For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.
Parallel Translations
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For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.
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For out of the herte come evyll thoughtis murder breakyng of wedlocke whordo theefte falce witnes berynge blasphemye.
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For out of the heart come euil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, slaunders.
Cross-references (21)
Passages linked to Matthew 15:19 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Mark 7:21-23 For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
- Galatians 5:19-21 Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.
- Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
- Titus 3:2-6 to speak evil of no one, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing all humility toward all men. For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior;
- James 1:13-15 Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death.
- Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.
- Genesis 6:5 Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.
- Jeremiah 4:14 Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge within you?
- Romans 3:10-19 As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. They have all turned away. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.” “Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. The way of peace, they haven’t known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.
- Psalms 119:113 I hate double-minded men, but I love your law.
- Proverbs 6:14 in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord.
- Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him, to our God, for he will freely pardon.
- Isaiah 59:7 Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths.
- Acts 8:22 Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.
- Genesis 8:21 Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.
- Matthew 9:4 Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?
- Romans 7:18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.
- Ephesians 2:1-3 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
- Proverbs 24:9 The schemes of folly are sin. The mocker is detested by men.
- Proverbs 22:15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child: the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
- Romans 8:7-8 because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. Those who are in the flesh can’t please God.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,…
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
Ver. 19. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts] These are the first and immediate issue of the sinful soul; words and deeds, borborology {a} and enormity, follow in their order. "And I dare be bold to say," saith a reverend divine, {b} "that though the act contract the guilt, because the lust is then grown up to a height, so that it is come to an absolute will in execution, yet the act of adultery and murder is not so abominable in God’s eyes, as the filthiness of the spirit; for it is the spirit that he mainly looks to," &c. Think not then that thought is free, for as inward bleeding will kill, so will concupiscence, whatever the Papists say in favour of it, as a condition of nature: and hence flow most of their most dangerous opinions, as justification by works, state of perfection, merit, supererogation, &c.
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{a} Filthy talk. ŒD cites Trapp as using it in 1649 in this verse
{b} D. Preston of God’s attributes.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,.... Of…
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,.... Of God, of Christ, of the Spirit, of fellow creatures, and of all sorts of wickedness. The thoughts of sin are evil, are to be hated, forsaken, and for which men are accountable to God. All wicked imaginations, carnal reasonings, lustful desires, and malicious contrivances, are here included; which take their rise from, and are devised, and forged, in the corrupt heart of man.
Murders; inveterate hatred of men's persons, malice prepense, schemes to take away life, all angry and wrathful words, and actual effusion of man's blood.
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Adulteries; uncleanness committed between married persons, both in thought, and deed:
fornications; unlawful copulations of persons in a single state:
thefts; taking away from others by force or fraud, what is their right and property:
false witness: swearing falsely, or exhibiting a false testimony to the hurt of his neighbour, either his name, person, or estate:
blasphemies; evil speakings of God or men. To which Mark adds "covetousness"; a greedy and insatiable desire after the things of the world, or the neighbour's goods: "wickedness"; doing hurt and mischief to fellow creatures: "deceit"; in words and actions, in trade and conversation: "lasciviousness"; all manner of uncleanness, and unnatural lusts: "an evil eye"; of envy and covetousness: the vitiosity, or corruption of nature, is, by the Jews (h), called "the evil eye": "pride"; in heart and life, in dress and gesture; and "foolishness"; expressed in talk and conduct.
(h) Tzeror Hammor, fol. 141. 3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain First evil thoughts - then murders - and the…
First evil thoughts - then murders - and the rest. Railings - The Greek word includes all reviling, backbiting, and evil speaking.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 19. Out of the heart] In the heart…
Verse 19. Out of the heart] In the heart of an unregenerate man, the principles and seeds of all sin are found. And iniquity is always conceived in the heart before it be spoken or acted. Is there any hope that a man can abstain from outward sin till his heart, that abominable fountain of corruption, be thoroughly cleansed? I trow not.
Evil thoughts] διαλογισμοι πονηροι, wicked dialogues - for in all evil surmisings the heart holds a conversation, or dialogue, with itself. For φονοι, murders, two MSS. have φθονοι, envyings, and three others have both. Envy and murder are nearly allied: the former has often led to the latter.
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Blasphemies] I have already observed, Mt 9:3, that the verb βλασφημεω, when applied to men, signifies to speak INJURIOUSLY of their persons, characters, &c., and, when applied to God, it means to speak IMPIOUSLY of his nature, works, &c.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain For out of the heart. We must here observe,…
For out of the heart. We must here observe, that our divine Redeemer mentions offences against our neighbour, to shew us that he is even more desirous we should love our neighbour than worship himself. (Idem.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts--"evil reasonings";…
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts--"evil reasonings"; referring here more immediately to those corrupt reasonings which had stealthily introduced and gradually reared up that hideous fabric of tradition which at length practically nullified the unchangeable principles of the moral law. But the statement is far broader than this; namely that the first shape which the evil that is in the heart takes, when it begins actively to stir, is that of "considerations" or "reasonings" on certain suggested actions.
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies--detractions, whether directed against God or man; here the reference seems to be to the latter. Mark (Mar 7:22) adds, "covetousnesses"--or desires after more; "wickednesses"--here meaning, perhaps, malignities of various forms; "deceit, lasciviousness"--meaning, excess or enormity of any kind, though by later writers restricted to lewdness; "an evil eye"--meaning, all looks or glances of envy, jealousy, or ill will towards a neighbor; "pride, foolishness"--in the Old Testament sense of "folly"; that is, criminal senselessness, the folly of the heart. How appalling is this black catalogue!
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 19. Out of the heart — The fountain of…
19. Out of the heart — The fountain of the moral intention and the moral action. Sinful action flows forth from a sinful nature. There lies back of the bad action a permanent badness of the disposition. The heart is therefore depraved. Evil thoughts — The word thoughts here refers to these internal reasonings and weighing for and against yielding to sin which precede its commission. The heart parleys with crime and fluctuates before it gives forth the act. Hence the phrase evil thoughts designates the springs from which proceed the whole catalogue of sins enumerated in the verse. This catalogue follows nearly the order of the second table of the decalogue, beginning with the sixth commandment. False witness — This phrase includes false testimony, or lying of every kind. Blasphemies — Injurious expressions against God or man.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 19. For out of the heart proceed] The enumeration…
19. For out of the heart proceed] The enumeration follows the order of the Commandments. Evil thoughts—harmful reasonings—form a class under which the rest fall, indicating, too, that the transgression of the Commandments is often in thought, by Christ’s law, not in deed only. For “blasphemies,” which may be thought to sum up the first table, St Mark, whose order differs slightly, has “covetousness,” thus completing the decalogue, and adds to the list in the text “wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, pride, foolishness.”
The plurals “murders, adulteries,” &c., as Meyer points out, denote the different instances and kinds of murder and adultery. Murder includes far more than the act of bloodshed.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (19) Evil thoughts, . . . blasphemies.—The plural form…
(19) Evil thoughts, . . . blasphemies.—The plural form points to the manifold variety of the forms of guilt under each several head. The order is in some measure an ascending one, beginning with the “thoughts,” or rather trains of thought, which are the first suggestions of evil, and ending in the “blasphemies” or revilings which, directly or indirectly, have God and not man for their object. In this beginning and end we may trace a reference to those “evil surmises” which had led the Pharisees, as in Mat_12:24, to words which were blasphemy against the Son of Man, and came perilously near to the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Out of the heart proceed. The shameful catalogue which…
Out of the heart proceed. The shameful catalogue which follows is less full than that in St. Mark, which contains thirteen items, while this consists of seven only. These are produced or created by the human will, of which the heart is the symbol. Evil thoughts (dialogismoi ponhroi). Some would translate the words, "evil machinations." But there is no need to change the usual rendering, which is very appropriate here. Evil thoughts are the preparation of all other sins, and have a pernicious influence on the character. We are very much what we think. That on which our minds are fixed, that which is the chief object presented to our inward sight, shapes our disposition and life. High and noble thoughts elevate and purify; low and mean thoughts debase and pollute. The wickedness in a man springs from within; he is guilty of it. If he admits the tempter, succumbs to his seductions, it is his own will that is in fault, encouraging the evil imagination, and not at once resisting, abhorring, and repelling it. Well may we pray, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me"; (Psa_51:10) and remember the wise man"s injunction, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life". (Pro_4:23) The enumeration follows more or less closely the second table of the Decalogue.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.