Jeremiah 17:1-18

The sin of Judah is inscribed with an iron stylus.  With a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts  and on the horns of their   altars, while their children remember their altars and their Asherah poles, by the green trees on the high hills — my mountains in the countryside. I will give up your wealth and all your treasures as plunder  because of the sin of your high places  in all your borders.  You will, on your own, relinquish your inheritance that I gave you. I will make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know,  for you have set my anger on fire;  it will burn forever. This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind.  He makes human flesh his strength,  and his heart turns from the  Lord. He will be like a juniper in the Arabah;  he cannot see when good comes but dwells in the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land where no one lives.  The person who trusts in the  Lord, whose confidence indeed is the  Lord, is blessed.  He will be like a tree planted by water:  it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit. The heart is more deceitful than anything else,  and incurable — who can understand it?  I, the Lord, examine the mind, I test the heart  , to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve.  He who makes a fortune unjustly is like a partridge that hatches eggs it didn’t lay. In the middle of his life his riches will abandon him, so in the end he will be a fool.  A glorious throne  on high  from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.  Lord, the hope of Israel,  all who abandon you will be put to shame. All who turn away from me will be written in the dirt, for they have abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water.  Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for you are my praise.  Hear how they keep challenging me,  “Where is the word of the  Lord? Let it come! ” But I have not run away from being your shepherd, and I have not longed for the fatal day.  You know my words were spoken in your presence. Don’t become a terror to me. You are my refuge  in the day of disaster. Let my persecutors be put to shame,  but don’t let me be put to shame. Let them be terrified, but don’t let me be terrified. Bring on them the day of disaster;  shatter them with total   destruction.