O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
Parallel translations
- WEB Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?
- BSB Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?
- NKJV O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, That you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?
- NASB ¶Wash your heart from evil, Jerusalem, So that you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts Lodge within you?
- NLT O Jerusalem, cleanse your heart that you may be saved. How long will you harbor your evil thoughts?
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
God pleads with Jerusalem to wash her heart of wickedness so she may be saved. It matters because salvation requires inner cleansing, not just outward escape.
Overview
Even amid announcements of doom, the Lord appeals for genuine repentance: cleanse the heart and lodge no more evil thoughts. The problem is internal corruption, and so must be the cure. This need for a washed heart finds its answer in Christ, who cleanses His people inwardly by His Spirit and word (Psalm 51:10; Titus 3:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Jas 4:8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
- Acts 8:22Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.
- Isa 55:7Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
- Luke 11:39And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.
- Rom 1:21Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
- 1 Cor 3:20And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
- Prov 1:22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
- Ps 66:18If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
- Matt 12:33Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
- Isa 1:16–19Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
- Jer 13:27I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?
- Matt 23:26–27Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
- Matt 15:19–20For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
- Ps 119:113I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.
- Ezek 18:31Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 4:14 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.