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Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart — There is nothing so false and deceitful as the heart of man; deceitful in its apprehensions of things, in the hopes and promises which it nourishes, in the assurances that it gives us; unsearchable by others, deceitful with reference to ourselves, and abominably wicked, so that neither can a man know his own heart, nor can any other know that of his neighbour's.

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See also Jeremiah 17:9 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Jeremiah 17:9. _THE HEART_ IS _DECEITFUL_] עקב הלב _akob halleb_, "the heart is supplanting - tortuous - full of windings - insidious;" lying ever at the catch; striving to avail itself of every...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    In the rest of the prophecy Jeremiah dwells upon the moral faults which had led to Judah’s ruin. Jeremiah 17:6 LIKE THE HEATH - Or, “like a destitute man” Psalms 102:17. The verbs “he shall see” (or...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER 17 _ 1. Judah's sin (Jeremiah 17:1) _ 2. The curse and the blessing (Jeremiah 17:5) 3. The worship of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 17:12) 4. Concerning the Sabbath ...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    JEREMIAH 16:1 TO JEREMIAH 17:18. THE COMING DISTRESS A PENALTY FOR SIN. The prophet is forbidden to found a family, because of the coming sorrows (_cf._ 1 Corinthians 7:29 ff.), in which death will be...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    DECEITFUL. crooked. Referring to the old nature of the natural man. desperately wicked. sick unto death. it [is] sick unto death: i.e. it [is] incurable. WHO CAN KNOW IT? Figure of speech _Erotesis_,...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Du. (so too Co.) suggests that these _vv_. link on closely to Jeremiah 17:14. In Jeremiah 17:9, according to him, the prophet is confessing his personal consciousness of sin, discovered by probing ben...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    See introd. summary to section. This sub-section is made up of three isolated pieces, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13; the metres also varying....

  • Charles Simeon's Horae Homileticae

    DISCOURSE: 1056 NECESSITY OF KNOWING OURSELVES Jeremiah 17:9. _The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it_? A MORE important subject than that before us cannot o...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    THE HEART IS DECEITFUL, &C.— This passage, divided from the context, and considered as an independent proposition, has been applied in a sense different from the design of the author. This will eviden...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    C. The Deceitful Human Heart Jeremiah 17:9-11 TRANSLATION (9) The heart is deceitful more than anything and incurable; who can know it? (10) I am the LORD who searches the heart, tries the mind in or...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? THE HEART IS DECEITFUL - from a root [ `aaqab (H6117)], 'supplanting,' 'tripping up insidiously by the heel,' from...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    1-4. The sin of Judah is indelible. Hence the severity of the punishment....

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    THE HEART IS DECEITFUL... — The sequence of ideas seems as follows: If the blessing and the curse are thus so plainly marked, how is it that man chooses the curse and not the blessing, the portion of...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    עָקֹ֥ב הַ לֵּ֛ב מִ כֹּ֖ל וְ אָנֻ֣שׁ

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    CHAPTER IX THE DROUGHT AND ITS MORAL IMPLICATIONS Jeremiah 14:1; Jeremiah 15:1 (17?) VARIOUS opinions have been expressed about the division of these Chapter s. They have been cut up into short sect...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    HUMAN AND DIVINE HELP CONTRASTED Jeremiah 17:1-14 The Jews were always seeking alliance either with Egypt or Babylon. What was true of them applies to us all; but we cannot depend upon human aid, wit...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    Once again Jehovah declared His determination to deal with the people in judgment, because of the defiant definiteness of their sin. That sin was "written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a d...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    (i) The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it? (i) Because the wicked always have some excuse to defend their doings he shows that their own lewd imagination...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Perverse. Septuagint, "deep." --- Unsearchable. Septuagint, "man, who shall know him?" (Haydock) --- God alone can search the heart by his own power. He enables saints to do it by the light of glory,...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    Had we no other authority than what these verses furnish, here is enough to prove, that after all our knowledge of ourselves, we have not arrived to the perfect apprehension to what a state of sin and...

  • James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary

    _THE DECEITFUL HEART_ ‘Who can know it?’ Jeremiah 17:9 You will remember that this is said of ‘the heart,’ and that it is made to apply itself to one of those terrible descriptions of ‘the human he...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    What is taught here depends on what is gone before; and therefore they ought to be read together. Many lay hold on these words and mutilate them without understanding the design of the Prophet. This i...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    The great thing, amidst all that was going on, was to trust in Jehovah. He who, failing in this, made flesh his arm, should not see when good came. Meantime the fire of God's anger was kindled and sho...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    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 particular...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it? Ver. 9. _The heart of man is deceitful above all things._] The pravity and perversity of man's heart, full of har...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _The heart is deceitful above all things_ This passage, considered in connection with what precedes, may be understood in two points of view: 1st, As assigning a reason why we should not trust in man;...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    The Depth of the Nation's Corruption...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    The heart is deceitful above all things, full of perfidy and treachery, AND DESPERATELY WICKED, profoundly corrupt; WHO CAN KNOW IT? Who can understand and plumb the depths of its wickedness? This alo...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    5-11 He who puts confidence in man, shall be like the heath in a desert, a naked tree, a sorry shrub, the product of barren ground, useless and worthless. Those who trust to their own righteousness a...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    The words translated DECEITFUL, and DESPERATELY WICKED, are very variously translated, fraudulent, perverse, supplanting. He speaks to the Jews, that they might not lean too much to their own counsels...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Jeremiah 17:9 heart H3820 deceitful H6121 wicked H605 (H8803) know H3045 (H8799) Jeremi

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    THE CURSINGS AND THE BLESSINGS ON INDIVIDUALS (JEREMIAH 17:5). But not all of Judah will come under YHWH's anger. Only those (the huge majority) who have turned from Him and forsaken Him and are under...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    Jeremiah 17:1. _The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond:_ It is so ingrained in their very nature that you might as well try to erase an inscription that is wr...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Sign of the unmarried prophet, concluded. Message in the gates concerning the Sabbath. CHARACTERS: God, Jeremiah. CONCLUSION: The heart of man, out of communion with God, is wicked and dece...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Jeremiah 17:1. _The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron._ Yea, it is deeply written on the heart, as the diamond will write on polished stones, on tablets of brass, or on the brazen altars of B...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _The heart is deceitful above all things._ THE DECEITFULNESS OF THE HUMAN HEART I. We are to consider what is implied in sinners knowing their own hearts. They know that they have hearts, which are d...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JEREMIAH—NOTE ON JEREMIAH 17:9 HEART. The human will and emotions (see vv. Jeremiah 17:5). DESPERATELY SICK. The sinful heart cannot be

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—1. CHRONOLOGY OF THE CHAPTER. Jeremiah 17:1 continue the prophecy of chap. 16. A distinct break in the continuity of the book is noticeable at Jeremiah 17:19. [_Keil_ se...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION Jeremiah 17:1 are closely connected with the preceding chapter. We have just been pointed to the striking contrast between the conduct of the heathen and that of the backsliding men of Juda...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Chapter 17 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond (Jeremiah 17:1): Interesting that they were using diamonds for pens in those days, isn't it? Diamonds set in...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    Ecclesiastes 9:3; Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21; Hebrews 3:12; James 1:14;...

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