and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me.
Parallel translations
- KJV And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:
- BSB And you have done more evil than your fathers. See how each of you follows the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying Me.
- NKJV And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.
- NASB You too have done evil, even more than your forefathers; for behold, each one of you is following the stubbornness of his own evil heart, without listening to Me.
- NLT And you are even worse than your ancestors! You stubbornly follow your own evil desires and refuse to listen to me.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Worse than their fathers, this generation follows the stubbornness of their own evil hearts and refuses to listen to God. Their guilt is compounded because they have surpassed even their ancestors in rebellion.
Overview
God charges the present generation with exceeding their fathers' wickedness, driven by hardened, self-willed hearts. The refusal to listen reveals the deep stubbornness that lies behind their sin. This exposes the human heart's bent toward rebellion, which only the new heart promised in the gospel can remedy, granted by the Spirit to all who trust in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Jer 13:10This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing.
- Jer 7:26yet they didn’t listen to me, nor did they incline their ear, but made their neck stiff. They did worse than their fathers.
- Jer 9:14but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.”
- Eccl 9:3This 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.
- Judg 2:19But when the judge was dead, they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them. They didn’t cease what they were doing, or give up their stubborn ways.
- Jer 7:24But they didn’t listen nor turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
- 1 Sam 15:23For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected Yahweh’s word, he has also rejected you from being king.”
- Mark 7:21For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,
- Jer 17:9The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
- 2 Tim 3:13But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
- Gen 6:5Yahweh 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.
- Deut 9:27Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don’t look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor at their sin,
- Gen 8:21Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh 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.
- Heb 3:12Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;
- Eccl 8:12Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.
- Deut 29:19and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry.”
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 16:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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