4 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.
Don't trust in a neighbor. Don't put confidence in a friend. With the woman lying in your embrace, Be careful of the words of your mouth! For the son dishonors the father, The daughter rises up against her mother, The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; A man's enemies are the men of his own house.
They are all grievous rebels, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly.
Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart. May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips, And the tongue that boasts,
"'You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people; neither shall you stand against the life{literally, "blood"} of your neighbor. I am Yahweh.
He said, "Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing." He said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing." He said, "Haven't you reserved a blessing for me?"
For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; even they have cried aloud after you: don't believe them, though they speak beautiful words to you.
A man who gives false testimony against his neighbor Is like a club, a sword, or a sharp arrow.
He who doesn't slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his friend, Nor casts slurs against his fellow man;
He said, "Your name will no longer be called 'Jacob,' but, 'Israel,' for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed."
Destructive forces are within her. Threats and lies don't depart from her streets. For it was not an enemy who insulted me, Then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, Then I would have hid myself from him.
Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby,
that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified.
"Don't think that I came to send peace on the earth. I didn't come to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at odds against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
"Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child. Children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood; and in you they have eaten on the mountains: in the midst of you they have committed lewdness.
A false witness who utters lies, And he who sows discord among brothers.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Jeremiah 9
Commentary on Jeremiah 9 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 9
In this chapter the prophet goes on faithfully to reprove sin and to threaten God's judgments for it, and yet bitterly to lament both, as one that neither rejoiced at iniquity nor was glad at calamities.
Jer 9:1-11
The prophet, being commissioned both to foretel the destruction coming upon Judah and Jerusalem and to point out the sin for which that destruction was brought upon them, here, as elsewhere, speaks of both very feelingly: what he said of both came from the heart, and therefore one would have thought it would reach to the heart.
Jer 9:12-22
Two things the prophet designs, in these verses, with reference to the approaching destruction of Judah and Jerusalem:-
Jer 9:23-26
The prophet had been endeavouring to possess this people with a holy fear of God and his judgments, to convince them both of sin and wrath; but still they had recourse to some sorry subterfuge or other, under which to shelter themselves from the conviction and with which to excuse themselves in the obstinacy and carelessness. He therefore sets himself here to drive them from these refuges of lies and to show them the insufficiency of them.