Jeremiah
Chapter 17
1 Judah’s sin is deeply engraved on their hearts and on your altars’ corners as if written with an iron pen and diamond tip.
2 While their children recall their altars and sacred gardens near the green trees on the tall hills.
3 I will give away all your wealth and treasures, and your worship places in the field because of sin, across your land.
4 You will stop having the land I gave you; and I will make you serve your enemies in a land you don’t know: because you have made me very angry, and it will burn forever.
5 God says, “A curse on the person who trusts in other people, who depends on human strength, and turns away from God.”
6 He will be like a lonely plant in the desert, not seeing when good comes; he will live in dry areas of the wasteland, in salty land where no one lives.
7 Happy is the person who trusts in God and whose hope is God.
8 He will be like a tree by the water, sending out roots by the stream, not fearing the heat with green leaves, not worrying in dry times, never stopping making fruit.
9 The heart can lie more than anything else and is very bad: who can understand it?
10 I, God, search the heart and test the mind, to reward everyone according to their behavior and the results of their actions.
11 Like a bird that sits on eggs it can’t hatch, a person who gets money unfairly will lose it before their life is half over, and in the end, they will be foolish.
12 A magnificent, lofty throne since the start is where our holy place is.
13 God, the hope of Israel, all who leave you will be embarrassed, and those who turn away from me will be named in the dust, because they have left God, the source of living water.
14 Heal me, God, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved; for you are my praise.
15 Look, they ask me, “Where is God’s message? Let it come now.”
16 As for me, I did not rush to stop being a shepherd to follow you; I did not wish for the terrible day; you know this: what I said was true in your presence.
17 Don’t scare me; you are my hope when things are bad.
18 May those who chase me be confused, but keep me from confusion; let them be afraid, but keep me from fear; bring a day of trouble on them, and ruin them completely.
19 God told me to go and stand at the city gate where the people of Judah’s kings enter and exit, and at all of Jerusalem’s gates.
20 Tell them, “Listen to God’s message, you kings of Judah, everyone in Judah, and all who live in Jerusalem and go through these gates.”
21 God says: Be careful and do not carry any load on the Sabbath day, or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem.
22 Do not take anything from your homes or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep it as a special day, just as I told your ancestors.
23 But they did not obey or listen; instead, they were stubborn and would not hear or accept teaching.
24 If you carefully listen to me, says God, do not carry any load through the city gates on the Sabbath; respect the Sabbath as a day of rest with no work.
25 Kings and princes will come into the gates of this city. They will sit on David’s throne and ride in chariots and on horses, along with their princes, the men of Judah, and the people of Jerusalem. And this city will last forever.
26 People will come from Judah’s cities, areas around Jerusalem, Benjamin’s land, the plains, the mountains, and the south, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, and incense, as well as praise offerings, to God’s house.
27 If you don’t listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not carry any load through Jerusalem’s gates on the Sabbath; then I will start a fire in its gates that will destroy Jerusalem’s buildings, and it won’t be put out.