1. “The sin of the people of Judah is written with an iron tool.Their sins were cut into stone with a hard point.That stone is their hearts.Their sins were cut into the corners of their altars.
2. Even their children remembertheir altars to idols and their Asherah idols.They remember the altars under the green treesand on the high hills.
3. They remember the altars on my mountain and in the open country.I will give your wealth and treasuresto other people.And they will destroy the places of worship in your country.You sinned by worshiping at those places.
4. You will lose the land I gave you.And it is your own fault.I will let your enemies take you as their slaves.You will be slaves in a land you have never known.This is because you have made my anger burn like a hot fire.And it will burn forever.”
5. This is what the Lord says:“A curse will be placed on those who trust other people.It will happen to those who depend on people for strength.Those are the ones who have stopped trusting the Lord.
6. They are like a bush in a desert.It grows in a land where no one lives.It is in a hot and dry land with bad soil.They don’t know about the good things that God can give.
7. “But the person who trusts in the Lord will be blessed.The Lord will show him that he can be trusted.
8. He will be strong, like a tree planted near water.That tree has large roots that find the water.It is not afraid when the days are hot.Its leaves are always green.It does not worry in a year when no rain comes.That tree always produces fruit.”
9. “More than anything else, a person’s mind is evil.It cannot be healed.Who can understand it?
10. But I am the Lord, and I can look into a person’s heart.I can test a person’s mind.So I can decide what each one deserves.I can give each one the right payment for what he does.”
11. Sometimes a bird will hatch an egg that it did not lay.That bird is like the man who gets rich by cheating.When that man’s life is half finished, he will lose his riches.At the end of his life, it will be clear he was a fool.