the tongue (of man or animals) · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
arrow
חֵ֥ץchetz
H2671
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
out
שָׁח֛וּטsho.chet
H7819
to slaughter (in sacrifice or massacre) · verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute
speaketh
דִבֵּ֑רdi.Ber
H1696
perhaps properly · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
deceit
מִרְמָ֣הmir.Mah
H4820
fraud · noun, common feminine singular absolute
speaketh
יְדַבֵּ֔רye.da.Ber
H1696
perhaps properly · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
peaceably
שָׁל֤וֹםsha.Lom
H7965
safe · noun, common masculine singular absolute
neighbour
רֵעֵ֙הוּ֙re.'E.hu
H7453
an associate (more or less close) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
mouth
בְּפִ֗יוbe.Fiv
H6310
the mouth (as the means of blowing) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
heart
וּבְקִרְבּ֖וֹu.ve.kir.Bo
H7130
properly · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
layeth
יָשִׂ֥יםya.Sim
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
wait
אָרְבּֽוֹ'a.re.Bo
H696
ambuscade · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 28:3 Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.
Proverbs 26:24-26 He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him;
Psalms 64:3-4 Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:
Psalms 120:3 What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?
2 Samuel 3:27 And when Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly, and smote him there under the fifth rib, t…
2 Samuel 20:9-10 And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him.
Psalms 12:2 They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
Psalms 55:21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 9:1-11
The prophet, being commissioned both to foretel the destruction coming upon Judah and Jerusalem and to point out the sin for which that destruction was brought upon them, here, as elsewhere, speaks of both very feelingly: what he said of both came from the heart, and therefore one would have thought it would reach to the heart.
I. He abandons himself to sorrow in consideration of the calamitous condition of his people, which he sadly laments, a one that preferred Jerusalem before his chief joy and her grievances before his chief sorrows.
1. He laments the slaughter of the persons, the blood shed and the lives lost (Jer 9:1): "O that my head were waters, quite melted and dissolved with grief,…
Their tongue is as an arrow shot out,.... As an arrow out of a bow, which moves swiftly, and comes with great force; or, "drawn out" (u); as out of a quiver. The word is used of gold, and rendered "beaten gold", 1 Kings 10:16, gold drawn out into plates; and here of an arrow drawn out of a quiver; and so it is interpreted in the Talmud (w); or is "wounding", as the Septuagint, or "slaying" (x); denoting the mischief and injury done to the characters of men, by a deceitful, detracting, and calumniating tongue. The Targum is, "as a sharp arrow their tongue"; which pierces deep, and is deadly; See Gill on Jeremiah 9:3,
it speaketh deceit; deceitful words, by which men are imposed upon, and are…
Jeremiah 9:8
8. Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit; one speaketh peacably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.
8. Sagitta tracta (ut quidam vertunt; alii, occidens) lingua eorum; mendacium loquitur; os ejus pacem ad proximum loquetur, et in medio sui (hoc est, intra viscera sua, intus) ponet insidias.
The Prophet again complains of the deceitfulness of their tongues; and he compares them to deadly, or drawn out arrows. Gold is said to be drawn out, when refined by repeated meltings; so also arrows, when sharpened, are more piercing. The Prophet then says, that their tongues were like deadly or sharpened arrows: how so? because they ever s…
The Church Fathers
A most base pest, my beloved, is double-dealing and hypocrisy in our actions and conduct; and for a man to make pretence of pleasant-spoken words, and of a tongue anointed, so to speak, with the honey of deception, while the heart is full of utter bitterness. Of such we say, in the words of one of the holy prophets, "Their tongue is a piercing arrow: the words of their mouth are deceitful: he speaks peacefully to his neighbour, and enmity is in his heart." And again; "Their words are smoother than oil, yet are they arrows:" by which is meant that they have the force of darts falling violently and shot forth from bows.
Christ very justly condemned him with the greater severity, saying, "Judas, do you betray the Son of man with a kiss?" And Matthew says, that when the traitor drew near to Christ, our common Saviour, he both kissed Him, and added thereto, "Hail, Master." Do you say hail to Him Who by your instrumentality is made the prey of death? How could such a word possibly be true? So that we see, that inasmuch as that false one, Satan, was within Him, he used falsehood even in saying, Hail. Because of such deeds the prophet somewhere says, "Their tongue is a piercing spearhead: the words of their mouth are deceitful: to his neighbour he speaks things of peace, but in his soul there is enmity."
(Verse 8, 9.) The arrow that wounds their tongue speaks deceit: in their mouth they speak peace with their friend but hide traps for them secretly. Will I not visit them for these things, says the Lord, or will not my soul take revenge on a nation such as this? Every heretic who wounds the hearts of those who hear and do not understand the scripture possesses an arrow that wounds, and speaks in deceit. And when he promises peace to his neighbor with his mouth, he secretly sets traps. But in the following verses, in which he says: 'Will I not visit these things? says the Lord: or will not my soul be avenged on a nation like this?' he frequently abuses this as a Prophet, so that when he enumerates the individual works of evil, he may infer that he does what he does justly.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Arrows · Illustrative: Of slanderous tongues — Illustrative: Of slanderous tongues
Deceit · Punishment of — Punishment of
Dishonesty · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Falsehood · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Hypocrisy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Treachery · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Jer 9:1. "Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfarers! then would I leave my people, and go away from them. For they be all adulterers, a crew of faithless ones. Jer 9:2. They bend their tongue like their bow with lying; and not according to faithfulness do they manage in the land, but go on from evil to evil, and me they know not, saith Jahve. Jer 9:3. Beware each of his neighbour, and trust not in any brother; for every brother supplanteth, and every friend goeth slandering. Jer 9:4. And one overreaCheth the other, and truth they speak not; they teach their tongue to speak lies, to deal perversely they weary themselves. Jer 9:5. Thy dwelling is in the midst of deceit; in d…
The Lord announced that he would place the people in the crucible of affliction (6:27-30; Isa 1:25). The three rhetorical questions challenged Jeremiah or anyone else to suggest a possible alternative to the Lord’s actions or to explain why they were not justified.
Rashi on Jeremiah 9:7
Their tongue is a deadly arrow Heb. שחוט, drawn. Comp. (I Kings 10:16) “malleable gold” (שחוט). Also, (Hos. 5:2) “And the extent of their turning away (ושחטה),” (tirer in French), pulling. Another explanation is that it is actually an expression of slaughter (tranchant in French, cutting). In this manner Menahem classified it (Machbereth Menahem p. 172), and in this manner Jonathan rendered it: כּגיר די מחרף, like a sharpened arrow.
but in his heart lit. in his midst. Jonathan renders: in his innards.
