Jeremiah 9:4

Brenton's Septuagint

Beware ye each of his neighbour, and trust ye not in your brethren: for every one will surely supplant, and every friend will walk craftily.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Everyone has to be on guard against his friend.Don’t trust any brother,for every brother will certainly deceive,and every friend spread slander.

Hebrew Names Version
Take you heed everyone of his neighbor, and don't you trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.

King James Version
Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.

English Standard Version
Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

New American Standard Bible
"Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; Because every brother utterly betrays, And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

New Century Version
"Watch out for your friends, and don't trust your own relatives, because every relative is a cheater, and every friend tells lies about you.

Amplified Bible
"Let everyone beware of his neighbor And do not trust any brother. For every brother is a supplanter [like Jacob, a deceiver, ready to grab his brother's heel], And every neighbor goes around as a slanderer.

World English Bible
Take you heed everyone of his neighbor, and don't you trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Let euery one take heede of his neighbour, and trust you not in any brother: for euery brother will vse deceite, and euery friend will deale deceitfully,

Legacy Standard Bible
"Let everyone beware of his neighbor,And do not trust any brother,Because every brother surely supplants,And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

Berean Standard Bible
"Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander.

Contemporary English Version
Jeremiah, all your friends and relatives tell lies about you, so don't trust them.

Complete Jewish Bible
Everyone deceives his neighbor, no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongues to lie, they wear themselves out with sinning.

Darby Translation
Take ye heed every one of his friend, and confide not in any brother; for every brother only supplanteth, and every friend goeth about with slander.

Easy-to-Read Version
"Watch your neighbors! Don't trust your own brothers, because every brother is a cheat. Every neighbor talks behind your back.

George Lamsa Translation
Take heed every one of his neighbor and do not trust in any brother; for every brother henceforth will defraud and every neighbor will walk deceitfully.

Good News Translation
Everyone must be on guard against their friends, and no one can trust their relatives; for all relatives are as deceitful as Jacob, and everyone slanders their friends.

Lexham English Bible
"Let everyone be on your guard against his neighbor, and you must not trust in any brother, for everyone surely betrays, and every neighbor goes about with slander.

Literal Translation
Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor, and do not trust any brother. For every brother will supplant, and every neighbor will walk as a slanderer.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yee one must kepe himself from another, no man maye safely trust his owne brother: for one brother vndermyneth another, & one neghboure begyleth another.

American Standard Version
Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.

Bible in Basic English
Let everyone keep watch on his neighbour, and put no faith in any brother: for every brother will certainly be tricking his brother, and every neighbour will go about saying evil.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And they deceive every one his neighbour, and truth they speak not; they have taught their tongue to speak lies, they weary themselves to commit iniquity.

King James Version (1611)
Take yee heede euery one of his neighbour, and trust yee not in any brother: for euery brother will vtterly supplant, and euery neighbour will walke with slanders.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Yea, one must kepe hym selfe from another, no man may safely trust his owne brother: for one brother vndermindeth another, one neighbour beguileth another.

English Revised Version
Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will go about with slanders.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Ech man kepe hym fro his neiybore, and haue no trist in ony brother of hym; for whi ech brother disseyuyng schal disseyue, and ech frend schal go gilefuli.

Update Bible Version
Take heed every one of his neighbor, and don't trust in any brother; for every brother will completely supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.

Webster's Bible Translation
Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders.

New English Translation
Everyone must be on his guard around his friends. He must not even trust any of his relatives. For every one of them will find some way to cheat him. And all of his friends will tell lies about him.

New King James Version
"Everyone take heed to his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; For every brother will utterly supplant, And every neighbor will walk with slanderers.

New Living Translation
"Beware of your neighbor! Don't even trust your brother! For brother takes advantage of brother, and friend slanders friend.

New Life Bible
"Let every one watch his neighbor. Do not trust any brother. Because every brother sets traps, and every neighbor goes about hurting people with his talk.

New Revised Standard
Beware of your neighbors, and put no trust in any of your kin; for all your kin are supplanters, and every neighbor goes around like a slanderer.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Every one, of his neighbour, beware ye, And in no brother, may ye trust, - For, every brother, supplanteth! And every neighbour, as a tale-bearer, goeth about;

Douay-Rheims Bible
Let every man take heed of his neighbour, and let him not trust in any brother of his: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every friend will walk deceitfully.

Revised Standard Version
Let every one beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother; for every brother is a supplanter, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

Young's Literal Translation
Each of his friend -- beware ye, And on any brother, do not trust, For every brother doth utterly supplant, For every friend slanderously doth walk,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; Because every brother deals craftily, And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

Contextual Overview

¹ Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? then would I weep for this my people day and night, even for the slain of the daughter of my people. ² Who would give me a most distant lodge in the wilderness, that I might leave my people, and depart from them? for they all commit adultery, an assembly of treacherous men. ³ And they have bent their tongue like a bow: falsehood and not faithfulness has prevailed upon the earth; for they have gone on from evil to evil, and have not known me, saith the Lord. ⁴ Beware ye each of his neighbour, and trust ye not in your brethren: for every one will surely supplant, and every friend will walk craftily. ⁵ Every one will mock his friend; they will not speak truth: their tongue has learned to speak falsehoods; they have committed iniquity, they ceased not, so as to return. ⁶ There is usury upon usury, and deceit upon deceit: they would not know me, saith the Lord. ⁷ Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will try them with fire, and prove them; for I will do thus because of the wickedness of the daughter of my people. ⁸ Their tongue is a wounding arrow; the words of their mouth are deceitful: one speaks peaceably to his neighbour, but in himself retains enmity. ⁹ Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a people as this? ¹⁰ Take up a lamentation for the mountains, and a mournful dirge for the paths of the wilderness, for they are desolate for want of men; they heard not the sound of life from the birds of the sky, nor the cattle: they were amazed, they are gone.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

ye heed: Jeremiah 12:6, Psalms 12:2, Psalms 12:3, Psalms 55:11, Psalms 55:12, Proverbs 26:24, Proverbs 26:25, Micah 7:5, Micah 7:6, Matthew 10:17, Matthew 10:21, Matthew 10:34, Matthew 10:35, Luke 21:16

neighbour: or, friend

every brother: Genesis 27:35, Genesis 27:36, Genesis 32:28, 1 Thessalonians 4:6

walk: Jeremiah 6:28, Leviticus 19:16, Psalms 15:3, Proverbs 6:16, Proverbs 6:19, Proverbs 10:18, Proverbs 25:18, Ezekiel 22:9, 1 Peter 2:1, 1 Peter 2:2

Reciprocal: Judges 16:18 - Come up 2 Samuel 19:27 - slandered Job 6:15 - My brethren Psalms 52:2 - Thy Psalms 55:13 - my guide Psalms 116:11 - All Malachi 2:10 - why Ephesians 4:31 - evil speaking 1 Timothy 3:11 - not

Cross-References

Genesis 9:10
and with every living creature with you, of birds and of beasts, and with all the wild beasts of the earth, as many as are with you, of all that come out of the ark.

Genesis 9:14
And it shall be when I gather clouds upon the earth, that my bow shall be seen in the cloud.

Leviticus 3:17
It is a perpetual statute throughout your generations, in all your habitations; ye shall eat no fat and no blood.

Leviticus 7:26
as the Lord commanded to give to them in the day in which he anointed them of the sons of Israel, a perpetual statute through their generations.

Leviticus 19:26
Eat not on the mountains, nor shall ye employ auguries, nor divine by inspection of birds.

Deuteronomy 12:16
Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it out on the ground as water.

Deuteronomy 12:23
Take diligent heed that thou eat no blood, for blood is the life of it; the life shall not be eaten with the flesh.

Deuteronomy 14:21
Ye shall eat nothing that dies of itself; it shall be given to the sojourner in thy cities and he shall eat it, or thou shalt sell it to a stranger, because thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a lamb in his mother’s milk.

Deuteronomy 15:23
Only ye shall not eat the blood; thou shalt pour it out on the earth as water.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Take ye heed everyone of his neighbour,.... Take care of being imposed upon by them, since they are so given to lying and deceit; be not too credulous, or too easily believe what is said; or keep yourselves from them; have no company or conversation with them, since evil communications corrupt good manners:

and trust ye not in any brother; whether by blood or by marriage, or by religion, believe not his words; trust him not, neither with your money, nor with your mind; commit not your secrets to him, place no confidence in him; a people must be very corrupt indeed when this is the case: or, "trust ye not in every brother" r; some may be trusted, but not all though the following clause seems to contradict this,

for every brother will utterly supplant; or, in supplanting supplant s; play the Jacob, do as he did by his brother, who supplanted him twice; first got the birthright from him, and then the blessing; which was presignified by taking his brother by the heel in the womb, from whence he had his name; and the same word is here used, which signifies a secret, clandestine, and insidious way of circumventing another;

and every neighbour will walk with slanders; go about spreading lies and calumnies, as worshippers, backbiters, and tale bearers do. The word דכיל is used for a "merchant"; and because such persons went from place to place with their goods, and made use often times of fraudulent practices to deceive people, it is applied to one that is guilty of slander and calumny; Song of Solomon 3:8.

r ועל כל אח אל תבטחו "et omni fratri ne fidatis", Paganinus. s עקוב יעקב "supplantanto supplantat", Schmidt.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

From their punishment the prophet now turns to their sins.

Jeremiah 9:2

The prophet utters the wish that he might be spared his daily striving, and in some lone wilderness give way to his sorrow, without restraint.

A lodging place - It was usual to build in the desert, either by private charity or at the public expense, caravanserais, to receive travelers for a single night, who had however to bring their own supplies with them.

An assembly - Or, a gang.

Treacherous - Faithless toward one another.

Jeremiah 9:3

Rather, “And they bend their tongue to be their bow of lies, i. e.” just as men before a battle get their bows ready, so they of set purpose make ready to do mischief, only their arrows are lying words: “neither do they rule faithfully in the land, i. e.” Judaea.

Jeremiah 9:4

In a state of such utter lawlessness, the bonds of mutual confidence are relaxed, and suspicion takes its place.

Utterly supplant - An allusion to the name of Jacob Genesis 27:36. It might be rendered, “every brother is a thorough Jacob.”

Will walk with slanders - Or, slandereth.

Jeremiah 9:6

A continuation of the warning given in Jeremiah 9:4. “Trust no one: for thou dwellest surrounded by deceit on every side.” Their rejection of God is the result of their want of honesty in their dealings with one another 1 John 4:20.

Jeremiah 9:7

I will melt them, and try them - The punishment is corrective rather than retributive. The terms used are those of the refiner of metals, the first being the smelting to separate the pure metal from the ore; the second the testing to see whether the metal is pure, or still mixed with alloy. God will put the nation into the crucible of tribulation, that whatever is evil being consumed in the fire, all there is in them of good may be purified.

For how shall I do ... - Rather, “for how” else could I act with reference to the “daughter of my people?”

Jeremiah 9:8

An arrow shot out - Rather, “a murderous arrow.”

In heart he layeth his wait - Rather, “inwardly he layeth his ambush.”