Jeremiah 7:8

7:8 “‘But just look at you! ¹  You are putting your confidence in a false belief ²  that will not deliver you. ³ 

Jeremiah 9:3-6

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

9:3 The Lord says, ⁴ 

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

Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. ⁵ 

They have become powerful in the land,

but they have not done so by honest means. ⁶ 

Indeed, they do one evil thing after another ⁷ 

and do not pay attention to me. ⁸ 

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

He must not even trust any of his relatives. ⁹ 

For every one of them will find some way to cheat him. ¹⁰ 

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 ¹¹  to tell lies.

They do wrong and are unable to repent.

9:6 They do one act of violence after another,

and one deceitful thing after another. ¹² 

They refuse to pay attention to me,” ¹³ 

says the Lord.

Ezekiel 13:8

13:8 “‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you have spoken false words and forecast delusion, look, ¹⁴  I am against you, ¹⁵  declares the sovereign Lord.

Hosea 7:3

Political Intrigue and Conspiracy in the Palace

7:3 The royal advisers delight the king with their evil schemes,

the princes make him glad with their lies.

Hosea 7:13

Israel Has Turned Away from the Lord

7:13 Woe to them! For they have fled from me!

Destruction to them! For they have rebelled against me!

I want to deliver ¹⁶  them,

but they have lied to me.

Micah 6:12

6:12 The city’s rich men think nothing of resorting to violence; ¹⁷ 

her inhabitants lie, ¹⁸ 

their tongues speak deceptive words. ¹⁹ 

Micah 6:1

The Lord Demands Justice, not Ritual

6:1 Listen to what the Lord says:

“Get up! Defend yourself ²⁰  before the mountains! ²¹ 

Present your case before the hills!” ²² 

Micah 4:2

4:2 Many nations will come, saying,

“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,

to the temple ²³  of Jacob’s God,

so he can teach us his commands ²⁴ 

and we can live by his laws.” ²⁵ 

For Zion will be the source of instruction;

the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem. ²⁶ 

[7:8]  ¹ tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:8]  ² tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.

[7:8]  ³ tn Heb “not profit [you].”

[9:3]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “They have readied [or strung] their tongue as their bow for lies.”

[9:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “but not through honesty.”

[9:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “they go from evil to evil.”

[9:3]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “cheating, each of them will cheat.”

[9:5]  ¹¹ 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.

[9:6]  ¹² tc An alternate reading for vv. 5d-6b is: “They wear themselves out doing wrong. Jeremiah, you live in the midst of deceitful people. They deceitfully refuse to take any thought of/acknowledge me.” The translation which has been adopted is based on a redivision of the lines, a redivision of some of the words, and a revocalization of some of the consonants. The MT reads literally “doing wrong they weary themselves. Your sitting in the midst of deceit; in deceit they refuse to know me” (הַעֲוֵה נִלְאוּ׃ שִׁבְתְּךָ בְּתוֹךְ מִרְמָה בְּמִרְמָה מֵאֲנוּ דַעַת־אוֹתִי). The Greek version reads literally “they do wrong and they do not cease to turn themselves around. Usury upon usury and deceit upon deceit. They do not want to know me.” This suggests that one should read the Hebrew text as שֻׁב׃ תֹּךְ בְּתוֹךְ מִרְ־מָה בְּמִרְ־מָה מֵאֲנוּ דַעַת אוֹתִי הַעֲוֵה נִלְאוּ, which translated literally yields “doing evil [= “they do evil” using the Hiphil infinitive absolute as a finite verb (cf. GKC 346 §113.ff)] they are not able [cf. KBL 468 s.v. לָאָה Niph.3 and see Exod 7:18 for parallel use] to repent. Oppression on oppression [cf. BDB 1067 s.v. תֹּךְ, II תּוֹךְ]; deceit on deceit. They refuse to know me.” This reading has ancient support and avoids the introduction of an unexpected second masculine suffix into the context. It has been adopted here along with a number of modern commentaries (cf., e.g., W. McKane, Jeremiah [ICC], 1:201) and English versions as the more likely reading.

[9:6]  ¹³ tn Or “do not acknowledge me”; Heb “do not know me.” See the note on the phrase “do not take any thought of me” in 9:3.

[13:8]  ¹⁴ tn The word h!nn@h indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[13:8]  ¹⁵ tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.

[7:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “redeem” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NCV, TEV “save”; CEV “I would have rescued them.”

[6:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “because her rich are full of violence.”

[6:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “speak lies.”

[6:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and their tongue is deceptive in their mouth.”

[6:1]  ²⁰ tn Or “plead your case” (NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “present your plea”; NLT “state your case.”

[6:1]  ²¹ sn As in some ancient Near Eastern treaties, the mountains are personified as legal witnesses that will settle the dispute between God and Israel.

[6:1]  ²² tn Heb “let the hills hear your voice.”

[4:2]  ²³ tn Heb “house.”

[4:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “ways.”

[4:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and we can walk in his paths.”

[4:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “instruction [or, “law”] will go out from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”