Bible Strands
Jeremiah 9:5
Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah addresses the people of Judah amid a collapse of social trust, following a warning about crafty brothers and slanderous friends. The prophet declares the LORD’s assessment of a community where relational bonds have been systematically destroyed.
The words — יְהָתֵ֔לּוּ (ye.ha.Te.lu) means “they deceive,” and לִמְּד֧וּ (li.me.Du) means “they have taught.” The text states that the people actively instructed their tongues to lie rather than speaking truth.
The thread — This pattern of cultivated falsehood appears in Job 15:5, where iniquity instructs the mouth, and Isaiah 59:13, which lists conceiving and uttering lies as rebellion against God. The motif tracks a deliberate, learned departure from divine honesty.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition of sin as a practiced discipline rather than a spontaneous failure. It requires readers to examine what they have trained their own speech to accomplish.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
Cross-references
- Job 15:5 For your iniquity instructs your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
- Isaiah 57:10 You are wearied by your many journeys, but you did not say, “There is no hope!” You found renewal of your strength; therefore you did not grow weak.
- Isaiah 59:13 rebelling and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart.
- Micah 6:12 For the wealthy of the city are full of violence, and its residents speak lies; their tongues are deceitful in their mouths.
- Habakkuk 2:13 Is it not indeed from the LORD of Hosts that the labor of the people only feeds the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain?
- Job 11:3 Should your babbling put others to silence? Will you scoff without rebuke?
- Psalms 7:14 Behold, the wicked man travails with evil; he conceives trouble and births falsehood.
- Psalms 50:19 You unleash your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit.
- Psalms 64:3 who sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows,
- Psalms 140:3 They sharpen their tongues like snakes; the venom of vipers is on their lips. Selah