28:15 For you say,
“We have made a treaty with death,
with Sheol 9 we have made an agreement. 10
When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by 11
it will not reach us.
For we have made a lie our refuge,
we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.” 12
9:3 The Lord says, 13
“These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows.
Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. 14
They have become powerful in the land,
but they have not done so by honest means. 15
Indeed, they do one evil thing after another 16
and do not pay attention to me. 17
9:4 Everyone must be on his guard around his friends.
He must not even trust any of his relatives. 18
For every one of them will find some way to cheat him. 19
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 20 to tell lies.
They do wrong and are unable to repent.
1 tn Heb “if it is bad in your eyes.”
2 tn Or “to serve.”
3 tn Or “will serve.”
4 tn Heb “your fathers.”
5 tn Or “served.”
6 tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity; see v. 3.
7 tn Heb “house.”
8 tn Or “will serve.”
9 sn Sheol is the underworld, land of the dead, according to the OT world view.
10 tn Elsewhere the noun חֹזֶה (khozeh) refers to a prophet who sees visions. In v. 18 the related term חָזוּת (khazut, “vision”) is used. The parallelism in both verses (note “treaty”) seems to demand a meaning “agreement” for both nouns. Perhaps חֹזֶה and חזוּת are used in a metonymic sense in vv. 15 and 18. Another option is to propose a homonymic root. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:514, and HALOT 301 s.v. II חֹזֶה.
11 tn Heb “the overwhelming scourge, when it passes by” (NRSV similar).
12 sn “Lie” and “deceitful word” would not be the terms used by the people. They would likely use the words “promise” and “reliable word,” but the prophet substitutes “lie” and “deceitful word” to emphasize that this treaty with death will really prove to be disappointing.
13 tn The words “The
14 tn Heb “They have readied [or strung] their tongue as their bow for lies.”
15 tn Heb “but not through honesty.”
16 tn Heb “they go from evil to evil.”
17 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).
18 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).
19 tn Heb “cheating, each of them will cheat.”
20 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.
21 tn Heb “you are erring at the cost of your own lives” (BDB 1073 s.v. תָּעָה Hiph.3 and HALOT 1626 s.v. תָּעָה Hif 4, and cf. BDB 90 s.v. בְּ 3 and see parallels in 1 Kgs 2:23; 2 Sam 23:17 for the nuance of “at the cost of your lives”). This fits the context better than “you are deceiving yourselves” (KBL 1035 s.v. תָּעָה Hif 4). The reading here follows the Qere הִתְעֵיתֶם (hit’etem) rather than the Kethib which has a metathesis of י (yod) and ת (tav), i.e., הִתְעֵתֶים. The Greek text presupposes הֲרֵעֹתֶם (hare’otem, “you have done evil”), but that reading is generally rejected as secondary.
22 tn Heb “According to all which the