^2 [a](A)Oh that I had in the desert
A travelers’ lodging place;
So that I might leave my people
And go away from them!
For all of them are ^(B)adulterers,
An assembly of ^(C)treacherous people.
³ “They ^(D)bend their tongues like their bows;
Lies and not truth prevail in the land;
For they ^(E)proceed from evil to evil,
And they ^(F)do not know Me,” declares the Lord.
⁴ “Let everyone ^(G)be on guard against his neighbor,
And ^(H)do not trust any brother;
Because every ^(I)brother utterly ^[b]betrays,
And every neighbor ^(J)goes about as a slanderer.
⁵ Everyone ^(K)deceives his neighbor
And does not speak the truth.
They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
They ^(L)weary themselves committing wrongdoing.
⁶ Your ^(M)dwelling is in the midst of deceit;
Through deceit they ^(N)refuse to know Me,” declares the Lord.

⁸ Their ^(A)tongue is a deadly arrow;
It speaks deceit;
With his mouth one ^(B)speaks peace to his neighbor,
But inwardly he ^(C)sets an ambush for him.

⁴ This is what the Lord says:
“For three offenses of ^(A)Judah, and for four,
I will not revoke its punishment,
Because they ^(B)rejected the Law of the Lord
And have not kept His statutes;
Their ^[a](C)lies also have led them astray,
Those which their ^(D)fathers followed.