What Does Jeremiah 9:8 Mean?
Their tongue is a slaughtering arrow, and it speaks deceit. One speaks wholeness to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he sets his ambush.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.THE KEY
The verse exposes peace-language as cover for an ambush already placed within.
THE MEANING
Someone speaks shalom to a neighbor while planting an ambush inwardly. The speech borrows the language of wholeness, making the harm beneath it harder to see.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A courteous voice proves that a person means you well.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be complete, whole, or made sound.
The Hebrew phrase is literally “shalom he speaks”: he speaks wholeness. The same root reaches toward being whole and making good what is owed, so the greeting names a condition that his inward ambush betrays.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch shows that shalom means more than a pleasant tone; it names wholeness.
shillēm: To repay or make good.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch ties wholeness to what is made right, sharpening the contrast with the harm hidden beneath the greeting.
אָרְבוֹ
ʾorbô
GROWS FROM
ארב
ʾ-r-b
To lie in wait, conceal oneself for an ambush.
“sets his ambush” in this verse is ʾorbô. The “wait” is an ambush, and the speaker places it within himself. The root makes the hidden threat deliberate and positioned, not merely an unspoken feeling.
ALSO GROWS
ʾārab: To lie in wait or ambush.
אָרַב
This verb gives the action behind the inward trap.
ʾōrēb: One who lies in wait, an ambusher.
אֹרֵב
This form makes the concealed danger an active presence behind the speaker’s words.
מִרְמָה
mirmāh
GROWS FROM
רמה
r-m-h
To deceive or deal treacherously.
“deceit” in this verse is mirmāh. Mirmāh names treachery, not only a statement that happens to be false. Here the deceptive speech is part of the concealed attack: shalom is spoken while an ambush is set.
ALSO GROWS
rāmāh: To deceive or beguile.
רָמָה
This verb shows deceit as an act carried out through the speech.
remiyyāh: Deceit or treachery.
רְמִיָּה
This related noun carries the same treacherous quality that turns the friendly greeting into cover.
THE PATTERN
A mouth can offer one reality while the inward person prepares another.
The words of his mouth are smoother than butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are opened swords.He who hates makes himself a stranger with his lips, and lays deceit within him.You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.THE THREAD
Do not drag me away with the wicked, and with the workers of crookedness, who speak wholeness to their neighbors, but breaking is in their hearts.The Hebrew uses shalom here too: they speak wholeness to their neighbors while carrying harm within. Jeremiah names that hidden harm as an ambush set inside the speaker.
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