Jeremiah 9:3

And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD. THEY BEND THEIR TONGUES LIKE THEIR BOW FOR LIES - i:e., with lies as their arrows; they direct lies on their tongue as their bow (Psalms 64:3, "Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words"). NOT VALIANT FOR THE TRUTH - (). Maurer translates, 'They do not prevail by truth' or faith (, "With our tongue will we prevail"). Their tongue, not faith, is their weapon. UPON THE EARTH - rather, 'in the land.' They know no...

Jeremiah confirms what he had said of the near destruction of the people; for, as we have said, the Jews ridiculed threatenings while they thought themselves far from every danger. But the Prophet shews, from the nature of God himself, that they must necessarily perish in a short time; for since God is the judge of the world, and as they were continually advancing in impiety and wickedness, they could no longer be tolerated. This is the meaning. He first says, that they _stretched their tongues as a bow for falsehoods _The verb דרך, _darek, _means to walk, and often occurs in this sense; but; it means also to stretch, to bend, and is frequently applied to bows. As it is here in Hiphil, some take it in a transitive sense. It ought in this case to have י _, iod; _but such defect is often found in other places. This sense is the most suitable; that is, that they shot with their tongues fals...

1-11 Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Christ Jesus, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, must be a place for temptation and evil; while, with these blessings, we may live in holiness in crowded cities. The people accustomed their tongues to lies. So false were they, that a brother could not be trusted. In trading and bargaining they said any thing for their own advantage, though they knew it to be false. But God marked their sin. Where no knowledge of God is, what good can be expected? He has many ways of turning a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of those that dwell therein....

Verse Jeremiah 9:3. _THEY BEND THEIR TONGUES_ LIKE THEIR _BOW_ FOR _LIES_] And their lies are such that they as fully _take away life_ as the _keenest arrow_ shot from the best strung bow. The false prophets told the people that there was no desolation at hand: the people believed them; made no preparation for their defence; did not return to the Lord; and the sword came and destroyed them. _THEY ARE NOT VALIANT FOR THE TRUTH_] They are _bold_ in sin, and _courageous_ to support their lies; but the _truth_ they neither patronize nor support....

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.

EXPOSITION JEREMIAH 9:1 The Hebrew more correctly attaches this verse to Jeremiah 8:1. OH THAT MY HEAD WERE WATERS, etc.! A quaint conceit, it may be said. But "if we have been going on pace for pace with the passion before, this sudden conversion of a strong-felt metaphor into something to be actually realized in nature, is strictly and strikingly natural." So Bishop Dearie, quoting, by way of illustration, Shakespeare's 'Richard II.,' "meditating on his own utter annihilation as to royalty:" "Oh that I were a mockery king of snow, To melt before the sun of Bolingbroke!" The tone of complaint continues in the following verse, though the subject is different....

AND THEY BEND THEIR TONGUES LIKE THEIR BOW FOR LIES,.... Their tongues were like bows, and their lying words like arrows, which they directed against persons to their injury; see Psalms 11:2, or, "like their deceitful bow" p; to which the Targum agrees, "they teach their tongues words of falsehood, they are like to a deceitful bow.'' Most agreeably to the accents the words may be rendered, "they bend their tongues, their bow is a lie" q; either deceitful, or carries a lie in it, and shoots one out of it: BUT THEY ARE NOT VALIANT FOR THE TRUTH UPON THE EARTH; which a man should do everything for, and nothing against; and which he should earnestly contend for, and not part with or give up at any rate; not only for the truth of doctrine, for faith, as the Targum; for the doctrine of faith, the truth of the Gospel, and as it is in Christ; but for truth

Jeremiah 9:1. _Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!_ Jeremiah foresaw that the Chaldeans would come up, and so many would be slain that the nation would be almost destroyed. Jeremiah 9:2. _Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men._ He mourned because of the doom that awaited them; but he equally mourned because of the sin that would bring that doom upon them. He wished that he could get away into one of those refuges, which were provided in lonely places, where travelers might lodge for a night....

CHAPTER 9 _ 1. The prophet's complaint and Jehovah's answer (Jeremiah 9:1) _ 2. The cause of desolation and destruction (Jeremiah 9:10) 3. The call for the mourning and wailing women (Jeremiah 9:17) 4. Glorying in the Lord in view of judgment (Jeremiah 9:23) Jeremiah 9:1. Here again is a deplorable break. The opening verses of this chapter belong to the preceding one. The prophet still speaks. He is overwhelmed with sorrow; his eyes are fountains of tears. He weeps day and night over the slain. He wish

FAITHLESSNESS AND ITS RETRIBUTION: THE DIRGE OF DEATH. The humblest caravanserai would be preferable to life among these evil men, with their calumnies and the unfaithful use of power by those in authority, their mutual deceit, and their untruthfulness (Jeremiah 9:2)_._ Yahweh will prove them in His furnace (Jeremiah 6:29), because of the wickedness of His people (so read in Jeremiah 9:7, with LXX, which continues preferably, after arrow, in Jeremiah 9:8, the words of their mouth are deceit, and omits with his mouth). Jeremiah 9:9 occurs in...