Jeremiah 9:5

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.

Jeremiah 9:8

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 

Isaiah 59:13-15

59:13 We have rebelled and tried to deceive the Lord;

we turned back from following our God.

We stir up ⁵  oppression and rebellion;

we tell lies we concocted in our minds. ⁶ 

59:14 Justice is driven back;

godliness ⁷  stands far off.

Indeed, ⁸  honesty stumbles in the city square

and morality is not even able to enter.

59:15 Honesty has disappeared;

the one who tries to avoid evil is robbed.

The Lord watches and is displeased, ⁹ 

for there is no justice.

Micah 6:12

6:12 The city’s rich men think nothing of resorting to violence; ¹⁰ 

her inhabitants lie, ¹¹ 

their tongues speak deceptive words. ¹² 

Ephesians 4:25

4:25 Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, ¹³  for we are members of one another.

[9:5]  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.

[9:8]  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.

[9:8]  ³ tn Heb “They speak deceit.”

[9:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “With his mouth a person speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets an ambush for him.”

[59:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “speaking.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[59:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.”

[59:14]  ⁷ tn Or “righteousness” (ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); KJV, NAB “justice.”

[59:14]  ⁸ tn Or “for” (KJV, NRSV).

[59:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “and it is displeasing in his eyes.”

[6:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “because her rich are full of violence.”

[6:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “speak lies.”

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

[4:25]  ¹³ sn A quotation from Zech 8:16.