9:2 Jeremiah longed for a place of retreat in the wilderness where he could go to get away from his fellow countrymen.196Their spiritual adultery and treachery repulsed him.
9:3 The Lord added that they assassinated people with their words, which they used as arrows. They spoke falsehood more than the truth. They went from one evil thing to another giving evidence of no acquaintance with Yahweh (cf. Rom. 1:28).
9:4 The Lord advised His people to be on guard against their neighbors and not to trust their fellow Israelites because they all dealt deceitfully and slandered one another. The word translated "craftily"comes from the same Hebrew root as "Jacob,"ya'qob. The people were behaving like Jacob at his worst. This was civil unrest at its worst.
9:5 They intentionally deceived their neighbors, cultivated the skill of lying, and pursued iniquity so strenuously that it wore them out.
9:6 Deceit was their environment so much that it prevented them from having much of a relationship with Yahweh. Note the recurrence of "deceit"and its synonyms in this pericope. They did not know God (v. 3), and they refused to know Him. Even though they studied deception (v. 5) they refused to "know"Him.
"The verb yada', know,' denotes much more than intellectual knowledge but rather that deep intimate knowledge that follows on the personal commitment of one life to another, which is at its deepest in the commitment of a man to God [cf. Amos 3:2]."197
9:7 The sovereign Lord promised to put the Judean sinners through a refining process and to assay their value because the present dear generation of His people was so wicked (cf. 6:27-30; Mal. 3:3). He could do nothing else.
9:8 The tongue of this "daughter"was as deadly as an arrow (cf. v. 3). Her words appeared to be peaceful, but she was really setting a trap for her neighbors. People greeted their neighbors amicably on the streets, but in their hearts they intended to do them harm.
9:9 Yahweh asked, interrogatively, if He should not punish such a nation for their deceits. His nation had become like all the other nations (cf. vv. 24-25). Should He not avenge Himself by punishing Judah for violating His covenant commands?
"The grief of God is caused not only by what the people have done to him but more especially by what they have done to each other."198
