Jeremiah
Chapter 17
1
The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus, Engraved with a diamond point upon the tablets of their hearts.(And the horns of their altars,
2
when their sons remember their altars and their sacred poles, beside the green trees, on the high hills,
3
the peaks in the highland.) Your wealth and all your treasures I will give as spoil. In recompense for all your sins throughout your borders,
4
You will relinquish your hold on your heritage which I have given you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land that you know not: For a fire has been kindled by my wrath that will burn forever.
5
Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD.
6
He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, But stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth.
7
Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD.
8
He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.
9
More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?
10
I, the LORD, alone probe the mind and test the heart, To reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds.
11
A partridge that mothers a brood not her own is the man who acquires wealth unjustly: In midlife it will desert him; in the end he is only a fool.
12
A throne of glory, exalted from the beginning, such is our holy place.
13
O hope of Israel, O LORD! all who forsake you shall be in disgrace; The rebels in the land shall be put to shame; they have forsaken the source of living waters (the LORD).
14
Heal me, LORD, that I may be healed; save me, that I may be saved, for it is you whom I praise.
15
See how they say to me, "Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come to pass!"
16
Yet I did not press you to send calamity; the day without remedy I have not desired. You know what passed my lips; it is present before you.
17
Do not be my ruin, you, my refuge in the day of misfortune.
18
Let my persecutors, not me, be confounded; let them, not me, be broken. Bring upon them the day of misfortune, crush them with repeated destruction.
19
1 Thus said the LORD to me: Go, stand at the Gate of Benjamin, where the kings of Judah enter and leave, and at the other gates of Jerusalem.
20
There say to them: Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all you citizens of Jerusalem who enter these gates!
21
Thus says the LORD: As you love your lives, take care not to carry burdens on the sabbath day, to bring them in through the gates of Jerusalem.
22
Bring no burden from your homes on the sabbath. Do no work whatever, but keep holy the sabbath, as I commanded your fathers,
23
though they did not listen or give ear, but stiffened their necks so as not to hear or take correction.
24
If you obey me wholeheartedly, says the LORD, and carry no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath, keeping the sabbath holy and abstaining from all work on it,
25
then, through the gates of this city, kings who sit upon the throne of David will continue to enter, riding in their chariots or upon their horses, along with their princes, and the men of Judah, and the citizens of Jerusalem. This city will remain inhabited forever.
26
To it people will come from the cities of Judah and the neighborhood of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the foothills, from the hill country and the Negeb, to bring holocausts and sacrifices, cereal offerings and incense and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.
27
But if you do not obey me and keep holy the sabbath, if you carry burdens and come through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath, I will set unquenchable fire to its gates, which will consume the palaces of Jerusalem.
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Footnotes

1 [19] The Gate of Benjamin: probably the northern gate of the temple area and city wall of Jerusalem; cf Jeremiah 20:2; 37:12; 38:7.


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December 09, 2002 Copyright © by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops