Jeremiah 17:5–15

Wisdom from the Lord

⁵This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans,

who rely on human strength

and turn their hearts away from the Lord.

⁶They are like stunted shrubs in the desert,

with no hope for the future.

They will live in the barren wilderness,

in an uninhabited salty land.

⁷“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord

and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.

⁸They are like trees planted along a riverbank,

with roots that reach deep into the water.

Such trees are not bothered by the heat

or worried by long months of drought.

Their leaves stay green,

and they never stop producing fruit.

⁹“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,

and desperately wicked.

Who really knows how bad it is?

¹⁰But I, the Lord, search all hearts

and examine secret motives.

I give all people their due rewards,

according to what their actions deserve.”

Jeremiah’s Trust in the Lord

¹¹Like a partridge that hatches eggs she has not laid,

so are those who get their wealth by unjust means.

At midlife they will lose their riches;

in the end, they will become poor old fools.

¹²But we worship at your throne—

eternal, high, and glorious!

¹³O Lord, the hope of Israel,

all who turn away from you will be disgraced.

They will be buried in the dust of the earth,

for they have abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water.

¹⁴O Lord, if you heal me, I will be truly healed;

if you save me, I will be truly saved.

My praises are for you alone!

¹⁵People scoff at me and say,

“What is this ‘message from the Lord’ you talk about?

Why don’t your predictions come true?”