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.
Listen to what the people keep saying to me:
“Where is the word of YAHWEH?
Let it come to pass!”
But I have not stopped running after you
and being a true shepherd.
Nor have I secretly longed for the day of disaster.
You know every word my lips have spoken,
for they were spoken in your presence.
Do not cause me disappointment.
You are my safe place in a day of calamity.
Let those who persecute me be ashamed,
and don’t let me be disgraced;
let them be the ones who are disheartened
and not me.
Bring on them the day of disaster,
and shatter them with double destruction.
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