(14) Imagination.--Stubbornness, as in Jeremiah 3:17.

Baalim.--The generic name for false gods of all kinds, and therefore used in the plural. (Comp. Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 2:23.)

Verse 14. - Imagination; rather, stubbornness (see on Jeremiah 3:17). Baalim. The Hebrew has "the Baalim;" practically equivalent to "the idol-gods" (see on Jeremiah 2:8). Which their fathers taught them. "Which" refers to both clauses, i.e. to the obstinacy and the Baal-worship.

9:12-22 In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and guarded. Nor are those more safe that are abroad; death cuts off even the children from without, and the young men from the streets. Hearken to the word of the Lord, and mourn with godly sorrow. This alone can bring true comfort; and it can turn the heaviest afflictions into precious mercies.But have walked after the imagination of their own heart,.... What their own hearts devised, chose, and were best pleased with; See Gill on Jeremiah 7:24,

and after Baalim; the idols of the Gentiles; these they served and worshipped, and not the true God:

which their fathers taught them; which was so far from excusing them, that it was an aggravation of their sin, that they had continued in their wicked ways and idolatrous practices, from age to age, from one generation to another. This then was the cause of their calamity and destruction; they had forsaken the law of the Lord, and had broken that; they had chose their own ways, and had been guilty of idolatrous practices time out of mind; wherefore the Lord had shown much longsuffering and patience with them, and would now no longer forbear he was just and righteous in his doings.