Jeremiah 17:1-14

YAHWEH says: “People of Judah, your sins are engraved indelibly on the stone tablets of your hearts and on the horns of your altars, engraved with an iron pen and a chisel with a diamond point. Your people have set up pagan altars to the goddess Asherah everywhere in your land—under large trees, on hills and mountains, and in open fields. So, as punishment for all your sins, I will take your treasures—everything you own, including your altars —and give them all to your enemies. You will forfeit, by your own deeds, the wonderful inheritance I have given you to possess. I will make you serve your enemies in a foreign land you have never known, for you have kindled the flame of my anger, which will burn forever.” YAHWEH said to me: “Even a strong person is cursed when his confidence rests in his own strength. To place your confidence in the strength of man means that you are turning your heart away from me. That person is like a desert tumbleweed in a dry and dusty desert, in a rocky wilderness without inhabitant. Even when goodness is all around him, he won’t experience it. “I will bless with happiness the one who trusts in me, the one who trusts in me alone. He is like a tree planted on the riverbank, extending its roots into streams of water. It does not fear when scorching heat comes, for its leaves remain fresh and never fading even in a year of drought. It has no anxieties but continues to bear luscious fruit.” There is nothing more deceitful than the heart of man; who can understand it? Man’s heart is sick, in need of healing. “I, YAHWEH, probe the heart, and I thoroughly test the inner being to give to all people what they deserve according to their ways and based on their deeds.” Go ahead and cheat others dishonestly, but by mid-life, everything you’ve gained will fly away, like birds hatched from stolen eggs. You will be proven a fool in the end. Our sacred sanctuary is a throne radiating the glory of YAHWEH. YAHWEH, you are the only hope of Israel! All who forsake you will be covered with shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dirt. To forsake you, YAHWEH, is to forsake the fountain of living waters. YAHWEH, you alone are my praise. Heal me, and I will be perfectly healed; save me, and I will be completely saved.