1“Judah’s sin is written with an iron pen, with a diamond point. It is engraved on the tablet of their hearts and on the horns of your altars.”
2“Even their children remember their altars and their Asherah poles beside the green trees on the high hills.”
3“My mountain in the open country, I will give your wealth and all your treasures as plunder, and your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.”
4You will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will make you serve your enemies in a land you don't know, because you have started a fire with my anger that will burn forever.
5Yahweh says: “A curse is on the person who trusts in other people, who depends on human strength, and whose heart turns away from Yahweh.
6That person will be like a scrub bush in the desert; they will not see good times when they come. They will live in dry, barren places in the wilderness, in a salty land where no one lives.
7“But blessings are on the person who trusts in Yahweh, whose confidence is in Yahweh.
8They will be like a tree planted by water, sending its roots out to the river. They will not be afraid when the heat comes; their leaves will stay green. They will not worry in a year of drought and will never stop producing fruit.
9The heart is more deceptive than anything else, and it is terribly sick. Who can understand it?
10“I, Yahweh, examine the mind and test the heart. I give each person what their actions and behavior deserve.”
11The person who gets rich unfairly is like a partridge that lays eggs it didn't hatch. In the middle of their life, their riches will leave them, and in the end, they will be proven foolish.
12Our sanctuary is a glorious throne, set high from the beginning.
13Yahweh, the hope of Israel, everyone who abandons you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from me will have their names erased from the book of life, because they have abandoned Yahweh, the source of living water.
14Heal me, Yahweh, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.
15Look, people are saying to me, “Where is Yahweh’s word? Let it come true now.”
16As for me, I have not run away from serving you as a shepherd; I have not wanted the dreadful day to come. You know what I have said. Everything I spoke was openly before you.
17Don’t be a terror to me; you are my safe place in times of trouble.
18Let those who persecute me be disgraced, but don’t let me be disgraced; let them be terrified, but don’t let me be terrified. Bring a day of disaster on them, and destroy them completely.
19This is what Yahweh said to me: “Go and stand in the People’s Gate, through which the kings of Judah enter and exit, and in all the other gates of Jerusalem.
20Tell them: ‘Listen to Yahweh’s word, you kings of Judah, all you people of Judah, and all you residents of Jerusalem who enter through these gates.
21Yahweh says: “Be careful not to carry any burdens on the Sabbath day or bring them through the gates of Jerusalem.
22Don’t carry any burdens out of your houses on the Sabbath day, and don’t do any work. Instead, keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors.
23But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they became stubborn so they would not hear or receive instruction.
24“But if you diligently obey me,” says Yahweh, “and do not bring any burdens through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it,
25then kings and princes who sit on David’s throne will enter through the gates of this city, riding in chariots and on horses, along with their officials, the people of Judah, and the residents of Jerusalem; and this city will remain forever.
26People will come from the cities of Judah, from the areas around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the western foothills, from the hill country, and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, frankincense, and thank offerings to Yahweh’s house.
27But if you do not listen to me and do not keep the Sabbath day holy, and if you carry burdens and enter through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will start a fire in its gates. It will burn up Jerusalem’s palaces and will not be put out.”’”