Psalms 109:2-3

109:2 For they say cruel and deceptive things to me;

they lie to me. ¹ 

109:3 They surround me and say hateful things; ² 

they attack me for no reason.

Isaiah 59:7

59:7 They are eager to do evil, ³ 

quick to shed innocent blood. ⁴ 

Their thoughts are sinful;

they crush and destroy. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 5:26-27

5:26 “Indeed, there are wicked scoundrels among my people.

They lie in wait like bird catchers hiding in ambush. ⁶ 

They set deadly traps ⁷  to catch people.

5:27 Like a cage filled with the birds that have been caught, ⁸ 

their houses are filled with the gains of their fraud and deceit. ⁹ 

That is how they have gotten so rich and powerful. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 9:3-5

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

9:3 The Lord says, ¹¹ 

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

Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. ¹² 

They have become powerful in the land,

but they have not done so by honest means. ¹³ 

Indeed, they do one evil thing after another ¹⁴ 

and do not pay attention to me. ¹⁵ 

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

He must not even trust any of his relatives. ¹⁶ 

For every one of them will find some way to cheat him. ¹⁷ 

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 ¹⁸  to tell lies.

They do wrong and are unable to repent.

Matthew 26:4

26:4 They ¹⁹  planned to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

[109:2]  ¹ tn Heb “for a mouth of evil and a mouth of deceit against me they open, they speak with me [with] a tongue of falsehood.”

[109:3]  ² tn Heb “and [with] words of hatred they surround me.”

[59:7]  ³ tn Heb “their feet run to evil.”

[59:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “they quickly pour out innocent blood.”

[59:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “their thoughts are thoughts of sin, destruction and crushing [are] in their roadways.”

[5:26]  ⁶ tn The meaning of the last three words is uncertain. The pointing and meaning of the Hebrew word rendered “hiding in ambush” is debated. BDB relates the form (כְּשַׁךְ, kÿshakh) to a root שָׁכַךְ (shakhakh), which elsewhere means “decrease, abate” (cf. BDB 1013 s.v. שָׁכַךְ), and notes that this is usually understood as “like the crouching of fowlers,” but they say this meaning is dubious. HALOT 1345 s.v. I שׁוֹר questions the validity of the text and offers three proposals; the second appears to create the least textual modification, i.e., reading כְּשַׂךְ (kesakh, “as in the hiding place of (bird catchers)”; for the word שַׂךְ (sakh) see HALOT 1236 s.v. שׂךְ 4 and compare Lam 2:6 for usage. The versions do not help. The Greek does not translate the first two words of the line. The proposal given in HALOT is accepted with some hesitancy.

[5:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “a destroying thing.”

[5:27]  ⁸ tn The words, “that have been caught” are not in the text but are implicit in the comparison.

[5:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “are filled with deceit.” The translation assumes a figure of speech of cause for effect (metonymy). Compare the same word in the same figure in Zeph 1:9.

[5:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “therefore they have gotten great and rich.”

[9:3]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “They have readied [or strung] their tongue as their bow for lies.”

[9:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “but not through honesty.”

[9:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they go from evil to evil.”

[9:3]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “cheating, each of them will cheat.”

[9:5]  ¹⁸ 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.

[26:4]  ¹⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.