diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/clojure/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/clojure/default.nix
index 7a0bdcf588600..6d356626ed2f8 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/clojure/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/clojure/default.nix
@@ -4,15 +4,11 @@
   bashNonInteractive,
   fetchurl,
   installShellFiles,
-  jdk21,
+  jdk,
   rlwrap,
   makeWrapper,
   writeScript,
 }:
-let
-  # set this to an LTS version of java
-  jdk = jdk21;
-in
 stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
   pname = "clojure";
   version = "1.12.2.1565";
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index b68b2fe156120..c8e36b72bd8a1 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -5812,7 +5812,12 @@ with pkgs;
     xeus-cling
     ;
 
-  clojure = callPackage ../development/interpreters/clojure { };
+  clojure = callPackage ../development/interpreters/clojure {
+    # set this to an LTS version of java
+    # Be careful if you remove this, out-of-tree consumers expect to
+    # be able to override `jdk`.
+    jdk = jdk21;
+  };
 
   clooj = callPackage ../development/interpreters/clojure/clooj.nix { };