Jeremiah 7:24

7:24 But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their own wicked hearts. They acted worse and worse instead of better. ¹ 

Jeremiah 9:14

9:14 Instead they have followed the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts. They have paid allegiance to ²  the gods called Baal, ³  as their fathers ⁴  taught them to do.

Jeremiah 11:8

11:8 But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me! Each one of them followed the stubborn inclinations of his own wicked heart. So I brought on them all the punishments threatened in the covenant because they did not carry out its terms as I commanded them to do.’” ⁵ 

Jeremiah 16:12

16:12 And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you has followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed me. ⁶ 

Ecclesiastes 11:9

Enjoy Life to the Fullest under the Fear of God

11:9 Rejoice, young man, while you are young, ⁷ 

and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.

Follow the impulses ⁸  of your heart and the desires ⁹  of your eyes,

but know that God will judge your motives and actions. ¹⁰ 

Ephesians 4:17-19

Live in Holiness

4:17 So I say this, and insist ¹¹  in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility ¹²  of their thinking. ¹³  4:18 They are darkened in their understanding, ¹⁴  being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. 4:19 Because they are callous, they have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. ¹⁵ 

¹ tn Or “They went backward and not forward”; Heb “They were to the backward and not to the forward.” The two phrases used here appear nowhere else in the Bible and the latter preposition plus adverb elsewhere is used temporally meaning “formerly” or “previously.” The translation follows the proposal of J. Bright, Jeremiah (AB), 57. Another option is “they turned their backs to me, not their faces,” understanding the line as a variant of a line in 2:27.

² tn Heb “they have gone/followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

³ tn Heb “the Baals,” referring either to the pagan gods called “Baals” or the images of Baal (so NLT).

⁴ tn Or “forefathers,” or “ancestors.” Here the referent could be the immediate parents or, by their example, more distant ancestors.

⁵ tn Heb “So I brought on them all the terms of this covenant which I commanded to do and they did not do.” There is an interesting polarity that is being exploited by two different nuances implicit in the use of the word “terms” (דִּבְרֵי [divre], literally “words”), i.e., what the Lord “brings on” them, namely, the curses that are the penalty for disobedience and the stipulations that they are “to do,” that is, to carry out. The sentence is broken up this way in keeping with contemporary English style to avoid the long and complicated style of the original.

⁶ sn For the argumentation here compare Jer 7:23-26.

⁷ tn Heb “in your youth”; or “in your childhood.”

⁸ tn Heb “walk in the ways of your heart.”

⁹ tn Heb “the sight.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and know that concerning all these God will bring you into judgment.” The point is not that following one’s impulses and desires is inherently bad and will bring condemnation from God. Rather the point seems to be: As you follow your impulses and desires, realize that all you think and do will eventually be evaluated by God. So one must seek joy within the boundaries of God’s moral standards.

¹¹ tn On the translation of μαρτύρομαι (marturomai) as “insist” see BDAG 619 s.v. 2.

¹² tn On the translation of ματαιότης (mataioth") as “futility” see BDAG 621 s.v.

¹³ tn Or “thoughts,” “mind.”

¹⁴ tn In the Greek text this clause is actually subordinate to περιπατεῖ (peripatei) in v. 17. It was broken up in the English translation so as to avoid an unnecessarily long and cumbersome statement.

¹⁵ sn Greediness refers to an increasing desire for more and more. The point is that sinful passions and desires are never satisfied.