1. The sin of Judah is written with an iron penand with a diamond point;it is engraved on the tablet of their heartand on the horns of their altars;
2. as they remember their children,so they remember their altarsand their groves by the green treeson the high hills.
3. O My mountain in the field,I will give your wealthand all your treasures to the destroyer,and your high placesfor sin throughout all your borders.
4. You, even yourself, will discontinuefrom your heritage that I gave you;and I will cause you to serve your enemiesin the land which you do not know;for you have kindled a fire in My angerwhich will burn forever.
5. Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in manand makes flesh his strength,and whose heart departs from the Lord.
6. For he will be like a bush in the desertand will not see when good comes,but will inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,in a salt land and not inhabited.
7. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,and whose hope is the Lord.
8. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters,and that spreads out its roots by the river,and shall not fear when heat comes,but its leaf shall be green,and it shall not be anxious in the year of drought,neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
9. The heart is more deceitful than all thingsand desperately wicked;who can understand it?
10. I, the Lord, search the heart,I test the mind,even to give to every man according to his ways,and according to the fruit of his deeds.
11. As the partridge sits on eggs which it has not laid,so is he who gets riches, but not justly;it will forsake him in the midst of his days,and in the end he will be a fool.
12. A glorious high throne from the beginningis the place of our sanctuary.
13. O Lord, the Hope of Israel,all who forsake You will be ashamed.“Those who depart from Me in the earth will be written down,because they have forsaken the Lord,the fountain of living waters.”