Oh that my head were waters, and mine eye a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
Jeremiah must announce Judah's ruin, and here he breaks off to wish he could weep without ever stopping. How can one man condemn a nation and mourn over it at the same time?
Jeremiah does not deliver bad news at a distance. One writer notes how the message pressed on the man who carried it. He turns it into a question for anyone who warns others today.
The prophet feels every word which he says. Was he telling them of the judgment that had fallen on them? Was he telling them of their sin? It made such an awful impression on him that he wished he had never been born, since he had to declare such a message. As we tell lost sinners of their condition, do we feel the terror of the message? … See how Jeremiah in the ninth chapter looks on the sins of those people, whom he could denounce most sternly. Here is no indifference, but sorrow. That sorrow is human, and it sometimes led the beloved prophet even to complain of God. Yet it shows the divine pity working through it.
The cry opens a chapter that lists the nation's evils and then records God's own reply.
"Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears," mourns the prophet. Adultery, treachery, lying, slander, deceit, wrongdoing, double-dealing and ignorance of God marked the people (Jer. 9:1-8). "Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the Lord; "yes, I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins." He asks who is wise enough to understand this. Bitter food and poisoned water should be theirs. Call the mourning women; let them teach their daughters to wail; desolation and death are coming.
Some read the verse as the end of chapter 8, not the start of chapter 9. The prophet's grief runs on unbroken.
The opening verses of this chapter belong to the preceding one. The prophet still speaks. Sorrow overwhelms him. He wishes himself away in some wilderness, to be alone and separated from the adulterous generation.
Why do the same judgments read as sweetness in one place and grief in another? One writer traces it to who you are looking at.
Looking at God and His glory, the Psalmist says, "The rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb." But look at man, and the effect is sadly the opposite. His guilt and rebellion turn the sweet into bitter, the food into poison, life into death. In view of these same judgments the prophet cries out, "Oh that my head were waters …"
Jeremiah's tears point ahead to another faithful witness who wept over the same people.
Jeremiah was the faithful Jew in his day; he witnessed the sin and foretold, even weeping, the sorrows of his people. And so the Lord in His day stood in the middle of the evil, the only faithful one. As a second weeping Prophet, He told of the coming judgments of the daughter of His people. In Jeremiah we see Christ. He is not here the Lamb of God, but the Kinsman, the faithful weeping Prophet of Israel.
The weeping was not a passing mood. It marked his whole ministry, and it never turned into contempt for the people he condemned.
Jeremiah is the second of the four major prophets, and people rightly call him the crying prophet (compare Jer. 9:1, 10; 13:17; 14:17; 15:10; 20:14). No other prophet met with so much opposition and hatred. … And although Jeremiah never stopped condemning the Jews' unrighteousness and their turning away from the living God, he loved his people to the end.
Commentators apply the verse beyond ancient Judah. Jeremiah saw a nation already ruined in its morals before judgment fell. Later readers have borrowed his words for the state of the Christian world.
Jeremiah felt the ruined state of Israel. It was the complete moral ruin of the nation before the judicial ruin came. This state is exactly where we stand morally in the Christian world today.
What we see is enough to make us take up, in a far more humbling sense, the lamentation of the prophet. … What has become of purity of walk and doctrine?
- Sin — the tears begin with the chapter's list: adultery, treachery, lying, slander, ignorance of God. God answers with a question: "Shall I not punish them for these things?"
- Sorrow — the prophet felt every word he spoke. His grief was not weakness. It was divine pity working through a human heart.
- Sight — look at God, and His judgments are sweeter than honey. Look at man's guilt, and the same judgments turn bitter.
- Saviour — Jeremiah is the first weeping prophet. Christ is the second, the faithful Kinsman who foretold the same people's judgment in tears.
- Self — the ruin was moral long before the judgment fell. Readers have found their own condition in it. The test is whether we can warn people without indifference and rebuke them without ceasing to love.
Oh that I had in the wilderness a traveller's lodging-place, that I might leave my people, and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
Jeremiah has been weeping over his people; now he asks for a shelter out in the desert, far away from them. The verse holds both his longing to escape and his reason for it — the honest cry of a servant who has had enough.
He is not asking for a rest. He wants out of a task that seems pointless.
What use is further prophesying, further warning, when no one will listen? "Oh that I had in the desert a travelers' lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them!" (9:2). In other words, I've had enough of it all; I'd like to flee to a far away place and have nothing more to do with these people.
This verse closes the prophet's grief. From the next verse on, the message changes.
From verse 18 of chapter 8 to verse 2 of chapter 9 the prophet lays open the depth of his grief. From verse 3 of Jeremiah 9 he announces judgment — a judgment that will also fall on the nations around. In view of these judgments he urges every man not to boast in man, but in knowing the Lord (vv. 23-24).
"Adulterers" and "treacherous men" are only the start of a longer list. God has a question about that list.
Adultery, treachery, lying, slander, deception, wrongdoing, double-dealing and ignorance of God marked the people (Jer. 9:1-8). "Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the Lord; "yes, I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins."
The wilderness he pictures is empty of exactly what the city is full of.
He wishes himself away in some wilderness, to be alone and separated from the adulterous generation.
Why did he not simply go? One writer explains the pull he felt in two directions.
He saw how much the people were worth to God, since they belonged to Him. Then he saw their shameful sin against Him, and he knew that God's rights must stand. This caused him great conflict of soul. It also explains why he addresses so much of his writing to God Himself, standing for the people before Him.
One writer sets these verses beside a psalm that voices the same longing.
Jeremiah 9:1-11 matches the scene and circumstances this psalm speaks of (compare verses 6-8 with Jeremiah 9:2), though Jeremiah himself was never driven out.
David also longed to escape. One writer shows what he asked for instead.
When David was fleeing from Saul into the cave (Ps. 57:1), he cried out: "Be merciful to me, O God ... For my soul trusts in you; and in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge until these calamities have passed by." Now he is not asking for the wings of a dove to fly away with. He asks for the shadow of the wings of the Most High, to take refuge under.
One writer sees the same wilderness place taken up later by John the Baptist.
This was the place where he belonged at that time — not in the holy city, and not inside the order of things that men had arranged. He stood outside and apart. Like the prophet of old, he might have said, "Oh that I had in the desert a travelers' lodging place…"
Standing apart did not mean he stopped caring.
He could not be a man who joins in with everyone. By the very nature of things, he had to stand apart — however much compassion he felt, however much his soul longed and yearned over the condition people were in.
- Tears first. From 8:18 to 9:2 Jeremiah pours out his grief. Judgment begins only at verse 3.
- Then exhaustion. The verse reads as "I've had enough of it all" — the wish of a preacher whose warnings no one will hear.
- The reason named. Adultery, treachery, lying, slander and ignorance of God marked the people, and God's reply to that list is "Shall I not visit for these things?"
- Love holds him. He saw the people's worth to God and their sin against God. That conflict kept him speaking to God instead of walking out.
- A better wilderness. Jeremiah was never driven out. The answer is not a dove's wings to fly away with, but the shadow of God's wings to shelter under.
And they bend their tongue, their bow of falsehood, and not for fidelity are they valiant in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah.
Jeremiah 9:3 stands in the middle of the prophet's tears, and here God Himself names what has gone wrong with His people. Their tongues are bent like a bow, falsehood has grown strong, and the last line gives the reason: they do not know Him. Two questions follow. Why does lying take hold among God's own people, and what does it take to stand for truth when almost nobody does?
One writer traces the shape of the chapter around this verse.
From verse 18 to verse 2 of chapter 9 the prophet lays open the depth of his grief. From verse 3 of Jeremiah 9 he proclaims judgment — a judgment which shall also visit the nations around. And in view of these judgments he exhorts every man not to glory in man, but in the knowledge of the Lord (v. 23, 24).
The verse says they go "from evil to evil." One writer lists what that looked like, and sets God's answer beside it.
Adultery, treachery, lying, slander, deception, wickedness, double-dealing and ignorance of God marked the people (Jer. 9:1-8). "Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the Lord; "yes, I will make Jerusalem heaps."
The verse ends with the reason for all the rest: they do not know the Lord. That is the very thing Jeremiah later calls the one thing worth glorying in. One commentator links their deceit to that ignorance — and these were the Lord's own people.
The prophet is afflicted over the deceitful malice of the people of the Lord — a malice that kept them from knowing Him.
Older translations render the middle of this verse as a charge: they are "not valiant for the truth upon the earth." One writer turns that charge into a question about himself and his readers, and traces our failure to a strength already lost.
How is it that we are not "valiant for the truth upon the earth"? Is it not because we have lost the secret strength of our separation to God in the treacherous friendship of the world?
When truth loses its grip on people's consciences, the answer is not silence. And the courage it takes has a pattern to follow.
Sometimes God and His truth lose their moral hold on people's consciences. The one sure way to restore it, even in yourself, is to declare plainly: let God be true and every man a liar! I turn from men to bear witness of the truth. After all, no conscience can be truly blessed when God is not presented to it according to truth. So if truth has fallen in the streets, those who are valiant for it, like the most valiant One, say: "for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth."
Standing for truth is not only about resisting. One writer sets defence and building side by side.
In the face of such dangers God would have His people valiant for the truth. Notice that the sword is more for defence than for attack. But we must not shrink from conflict when the faith once delivered to the saints is in question. And even while we stand ready for conflict, or stand in the middle of it, we must work hard at building up ourselves and one another. That way we are better prepared to resist the enemy's attacks.
But zeal can go wrong. One writer adds a caution:
We must beware of the tendency to make a man an offender for a word. There is far too much of this in the present day. It is quite right to be zealous and valiant for the truth; but it is poor work to be always hunting for heresy.
- Grief first. The prophet weeps to the end of verse 2. From verse 3 he announces judgment, and it reaches the nations around too.
- Lies listed. Lying sits alongside adultery, treachery, slander and deception. God's answer to the list is a question: shall He not punish them for these things?
- Root exposed. The deceitful malice of God's own people kept them from knowing Him. Falsehood and not knowing God are one problem, not two.
- Courage lost. One writer turns "valiant for the truth" into a question for believers. Courage fails when friendship with the world has already drained our strength.
- Courage recovered. When truth has fallen in the streets, the valiant bear witness as Christ did. They keep the sword for defence, keep building one another up, and never go hunting for heresy.
Take ye heed every one of his friend, and confide not in any brother; for every brother only supplanteth, and every friend goeth about with slander.
The danger this verse names is not outside the nation. It is inside the house, among neighbours and brothers. When lying becomes the common language of a people, who can the faithful still trust?
Commentators differ on exactly where the prophet's sorrow gives way to God's verdict. One reading places the turn precisely at this part of the chapter.
From chapter 8 verse 18 to chapter 9 verse 2 the prophet lays open the depth of his grief. From verse 3 of Jeremiah 9 he proclaims judgment — a judgment that will also fall on the nations around.
Another writer carries the prophet's grief on to verse 8, and says their deceit was what kept them from knowing God.
The rest of the chapter and the first eight verses of Jeremiah 9 show the prophet's grief. He mourns the deceitful malice of the Lord's people, which kept them from knowing Him. Then, from verse 9, comes their judgment under the Lord's angry displeasure.
The warning about neighbours and brothers is not an isolated complaint. It sits inside a list, and the list ends with a question from God.
Adultery, treachery, lying, slander, deception, wickedness, double-dealing and ignorance of God marked the people (Jer. 9:1-8). "Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the Lord. "Yes, I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins."
The verse pictures neighbours spreading slander. One writer traces how that works — and why the one who does the wrong ends up disliking his victim.
I dare say they may not think so. But most of the sorrows between people start with a hint dropped behind someone's back, or a whispered story that others are ready to listen to. Such talk makes distrust spring up between souls. Once distrust is there, dislike follows, above all in the one who has done the wrong. It is very hard to trust a heart you have wronged.
The caution did not stay behind with ancient Judah. One writer applied this verse to his own day, to the forming of parties and to careless talk.
Jeremiah's caution in Jer. 9:4 is as true and needed now as it ever was. If I hate one thing more than another, it is the making of parties… But almost nobody is careful enough to pass on a report exactly as he heard it, with nothing softened or added.
The verse tells us to be on guard. It does not tell us to assume the worst. One writer warns how violent the swing into distrust can be.
The more you have trusted a person, the worse the swing is likely to be when you begin to doubt… And no one should allow a suspicion until he is certain of something that only guilt can explain. We owe that all the more, I hardly need to say, where brotherly relation and divine love are at stake.
If we cannot lean on a brother, what holds God's people together? One writer answers that the bond was never confidence in each other.
We cannot depend on one another. We cannot trust in one another. The fellowship of God's people never consisted in leaning on one another. Each person trusted in God, and, in the measure of his faith, was able to help his neighbour. If brotherly love could be kept up apart from God, then to that same extent we could do without God.
- The rot. This warning is one item in a list: adultery, treachery, lying, slander, deception, double-dealing, ignorance of God. God closes the list by asking whether He should not punish such things.
- The wound. Distrust starts with a hint behind someone's back or a whispered story. Once it takes hold, dislike follows — strongest of all in the one who did the wrong.
- The guard. Suspicion is not the cure for slander. No one should let a suspicion stand until he is certain of something that only guilt explains. Brotherly ties and divine love make that duty higher, not lower.
- The care. The caution is as needed now as then, because almost nobody repeats a report exactly as he heard it.
- The anchor. We cannot lean on one another. Each person trusts God — and that trust is what makes him able to help his neighbour.
And they act deceitfully every one with his neighbour, and speak not the truth they teach their tongue to speak falsehood, they weary themselves with perverse dealing.
Jeremiah 9 opens with the prophet in tears, and then God names what His people have become: a nation where lying is the normal way to speak. The verse raises two questions — how does a whole nation learn to lie, and why is sin here called tiring work?
The chapter has a hinge in it. Everything before this point is the prophet's sorrow; from the point where deceit is named, the tone changes to sentence being passed.
From verse 18 to verse 2 of chapter 9 the prophet lays open the depth of his grief. From verse 3 of Jeremiah 9 he proclaims judgment — a judgment which shall also visit the nations around. And in view of these judgments he exhorts every man not to glory in man, but in the knowledge of the Lord (vv. 23, 24).
These were God's own people, and their deceit had a cost beyond the harm done to neighbours.
The rest of the chapter (verse 18 to the end) and the first eight verses of Jeremiah 9 set out the prophet's distress over the deceitful malice of the people of the Lord. Their deceit prevented them from knowing Him. Then, from verse 9, follows their judgment under the Lord's angry displeasure.
A tongue has to be taught to speak lies, and Jeremiah says theirs had been. One writer traces this back further than Judah. Lying belongs to human nature as it now is, and it shapes even ordinary polite talk.
The old nature is what accounts for lying; the old nature is false, full of deceit. There is not, there cannot be, thorough truthfulness in nature as it is now. We see this from the first; Adam was false as soon as he sinned. Cain was false also. There may be other evils, such as violence, shown at times in some and not in others; but all are false — lying is what one does see in all. In the world as it now is, ordinary social life rests more or less on deceit. Men say what is agreeable to others without thinking.
One writer has met this habit among God's own people, and gives the only cure he knew.
We find such people now, even among God's people — some who apparently have no regard for the truth, and find it easier to tell a lie than to avoid it. The only remedy when the disease has developed that far is to go straight to God, and cry to Him for strength and daily watchfulness to overcome it. I remember one such case. I noticed that a person was almost always silent, and one day asked why. He said he had been so addicted to lying that he was now determined not to speak at all unless he could speak the direct truth. So he seldom opened his lips, and always thought carefully before he spoke. Deep-rooted sins need such radical measures.
The last line of the verse calls sin tiring work. One writer turns that into a challenge.
What pains some men take to go to hell: "They weary themselves committing iniquity" (Jer. 9:5). The devil blows the horn, and men race to hell as if they were afraid hell would be full before they got there. Do men take all these pains for hell, and shall we not take pains for the kingdom of heaven? The more pains we take for heaven, the more welcome death will be to us. He who has spent his time serving God can look death in the face with comfort. He was wholly taken up with heaven, and now he will be taken up to heaven. He traded in heaven before, and now he will go to live there.
Deceiving a neighbour is not a private matter. It destroys the one thing people cannot live together without.
The command not to lie to one another is not restricted to what we say but addresses every form of deceit... We must remember that the devil is a liar and the father of lying (Acts 5:3; John 8:44). In contrast, the Lord Jesus came into the world to bear witness to the truth and always spoke it (John 18:37; 8:40). He was entirely without hypocrisy (John 8:25). What place have lies among the people of God? They break down the confidence that we should have in one another. Rather, we are to "speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another" (Eph. 4:25).
After the list of evils, God speaks — and He asks a question rather than making a threat.
Sorrow overwhelms the prophet; his eyes are fountains of tears. He weeps day and night over the slain. Then follows a description of the moral corruption of the people. The Lord answered him and once more asks the question: "Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?"
- Taught. A tongue does not lie by accident. It is trained, and one writer sees the same falsehood in every person since Adam.
- Trusted. The neighbour is the first casualty. Lies break down the confidence people must have in one another.
- Tiring. Sin is labour, not leisure. Men wear themselves out on the road to hell; the same pains taken for heaven make death welcome.
- Blinded. The deceit of God's own people kept them from knowing Him.
- Visited. God's reply to the whole list is a question no one can answer: shall He not punish a nation such as this?
Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith Jehovah.
Jeremiah describes a nation where lying has become the normal way of doing business. The verse stacks oppression on oppression and deceit on deceit, then names the result that matters most: they refuse to know God.
The chapter turns on a hinge. Commentators mark the point where the prophet's tears give way to God's sentence.
From verse 18 to verse 2 of chapter 9 the prophet lays open the depth of his grief. From verse 3 of Jeremiah 9 he proclaims judgment — a judgment which shall also visit the nations around. And in view of these judgments he exhorts every man not to glory in man, but in the knowledge of Jehovah (vv. 23, 24).
The verse does not treat lying and ignorance of God as two separate problems. One produced the other.
The rest of chapter 8, from verse 18, and the first eight verses of Jeremiah 9 show the prophet's distress at the deceitful malice of the people of the Lord. That malice shut out their knowledge of Him. Then, from verse 9, follows their judgment under the Lord's indignant displeasure.
The refusal to know God sits at the end of a list, not at the start of one. One writer lists what marked the people, and the sentence that followed.
Adultery, treachery, lying, slander, deception, iniquity, duplicity and ignorance of God marked the people (Jer. 9:1-8). "Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the Lord; "yes, I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins."
That same list explains the disaster that came on the nation.
Still, he knew very well what was about to bring disaster on his countrymen. It was their iniquity, their lies, their refusal to listen to God, their malicious criticism, and all of their acts of deceit and wickedness (9:3-6).
The verse says they "refuse" to know God. That is an act, not an accident.
It is grievous ignorance, certainly, but it is the result of the hardness of their own hearts. Ignorance is not just a lack of knowledge. It is ignoring facts that can be known.
What lies behind the ignoring? One writer asks why sensible people hold opinions that drag them down.
The Epistle to the Romans tells us of those who "did not like to retain God in their knowledge" (chap. 1:28). There we have the reason why otherwise sensible men can hold such debasing opinions. It is a question of what they like.
A person who trades in deceit does not stay in control of it. One writer, looking at the same failure in Isaiah, asks why such people's eyes stay shut.
Their hearts were deceived, and that was the trouble. So they could not think it through and see the lie in their "right hand." The position today is just the same. Why do so many people take up the false religious groups all around us? The trouble lies not so much in their intellects as in their hearts.
Left unchecked, that refusal becomes something God Himself confirms.
Before destruction comes, the people choose to be ignorant. After that, God shuts up their understanding and sends a deep sleep. This will happen to the Christian world too. There will be "strong delusion" because they did not want the truth.
The chapter does not stop at the charge. It also points to the way back, and to the one thing worth knowing.
The path of restoration is a return, not to outward observances, but to Himself, and nothing short of that. "If you will return, O Israel, says Jehovah, return to ME" (Jer. 4). When it comes to His people, our God wants nothing less than their heart. And the point is not what they can be to Him, but what He can be for them. "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom… but let him who glories glory in this: that he understands and knows Me. I am Jehovah, who exercises loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth" (Jer. 9).
- Deceit. Lying was not one fault among many. It was the climate of the whole nation: adultery, treachery, slander, duplicity — and, last on the list, ignorance of God.
- Refusal. Their deceitful malice shut out their knowledge of Him. What people practise decides what they are willing to know.
- Preference. Not knowing God is a choice, not a gap in information. People ignore facts they could know, because they "did not like to retain God" in their thinking.
- Darkness. Deceivers lose the power to spot a lie. The trouble sits in the heart, not the mind. Chosen ignorance ends with God shutting the door on understanding.
- Return. The remedy is not outward religion but coming back to God Himself. Then one thing only is worth glorying in: knowing the Lord who exercises loving kindness, judgment and righteousness.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how else could I do for the daughter of my people?
Jeremiah 9 opens with the prophet in tears and ends with hired mourners wailing over a ruined city. In the middle of that grief God says He will put His own people through a refiner's fire — but why the nation nearest to Him?
One writer sums up the chapter around this verse:
"Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears," mourns the prophet. Adultery, treachery, lying, slander, deception, wrongdoing, double-dealing and ignorance of God marked the people (Jer. 9:1-8). "Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the Lord; "yes, I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins." Later he shows that the punishment is not to be limited to Israel, but is to fall upon "all nations."
Both words come from the metalworker's trade:
God is the refiner of His people, as the precious metals have to be separated from the dross that clings to them. So God tests the believer's heart (1 Thess. 2:4), and his faith, which leads to endurance. James 1:12; 1 Peter 1:7.
God is not running an experiment to find out something He does not know:
He does indeed try and prove, but it is in the way of education and purging, not of inquiry. "When He has tried me, I shall come out as gold" (Job 23:10). "Behold, I will melt them and try them" (Jer. 9:7).
(The writer quotes an older translation of this verse, which reads "melt" and "try" where the ESV has "refine" and "test".)
"Because of my people" is the reason God gives for the fire, and the verse asks what else He could do. A refiner treats gold the same way:
Does the refiner put the bar of gold into the furnace because he sets no value on it? No — but because he does. And someone has put it well: "His aim is not only to remove the dross, but to brighten the metal."
The reverse also holds. Silence and no correction would be the darker sign:
It was not because He did not love them, but because He did. "For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives." When the Lord lets people go their own way without rebuke, that is a clear and certain sign that every practical bond is broken. He now disowns them, at least for the time.
The refiner does not walk away from the fire:
And, blessed be His name, He sits by the crucible and watches until He sees His own likeness in the molten silver. He walks in the middle of the fire with His own. The furnace may be heated seven times over. Even then it can only burn away the ropes that bind them — or, to change the picture, purge the dross from the gold.
The chapter also names what these people lacked, and what is worth having instead:
In verses 23 and 24, Jeremiah sets the blessed Lord before the eyes of faith. He says: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the mighty man in his might, nor the rich man in his riches. But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."
Fire does two different things, depending on who is in it. Zechariah shows where the melting ends:
God's judgments are a fire that will consume the wicked and purge the righteous. "And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God'" (Zech. 13:9).
- Cause. The fire answers a record of lying, slander, deception and not knowing God. God asks whether He should let such things pass.
- Method. Refining and testing are metalworking words. Dross clings to precious metal, and God separates it — testing the heart and the faith that endures.
- Purpose. He tries and proves by way of education and purging, not inquiry. The fire teaches; it does not inform God.
- Motive. The refiner heats the gold because he values it. When God leaves someone uncorrected, the bond is gone. The fire proves the bond holds.
- Outcome. He watches the crucible until He sees His own likeness. The refined people end knowing Him: "They are my people," answered by "The LORD is my God."
Their tongue is a murderous arrow; it speaketh deceit. [A man] speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth his ambush.
In this verse God gives His verdict on how the people of Judah spoke to each other: friendly on the surface, armed underneath. Jeremiah has just wept over his people, and this charge shows why — ordinary speech among neighbours had become a weapon.
The opening of chapter 9 is not yet the sentence; it is the grief that comes before it. One writer follows the flow of the passage. He ties the people's deceit to their loss of any real knowledge of God.
The rest of the previous chapter (verses 18 to the end) and the first eight verses of Jeremiah 9 set out the prophet's distress over the deceitful malice of the people of the Lord. That malice shut them out from knowing Him. Then, from verse 9, follows their judgment under the Lord's angry displeasure.
Why compare speech to a weapon fired from a distance? A Bible dictionary sets this verse beside the other places where Scripture uses the same picture.
Scripture uses arrows as a picture of the judgments of God (Psalm 38:2; Psalm 45:5). Arrows also stand for anything sharp and painful, such as being struck by the tongue (Jeremiah 9:8).
The verse describes a gap between what the mouth says and what the heart is doing. One writer, commenting on the same hypocrisy in Proverbs, compares two kinds of hatred.
The hatred that is really dangerous is not the hatred that explodes in violent words. It is the hatred that works unnoticed, and so puts on a false front with the lips. The kind words only cover the deceit inside the man.
That leaves a practical problem: pleasant words are what disarm us. Another writer names what lies behind them, and how serious God calls it.
If a person's character is shaped by hypocrisy, we can be sure that real hatred lies behind it. "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him" (1 John 3:15)... He may speak fair words, his voice gentle and gracious, but this is where the greatest danger is: "believe him not."
The prophet was not describing a problem he had only observed. Later in the book his opponents settled on the tongue as their chosen weapon against him.
The people were angry at Jeremiah's preaching about the vessel the potter remade. So they plotted against the prophet. They decided to "strike him with the tongue" and to spread false rumours about him. Backbiting and slander would shut down his preaching and keep anyone from listening to a word he said. David went through something similar. He prayed to God, saying, "Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked... who have sharpened their tongue like a sword and aimed their arrow, a bitter word" (Psalm 64:2-3).
The verse ends the indictment; the next verse begins the response. God asks whether He should leave such speech alone. He has asked the same question twice already in this book.
Then follows a description of the moral corruption of the people. The Lord answered him and once more asks the question: "Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord; and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?" (See chapter 5:9, 29.)
What replaces the deadly arrow? One writer sets the Lord's own truthfulness against the devil's lying, and then asks what lies cost among God's people.
We must remember that the devil is a liar and the father of it (Acts 5:3; John 8:44). In contrast, the Lord Jesus came into the world to bear witness to the truth and always spoke it... What place have lies among the people of God? They break down the confidence we should have in one another. Rather, we are to "speak the truth, each one with his neighbour, for we are members one of another" (Ephesians 4:25).
- Arrow. Scripture pictures the tongue as a weapon that wounds from a distance — the same image it uses for anything sharp and painful.
- Ambush. The danger is not the shout but the smile. Kind words can cover deceit, so the wise response is "believe him not."
- Aim. Jeremiah's own enemies later used this weapon on him. They planned to strike him with the tongue and spread rumours to silence his preaching.
- Accounting. God's reply is a question already asked twice before in the book: shall He not punish a nation such as this?
- Antidote. Lies break down the confidence people should have in one another. Truthful speech with your neighbour repairs it.
Shall I not visit them for these [things]? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
God has just spent eight verses listing what He sees in Jerusalem. Now He asks a question that is not really a question, and the rest of the chapter answers it.
The question follows a list of what the Lord had watched among His own people. His own answer names what He will do to the city.
"Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears," mourns the prophet. Adultery, treachery, lying, slander, deception, wrongdoing, double-dealing and ignorance of God marked the people (Jer. 9:1-8). "Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the Lord; "yes, I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins." He asks, "Who is the wise man, that he may understand this?" Wormwood and poisoned water should be theirs. Call for the mourning women; let them teach their daughters to wail; desolation and death are coming (vv. 9-22).
Everything before this verse is the prophet's sorrow. Everything after it is the Lord's sentence.
The rest of the chapter (v. 18 to the end) and the first eight verses of Jeremiah 9 set out the prophet's grief over the deceitful malice of the people of the Lord. That malice kept them from knowing Him. Then, from verse 9, follows their judgment under the Lord's indignant displeasure.
Read in context, the words are God's reply to a weeping man. Jeremiah had poured out his grief; the Lord responds by repeating something He had already said twice earlier in the book.
The Lord answered him and once more asks the question: "Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?" (See chapter 5:9, 29.)
Because the same sentence had already sounded in chapter 5, its return here is not new information but confirmation. Writers describe the repetition itself as evidence.
They were revolted and gone in heart already. "Shall I not punish them for these things? [recounting their iniquities] declares the LORD, shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?" is the twofold witness of the prophet. People, prophets, priests loved falsehood together.
"Such a nation as this" is the nation God had chosen. That standing did not shield them. It made the reckoning certain.
His holiness in the temple of Dagon made the Philistine idol fall flat before Him. If that same holiness will strike the godless Philistine nation, it is no less intense when it comes to His own people. In fact, as we well know, judgment will begin at the house of God. The prophet reminds the people that they alone as a nation had been known by God. So far from giving them immunity from punishment, this was the pledge that they would get it if needed: "Therefore will I punish you for your iniquities."
The same stroke reaches further out. Vine points to the last verses of the chapter:
The punishment will not be limited to Israel; it will fall on "all nations".
The chapter does not end in judgment. The Lord names the one thing worth boasting in, and it is knowing Him.
As for His people, blessed be His Name, our God is satisfied with nothing less than their heart. And this is not about what they can be to Him, but about what He can be for them. "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD" (Jer. 9).
- Named — Adultery, lying, slander and ignorance of God fill verses 1–8. Verse 9 is God's verdict on that list, not a general complaint.
- Turned — Verse 9 is the hinge. The prophet's tears stop here and the Lord's sentence begins: a ruined Jerusalem, and mourning women teaching their daughters to wail.
- Repeated — The same words had already sounded twice in chapter 5. Kelly calls this "the twofold witness" — a sentence confirmed, not announced for the first time.
- Nearest first — Being the one nation God had known gave no immunity. It was the pledge of reckoning, since judgment begins at the house of God.
- Widened, then answered — The stroke reaches beyond Israel to all nations. The one refuge the chapter offers is not wisdom, might or riches, but knowing the Lord who delights in steadfast love, justice and righteousness.