Everyone will deceive their neighbors, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves commiting iniquity.
Parallel translations
- KJV 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.
- BSB Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity.
- NKJV Everyone will deceive his neighbor, And will not speak the truth; They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves to commit iniquity.
- NASB “Everyone deceives his neighbor And does not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves committing wrongdoing.
- NLT They all fool and defraud each other; no one tells the truth. With practiced tongues they tell lies; they wear themselves out with all their sinning.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Everyone deceives and refuses to speak truth, having trained their tongues to lie until exhausted by sin. Deception has become a wearisome way of life.
Overview
The people are so practiced in falsehood that lying is second nature, and they 'weary themselves' committing iniquity. The picture is of a community enslaved to deceit, expending real effort in doing evil. The verse reveals the exhausting bondage of sin and the futility of a life devoted to falsehood, contrasting with the rest and freedom found in the truth of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 21
- Job 15:5For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
- Mic 6:12Her rich men are full of violence, her inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their speech.
- Isa 57:10You were wearied with the length of your ways; yet you didn’t say, ‘It is in vain.’ You found a reviving of your strength; therefore you weren’t faint.
- Isa 59:13–15transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
- Hab 2:13Behold, isn’t it of Yahweh of Armies that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?
- Job 11:3Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, shall no man make you ashamed?
- 1 Tim 4:2through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron;
- Isa 5:18Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope;
- Ps 50:19“You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.
- Ps 64:3who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words,
- Ps 140:3They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. Viper’s poison is under their lips. Selah.
- Isa 41:6–7Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, “Be strong!”
- Isa 44:12–14The blacksmith takes an ax, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint.
- Jer 9:8Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he lays wait for him.
- Ps 7:14Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought out falsehood.
- Prov 4:16For they don’t sleep, unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.
- Eph 4:25Therefore putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another.
- Ezek 24:12She is weary with toil; yet her great rust, rust by fire, doesn’t leave her.
- Jer 9:3“They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood; and they have grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says Yahweh.
- Mic 6:3My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me!
- Gen 19:11They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 9:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.