Jeremiah 9:8

9:8 Their tongues are like deadly arrows. 1 

They are always telling lies. 2 

Friendly words for their neighbors come from their mouths.

But their minds are thinking up ways to trap them. 3 

Jeremiah 50:14

50:14 “Take up your battle positions all around Babylon,

all you soldiers who are armed with bows. 4 

Shoot 5  all your arrows at her! Do not hold any back! 6 

For she has sinned against the Lord.

1 tc This reading follows the Masoretic consonants (the Kethib, a Qal active participle from שָׁחַט, shakhat). The Masoretes preferred to read “a sharpened arrow” (the Qere, a Qal passive participle from the same root or a homonym, meaning “hammered, beaten”). See HALOT 1354 s.v. II שָׁחַט for discussion. The exact meaning of the word makes little difference to the meaning of the metaphor itself.

2 tn Heb “They speak deceit.”

3 tn Heb “With his mouth a person speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets an ambush for him.”

4 tn Heb “all you who draw the bow.”

5 tc The verb here should probably be read as a Qal imperative יְרוּ (yÿru) from יָרָה (yarah) with a few Hebrew mss rather than a Qal imperative יְדוּ (yidu) from יָדָה (yadah) with the majority of Hebrew mss. The verb יָדָה (yadah) does not otherwise occur in the Qal and only elsewhere in the Piel with a meaning “cast” (cf. KBL 363 s.v. I יָדָה). The verb יָרָה (yarah) is common in both the Qal and the Hiphil with the meaning of shooting arrows (cf. BDB 435 s.v. יָרָה Qal.3 and Hiph.2). The confusion between ד (dalet) and ר (resh) is very common.

6 tn Heb “Shoot at her! Don’t save any arrows!”