Jeremiah 4:14
in Jeremiah 4Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thine evil thoughts lodge within thee?
KJV
O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
⋯
This verse in Jeremiah 4
Commentary
13 notes on this verse(Verse 14.) Wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved: how long shall evil thoughts dwell in you? To the people who say, 'Woe to us, for we have been devastated,' the Prophet responds, rather through the Prophet God responds: Wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, with that water about which Isaiah also speaks: 'Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean' (Isaiah 1:16), the water of saving baptism, the water of repentance.
This site's exposition
his chariots like the whirlwind
on Jeremiah 4:13-18
The invader is pictured by speed alone, clouds, whirlwind and horses “swifter than eagles”. The call “Wash the evil from your heart” answers verse 4. The besiegers “surround her like men guarding a field”, and the Hebrew verb for guarding is the one used of shepherds keeping a flock.
This site's exposition
Wash the evil from your heart
The wicked thoughts Jerusalem harbors are plans for rescue, such as an alliance with Egypt, in the reading of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown. Only a heart washed of evil can be saved. Spurgeon preached the verse as a sermon on bad lodgers, wicked thoughts given a home in the heart.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Then we wash our hands when we enter into church, but our hearts not so. Why, do our hands send forth a voice? It is the soul that utters the words: to that God looketh; cleanness of the body is of no use, while that is defiled. What profits it, if thou wipe clean thine outward hands, while thou hast those within impure? For the terrible thing and that which subverts all good is this, that while we are fearful about trifles, we care not for important matters. To pray with unwashed hands is a matter indifferent; but to do it with an unwashed mind, this is the extreme of all evils. Hear what was said to the Jews who busied themselves about such outward impurities. "Wash thine heart from wickedness, how long shall there be in thee thoughts of thy labors?" Let us also wash ourselves, not with mire, but with fair water, with alms-doing, not with covetousness.
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
Wash - As a means to prevent the judgments that are impending.
O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness,....
To affect them the more with the greatness of the desolation that was coming, the prophet does himself bitterly lament it, and sympathize with his people in the calamities it brought upon them, and the plunge it brought them to, representing it as a reduction of the world to its first chaos,
Note, (1.) Reformation is absolutely necessary to salvation. There is no other way of preventing judgments, or turning them away when we are threatened with them, but taking away the sin by which we have procured them to ourselves.
5 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century5 voices
ONE notices, in reading such a chapter as this fourth of Jeremiah, that the change which God required in the Jewish people was a very deep and thorough one. It was not only the washing of their hands, nor the cleansing of their outward lives, but the washing of their hearts from wickedness—and the Lord did not only require of them that they should cease from wicked actions, but even from vain thoughts.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Only one means of deliverance is left to the Jews--a thorough repentance. vain thoughts--namely, projects for deliverance, such as enlisting the Egyptians on their side. GESENIUS translates, "How long wilt thou harbor vain thoughts?"
ONE notices, in reading such a chapter as this fourth of Jeremiah, that the change which God required in the Jewish people was a very deep and thorough one. It was not only the washing of their hands, nor the cleansing of their outward lives, but the washing of their hearts from wickedness—and the Lord did not only require of them that they should cease from wicked actions, but even from vain thoughts. The like demand He makes of us, for He says by the mouth of His servant James, "Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded." This makes our holy religion a weighty and solemn business! If it were wholly a matter of outward ordinances, we might take the child and sprinkle it, or might bring the adult and plunge him. Or we might admit all to a table where they should eat and drink such consecrated materials as should save them. This would all be easy enough and, therefore, men cling to a religion of ceremonies, for heart religion is troublesome and the ungodly cannot endure it! Ritualism is the most popular religion in the world because it is all, "Ho! Presto!" Done in a minute—nothing to think of, nothing to care about, nothing to sorrow over! It is all a mere matter of form which men leave to their priests—as they leave their deeds to be drawn up by their lawyers and their medicine to be prescribed by their doctors! The little that is needed of them can be done without thought and they can go on in their sins as pleasantly as ever. Next to that in popularity is the religion of mere morality. "Yes, we know we do amiss. We will amend. Gross vices shall be lopped off as stray branches that run over a wall. We will at once purge ourselves from everything for which our fellow men would blame us. Is not that enough?" Many hope it is and live as if they felt sure it was! But the religion of the Word of God is not so.
O Jerusalem, wash thine heart - Why do ye not put away your wickedness, that ye may be saved from these tremendous judgments? How long shall thy vain thoughts of safety and prosperity lodge within thee? Whilst thou continuest a rebel against God, and provokest him daily by thy abominations!
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Thy vain thoughts - “Thy” iniquitous “thoughts.” “Aven,” the word used here, is especially applied to the sin of idolatry: thus Bethel is generally called Bethaven by Hosea (Hos 4:15; Hos 5:8, ...), because instead of being the house of God, El, it was the house of an iniquity, Aven, the golden calf.
The words behind it
12 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כַּבְּסִ֨י | kabesi | wash | H3526 → | |
| מֵרָעָ֤ה | meraah | from evil | H7451 → | 662 times |
| לִבֵּךְ֙ | libekh | heart your | H3820 → | 595 times |
| יְר֣וּשָׁלִַ֔ם | yerushalim | O Jerusalem | H3389 → | 643 times |
| לְמַ֖עַן | lemaan | so that | H4616 → | 272 times |
| תִּוָּשֵׁ֑עִי | tivashei | you may be saved | H3467 → | 206 times |
| עַד־ | ʾad- | until | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| מָתַ֛י | matai | when? | H4970 → | 43 times |
| תָּלִ֥ין | talin | will it remain | H3885 → | |
| בְּקִרְבֵּ֖ךְ | bekirbekh | in inner being your | H7130 → | 227 times |
| מַחְשְׁב֥וֹת | machshevot | [the] thoughts of | H4284 → | 56 times |
| אוֹנֵֽךְ׃ | ʾonekh | wickedness your | H205 → |
כַּבְּסִ֨יwash
kabesiH3526 →
מֵרָעָ֤הfrom evil
meraahH7451 →662 times
לִבֵּךְ֙heart your
libekhH3820 →595 times
יְר֣וּשָׁלִַ֔םO Jerusalem
yerushalimH3389 →643 times
לְמַ֖עַןso that
lemaanH4616 →272 times
תִּוָּשֵׁ֑עִיyou may be saved
tivasheiH3467 →206 times
עַד־until
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
מָתַ֛יwhen?
mataiH4970 →43 times
תָּלִ֥יןwill it remain
talinH3885 →
בְּקִרְבֵּ֖ךְin inner being your
bekirbekhH7130 →227 times
מַחְשְׁב֥וֹת[the] thoughts of
machshevotH4284 →56 times
אוֹנֵֽךְ׃wickedness your
ʾonekhH205 →
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
James 4:8Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
it leads to
- Psalms 145:18
The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call out to Him in truth.
- Hebrews 10:22
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
- Malachi 3:7
Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Hosts. “But…
- Zechariah 1:3
So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’
- Isaiah 55:6–7
Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.
- Psalms 145:18
Through
Isaiah 55:7Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely…
it leads to
- Proverbs 28:13
He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
- James 4:8–10
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- Ezekiel 18:21–23
But if the wicked man turns from all the sins he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.
- Proverbs 28:13
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Jeremiah
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1573: “Bad Lodgers and How To Treat Them” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 73; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.