Jeremiah 9:4

Lexham English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹ Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night, for the slain of the daughter of my people. ² Oh that I had in the desert a place of overnight lodging for travelers, that I may leave my people and go from them, for all of them are adulterers, a band of traitors. ³ And they bend their tongue like their bow, for falsehood and not truth is superior in the land, for they go forth from evil to evil, and they do not know me," declares Yahweh. ⁴ "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. ⁵ And everyone deceives his neighbor, and they do not speak the truth, they have taught their tongues to speak lies, they are tired from going astray. ⁶ Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit, upon deceit they refuse to know me," declares Yahweh. ⁷ Therefore, thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Look, I am about to refine them, and I will test them, for what else can I do, because of the presence of the daughter of my people? ⁸ Their tongue is a murderous arrow, it speaks deceit. With his mouth he speaks peace with his neighbor, but in his inner parts he sets up his ambush. ⁹ Because of these things shall I not punish them?" declares Yahweh, "On a nation that is like this shall I not take revenge? ¹⁰ For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the desert a lament, because they are laid waste so that no man passes through. And the sounds of cattle are not heard, from the birds of heaven to the animals they have fled, 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 that is with you—the birds, the animals, and every animal of the earth with you, from all that came out of the ark to all the animals of the earth.

Genesis 9:14
And when I make clouds appear over the earth the bow shall be seen in the clouds.

Leviticus 3:17
This is a lasting statute for your generations in all your dwellings: you must not eat any fat or any blood.'"

Leviticus 7:26
And in any of your dwellings, you must not eat any blood belonging to birds or domestic animals.

Leviticus 19:26
"‘You must not eat anything with the blood; you shall not practice divination, nor shall you interpret signs.

Deuteronomy 12:16
Only the blood you must not eat, but on the ground you must pour it like water.

Deuteronomy 12:23
Only, be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the meat.

Deuteronomy 14:21
"You shall not eat any carcass; you may give it to the alien who is in your towns, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people for Yahweh your God; you may not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

Deuteronomy 15:23
But you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it on the ground like water."

Acts 15:20
but we should write a letter to them to abstain from the pollution of idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood.

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.”