Jeremiah 9:4

4 Everyone, be on guard against your neighbor, don't trust even a brother; for every brother is out to trick you, and every neighbor goes around gossiping.

Jeremiah 9:4 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 9:4

Take ye heed everyone of his neighbour
Take care of being imposed upon by them, since they are so given to lying and deceit; be not too credulous, or too easily believe what is said; or keep yourselves from them; have no company or conversation with them, since evil communications corrupt good manners: and trust ye not in any brother;
whether by blood or by marriage, or by religion, believe not his words; trust him not, neither with your money, nor with your mind; commit not your secrets to him, place no confidence in him; a people must be very corrupt indeed when this is the case: or, "trust ye not in every brother" ^F18; some may be trusted, but not all though the following clause seems to contradict this, for every brother will utterly supplant;
or, in supplanting supplant {s}; play the Jacob, do as he did by his brother, who supplanted him twice; first got the birthright from him, and then the blessing; which was presignified by taking his brother by the heel in the womb, from whence he had his name; and the same word is here used, which signifies a secret, clandestine, and insidious way of circumventing another; and every neighbour will walk with slanders;
go about spreading lies and calumnies, as worshippers, backbiters, and tale bearers do. The word (lykd) is used for a "merchant"; and because such persons went from place to place with their goods, and made use often times of fraudulent practices to deceive people, it is applied to one that is guilty of slander and calumny; ( Song of Solomon 3:8 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 (wxjbt la xa lk lew) "et omni fratri ne fidatis", Paganinus.
F19 (bqey bwqe) "supplantanto supplantat", Schmidt.

Jeremiah 9:4 In-Context

2 I wish I were out in the desert, in some travelers' lodge then I could get away from my people and distance myself from them! "Indeed they are all adulterers, a band of traitors is what they are.

3 They bend their tongues, their 'bow' of falsehood, and hold sway in the land, but not for truth. For they go from evil to evil, and me they do not know," says ADONAI.

4 Everyone, be on guard against your neighbor, don't trust even a brother; for every brother is out to trick you, and every neighbor goes around gossiping.

5 Everyone deceives his neighbor, no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongues to lie, they wear themselves out with sinning.

6 "You inhabit a world of deceit; deceitfully they refuse to know me," says ADONAI.