Matthew Poole and continuators on Jeremiah 9:3

3 And they bend their tongues like their y 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.

Heb. tread, because bowes are usually kneeled, or trod upon, when they are bent, chap. 50.14. and 51.3.

i. e. All reproachful, false and noxious words to the damage of one another, and so bending may be preparing, framing and contriving that mischief which they purpose to vent with their tongues, Psal. 52.2, 3, 4. and 64.3. as bending is preparing the Bow to do execution with the Arrow▪

Eq[illegible: 1 letter]ity, Justice, they are as eager in wayes of falshood as men ingaged in war, but shew no valour in maintaining the Truth.

i. e. No truth in the Earth in them, as we use to express our selves, or rather more genuinely in the land wherein they live, they have no Courage in what is good.

Either in kind, or in degree, they go on from bad to worse, 2 Tim. 3.13. which speaks little hopes of their Repentance▪ the ground of all which is said here to be, their not knowing of God, as in the next clause, Judges 2.10, 11. 1 Sam. 2.12. the heart cannot work strongly after God, where there be but mean apprehensions of him.

Their Tongues are here compared to a Bow and lies to Arrows, because as a Bow shoots out Arrows, so doth the Tongue words, Psal. 64.3.

Marginal references: Isa. 59.4, 13, 15.