Jeremiah 17

¹ The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus;
with a diamond point it is engraved
on the tablet of their heart
and on the horns of their altars,

² while their children remember their altars
and their Asherah poles
by the spreading trees
and on the high hills —

³ my mountain in the open country.
Your wealth and all your treasures
I will give for plunder as the price,
because of sin in all your territories.

⁴ You yourself will let go of your inheritance that I gave you;
I will make you serve your enemies
in a land you do not know,
for you have kindled a fire in my anger
that will burn forever.

⁵ This is what the LORD says:
"Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings,
who makes flesh his strength
and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

⁶ He will be like a shrub in the desert
and will not see when good comes;
he will dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.

⁷ Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence the LORD is.

⁸ He will be like a tree planted by water;
it sends out its roots toward a stream.
It will have no fear when heat comes;
its leaves will remain green.
In a year of drought it will have no worry
and will not cease to bear fruit.

⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things,
and it is desperately sick —
who can understand it?

¹⁰ "I, the LORD, search the heart
and test the mind,
to give to each person according to their ways,
according to the fruit of their deeds."

¹¹ Like a partridge that gathers chicks it did not hatch,
so is the man who gains riches unjustly.
In midlife they will leave him,
and at his end he will be a fool.

¹² A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning —
it is the place of our sanctuary.

¹³ O LORD, the hope of Israel —
all who forsake you will be put to shame;
those who turn away from you will be written in the dust,
because they have forsaken the LORD,
the fountain of living water.

¹⁴ Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed;
save me and I will be saved,
for you are my praise.

¹⁵ Look at them saying to me,
"Where is the word of the LORD?
Let it come!"

¹⁶ But I have not run away from being your shepherd,
nor have I desired the fatal day.
You know what came out of my lips;
it was before your face.

¹⁷ Do not be a terror to me;
you are my refuge in the day of disaster.

¹⁸ Let my persecutors be ashamed,
but let me not be ashamed.
Let them be terrified,
but let me not be terrified.
Bring on them the day of disaster;
destroy them with double destruction.

¹⁹ This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and stand at the Gate of the People, through which the kings of Judah enter and by which they exit, and at all the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰ Say to them: Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah and all people of Judah and all who live in Jerusalem, who enter through these gates.

²¹ This is what the LORD says: Take care, for your own welfare, that you do not carry any load on the sabbath day, nor bring it through the gates of Jerusalem.

²² Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the sabbath day. Keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors.

²³ Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or accept correction.

²⁴ "But if you listen carefully to me, declares the LORD, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the sabbath day — if you keep the sabbath day holy and do no work on it —

²⁵ then kings and princes sitting on the throne of David will come through the gates of this city, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem; and this city will be inhabited forever.

²⁶ People will come from the towns of Judah and from around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the western foothills, from the hill country and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing thank offerings to the house of the LORD.

²⁷ But if you do not listen to me to keep the sabbath day holy by not carrying any load through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in its gates, and it will consume the palaces of Jerusalem."