Yeremia 9:3-5

The Lord Laments That He Has No Choice But to Judge Them

9:3 The Lord says, ¹ 

“These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows.

Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. ² 

They have become powerful in the land,

but they have not done so by honest means. ³ 

Indeed, they do one evil thing after another ⁴ 

and do not pay attention to me. ⁵ 

9:4 Everyone must be on his guard around his friends.

He must not even trust any of his relatives. ⁶ 

For every one of them will find some way to cheat him. ⁷ 

And all of his friends will tell lies about him.

9:5 One friend deceives another

and no one tells the truth.

These people have trained themselves ⁸  to tell lies.

They do wrong and are unable to repent.

Hosea 7:13

Israel Has Turned Away from the Lord

7:13 Woe to them! For they have fled from me!

Destruction to them! For they have rebelled against me!

I want to deliver ⁹  them,

but they have lied to me.

Mikha 6:12

6:12 The city’s rich men think nothing of resorting to violence; ¹⁰ 

her inhabitants lie, ¹¹ 

their tongues speak deceptive words. ¹² 

Roma 3:4

3:4 Absolutely not! Let God be proven true, and every human being ¹³  shown up as a liar, ¹⁴  just as it is written: “so that you will be justified ¹⁵  in your words and will prevail when you are judged.” ¹⁶ 

[9:3]  ¹ tn The words “The Lord says” have been moved up from the end of the verse to make clear that a change in speaker has occurred.

[9:3]  ² tn Heb “They have readied [or strung] their tongue as their bow for lies.”

[9:3]  ³ tn Heb “but not through honesty.”

[9:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “they go from evil to evil.”

[9:3]  ⁵ tn Or “do not acknowledge me”; Heb “do not know me.” But “knowing” in Hebrew thought often involves more than intellectual knowledge; it involves emotional and volitional commitment as well. For יָדַע meaning “acknowledge” see 1 Chr 28:9; Isa 29:21; Hos 2:20; Prov 3:6. This word is also found in ancient Near Eastern treaty contexts where it has the idea of a vassal king acknowledging the sovereignty of a greater king (cf. H. Huffmon, “The Treaty Background of Hebrew yada,” BASOR 181 [1966]: 31-37).

[9:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “Be on your guard…Do not trust.” The verbs are second masculine plural of direct address and there seems no way to translate literally and not give the mistaken impression that Jeremiah is being addressed. This is another example of the tendency in Hebrew style to turn from description to direct address (a figure of speech called apostrophe).

[9:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “cheating, each of them will cheat.”

[9:4]  sn There is perhaps an intentional pun and allusion here to Gen 27:36 and the wordplay on the name Jacob there. The text here reads עָקוֹב יַעְקֹב (’aqob ya’qob).

[9:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “their tongues.” However, this is probably not a natural idiom in contemporary English and the tongue may stand as a part for the whole anyway.

[7:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “redeem” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NCV, TEV “save”; CEV “I would have rescued them.”

[6:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “because her rich are full of violence.”

[6:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “speak lies.”

[6:12]  ¹² tn Heb “and their tongue is deceptive in their mouth.”

[3:4]  ¹³ tn Grk “every man”; but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used in a generic sense here to stress humanity rather than masculinity.

[3:4]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” The words “proven” and “shown up” are supplied in the translation to clarify the meaning.

[3:4]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “might be justified,” a subjunctive verb, but in this type of clause it carries the same sense as the future indicative verb in the latter part. “Will” is more idiomatic in contemporary English.

[3:4]  ¹⁶ tn Or “prevail when you judge.” A quotation from Ps 51:4.