Jeremiah 9:6

Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) Thine habitation . . .—The words may be an individualised, and therefore more emphatic, reproduction of the general warning of Jeremiah 9:4. It is, however, better to take them as spoken by Jehovah to the prophet individually. The LXX., following a different reading and punctuation, translates “usury upon usury, deceit upon deceit; they refuse to know Me, saith the Lord.” And this has been adopted by Ewald, among recent commentators.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A continuation of the warning given in Jeremiah 9:4. "Trust no one: for thou dwellest surrounded by deceit on every side." Their rejection of God is the result of their want of honesty in their dealings with one another 1 John 4:20.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. Thine—God addresses Jeremiah, who dwelt in the midst of deceitful men.

refuse to know me—Their ignorance of God is wilful (Jer 9:3; 5:4, 5).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This God speaks to the prophet, either to inform him that there is no hope of this people’s reformation, Jeremiah 8:5; therefore he expresseth a deceitful people by the abstract,

deceit, i.e. nothing among them but deceit one to another, and hypocrisy towards me, as Psalm 109:2, and vanity for vain men, Job 35:13; or to caution and advise him how to behave himself among such a people, that he be very wary he be not insnared by them, Jeremiah 12:6.

They refuse to know me; either hoping to shift well enough by their several means they think to use, they are careless of turning to me, Jeremiah 8:5; or by hearkening to their false prophets, who have all along deceived them, they obstinately reject my ways and counsels, Psalm 36:1-4 82:5.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit,.... In the midst of a people of deceit, as Kimchi and Ben Molech. These are the words of the Lord to the prophet, showing what a people he dwelt among, and had to do with; how cautiously and prudently he should act; how little they were to be trusted to and depended upon; and what little hope there was of bringing them to true repentance, since there was so much deceit and hypocrisy among them. The Targum interprets the words not of the habitation of the prophet, but of the people, thus,

"they sit in the house of their own congregation, and talk of their iniquities deceitfully;''

and so Jarchi,

"while they are sitting they devise deceitful devices.''

Through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the Lord: or, "because of deceit" (t); hypocrisy being a reigning and governing sin in them; they liked not the true knowledge of God, and refused to worship him according to the revelation of his will.

(t) "ob dolum", Schmidt.

Geneva Study Bible

Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; {g} through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.

(g) They would rather have forsaken God than left their wicked trade.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - Thine habitation, etc. According to St. Jerome, this is addressed to the prophet; but it is better to follow the Targum, which makes the clause refer to the Jewish people. The connection is (as Dr. Payne Smith points out)," Trust no one; for thou dwellest surrounded by deceit on every side." Jeremiah 9:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

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. This is true to the sense, but it is unfair to argue from it, as Ew., Hitz., Gr. do, that רעת has been dropped out of the Hebrew text and should be restored. - In Jeremiah 9:7 what has been said is recapitulated shortly, and then in Jeremiah 9:8 the necessity of the judgment is shown. חץ שׁוחט, a slaying, slaughtering, i.e., murderous arrow. Instead of this Chet., which gives a good sense, the Keri gives שׁחוּט, which, judging from the Chald. translation, is probably to be translated sharpened. But there is no evidence for this sig., since שׁחוּט occurs only in connection with זהב, 1 Kings 10:16, and means beaten, lit., spread gold. At מרמה דבּר the plural passes into the singular: he (one of them) speaks; cf. Psalm 55:22. ארב for insidious scheming, as in Hosea 7:6. With Jeremiah 9:8 cf. Jeremiah 5:9, Jeremiah 5:29.