Jeremiah 17:5-18

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁵ Thus says the Lord:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
    and make mere flesh their strength,
    whose hearts turn away from the Lord.^(A)
6 They shall be like a shrub in the desert
    and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
    in an uninhabited salt land.^(B)

⁷ Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
    whose trust is the Lord.^(C)
8 They shall be like a tree planted by water,
    sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
    and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
    and it does not cease to bear fruit.^(D)

⁹ The heart is devious above all else;
    it is perverse—
    who can understand it?^(E)
10 I the Lord test the mind
    and search the heart,
to give to all according to their ways,
    according to the fruit of their doings.^(F)

¹¹ Like the partridge hatching what it did not lay,
    so are all who amass wealth unjustly;
in midlife it will leave them,
    and at their end they will prove to be fools.

¹² O glorious throne, exalted from the beginning,
    shrine of our sanctuary!
¹³ O hope of Israel! O Lord!
    All who forsake you shall be put to shame;
those who turn away from you^[a] shall be recorded in the underworld,^[b]
    for they have forsaken the fountain of living water, the Lord.^(G)