Like a cage filled with the birds that have been caught, ¹  their houses are filled with the gains of their fraud and deceit. ²  That is how they have gotten so rich and powerful. ³ 

Why, then, do these people of Jerusalem ¹  continually turn away from me in apostasy? They hold fast to their deception. ²  They refuse to turn back to me. ³ 

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 

But exhort one another each day, as long as it is called “Today,” that none of you may become hardened by sin’s deception.

For the one who wants to love life and see good days must keep ¹  his tongue from evil and his lips from uttering deceit.

The Israelites who remain ¹  will not act deceitfully. They will not lie, and a deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouth. Indeed, they will graze peacefully like sheep ²  and lie down; no one will terrify them.”

Those prophets are just prophesying lies. They are prophesying the delusions of their own minds. ¹ 

After ¹  entering into an alliance with him, he will behave treacherously; he will ascend to power with only a small force. ² 

On that day I will punish all who leap over the threshold, ¹  who fill the house of their master ²  with wealth taken by violence and deceit. ³ 

The ¹  seed sown among thorns is the person who hears the word, but worldly cares and the seductiveness of wealth ²  choke the word, ³  so it produces nothing.

but ¹  worldly cares, the seductiveness of wealth, ²  and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, ³  and it produces nothing.

So ¹  we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes. ² 

You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside ¹  the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires,

I do not associate ¹  with deceitful men, or consort ²  with those who are dishonest. ³ 

Do not crave that ruler’s ¹  delicacies, for ²  that food is deceptive. ³ 

My brothers ¹  have been as treacherous ²  as a seasonal stream, ³  and as the riverbeds of the intermittent streams ⁴  that flow away. ⁵ 

They were unfaithful ¹  and acted as treacherously as ²  their ancestors; they were as unreliable as a malfunctioning bow. ³ 

You despise ¹  all who stray from your statutes, for they are deceptive and unreliable. ² 

who speak lies, and make false promises. ¹ 

The wicked person ¹  earns ²  deceitful wages, ³  but the one who sows ⁴  righteousness reaps ⁵  a genuine ⁶  reward. ⁷