Jeremiah 17:5-11

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.