Jeremiah 5:23

5:23 But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts.

They have turned aside and gone their own way. ¹ 

Jeremiah 9:2-5

9:2 (9:1) I wish I had a lodging place in the desert

where I could spend some time like a weary traveler. ² 

Then I would desert my people

and walk away from them

because they are all unfaithful to God,

a congregation ³  of people that has been disloyal to him. ⁴ 

The Lord Laments That He Has No Choice But to Judge Them

9:3 The Lord says, ⁵ 

“These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows.

Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. ⁶ 

They have become powerful in the land,

but they have not done so by honest means. ⁷ 

Indeed, they do one evil thing after another ⁸ 

and do not pay attention to me. ⁹ 

9:4 Everyone must be on his guard around his friends.

He must not even trust any of his relatives. ¹⁰ 

For every one of them will find some way to cheat him. ¹¹ 

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 ¹²  to tell lies.

They do wrong and are unable to repent.

Matthew 12:34-36

12:34 Offspring of vipers! How are you able to say anything good, since you are evil? For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart. 12:35 The good person ¹³  brings good things out of his ¹⁴  good treasury, ¹⁵  and the evil person brings evil things out of his evil treasury. 12:36 I ¹⁶  tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak.

Mark 7:21-22

7:21 For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 7:22 adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly.

Romans 3:10-18

3:10 just as it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one,

3:11 there is no one who understands,

there is no one who seeks God.

3:12 All have turned away,

together they have become worthless;

there is no one who shows kindness, not even one.” ¹⁷ 

3:13 “Their throats are open graves, ¹⁸ 

they deceive with their tongues,

the poison of asps is under their lips.” ¹⁹ 

3:14 “Their mouths are ²⁰  full of cursing and bitterness.” ²¹ 

3:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood,

3:16 ruin and misery are in their paths,

3:17 and the way of peace they have not known.” ²² 

3:18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” ²³ 

James 1:15

1:15 Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death.

James 3:6

3:6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents ²⁴  the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It ²⁵  pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. ²⁶ 

[5:23]  ¹ tn The words, “their own way” are not in the text but are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:2]  ² tn Heb “I wish I had in the desert a lodging place [inn, or place to spend the night] for travelers.”

[9:2]  ³ tn Or “bunch,” but this loses the irony; the word is used for the solemn assemblies at the religious feasts.

[9:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “they are all adulterers, a congregation of unfaithful people.” However, spiritual adultery is, of course, meant, not literal adultery. So the literal translation would be misleading.

[9:3]  ⁵ tn The words “The Lord says” have been moved up from the end of the verse to make clear that a change in speaker has occurred.

[9:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “They have readied [or strung] their tongue as their bow for lies.”

[9:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “but not through honesty.”

[9:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “they go from evil to evil.”

[9:3]  ⁹ 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).

[9:4]  ¹⁰ 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).

[9:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “cheating, each of them will cheat.”

[9:5]  ¹² 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.

[12:35]  ¹³ tn The Greek text reads here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpos). The term is generic referring to any person.

[12:35]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “the”; the Greek article has been translated here and in the following clause (“his evil treasury”) as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[12:35]  ¹⁵ sn The treasury here is a metaphorical reference to a person’s heart (cf. BDAG 456 s.v. θησαυρός 1.b and the parallel passage in Luke 6:45).

[12:36]  ¹⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[3:12]  ¹⁷ sn Verses 10-12 are a quotation from Ps 14:1-3.

[3:13]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “their throat is an opened grave.”

[3:13]  ¹⁹ sn A quotation from Pss 5:9; 140:3.

[3:14]  ²⁰ tn Grk “whose mouth is.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[3:14]  ²¹ sn A quotation from Ps 10:7.

[3:17]  ²² sn Rom 3:15-17 is a quotation from Isa 59:7-8.

[3:18]  ²³ sn A quotation from Ps 36:1.

[3:6]  ²⁴ tn Grk “makes itself,” “is made.”

[3:6]  ²⁵ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[3:6]  ²⁶ sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).