Jeremiah 9:7

"Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how else should I do, because of the daughter of my people? Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbor, but in his heart he layeth wait for him. Shall I not visit them for these things? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?"

"Shall I not ... shall not my soul ..." (Jeremiah 9:9)? The very raising of such questions, "Points up the legal aspects of breach of covenant."[10] The Jews of that period were just like the rest of humanity, no better, and no worse. Why, then, was God so outraged and disgusted with Judah? It all hinged upon the privileges of their covenant relationship with God! God had given them the Law of Moses; he had taught them the principles of truth and morality as carefully expounded in that Law; and God had every right to have expected a far better response to the privileges and blessings already conferred upon the nation than the indifference and disobedience which he actually received. It is impossible to understand anything in this prophecy without the perception of the "breach of the holy covenant" that was accomplished in the behavior of the Chosen People. Without that conception, God's severe punishment of Israel amounted to no more than a capricious punishment of an unfortunate nation that was no worse than a dozen other peoples living in all directions from Israel!

Back in Jeremiah 9:6, the prophet had revealed that "through deceit, the people refused to know the Lord"; and as Matthew Henry stated it, "Those who would not know the Lord as their lawgiver, would be compelled to know him as their judge!"[11]