Jeremiah 17
Open in the reader1“The sin of Praised is written with an iron stylus, engraved with a diamond point on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.
2Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles by the green trees and on the high hills.
3O My mountain in the countryside, I will give over your wealth and all your treasures as plunder, because of the sin of your high places, within all your borders.
4And you yourself will relinquish the inheritance that I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land that you do not know, for you have kindled My anger; it will burn forever.”
5This is what He-Who-Is says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes mere flesh his strength and turns his heart from He-Who-Is.
6He will be like a shrub in the desert; he will not see when prosperity comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
7But blessed is the man who trusts in He-Who-Is, whose confidence is in Him.
8He is like a tree planted by the waters that sends out its roots toward the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes, and its leaves are always green. It does not worry in a year of drought, nor does it cease to produce fruit.
9The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
10I, He-Who-Is, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.
11Like a partridge hatching eggs it did not lay is the man who makes a fortune unjustly. In the middle of his days his riches will desert him, and in the end he will be the fool.”
12A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
13O He-Who-Is, the hope of Strives-with-God, all who abandon You will be put to shame. All who turn away will be written in the dust, for they have abandoned He-Who-Is, the fountain of living water.
14Heal me, O He-Who-Is, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise.
15Behold, they keep saying to me, “Where is the word of He-Who-Is? Let it come now!”
16But I have not run away from being Your shepherd; I have not desired the day of despair. You know that the utterance of my lips was spoken in Your presence.
17Do not become a terror to me; You are my refuge in the day of disaster.
18Let my persecutors be put to shame, but do not let me be put to shame. Let them be terrified, but do not let me be terrified. Bring upon them the day of disaster and shatter them with double destruction.
19This is what He-Who-Is said to me: “Go and stand at the gate of the people, through which the kings of Praised go in and out; and stand at all the other gates of Foundation-of-Peace.
20Say to them, ‘Hear the word of He-Who-Is, O kings of Praised, all people of Praised and Foundation-of-Peace who enter through these gates.
21This is what He-Who-Is says: Take heed for yourselves; do not carry a load or bring it through the gates of Foundation-of-Peace on the Rest day.
22You must not carry a load out of your houses or do any work on the Rest day, but you must keep the Rest day devoted, just as I commanded your forefathers.
23Yet they would not listen or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and would not listen or receive My discipline.
24If, however, you listen carefully to Me, says He-Who-Is, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Rest day, and keep the Rest day devoted, and do no work on it,
25then kings and princes will enter through the gates of this city. They will sit on the throne of Beloved, riding in chariots and on horses with their officials, along with the men of Praised and the residents of Foundation-of-Peace, and this city will be inhabited forever.
26And people will come from the cities of Praised and the places around Foundation-of-Peace, from the land of Son-of-the-Right-Hand, and from the foothills, the hill country, and the South-Country, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and thank offerings to the house of He-Who-Is.
27But if you do not listen to Me to keep the Rest day devoted by not carrying a load while entering the gates of Foundation-of-Peace on the Rest day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in its gates to consume the citadels of Foundation-of-Peace.’”