SAY NO TO SELF HELP

Jeremiah 17


1 "Judah's sin is engraved with an iron tool,

inscribed with a flint point,

on the tablets of their hearts

and on the horns of their altars.



2 Even their children remember

their altars and Asherah poles [a]

beside the spreading trees

and on the high hills.



3 My mountain in the land

and your [b] wealth and all your treasures

I will give away as plunder,

together with your high places,

because of sin throughout your country.



4 Through your own fault you will lose

the inheritance I gave you.

I will enslave you to your enemies

in a land you do not know,

for you have kindled my anger,

and it will burn forever."



5 This is what the LORD says:

"Cursed is the one who trusts in man,

who depends on flesh for his strength

and whose heart turns away from the LORD.



6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands;

he will not see prosperity when it comes.

He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,

in a salt land where no one lives.



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

whose confidence is in him.



8 He will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit."



9 The heart is deceitful above all things

and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?



10 "I the LORD search the heart

and examine the mind,

to reward a man according to his conduct,

according to what his deeds deserve."