Jeremiah 4:22

God indicts His people as foolish children who are clever at evil but ignorant of doing good. It matters because it diagnoses sin as a deep, willful folly, not mere ignorance.

Cross-references · 28

• 1 Cor 14:20Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.
• Rom 16:19Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil.
• Jer 5:21“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.
• Rom 3:11There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
• Hos 4:6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
• Rom 1:22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools,
• Hos 5:4Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God, for a spirit of prostitution is within them, and they do not know the LORD.
• John 16:3They will do these things because they have not known the Father or Me.
• Mic 2:1Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
• Deut 32:28Israel is a nation devoid of counsel, with no understanding among them.
• Rom 1:28Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
• Isa 6:9–10And He replied: “Go and tell this people, ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
• Isa 27:11When its limbs are dry, they are broken off. Women come and use them for kindling; for this is a people without understanding. Therefore their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.
• Jer 13:23Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Neither are you able to do good—you who are accustomed to doing evil.
• Jer 10:8But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!
• Isa 1:3The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”
• 1 Cor 1:20–21Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
• Jer 5:4Then I said, “They are only the poor; they have played the fool, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.
• Ps 14:1–4For the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their acts are vile. There is no one who does good.
• Isa 42:19–20Who is blind but My servant, or deaf like the messenger I am sending? Who is blind like My covenant partner, or blind like the servant of the LORD?
• 2 Sam 16:21–23Ahithophel replied, “Sleep with your father’s concubines, whom he has left to keep the palace. When all Israel hears that you have become a stench to your father, then the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”
• Jer 8:7–9Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.
• Deut 32:6Is this how you repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people? Is He not your Father and Creator? Has He not made you and established you?
• Luke 16:8The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the sons of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the sons of light.
• Hos 4:1Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the people of the land: “There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land!
• Matt 23:16–26Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’
• Isa 29:10–12For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, O prophets; He has covered your heads, O seers.
• 2 Sam 13:3Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab was a very shrewd man,

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