en_tn_condensed/jer/09/03.md

# This is Yahweh's declaration

See how you translated these words in [Jeremiah 1:8](../01/08.md).

# They bend their tongues like their bows for lies
God speaks of liars as if they were people who shoot others with bows and arrows. People who use bows and arrows bend their bows in order to fasten the bowstrings. Just as they prepare to shoot arrows, liars prepare to tell lies. Alternate translation: "Their tongues are like bows which they prepare to shoot out lies" or "Their lies are like arrows that they shoot with their tongues" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-metaphor]])

# They

Here the word "They" refers to God's people.

# and it is not because of any faithfulness of theirs that they grow strong on the earth

Apparently God's people thought that the reason they were strong was that they were faithful. But they were not faithful. Alternate translation: "and they grow strong on the earth, but it is not because they are faithful" or "and they grow strong on the earth, but not by being faithful"

# For they go from one wicked act to another

Committing one evil action after another is spoken of as if the evildoers were going from one action to another. Alternate translation: "For they keep doing evil things" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-metaphor]])