The Sin and Punishment of Judah

1“The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus,

engraved with a diamond point

on the tablets of their hearts

and on the horns of their altars.

2Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles

by the green trees and on the high hills.

3O My mountain in the countryside,

I will give over your wealth

and all your treasures as plunder,

because of the sin of your high places,

within all your borders.

4And you yourself will relinquish

the inheritance that I gave you.

I will enslave you to your enemies

in a land that you do not know,

for you have kindled My anger;

it will burn forever.”

5This is what the LORD says:

“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind,

who makes the flesh his strength

and turns his heart from the LORD.

6He will be like a shrub in the desert;

he will not see when prosperity comes.

He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,

in a salt land where no one lives.

7But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,

whose confidence is in Him.

8He is like a tree planted by the waters

that sends out its roots toward the stream.

It does not fear when the heat comes,

and its leaves are always green.

It does not worry in a year of drought,

nor does it cease to produce fruit.

9The heart is deceitful above all things

and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?

10I, the LORD, search the heart;

I examine the mind

to reward a man according to his way,

by what his deeds deserve.

11Like a partridge hatching eggs it did not lay

is the man who makes a fortune unjustly.

In the middle of his days his riches will desert him,

and in the end he will be the fool.”