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I would like to live in a hut in the desert.
    Then I could leave my people.
    I could forget about them.
They have all turned away from God.
    They have not been faithful to him.
They are a crowd of people that nobody can trust.’

The Lord answers Jeremiah

The Lord says,

‘The tongues of these people speak lies,
    like the bows of soldiers shoot arrows.
They have become powerful in the land,
    but they have used lies to do that.
They do more and more evil things,
    and they do not respect me.
Be careful of your friends.
    Do not even trust your brothers!
They will always try to cheat you.
    All your friends will speak lies about you.

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Oh, that I had in the desert(A)
    a lodging place for travelers,
so that I might leave my people
    and go away from them;
for they are all adulterers,(B)
    a crowd of unfaithful(C) people.

“They make ready their tongue
    like a bow, to shoot lies;(D)
it is not by truth
    that they triumph[a] in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
    they do not acknowledge(E) me,”
declares the Lord.
“Beware of your friends;(F)
    do not trust anyone in your clan.(G)
For every one of them is a deceiver,[b](H)
    and every friend a slanderer.(I)

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 9:3 Or lies; / they are not valiant for truth
  2. Jeremiah 9:4 Or a deceiving Jacob