Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity.
Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing?
Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
You were wearied with the length of your way, but you did not say, “It is hopeless”; you found new life for your strength, and so you were not faint.
For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
“O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me!
She has wearied herself with toil; its abundant corrosion does not go out of it. Into the fire with its corrosion!
Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.
They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares the Lord.
The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it.
Everyone helps his neighbor and says to his brother, “Be strong!” The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good”; and they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved.
Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes,
For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
They make their tongue sharp as a serpent's, and under their lips is the venom of asps. Selah
who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows,
“You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit.
Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.
Should your babble silence men, and when you mock, shall no one shame you?
And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.
Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com.