THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH

 

Jeremiah Chapter 17

1 ¶ The sin of Judah is engraved on the tablets of their hearts, and the horns of their altars: with an iron pen, that has a diamond tip;

2 While their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees on the high hills.

3 O my mountains in the countryside, I will give away your wealth and all your treasures as plunder, because of the sin of your high places, throughout all your land.

4 And you will, of yourself, relinquish your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land that you do not know: for you have kindled a fire in my anger, which will burn forever.

5 ¶ The LORD says; Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.

6 For he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see any good come; but will live in the parched places in the desert, in a salt land that is not inhabited.

7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose confidence is in the LORD.

8 For he will be like a tree planted by water, which spreads out its roots by the river, and does not notice when heat comes, but its leaf will be green; and it will not be troubled in a year of drought, or stop yielding fruit.

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

10 I the LORD search the heart, I test what is within, to give to every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

11 He who makes a fortune unjustly; is like a partridge that sits on eggs, which do not hatch; they will leave him in the midst of his days, and in the end he will be a fool.

12 ¶ The place of our refuge is a glorious throne established on high from the beginning.

13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be ashamed. Those who turn away from me will be consigned to the dust, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

14 Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved: for you are my praise.

15 Look, they are asking me, Where is what the LORD predicted? let it come now.

16 As for me, I have not run away from being your pastor: nor have I desired the day of disaster; you know: that my words were spoken in your presence.

17 Do not be a terror to me: you are my hope in the day of trouble.

18 Let those who persecute me be confounded, but do not let me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but do not let me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

19 ¶ The LORD said to me; Go and stand in the gateway of the children of the people, where the kings of Judah come in, and where they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;

20 And say to them, Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter in by these gates:

21 The LORD says; Watch yourselves, and do not carry any burdens on the sabbath day, or bring them in through the gates of Jerusalem;

22 And do not carry any burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, or do any work, but hallow the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.

23 But they did not obey, or listen, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, or receive instruction.

24 And it will come to pass, if you obey me, says the LORD, by not bringing any burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, and hallow the sabbath day, by not doing any work in it;

25 Then kings and princes who sit upon the throne of David will enter the gates of this city, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city will always be inhabited.

26 And they will come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and food offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, to the house of the LORD.

27 But if you will not obey me to hallow the sabbath day, by not carrying burdens into the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it will not be put out.