Bible Strands
Jeremiah 9:14
Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks through Jeremiah to the people of Israel, responding directly to their rejection of His law. This declaration marks the transition from indictment to impending judgment.
The words — שְרִר֣וּת לִבָּ֑/ם (she.ri.Rut li.Ba/m) literally means "stubbornness of their heart." It is coupled with וְ/אַחֲרֵי֙ הַ/בְּעָלִ֔ים (ve./'a.cha.Rei ha./be.'a.Lim), translating to "and after the Baals."
The thread — The text describes a recurring pattern of willful idolatry found in Jeremiah 7:24, where the people follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts. The same dynamic of ungrateful knowledge turning into futile reasoning appears in Romans 1:21.
Why it lands — The text states that disobedience stems from a hardened heart actively pursuing inherited false worship. Readers must acknowledge that spiritual failure begins with a deliberate choice to replace divine instruction with personal tradition.
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
But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 3:17 At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations will be gathered in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. They will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.
- 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.
- Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.
- Galatians 1:14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
- Ephesians 2:3 All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.
- 1 Peter 1:18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers,
- 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.
- Jeremiah 2:8 The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.
- Ephesians 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
- Jeremiah 2:23 “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young she-camel galloping here and there,