Jeremiah 18:12
in Jeremiah 18But they will reply, ‘It is hopeless. We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart.
KJV
And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
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This verse in Jeremiah 18
Commentary
9 notes on this verse(Verse 12) But they say, That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart. Those, he said, who have spoken otherwise: We will be strengthened, namely in evil works, or according to Aquila, we have despaired, and according to Symmachus, we have fallen away, both of which offend God; so that either he thinks he cannot be saved at all, or he has fallen away in his mind to appease God. And after our thoughts, he said, we will go.
This site's exposition
Now therefore, tell the men of
on Jeremiah 18:11-13
The LORD’s warning comes with an offer: “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways.” The people answer, “It is hopeless,” and add, “We will follow our own plans.” The LORD bids them “Inquire among the nations: Who has ever heard things like these?”
This site's exposition
But they will reply
The people choose their own plans, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hear them admit that every warning is wasted on them. Matthew Henry notes they call the stubbornness of the evil heart freedom, though slavery to one's own lusts is the worst kind. They will make no promise to change.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"Let each one turn back, then, from his evil way, and make your practices better." Sometimes the more simple-minded say: blessed were the men of old, because they heard the Lord through the prophet saying, "and the Lord spoke to them." And to us now the Lord speaks through the things that are written: "Let each one turn back from his evil way"; the Lord himself converses with you, declaring, "and make your practices better." But those to whom the hortatory words concerning repentance were spoken made an answer, and let us see what they answered, so that we too may not answer in such a way. What, then, do they say in reply? "We will play the man, for we will go after our own backslidings, and each of us will do the pleasing things of his evil heart." And even if you do not say it in words, but your life is such that you sin, you too in effect say, through your evil deeds after the hortatory words, "We will play the man, for we will go after our own backslidings, and each of us will do the pleasing things of his evil heart." And what is "we will go after our own backslidings"? Those who have begun to put "their hand to the plow" and "who stretch forward to the things that are before" in their plowing, while "forgetting the things behind," have turned away from base things. Whenever, then, someone who has put "his hand to the plow" turns to the things behind, he will go "after his own backslidings"; for he will go after those things from which he turned away, and he runs back again to those sins which he had left behind. […]
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
They call it liberty to live at large; whereas for a man to be a slave to his lusts is the worst of slaveries. See how strangely some men's hearts are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin that they will not so much as promise amendment; nay, they set the judgments of God at defiance: "We will go on with our own devices, and let God go on with his; and we will venture the issue." IV.
And they said, there is no hope,....
The prophet's complaint to God of the base ingratitude and unreasonable malice of his enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and his prayers against them,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
no hope--Thy threats and exhortations are all thrown away (Jer 2:25). Our case is desperate; we are hopelessly abandoned to our sins and their penalty. In this and the following clauses, "We will walk after our own devices," Jeremiah makes them express the real state of the case, rather than the hypocritical subterfuges which they would have been inclined to put forth.
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1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
And they said - Better, But they say. Imagination - Or, stubbornness, see Jer 3:17.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
But they shall say, We despair I know that they will say to you regarding your words that they do not heed them.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְאָמְר֖וּ | veameru | and they say | H559 → | 5305 times |
| נוֹאָ֑שׁ | noash | despairing | H2976 → | |
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| אַחֲרֵ֤י | ʾacharei | after | H310 → | 715 times |
| מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵ֙ינוּ֙ | machshevoteinu | own plans our | H4284 → | 56 times |
| נֵלֵ֔ךְ | nelekh | we will walk | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| וְאִ֛ישׁ | veish | and everyone | H376 → | 1663 times |
| שְׁרִר֥וּת | sherirut | [the] stubbornness of | H8307 → | 10 times |
| לִבּֽוֹ־ | libov- | heart his | H3820 → | 595 times |
| הָרָ֖ע | hara' | <the> wicked | H7451 → | 662 times |
| נַעֲשֶֽׂה׃ ס | naaseh | we will act | H6213 → | 2628 times |
וְאָמְר֖וּand they say
veameruH559 →5305 times
נוֹאָ֑שׁdespairing
noashH2976 →
כִּֽי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
אַחֲרֵ֤יafter
ʾachareiH310 →715 times
מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵ֙ינוּ֙own plans our
machshevoteinuH4284 →56 times
נֵלֵ֔ךְwe will walk
nelekhH1980 →1546 times
וְאִ֛ישׁand everyone
veishH376 →1663 times
שְׁרִר֥וּת[the] stubbornness of
sherirutH8307 →10 times
לִבּֽוֹ־heart his
libov-H3820 →595 times
הָרָ֖ע<the> wicked
hara'H7451 →662 times
נַעֲשֶֽׂה׃ סwe will act
naasehH6213 →2628 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 16:12And you have done more evil than your fathers. See how each of you follows the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying Me.
it leads to
- 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.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 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…
- Jeremiah 7:26
Through
Deuteronomy 29:19because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This…
it leads to
- 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.
- Numbers 15:30
But the person who sins defiantly, whether a native or foreigner, blasphemes the LORD. That person shall be cut off from among his people.
- Numbers 15:39
These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the commandments of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own…
- Jeremiah 7:24
Through
Jeremiah 7:24Yet 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.
it leads to
- Psalms 81:11–12
But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.
- Jeremiah 8:5
Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.
- Psalms 81:11–12
Through
Jeremiah 2:25You should have kept your feet from going bare and your throat from being thirsty. But you said, ‘It is hopeless! For I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 32:16
They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations.
- Deuteronomy 32:16
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
About Jeremiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18.