Bible Strands
Jeremiah 16:12
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.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through Jeremiah to the exiled people of Judah, explaining the immediate cause of their impending displacement after detailing their ancestors' idolatry.
The words — The Hebrew הֲרֵעֹתֶם (ha.re.'o.Tem) literally means "you have done evil," paired with הֹלְכִים (ho.le.Khim), "walking," to describe their active pursuit of the stubbornness of their own hearts.
The thread — This pattern of escalating rebellion and following the stubbornness of the heart recurs in Jeremiah 7:26 and 13:10, while Ecclesiastes 9:3 notes the universal consequence of human heart-driven actions.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that personal disobedience actively follows internal stubbornness rather than divine command, leaving no room for inherited excuse or divine leniency.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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:
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 7:26 Yet they would not listen to Me or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and did more evil than their fathers.
- Jeremiah 13:10 These evil people, who refuse to listen to My words, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who go after other gods to serve and worship them, they will be like this loincloth—of no use at all.
- Ecclesiastes 9:3 This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.
- Jeremiah 9:14 Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.”
- Judges 2:19 But when the judge died, the Israelites became even more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They would not give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
- 1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.”
- Jeremiah 7:24 Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
- Mark 7:21 For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
- Genesis 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time.
- Genesis 8:21 When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.