Jeremiah 9:4 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

Take ye heed every one of his neighbour; better rendered friend, or companion, as 2 Samuel 16:17, and in the next verse; showing the general corruption will be so malignant, that one friend will betray another; no faith in friends. Will utterly supplant; wholly given to it; Heb. supplanting will supplant; or, treading down treadeth down; trampling them under their feet, noting their oppression, which they exercise all manner of ways, as in the next verse, both by fraud and force. Like the interpretation that Esau puts upon Jacob, Genesis 27:36; not only such as are near in habitation, pretending neighbourhood and friendship; but near in relation, even a brother will circumvent; no respect to blood, arguing them to be monstrous in nature, putting off humanity. The word is here in allusion to Jacob, who had his name from supplanting; a metaphor taken from the sole of the foot, Genesis 25:26. Walk with slanders; carrying tales and reports up and down, whether true or false, to the disturbance of the peace of neighbourhood, Jeremiah 6:28, and against the law of God, Leviticus 19:16.

Jeremiah 9:4

4 Take ye heed every one of his neighbour,a and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.