The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 17

 The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 17

1 The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, with a diamond point, engraved on the tablet of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.

2 Even their children remember their altars, and their groves, and the green trees on the high hills.

3 O my mountain in the field! I will give your wealth and all your treasures as plunder, as well as your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.

4 Thus you will deprive yourself of your inheritance that I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know; for the fire you kindled in my anger will burn forever.

5 Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord!

6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; 6 But he will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land that is not inhabited.

7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord.

8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out its roots by the river, and does not fear when heat comes, but its leaf remains green; and in the year of drought it is not anxious, nor does it cease to bear fruit.

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

10 I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

11 As a partridge that gathers eggs that it does not hatch, so is he who amasses riches unjustly; in the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool.

12 A throne of glory, set high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. 

13 O Lord, the hope of Israel! All who have forsaken you will be put to shame; those who turn away from me will be written in the dust, because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring 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 Behold, they say to me, “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now!”

16 But I did not hasten to be a shepherd after you, nor did I desire the day of trouble; you know it. What came from my lips is before your face.

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

18 Let those who persecute me be put to shame, but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed. Bring on them the day of trouble, and destroy them with double destruction.