9:5 One friend deceives another
and no one tells the truth.
These people have trained themselves 1 to tell lies.
They do wrong and are unable to repent.
9:8 Their tongues are like deadly arrows. 2
They are always telling lies. 3
Friendly words for their neighbors come from their mouths.
But their minds are thinking up ways to trap them. 4
1 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.
2 tc This reading follows the Masoretic consonants (the Kethib, a Qal active participle from שָׁחַט, shakhat). The Masoretes preferred to read “a sharpened arrow” (the Qere, a Qal passive participle from the same root or a homonym, meaning “hammered, beaten”). See HALOT 1354 s.v. II שָׁחַט for discussion. The exact meaning of the word makes little difference to the meaning of the metaphor itself.
3 tn Heb “They speak deceit.”
4 tn Heb “With his mouth a person speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets an ambush for him.”