Jeremiah 9:3 · Bible study
Jeremiah 9:3 Commentary: Tongue as a Bow of Falsehood
Hebrew · 10 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Exegetical study of Jeremiah 9:3: the deliberate use of speech for lies, progression in evil, and the root cause, not knowing God.
Research Summary
- Meaning: The people deliberately use their tongues to shoot lies like arrows; they lack the courage to uphold truth, spiral downward in evil, and do not know God relationally.
- Key words: “bend” (deliberate action), “tongue,” “bow,” “falsehood,” “evil,” “know” (relational knowledge).
- Main debate: Whether “not valiant for the truth” means they lack courage to defend truth (Clarke) or they do not prevail by truth (Maurer, cited by Jamieson-Fausset-Brown).
- Theological theme: Sin’s progression from deceit to relational alienation from God; truth and knowledge of God are inseparable.
- Best use: A prophetic lens to examine speech habits, community integrity, and the heart’s knowledge of God.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
“They bend their tongues like bows; lies prevail over truth in the land. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account,” declares the LORD.
WEB World English Bible 2000
“They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood. 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.
KJV King James Version 1769
And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
And they bend their tongue, as it were their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
And they bend their tongue, their bow is a lie, And not for stedfastness have they been mighty in the land, For from evil unto evil they have gone forth, And Me they have not known, An affirmation of Jehovah!
Darby Darby Bible 1890
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.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
And they have bent their tongue, as a bow, for lies, and not for truth: they have strengthened themselves upon the earth, for they have proceeded from evil to evil, and me they have not known, saith the Lord.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
E hicieron que su lengua, como su arco, tirase mentira; y no se fortalecieron por verdad en la tierra: porque de mal en mal procedieron, y me han desconocido, dice Jehová.
Eles estendem suas línguas, como se lhes fossem arcos, para atirarem mentira; e se fortaleceram na terra, mas não por meio da verdade; porque se avançam de mal em mal, e não me conhecem, diz o SENHOR.
Ils ont la langue tendue comme un arc et lancent le mensonge;
Sie schießen mit ihren Zungen eitel Lüge und keine Wahrheit und treiben's mit Gewalt im Lande und gehen von einer Bosheit zur andern und achten mich nicht, spricht der HERR.
En zij spannen hun tong als hun boog tot leugen; zij worden geweldig in het land, doch niet tot waarheid; want zij gaan voort van boosheid tot boosheid, maar Mij kennen zij niet, spreekt de HEERE.
Tendono la lingua, ch’è il loro arco, per scoccar menzogne; son diventati potenti nel paese, ma non per agir con fedeltà; poiché procedono di malvagità in malvagità, e non conoscono me, dice l’Eterno.
I naciągają języka swego do kłamstwa jako łuku swego, zmocnili się na ziemi, ale nie ku prawdzie; bo ze złego w złe postępują, a mnie nie znają, mówi Pan.
Как лук, напрягают язык свой для лжи, усиливаются на земле неправдою; ибо переходят от одного зла к другому, и Меня не знают, говорит Господь.
他們彎起 舌頭 像弓一樣，為要說謊話。他們在國中 增長勢力，不是 為行誠實，乃 是 惡上 加 惡，並不 認識 我。這是耶和華 說的。
Their tongues are bent like a bow to send out false words: they have become strong in the land, but not for good faith: they go on from evil to evil, and they have no knowledge of me, says the Lord.
Verse in Context
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that Jeremiah 9:3 exposes a society where speech has become a weapon of destruction. The Hebrew metaphor pictures people deliberately bending their tongue like a bow and shooting lies as arrows. Calvin stresses the deliberate nature of the action: they “stretched their tongue as a bow for falsehoods.” Adam Clarke notes that these lies were lethal, they “fully take away life as the keenest arrow.” Barnes adds that just as soldiers prepare bows for battle, these people purposely ready themselves to do mischief with lying words.
The charge that they are “not valiant for the truth” (KJV) or “not for truth” (WEB) is read by most commentators as a moral failure: they have no courage or faithfulness to uphold truth in the land. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown notes the alternative rendering “they do not prevail by truth,” but the essential meaning is the same, truth has no power among them. The progression “from evil to evil” indicates a relentless descent, and the final indictment, “they don’t know me,” is the heart of the matter. Gill observes that they neither know God as the God of truth nor serve Him. Calvin ties it together: because God is just, a people advancing in wickedness cannot long be tolerated.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Low
What is clear: The people are charged with deliberate, harmful lying that worsens over time, and the root cause is a lack of genuine, relational knowledge of God.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| The metaphor of bending the tongue like a bow | The tongue is deliberately used for falsehood, akin to shooting arrows from a bow, a planned, aggressive act. | Some (Keil) read it as apposition: 'their tongue is their bow of falsehood'; others (Calvin, many moderns) take 'bow' as an adverbial accusative: 'they bend their tongue like a bow for lies.' Both agree on the weaponized speech. |
| 'Not valiant for the truth' (KJV/WEB 'not for truth') | The people are not faithful to truth; they fail to uphold it in the land. | Clarke reads 'valiant' as courage in defending truth; Maurer (noted by Jamieson-Fausset-Brown) translates 'they do not prevail by truth,' emphasizing that truth does not give them victory. The essential meaning, truth is absent, is shared. |
| 'Proceed from evil to evil' | Sin multiplies; the people grow worse over time. | Kimchi (cited by Gill) allows either evil works or evil punishments: they move from one sin to another or from one divine judgment to another. Most read it as moral progression, not punitive. |
| 'They don't know me' | This is the deepest indictment: a lack of personal, covenant knowledge of Yahweh. | Some (Jer 9:6) emphasize they *refuse* to know God, willful ignorance. Others (Calvin) see it as the natural result of persistent deceit: lying hardens the heart against God. Both recognize the relational rupture. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Jeremiah prophesied during the final decades of the kingdom of Judah (roughly 627, 586 BC), a period of spiritual and social collapse. The surrounding chapters (Jeremiah 8, 9) describe a nation reeling from idolatry, false prophecy, and broken covenant. The prophet’s opening wish to flee to a wilderness lodging (v.2) sets the emotional tone: life among a people “all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men” has become unbearable.
The metaphor of bending the tongue like a bow draws on a culture familiar with archery. Bending a bow required deliberate strength and preparation; it was not casual. Bows were used in warfare, not recreation. By choosing this image, Jeremiah says that the people’s deceptive speech is no accident, it is a planned act of aggression against others (see Psalm 64:3, 4, where tongues are sharpened like swords and arrows shot from ambush). False prophets are especially in view, as Clarke notes: they assured the people that no disaster was coming, so the nation made no return to God and was destroyed. Trust had evaporated so completely that by verse 4, everyone is warned not to trust even a brother.
The phrase “grown strong in the land, but not for truth” suggests that the people had established power and influence, but not by honorable means. In a covenant society, truth and faithfulness were meant to be the foundations of community life. When lying becomes the accepted tool for advancement, the entire social fabric unravels. This explains the progression “from evil to evil”: sin compounds itself. The ultimate charge, “they don’t know me,” is not intellectual ignorance but relational rebellion, as seen in Judges 2:10 where a generation arose who did not know Yahweh or His works.
Textual Notes
The supplied commentaries discuss no significant textual variants for Jeremiah 9:3. The Hebrew text is consistent across the ancient witnesses cited. The main interpretive differences arise from translation choices (e.g., whether to read 'bend their tongue, their bow is a lie' or 'bend their tongue like their bow for lies'), not from manuscript variation.
Reception History
Jeremiah 9:3 has been used across Christian traditions to condemn deceit and call for truthfulness as a mark of God’s people. Early church fathers like John Chrysostom cited the verse when preaching against perjury and slander. In the Reformation, Calvin used it to show that a society without truth provokes divine judgment. The verse also became a text for Puritan sermons on the sin of lying and the necessity of personal knowledge of God. In modern evangelicalism, it is often paired with passages like James 3:1, 12 to teach about the power and danger of the tongue. The phrase 'they proceed from evil to evil' is sometimes quoted in discussions about the progressive nature of sin, warning that small compromises lead to greater corruption.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- The weapon of falsehood (v.3a). The tongue is bent like a bow: speech is not casual but deliberate, aimed to wound. We lie on purpose, often to gain advantage or avoid consequences. The cross-references (Psalms 52:2, 4; 64:3, 4) show God’s view: deceptive words are deadly arrows.
- The absence of truth (v.3b). They are not valiant for truth. Courage is often associated with battle, but here the battle is for honesty. Truth requires boldness; lying is cowardly. The land grows strong in deceit, not in faithfulness.
- The root of the problem (v.3c). They proceed from evil to evil and do not know God. Moral decline is never static; it accelerates. And at the bottom is not a lack of information about God but a refusal of relationship. They have lost the knowledge of Yahweh that should shape every word and deed.
Five-point outline
- Deliberate speech: the bow is bent on purpose.
- Destructive speech: lies are like arrows that kill.
- Dominant speech: lying prevails over truth in the land.
- Downward spiral: from one evil to the next.
- Deadly ignorance: they do not know God.
Illustration hooks
- A workplace where cutting corners with the truth becomes the norm. One small lie makes the next easier, until honest communication is impossible. The “bow” gets bent a little more each time.
- Social media as a bow: people craft posts and comments to damage reputation, using words like arrows shot from a distance. The harm is real even if not physically seen.
- The experience of being betrayed by someone you trusted. The deep pain comes not just from the lie but from discovering that the person had no commitment to truth at all.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Is it ever okay to lie for a good reason? Why does God treat all deceit so seriously?
- How can I know if I am progressing “from evil to evil” without realizing it? What are warning signs?
- What does it mean to “know God” in a way that changes how I speak? Is it just head knowledge, or something more?
Leading a Discussion
Jeremiah 9:3 exposes a society where truth has collapsed and speech is weaponized. The metaphor of bending a tongue like a bow shows that lying is not passive, it is active, deliberate, and destructive. This passage invites us to examine our own speech, our commitment to truth, and whether we truly know the God who is Himself truth.
Discussion questions
- Read Jeremiah 9:3 in two or three translations. What stands out to you about the way the verse describes speech?
- Why do you think Jeremiah compares the tongue to a bow and lies to arrows? What does this image reveal about the seriousness of deceptive words?
- The people “proceed from evil to evil.” Have you ever seen small compromises lead to larger ones in your own life or in your community? Describe how that happens.
- What does it mean to be “valiant for the truth” (KJV) in today’s world? Where is courage needed most, in public life, at work, in the church, in the home?
- The verse ends with “they don’t know me,” says the Lord. How does a lack of knowledge of God connect to the lying and deceit described in the first part of the verse?
- Read 1 Samuel 2:12 and Judges 2:10. How does “not knowing the Lord” manifest in the behavior of the people in those passages?
- If someone in your group said, “I want to have a deeper knowledge of God,” how would you encourage them to let that change their everyday speech?
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Judges 2:10 | After all that generation were gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who didn’t know Yahweh, nor the work which he had done for Israel. |
| I Samuel 2:12 | Now the sons of Eli were wicked men. They didn’t know Yahweh. |
| Psalms 52:2 | Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. |
| Psalms 52:4 | You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue. |
| Psalms 64:3 | who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words, |
| Psalms 64:4 | to shoot innocent men from ambushes. They shoot at him suddenly and fearlessly. |
| Psalms 120:2 | Deliver my soul, Yahweh, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. |
| Psalms 120:4 | Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper. |
Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
9 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke compares the tongue to a war bow and lies to murderous arrows. The false prophets told people everything was fine, so nobody repented or prepared for judgment, and the sword destroyed them. These people are bold and courageous in supporting their lies but refuse to patronize or uphold the truth.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes highlights that the prophet's wish for a wilderness lodging signals a society where every person deceives like Jacob and no one is trusted. He emphasizes the deliberate preparation of tongues as bows to shoot lies. God's punishment is described
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin stresses that Jeremiah's image is deliberately violent: the people bend their tongues like a bow and shoot falsehoods as deadly arrows. Every word becomes a weapon, and since God is the world's judge, such relentless wickedness cannot be tolerated indefinitely.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
falsehood ] as the arrow. For the figure cp. Psa_64:3 f. truth ] mg. faithfulness . See on Jer_5:1 .
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva note highlights a striking contrast: the people are bold and skillful at bending their tongues to tell lies, like an archer drawing a bow, yet they have no courage at all to speak or defend the truth. Their downward spiral from evil to worse shows that the root problem is a total failure to know the Lord.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill highlights the image of tongues bent like bows shooting lies as arrows meant to wound others. True courage, he observes, would be fighting for truth in all matters, whether doctrine or daily honesty. Instead these people slide from bad to worse and remain ignorant of God.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB notes these people wield their tongues like a bow, shooting lies as arrows. They do not prevail by truth or faith; their tongue, not faith, is their weapon. They do not know God.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange treats the chapter's indictment of widespread deceit as the symptom of a deeper problem: the people remain uncircumcised at heart. He argues that external circumcision without genuine knowledge of God is no better than pagan uncircumcision, leaving Judah exposed to the same judgment as the nations around them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry observes that Jeremiah's wish for a fountain of tears and a solitary lodging shows the depth of his grief over Judah's sins. The prophet sees that deceit and treachery are so complete that even family cannot be trusted, and God's judgment is the only fitting response to people who refuse to know Him.