3 And they bend their tongue, their bow `is' a lie, And not for stedfastness have they been mighty in the land, For from evil unto evil they have gone forth, And Me they have not known, An affirmation of Jehovah!
A slaughtering arrow `is' their tongue, Deceit it hath spoken in its mouth, Peace with its neighbour it speaketh, And in its heart it layeth its ambush,
For my people `are' foolish, me they have not known, Foolish sons `are' they, yea, they `are' not intelligent, Wise `are' they to do evil, And to do good they have not known.
A sepulchre opened `is' their throat; with their tongues they used deceit; poison of asps `is' under their lips.
Transgressing, and lying against Jehovah, And removing from after our God, Speaking oppression and apostacy, Conceiving and uttering from the heart Words of falsehood. And removed backward is judgment, And righteousness afar off standeth, For truth hath been feeble in the street, And straightforwardness is not able to enter, And the truth is lacking, And whoso is turning aside from evil, Is making himself a spoil. And Jehovah seeth, and it is evil in His eyes, That there is no judgment.
and this is the life age-during, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and him whom Thou didst send -- Jesus Christ;
and they did overcome him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life -- unto death;
and evil men and impostors shall advance to the worse, leading astray and being led astray.
and not terrified in anything by those opposing, which to them indeed is a token of destruction, and to you of salvation, and that from God;
in whom the god of this age did blind the minds of the unbelieving, that there doth not shine forth to them the enlightening of the good news of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God; for not ourselves do we preach, but Christ Jesus -- Lord, and ourselves your servants because of Jesus; because `it is' God who said, Out of darkness light `is' to shine, who did shine in our hearts, for the enlightening of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And, according as they did not approve of having God in knowledge, God gave them up to a disapproved mind, to do the things not seemly;
for I am not ashamed of the good news of the Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to every one who is believing, both to Jew first, and to Greek.
Jesus answered, `If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing; it is my Father who is glorifying me, of whom ye say that He is your God; and ye have not known Him, and I have known Him, and if I say that I have not known Him, I shall be like you -- speaking falsely; but I have known Him, and His word I keep;
for whoever may be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also shall be ashamed of him, when he may come in the glory of his Father, with the holy messengers.'
be not therefore afraid, than many sparrows ye are better. `Every one, therefore, who shall confess in me before men, I also will confess in him before my Father who is in the heavens; and whoever shall deny me before men, I also will deny him before my Father who is in the heavens.
On the evil `are' both hands to do `it' well, The prince is asking -- also the judge -- for recompence, And the great -- he is speaking the mischief of his soul, And they wrap it up. Their best one `is' as a brier, The upright one -- than a thorn-hedge, The day of thy watchmen -- Thy visitation -- hath come. Now is their perplexity. Believe not in a friend, trust not in a leader, From her who is lying in thy bosom keep the openings of thy mouth.
`Hear a word of Jehovah, sons of Israel, For a strife `is' to Jehovah with inhabitants of the land, For there is no truth, nor kindness, Nor knowledge of God, in the land, Swearing, and lying, and murdering, And stealing, and committing adultery -- have increased, And blood against blood hath touched. Therefore mourn doth the land, And weak is every dweller in it, With the beast of the field, And with the fowl of the heavens, And the fishes of the sea -- they are removed.
And they do not teach any more Each his neighbour, and each his brother, Saying, Know ye Jehovah, For they all know Me, from their least unto their greatest, An affirmation of Jehovah; For I pardon their iniquity, And of their sin I make mention no more.
He decided the cause of the poor and needy, Then `it is' well -- is it not to know Me? An affirmation of Jehovah.
And each at his friend they mock, And truth they do not speak, They taught their tongue to speak falsehood, To commit iniquity they have laboured.
For your hands have been polluted with blood, And your fingers with iniquity, Your lips have spoken falsehood, Your tongue perverseness doth mutter. There is none calling in righteousness, And there is none pleading in faithfulness, Trusting on emptiness, and speaking falsehood, Conceiving perverseness, and bearing iniquity. Eggs of a viper they have hatched, And webs of a spider they weave, Whoso is eating their eggs doth die, And the crushed hatcheth a viper.
O Jehovah, deliver my soul from a lying lip, From a deceitful tongue! What doth He give to thee? And what doth He add to thee? O deceitful tongue! Sharp arrows of a mighty one, with broom-coals.
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.