Jeremiah 17:5–15

⁵“This is what the Lord says: 

Cursed is the person who trusts humans, 

who makes flesh and blood his strength 

and whose heart turns away from the Lord. 

⁶He will be like a bush in the wilderness. 

He will not see when something good comes. 

He will live in the dry places in the desert, 

in a salty land where no one can live. 

⁷Blessed is the person who trusts the Lord. 

The Lord will be his confidence. 

⁸He will be like a tree that is planted by water. 

It will send its roots down to a stream. 

It will not be afraid in the heat of summer. 

Its leaves will turn green. 

It will not be anxious during droughts. 

It will not stop producing fruit. 

⁹“The human mind is the most deceitful of all things. It is incurable. 

No one can understand how deceitful it is. 

¹⁰I, the Lord, search minds and test hearts. 

I will reward each person for what he has done. 

I will reward him for the results of his actions. 

¹¹A person who gets rich dishonestly is like a partridge 

that hatches eggs it did not lay. 

During his lifetime, he will lose his wealth. 

In the end, he will be a godless fool.” 

¹²Our holy place is a glorious throne, 

highly honored from the beginning. 

¹³O Lord, the Hope of Israel, all who abandon you will be put to shame. 

Those who turn away from you will be written in dust, 

because they abandon the Lord, 

the fountain of life-giving water. 

¹⁴Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. 

Rescue me, and I will be rescued. 

You are the one I praise. 

¹⁵People keep asking me, 

“Where is the Lord’s word? 

Let it come.”