The Heart - Who Can Know It?

Jeremiah 19:9

"The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? New American Standard Bible

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? KJV

The heart is a twisted thing, not to be searched out by man: who is able to have knowledge of it? Bible in Basic English

Wesley's Notes
The heart - There is nothing so false and deceitful as the heart of man; deceitful in its apprehensions of things, in the hopes and promises which it nourishes, in the assurances that it gives us; unsearchable by others, deceitful with reference to ourselves, and abominably wicked, so that neither can a man know his own heart, nor can any other know that of his neighbor’s.

Trust in one's own heart is as foolish as in our fellow man (Pr 28:26).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
17:5-11 He who puts confidence in man, shall be like the heath in a desert, a naked tree, a sorry shrub, the product of barren ground, useless and worthless. Those who trust to their own righteousness and strength, and think they can do without Christ, make flesh their arm, and their souls cannot prosper in graces or comforts. Those who make God their Hope, shall flourish like a tree always green, whose leaf does not wither. They shall be fixed in peace and satisfaction of mind; they shall not be anxious in a year of drought. Those who make God their Hope, have enough in him to make up the want of all creature-comforts. They shall not cease from yielding fruit in holiness and good works.

The heart, the conscience of man, in his corrupt and fallen state, is deceitful above all things. It calls evil good, and good evil; and cries peace to those to whom it does not belong. Herein the heart is desperately wicked; it is deadly, it is desperate. The case is bad indeed, if the conscience, which should set right the errors of other faculties, is a leader in the delusion. We cannot know our own hearts, nor what they will do in an hour of temptation. Who can understand his errors? Much less can we know the hearts of others, or depend upon them. He that believes God's testimony in this matter, and learns to watch his own heart, will find this is a correct, though a sad picture, and learns many lessons to direct his conduct. But much in our own hearts and in the hearts of others, will remain unknown. Yet whatever wickedness there is in the heart, God sees it. Men may be imposed upon, but God cannot be deceived.

Because the wicked always have some excuse to defend their doings they show that their own lewd imaginations deceive them and bring them to these hardships: but God will examine their deeds by the malice of their hearts.

Jeremiah 17: 10
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.

I Corinthians 10:12
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! New International Version

Proverbs 23:7
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Psalm 51:17

"The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." Psalm 34:18

Dear God, in these last days help my heart to be right before you.