistent with the promise to the contrary there given? Because it is limited by the terms of Jeremiah 9:7. Previously to Nebuchadnezzars destruction of Jerusalem God removed into safety those in whom the nation should revive.

Jeremiah 9:17

The mourning women - Hired to attend at funerals, and by their skilled wailings aid the real mourners in giving vent to their grief. Hence, they are called “cunning,” literally “wise” women, wisdom being constantly used in Scripture for anything in which people are trained.

Jeremiah 9:18

Take up a wailing for us - i. e., for the nation once God’s chosen people, but long spiritually dead.

Jeremiah 9:19

Forsaken - Or, left: forced to abandon the land.

Because our dwellings ... - Rather, “because they have east down our dwellings.” The whole verse is a description of their sufferings. See 2 Kings 25:1-12.

Jeremiah 9:20

The command is addressed to the women because it was more especially their part to express the general feelings of the nation. See 1 Samuel 18:6; 2 Samuel 1:24. The women utter now the death-wail over the perishing nation. They are to teach their daughters and neighbors the “lamentation, i. e., dirge,” because the harvest of death would be so large that the number of trained women would not suffice.

Jeremiah 9:21

Death is come up ... - i. e., death steals silently like a thief upon his victims, and makes such havoc that there are no children left to go “without,” nor young men to frequent the open spaces in the city.

Jeremiah 9:22

The “handful” means the little bundle of grain which the reaper gathers on his arm with three or four strokes of his sickle, and then lays down. Behind the reaper came one whose business it was to gather several of these bundles, and bind them into a sheaf. Thus, death strews the ground with corpses as thickly as these handfuls lie upon the reaped land, but the corpses lie there unheeded.