Jeremiah 9:5

9:1-11 Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Christ Jesus, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, must be a place for temptation and evil; while, with these blessings, we may live in holiness in crowded cities. The people accustomed their tongues to lies. So false were they, that a brother could not be trusted. In trading and bargaining they said any thing for their own advantage, though they knew it to be false. But God marked their sin. Where no knowledge of God is, what good can be expected? He has many ways of turning a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of those that dwell therein.

And they will deceive everyone his neighbour,.... In conversation, with lying words; and in trade and commerce, by art and tricking: and will not speak the truth; with respect to facts they report, or goods they sell: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; and become so accustomed to lying that they cannot do otherwise; it is as it were natural to them: and weary themselves to commit iniquity; spared no pains to come at it, nor any in it, and go on even to weariness; are more laborious and indefatigable in committing sin than good men are in doing good; which shows great folly and stupidity. The Targum is, "they are become foolish, they have erred.''

5 . Here, and in Jeremiah 9:4 , the verbs had best be rendered by present tenses. deceive ] better (as mg.) mock . 5, 6 . The MT. has apparently suffered some corruption. The LXX yield a fairly good sense. Dividing the four consonants of the Hebrew word rendered “thine habitation,” so as to end Jeremiah 9:5 with the first two, which thus yield the meaning of turn , and then taking the second pair, which will thus mean oppression (as in Psalm 10:7 ; Psalm 55:11 ), they render the whole “they committed iniquity and Ceased not to turn aside. ( Jeremiah 9:6 ) Oppression on oppression and deceit on deceit, etc.,” the latter pair of identical words suggesting the parallel preceding. As Gi. points out, this does not obviate the objection that the verb rendered “weary themselves” always elsewhere (e.g. Isaiah 16:12 ; Isaiah 47:13 ) means to do so to no purpose , which is unsuitable here. Hence, and for other reasons, he rejects Jeremiah 9:4-5 .

(5) Deceive. —The word is commonly translated, as in the margin, mock. (So in 1Kings 18:27 ; Judges 16:10 ; Judges 16:13 ; Judges 16:15 .) The context here shows, however, that the kind of mockery is that which at once deludes and derides; and as the former meaning is predominant, the text of the English version had better stand as it is. To commit iniquity.—Literally, to go crookedly, or, in the strict sense of the word, to do wrong.

They will deceive, Heb. mock , or deride ; they are scoffers. They have taught their tongue to speak lies ; they have so framed their tongues to it by custom and constant use, that lying is become so familiar to them that they cannot leave it. The same word is applied to the wild ass, used or taught to the wilderness, Jeremiah 2:24 13:23 . Weary themselves to commit iniquity; they use a great deal of industry, diligence, and contrivance in it, Psalm 7:14 Isaiah 5:18 . They spare for no labour and feel no weariness in it, whereby they are become expert.

In Jeremiah 9:4 these sinful ways are exposed in yet stronger words. יהתל, uncontracted form of the imperf. Hiph. of תּלל, trip up, deceive. On the infin. העוה, cf. Ew. 238, e, and Gesen. 75, Rem. 17. They weary themselves out, put themselves to great labour, in order to deal corruptly; נלאה as in Jeremiah 20:9 ; Isaiah 16:12 , elsewhere to be weary of a thing; cf. Jeremiah 6:11 ; Jeremiah 15:6 . - In Jeremiah 9:5 the statement returns to the point at which it commenced: thy sitting (dwelling) is in the midst of deceit. In deceit, i.e., in the state of their mind, directed as it is by deceit and cheating, they refuse to know me, i.e., they are resolved to have nothing to do with the knowledge of God, because in that case they must give up their godless ways. (Note: The lxx have not understood שׁכתּך dootsr. They have split it up into שׁב תּך, joined שׁב to נלאוּ, and translated, after adding ולא: καὶ ου ̓ διέλιπον τοῦ ἐπιστρέψαι τόκος ἐπὶ τόκῳ (i.e., usury upon usury) καὶ δόλος ἐπὶ δόλω οὐκ ἤθελον εἰδέναι με.

Ew. has adopted this construction, and so translates: "have accustomed their tongue to speak lies, to do perversity, are weary of turning again; wrong upon wrong, deceit upon deceit, they are not willing to know me." But this text is not better, but worse, than the Masoretic: for, 1st, the perverse dealing or action is attributed to the tongue; 2nd, the thought, they are weary of turning again, does not suit the context, since the persons described here have never sought to return or repent, and so cannot have become weary of it. For these reasons, neither Hitz. nor Graf has given countenance to the lxx text.) By reason of this depravity, the Lord must purge His people by sore judgments. He will melt it in the fire of affliction (Isaiah 48:10), to separate the wicked: cf. Isaiah 1:25; Zechariah 13:9; and on בּחן, Jeremiah 6:27. For how should I do, deal? Not: what dreadful judgments shall I inflict (Hitz., Gr.), in which case the grounding כּי would not have its proper force; but: I can do none otherwise than purge. Before the face of, i.e., by reason of, the daughter, because the daughter of my people behaves herself as has been described in Jeremiah 9:2-4, and as is yet to be briefly repeated in Jeremiah 9:7. The lxx have paraphrased מפּני: ἀπὸ προσώπου πονηρίας.