The Treachery of Kin
Introduction: A Fountain of Tears in a Land of Lies
We live in an age that has forgotten how to weep. We have entertainment to distract us, therapy to manage us, and a political class that offers us an endless stream of scapegoats to enrage us. But genuine, heartfelt, covenantal grief over sin? That is a rare commodity. We have mastered the art of the cynical scoff and the angry tweet, but the prophet's tears are foreign to us. Jeremiah opens this chapter with a torrent of grief so profound he wishes his head were a reservoir and his eyes a fountain, just so he could adequately weep for his people. This is not the weeping of a sentimentalist. This is the agony of a man who sees the covenant judgments of God rolling in like a thunderstorm over a people who are too busy lying to one another to even look up.
This passage is a divine diagnosis of a society in the final stages of spiritual cancer. The symptoms are a complete breakdown of trust, the weaponization of language, and a universal treachery that has infected every relationship, from neighbor to brother. But the diagnosis goes deeper than the symptoms. The root cause, the very heart of the disease, is stated plainly by Yahweh Himself: "they do not know Me." All societal collapse, all political corruption, all familial breakdown, is ultimately a theological problem. When a people refuses to know God, they will soon find that they no longer know how to know, or trust, anyone else. Jeremiah is showing us what happens when a nation built on covenant fidelity becomes an assembly of treacherous men. It is a portrait of ancient Judah, but if we have eyes to see, it is also a mirror for our own times.
The Text
Oh that my head were waters And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the desert A travelers’ lodging place, That I might leave my people And go from them! For all of them are adulterers, A solemn assembly of treacherous men. “They bend their tongue like their bow; Lies and unfaithfulness prevail in the land, For they go onward from evil to evil, And they do not know Me,” declares Yahweh. “Let everyone beware of his neighbor, And do not trust any brother, Because every brother surely supplants, And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. Everyone deceives his neighbor And does not speak the truth; They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves committing iniquity. Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares Yahweh. Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Behold, I will refine them and test them; For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people? Their tongue is a slaughtering arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But inwardly he sets an ambush for him. Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares Yahweh. “On a nation such as this Shall I not avenge Myself?
(Jeremiah 9:1-9 LSB)
The Prophet's Grief and Revulsion (vv. 1-2)
We begin with the raw emotion of the prophet.
"Oh that my head were waters And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the desert A travelers’ lodging place, That I might leave my people And go from them! For all of them are adulterers, A solemn assembly of treacherous men." (Jeremiah 9:1-2)
Jeremiah's grief is cosmic in its proportions. He doesn't just want to cry; he wants to become lament itself. This is the heart of a true pastor, a true watchman. He sees the coming judgment, the "slain of the daughter of my people," and it breaks his heart. He is not a detached observer, gloating over the coming doom. He loves these people. His tears are the overflow of his love and his understanding of God's holiness. This is the kind of grief that our modern, therapeutic culture cannot comprehend. It is not about self-pity; it is about covenantal devastation.
Immediately following this profound expression of solidarity in grief, he expresses a profound desire for separation. He wants a lodge in the wilderness, a place to get away from the very people he is weeping for. Is this a contradiction? Not at all. It is a holy revulsion. He weeps for them as his people, but he is disgusted by what they have become. He cannot stand to be in their company. Why? Because they are "adulterers" and "a solemn assembly of treacherous men." Their adultery is both literal and, more importantly, spiritual. They have cheated on their covenant husband, Yahweh. And their treachery is not random or occasional; they are an organized body, a "solemn assembly" of liars and backstabbers. The very institutions that should promote faithfulness have become congregations of the unfaithful. When the salt has lost its savor, the true prophet wants to be somewhere, anywhere else.
The Diagnosis of Deceit (vv. 3-6)
God Himself now speaks, providing the detailed diagnosis of this societal rot.
"They bend their tongue like their bow; Lies and unfaithfulness prevail in the land, For they go onward from evil to evil, And they do not know Me," declares Yahweh. (Jeremiah 9:3)
The imagery is potent. The tongue is not a tool for communication; it is a weapon. They draw it back like a bow, aiming to shoot lies. And these are not just little white lies. This is a culture where "unfaithfulness" prevails. Truth is not the standard. There is no standard. This is the outworking of moral relativism. And notice the progression: "they go onward from evil to evil." Sin is never static. It is always progressive. It is a downward spiral. And here, God gives us the ultimate reason, the source code for this entire societal meltdown: "they do not know Me." This is not about a lack of information. They had the Torah, the Temple, the prophets. This is a refusal of relational, covenantal knowledge. To know God is to love and obey Him. To refuse to know Him is to declare autonomy, and the result is a world where words become weapons.
The consequences of this ignorance are spelled out with chilling clarity.
"Let everyone beware of his neighbor, And do not trust any brother, Because every brother surely supplants, And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. Everyone deceives his neighbor And does not speak the truth; They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves committing iniquity. Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me," declares Yahweh. (Jeremiah 9:4-6)
This is the complete atomization of society. When the vertical relationship with God is severed, all horizontal relationships disintegrate. You cannot trust your neighbor. You cannot even trust your own brother. The mention of "supplants" is a direct echo of the name Jacob, meaning that this treachery has become their very identity. It is what they do. Slander, deception, and lies are not the exception; they are the norm. Notice that this is a learned behavior: "They have taught their tongue to speak lies." They have practiced it, honed it, and become experts at it. And look at the result: "They weary themselves committing iniquity." Sin is exhausting. It is hard work to maintain a world of lies. It is a heavy burden, a form of slavery that drains the life out of you. And God summarizes it all in verse 6. They live in deceit. Deceit is the air they breathe, the water they drink. And this atmosphere of deceit makes it impossible for them to know the God of truth. Their sin has blinded them. They love the darkness and therefore refuse the light.
The Divine Refiner's Fire (vv. 7-9)
Given this terminal diagnosis, what is the divine response? It is not a shrug of indifference. It is the fire of a holy metallurgist.
"Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, 'Behold, I will refine them and test them; For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?'" (Jeremiah 9:7)
God's judgment is presented here as a refining process. He is going to turn up the heat. This fire will do one of two things: it will burn away the dross and purify the metal, or it will consume the wicked entirely. God's question, "For what else can I do?" is a staggering statement of divine necessity. It is not that God is out of options, but rather that His holy and just character demands this response. A people so steeped in deceit, who refuse to know Him, have left Him no other recourse that is consistent with His own nature. He must act.
God reiterates the central problem, the deceitful tongue, and then states the basis for His coming judgment.
"Their tongue is a slaughtering arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But inwardly he sets an ambush for him. Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares Yahweh. “On a nation such as this Shall I not avenge Myself?" (Jeremiah 9:8-9)
Their words are not just lies; they are murderous. The "slaughtering arrow" is an image of lethal intent. The description of speaking peace while planning an ambush is the very definition of treachery. It is the sin of Judas, the sin of a traitor. This is not just bad behavior; it is a profound violation of the covenant that is supposed to bind God's people together. And so, God concludes with two rhetorical questions that demand the answer "Yes!" A God of justice must punish these things. A holy God must avenge Himself on a nation that has so thoroughly corrupted its ways. This is not petty revenge. This is the necessary, righteous, and good action of a holy Creator setting things right in His world. His justice is as much a part of His glory as His mercy.
Conclusion: The Truth Who Sets Us Free
It is impossible to read this passage and not see our own world reflected in it. We live in a society that has taught its tongue to speak lies. Our political discourse, our media, our academic institutions are filled with people who bend their tongues like bows. The result is the same: a catastrophic breakdown of trust. We are wary of our neighbors and suspicious of our brothers. And the root cause is precisely the same: as a culture, we "do not know" God.
But the story does not end in the refiner's fire. For us, on this side of the cross, we know that the ultimate fire of God's judgment fell upon another. All the treachery of mankind, all our deceitful words, all our murderous intent, was placed upon Jesus Christ. He is the one who was ambushed by his friends, betrayed by a kiss, and slandered before the authorities. He took the slaughtering arrow in our place.
The answer to a world of lies is not a better political party or a new educational program. The answer is a person. Jesus Christ is the Truth. He is the Word made flesh. In Him, words are not weapons but instruments of creation and redemption. When the Spirit of God opens our hearts to know Him, He does not just give us information; He rewrites our nature. He takes hearts that are fluent in deceit and teaches them the language of truth.
Our task as the church, then, is to be the opposite of this "solemn assembly of treacherous men." We are to be a congregation of the faithful, a people whose yes is yes and whose no is no. We must first weep, like Jeremiah, for the lies of our age. But then we must speak. We must speak the truth of the gospel into the midst of the deceit, knowing that it is the only truth that can withstand the refiner's fire, because it is the truth about the one who walked out of the fire of judgment on the third day.