1. ‘Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool,inscribed with a flint point,on the tablets of their heartsand on the horns of their altars.
2. Even their children remembertheir altars and Asherah polesbeside the spreading treesand on the high hills.
3. My mountain in the landand your wealth and all your treasuresI will give away as plunder,together with your high places,because of sin throughout your country.
4. Through your own fault you will losethe inheritance I gave you.I will enslave you to your enemiesin a land you do not know,for you have kindled my anger,and it will burn for ever.’
5. This is what the Lord says:‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man,who draws strength from mere fleshand whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;they will not see prosperity when it comes.They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,in a salt land where no one lives.
7. ‘But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,whose confidence is in him.
8. They will be like a tree planted by the waterthat sends out its roots by the stream.It does not fear when heat comes;its leaves are always green.It has no worries in a year of droughtand never fails to bear fruit.’
9. The heart is deceitful above all thingsand beyond cure.Who can understand it?
10. ‘I the Lord search the heartand examine the mind,to reward each person according to their conduct,according to what their deeds deserve.’
11. Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not layare those who gain riches by unjust means.When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them,and in the end they will prove to be fools.
12. A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning,is the place of our sanctuary.
13. Lord, you are the hope of Israel;all who forsake you will be put to shame.Those who turn away from you will be written in the dustbecause they have forsaken the Lord,the spring of living water.