Jeremiah 17:9–10
"The heart is deceitful above all things": Hebrew, Greek and context
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways." The Hebrew is five words: aqov ha-lev mi-kol ve-anush hu, "crooked is the heart above all, and sick (incurable) is it." Aqov, "crooked, deceitful," is the root of the name Jacob (Genesis 27:36). Anush means "incurable, mortally ill" (it describes wounds in 15:18 and 30:12); "desperately wicked" is the KJV's interpretation. The Greek read the same consonants differently: "the heart is deep above all things, and it is man (anthrōpos)," taking anush as enosh, "a human being." Verse 10 completes the thought: only God can search the heart.
Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording
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✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
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- Translation
- The words as first spoken or writtenlate 7th–6th century BC (by section; debated)
- 4QJer-a (4Q70), Qumran Cave 4c. 200 BC (palaeography; reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The words as first spoken or written
- Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The words as first spoken or written
Every witness, in order
late 7th–6th century BC (by section; debated)
The words as first spoken or written
No original survives, and Jeremiah circulated in at least two ancient Hebrew editions: a shorter one behind the Old Greek and the longer one preserved as the Masoretic Text. The oldest copies are six fragmentary Qumran manuscripts (2QJer, 4QJer-a to 4QJer-e), from about 200 BC to the 1st century AD.
c. 200 BC (palaeography; reported)
4QJer-a (4Q70), Qumran Cave 4
How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XV not yet checked.
Hebrew numbering: Jeremiah 17:9–10. A fragmentary copy: only parts of these verses survive, and in the transcription much of the passage is restored by the editors. Preserves parts of vv. 8–11, including "the heart" of v. 9, in agreement with the Masoretic Text where letters survive; in v. 11 it reads "will leave him" with a different pronoun suffix. It gives no support to the Greek's "deep" or "man" in v. 9 at the letters it keeps.
Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592
Latin Vulgate (Clementine)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
Pravum est cor omnium, et inscrutabile: quis cognoscet illud? Ego Dominus scrutans cor, et probans renes: qui do unicuique juxta viam suam, et juxta fructum adinventionum suarum.
Latin numbering: Jeremiah 17:9–10. Jerome translated Jeremiah from Hebrew (c. AD 400). Jerome: "the heart of all is perverse and unsearchable."
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
עָקֹ֥ב הַלֵּ֛ב מִכֹּ֖ל וְאָנֻ֣שׁ ה֑וּא מִ֖י יֵדָעֶֽנּוּ׃ אֲנִ֧י יְהוָ֛ה חֹקֵ֥ר לֵ֖ב בֹּחֵ֣ן כְּלָי֑וֹת וְלָתֵ֤ת לְאִישׁ֙ כדרכו כִּדְרָכָ֔יו כִּפְרִ֖י מַעֲלָלָֽיו׃
The heart is crooked above all things, and it is incurable (or: sick); who can know it? I the LORD search the heart and test the inner parts, to give each according to his ways (vv. 9–10)
Hebrew numbering: Jeremiah 17:9–10.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872
Greek Jeremiah (library: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
(9.) Le cœur est profond plus que toute chose, et le cœur, c’est l’homme. Qui le connaîtra? (10.) Moi, le Seigneur, qui sonde les cœurs, et qui éprouve les reins pour rétribuer chacun selon ses voies et selon les fruits de ses travaux.
Greek (digital file) numbering: Jeremiah 17:5–6. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check only), in the Greek book's own order and verse numbering; a C check needs Ziegler's Göttingen Jeremiah or Rahlfs–Hanhart. The Greek lacks 17:1–4, so Giguet's 17:5–6 are Hebrew 17:9–10.
What changed, and why
Classification: a genuine Greek difference (bathys, "deep," for aqov; "man" for anush, reading enosh from the same letters) and a lexical question in the Hebrew.
Context: 17:5–8 contrasts trusting in humans with trusting in God; 17:9–10 says the human heart cannot be trusted even to know itself, and God alone tests it; 17:11 likens the unjustly rich to a partridge hatching eggs it did not lay. The verse is part of an argument about where to place trust, addressed to Judah in a time of crisis.
Lev (heart) in Hebrew is the seat of thought, will and decision as well as feeling: "the heart" here is the whole inner self, not emotions only.
Later uses: Jewish interpreters read it within the struggle with the evil inclination (yetzer ha-ra); Christian theology, especially Augustine and the Reformers (Calvin), cited it for the depth of human sinfulness; modern writers often quote it against "follow your heart." These are applications, each with its own framework. In Jeremiah the point is that God, not human self-knowledge, is the judge (v. 10), and that trust belongs to God (vv. 7–8).
What the evidence shows
- The Hebrew of 17:9 uses aqov (crooked) and anush (incurable/sick).
- "Desperately wicked" is a literal translation of anush. Anush means incurable or gravely ill; "wicked" interprets it.
- The Greek of 17:9 reads "deep" and "man." Library's Giguet ("profond… c'est l'homme"); C check against Ziegler.
- 4QJer-a supports the Greek reading of 17:9. Where its letters survive it agrees with the Masoretic Text.
- Jeremiah 17:9 teaches total depravity. A later doctrinal use; the verse makes a claim about the heart's unreliability in a specific argument about trust.
Sources
Related lessons
- Jeremiah 17: The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things →"The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars" (17:1–4). "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man": he is like a desert shrub; "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD": he is like a tree planted by water, untroubled "in the year of drought" (vv. 5–8). "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways" (vv. 9–10). The unjustly rich are like a partridge sitting on eggs it did not lay (v. 11). God's throne, "the hope of Israel… the fountain of living waters" (vv. 12–13). The fourth confession: "Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed… Be not a terror unto me… bring upon them the day of evil" (vv. 14–18). Stand in the gates and say: bring no burden in on the Sabbath; if you keep it, kings will enter and the city will stand for ever; if not, fire in the gates (vv. 19–27).