Jeremiah 17

1. “The sin of Judah is engraved with a pen of iron, with the point of a diamond; it is carved upon the tablet of their heart and upon the horns of your altars;

2. While their children remember their altars and their Asherim beside every green tree on the high hills.

3. O My mountain in the field, I will give your wealth and all your treasures for spoil, and your high places because of sin, throughout all your borders.

4. And you, even of yourself, have let go of the inheritance which I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in a land which you do not know. For you have kindled a fire in My anger, which shall burn forever.”

5. Thus says the LORD, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.

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

7. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose hope is the LORD.

8. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters; it sends out its roots by the river, and it shall not fear when the heat comes, but its foliage shall be green; and he is not worried in the year of drought, nor will it cease from yielding fruit.

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

10. I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

11. As the quail that hatches eggs it has not laid; in the same way he who gets riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the middle of his days, and in his end he shall be a fool.”

12. A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.

13. O LORD, the Hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be ashamed. “Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth because they have forsaken the LORD, the Fountain of living waters.”

14. Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed, save me, and I shall 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. As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd to follow after You; nor have I desired the woeful day;You surely know it. That which came out of my lips was manifest before You.

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

18. Let those who persecute me be ashamed, but do not let me be ashamed; let them be afraid, but do not let me be afraid. Bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

19. Thus the LORD said to me, “Go and stand in the gates of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem.

20. And say to them, ‘Hear the Word of the LORD, kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the people of Jerusalem who enter in by these gates!

21. Thus says the LORD, “Take heed to yourselves, and carry no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.

22. Nor carry out a burden from your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.

23. But they did not obey, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, so that they might not hear nor receive instruction.

24. And it shall be, if you diligently hearken to Me,” says the LORD, “to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy, to do no work in it;

25. Then kings and rulers sitting on the throne of David shall enter into the gates of this city, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their rulers, the men of Judah, and the people of Jerusalem. And this city shall remain forever.

26. And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and grain offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise to the house of the LORD.

27. But if you will not hearken to Me to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to carry a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it will not be put out.” ’ ”